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Rebuilding The Last of Us Part I: A deep dive into combat, animation, audio and visual changes with Naughty Dog

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In 2013, Naughty Dog debuted a showcase of compelling character study and taut survival thrills set in a near-future America, fractured by a country-wide incident years previous. We were introduced to Joel and Ellie, a pairing brought together by events bigger than both. Their bond, grown in a dangerous cross-country trek that eschewed flamboyant setpieces for tense action, made it easy to become emotionally invested. A blockbuster with heart. 

It was also a technical marvel. The studio continued to improve the craft that so vividly shaped Nathan Drake’s adventures, breaking new ground in model animations, art direction, cinematic storytelling. Multiple teams’ worth of work all to pull us into this world, this story. 

Now, Naughty Dog is bringing nearly ten extra years of technical accomplishments and knowledge and channeling those through PlayStation 5 technology to rebuild the modern-day classic from the ground up. This new remake aims to recreate The Last of Us in a way that resembles and honors your memories of the PlayStation 3 original.

So what sets The Last of Us Part I apart from the PlayStation 4 remaster that came before it? And how is it the definitive way to experience the first entry in the series? The answer to those questions comes from many pieces of a complex puzzle that are assembled to rebuild the title.

Rebuilding The Last of Us Part I: A deep dive into combat, animation, audio and visual changes with Naughty Dog

Creators involved in The Last Of Us Part I share insight into the technical accomplishments behind the remake and what players should expect to see on September 2.

“To me, what makes this a remake instead of a remaster is the sum of its improvements,” explains Naughty Dog’s Shaun Escayg, who was Lead Cinematic Animator on the original and is Part I’s Creative Director “This isn’t just the same characters, environments, art direction, etc., performing on better hardware. We completely redesigned everything from the art direction, lighting, [lighting] technology to the character designs themselves. We’ve applied everything we’ve learned over the decade since the original and utilized that new technology to create something that stays true to the original but reimagined in an updated way.”

Players will experience the sum of every department’s creativity, skill and technological achievements in every step of their journey. 

New controls aren’t the only thing we’ve been working on, there’s also some fun features for the DualSense Wireless Controller.

First up, the lightbar now adds some dramatic effects to Inscryption, matching the ambient in-game lighting, flashing orange when Leshy speaks and shocking red when certain traumatic events occur. Speaking of traumatic events, we’ve also designed specific haptics for them that tightly match the on-screen action – it’s like pulling-teeth!

Other haptic features include a light rumble in the controller relative to the position of whichever card you choose next, and various rumbles as pieces move on and off the table. Feel the heavy Sacrifice Stones slam down on the table!

Last, but not least, Adaptive Triggers provide just enough resistance to make pressing the bell to end your turn extra satisfying, and some key decisions – such as confirming which card to sacrifice to the Bone Lord – resist your trigger finger to give you a final moment to turn back, or make you feel extra guilty!