Naughty Dog On The Improvements in The Last of Us Part I

In a new PlayStation blog, Naughty Dog, the developer behind the upcoming The Last of Us Part I, shared some new details about the upcoming remake speaking about the innovations the game brings and explaining what sets The Last of Us Part I apart from the PlayStation 4 remaster.

Naughty Dog reiterated that The Last of Us Part I will be a game that was created from the ground up – the developers noted that they "completely redesigned everything from the art direction, lighting, [lighting] technology to the character designs themselves." For instance, according to game director Matthew Gallant, the studio made completely new models of Henry and Sam instead of taking ready-made models from the remaster.

The developers emphasized that the remake brings "a sum of improvements" including the enhanced combat system, more realistic animation as well as various audio and visual changes.

Speaking of the combat system, Naughty Dog shared that it decided not to change it completely but to enhance the principles that already were in the original game but were limited by the hardware back then. For instance, the original game’s combat suggested that no two playthroughs should be the same, and The Last of Us Part I pushes this principle even further thanks to PS5.

"There are sequences in the original game that are pre-scripted, that just play out in a very particular way," Naughty Dog's Lead Programmer John Bellomy said.

"Coming into The Last of Us Part I, we took [the original game's] combat encounters and applied our AI engine and tool suite to do them 'for real.' We have more dynamic encounters thanks to paired search and new investigation behaviors, topographical analysis with pathfinding, and probing for visibility, so things like sneaking and ambushing will work in more situations."

The studio also improved the combat system by removing the limit on the number of active NPCs that could be on the screen. On PS3, only eight characters or enemies could act at the same time, while the limit is now at 128 for PS5. However, players shouldn't be worried as they will unlikely have to fight 128 enemies at a time.

According to the developers, while developing the remake, they paid special attention to environments, including rooms in the Boston museum which were basically generic offices in the original game. So, developers turned these ordinary offices with shelves and cabinets into more convincing locations, for example, an art restoration station or a room with busts with American colonial figures on the walls.

The Last of Us Part I will be released for PlayStation 5 on September 2 with Naughty Dog saying the PC version "should come out a bit later, but very soon after the PS5 release."

Learn more about the improvements that the remake will bring here and don't forget to join our Reddit page and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.