Purely focusing on the text, it remains a phenomenal experience that few games have fully replicated - including its own sequel. No matter how many philosophical gripes I have with the entire idea of the remake’s existence, it’s still the best version of what I’d consider the finest video game of the 2010s. The Last of Us Part I is a difficult game to critique for a variety of reasons that’ll become clear shortly. However, the project does once again push the industry forward in an important way: by raising the bar for accessibility in gaming’s past, present, and future. Though that’s largely because Sony won’t allow it to, as evidenced by a mostly superfluous remake that doesn’t meaningfully improve on the game’s perfectly modern (and much cheaper) 2014 remaster. The Last of Us Part I shows that Naughty Dog’s gritty action game is still an enduring classic that hasn’t aged a day.

While many games I play today have its DNA, it’ll always be patient zero. Returning to the PS5 glow-up eight years after I first played the remaster feels a bit like going back to 1985’s Super Mario Bros. While it was a revelation even still in 2014, developers have since taken its coveted blood and injected it into everything from God of War to Tomb Raider. A lot has changed about video games between then and the release of The Last of Us Part I, Sony’s new PS5 remake of a PS3 classic that got a PS4 upgrade.

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