Naughty Dog wasn't happy just to bring a next-gen patch to its magnificent The Last of Us Part 2 - it has also now rereleased the first game in the series for the PS5.
The game is out now, and you can check out our review right here, but do read on to find out more details about when it released and what's new.
The Last of Us Part 1 trailer and release date
We got our first look at the remake of The Last of Us as part of Summer Games Fest in June 2022, which you can watch below.
It ended with a handy confirmation of when the game would be released on PS5: 2 September 2022, much sooner than we might have guessed.
The Last of Us Part 1 platforms
Interestingly, The Last of Us Part 1 hasn't come to PS4, despite how good Part 2 looked on that older console. Clearly, Naughty Dog was aiming it at more powerful hardware throughout its development.
That means for now it's on PlayStation 5 only if you're a console gamer. However, it's also coming to PC, although not quite as quickly - Neil Druckmann confirmed that the game will come out on PC at some point soon, though we don't yet have a date.
The Last of Us Part 1 story
The Last of Us Part 1 follows Joel Miller, a grieving father navigating his way through the remains of society after its collapse. The world is suffused by a dangerous airborne disease that turns people into mindless zombies or worse, making cities dangerous places.
He's tapped up by an organisation called the Fireflies who are still hopeful that a cure could be found, and is asked to escort a young girl, Ellie, cross-country. She seems to be immune to the disease and they need to study her to have any hope of a vaccine.
Players take control of Joel for most of the game as he tries to find his way through cities and countryside on his way to the Fireflies, beset at times by raging hordes of infected and nefarious humans looking to exploit the chaos of the new world for their own gain.
It's a harrowing tale and one of the most expressively told in all of gaming, full of moral quandaries and shades of grey, leading wonderfully into the masterful sequel, The Last of Us Part 2.
The Last of Us Part 1 gameplay
Comparisons between the scenes shown in the first trailer for The Last of us Part 1 and from the Remastered version of the game that came out on PS4 are proving that Naughty Dog is seemingly erring on the side of faithfulness with this remake.
Some moments are absolutely identical in their framing and delivery, with the only difference being a marked improvement in visual fidelity and facial animation.
Neil Druckmann said that the developers were able to use the original motion capture data to get far closer to the real-life performances they captured, and you can see that benefit already in the snippets on show, including in clear detail in the below clip of Tess from both versions of the game:
Where more differences are noticeable is in gameplay, where things feel much more like The Last of Us Part 2 in terms of fluidity and animation quality, with your movements syncing together way more smoothly.
This also means that enemy AI is a lot more sophisticated, and makes for some more emergent fights that are a little more challenging than the original game at times.
Naughty Dog hasn't changed any sequences at all in the process, sticking with its original template - for example, it hasn't done anything to tackle one of the very few criticisms of the first game by redesigning some of its more repetitive ladder or raft puzzles.
You can also see from the trailer that, like in the Remastered package, the game includes the celebrated Left Behind DLC that flashed back in Ellie's life to show a formative moment in her growth.