Following the leaks of The Last of Us Part I, developer Naughty Dog and PlayStation released a new video going over all of the new graphical updates, enhancements, and gameplay features coming to the remake of The Last of Us. On the PlayStation Blog, Sid Shuman, Senior Director, SIE Content Communications said “From the art direction to the character models, the entire game has been rebuilt from the ground up to take advantage of a new generation of graphical capability, allowing this game to reach the visual fidelity that the studio aspired for when crafting this experience.”
Co-President Neil Druckmann, Creative Director Shaun Escayg, and Game Director Matthew Gallant highlighted some of the biggest additions coming into the game. One of the biggest things is the density of physics objects in a scene. Objects within the environment react. Things will destruct, break, and more.
The team is also bringing in aspects from The Last of Us Part II. They are taking that game’s AI systems for the enemies and the buddy characters from Part II and adding them to The Last of Us Part I. Enemies will communicate with one another, flank, and chase Joel. Buddies will react to enemy movements and try to stay out of the way when they are coming near them. Part I is bringing in Part II’s motion matching technology which chooses the best matching animation that fits the path of a character’s movement.
The Last of Us Part I will also get added the Permadeath mode and a new Speed Run mode. Other features include additional gameplay modifiers, render modes, an evolved photo mode, and other unlockables like a model viewer, different weapon skins, and costumes. The game will also feature accessibility options from The Last of Us Part II. One of the newest accessibility features is a new audio description mode.
The Last of Us Part I is set to launch for PlayStation 5 on September 2, 2022. The game is also being developed for PC.