In 2013, Naughty Dog debuted a feature film featuring gripping character research and survival thrillers set in a near-future America, disrupted by a worldwide incident. country in previous years. We were introduced to Joel and Ellie, a couple brought together by events larger than the two. Their relationship, developed during a treacherous cross-country trip that avoids flashy settings for intense action sequences, makes it an easy emotional investment. A blockbuster with a heart.
It is also an engineering wonder. The studio continues to refine the techniques that have so vividly shaped the adventures of Nathan Drake, creating new breakthroughs in model animation, art direction, and cinematic storytelling. All the worthy work of multiple teams to pull us into this world, this story.
Now, Naughty Dog is bringing together nearly ten more years of technical achievement and knowledge, and delivering those achievements through PlayStation 5 technology to rebuild the modern 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 makes The Last of Us Part I so different from the previous PlayStation 4 remake? And that’s the definitive way to experience the first entry in the sequence? The answers to those questions come from the many complex pieces that were put together to rebuild the title.
The creators of The Last Of Us Part I share details on the technical achievements behind the remake and what players will see on September 2.
“For me, what makes this movie more of a remake than a remake is the sum total of its improvements,” said Naughty Dog’s Shaun Escayg, who served as Head of the Cinema Animation Team. in the original and as Creative Director of Part I, explains “It’s not just the same characters, environments, art direction, etc., that work on better hardware. We completely redesigned everything from the art direction, lighting, [lighting] technology to design the characters themselves. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned in the decade since the original and used that new technology to create something that remains true to the original but reimagined in an updated way. “
Players will experience the synthesis of creativity, skill and technological achievement of every department in every step of their journey.
“We made our world more grounded. All of our environments and spaces come to life,” explains Escayg. “Light filters through the trees, swirls of moss as you wade through flooded roads, bugs stir in the bushes, cars wobble under your weight as you land on them. They come together, expanding the world and trapping players in this immersive feeling. And they also make the fighting feel more intuitive. When you’re hiding behind some abandoned vehicle, to see that car now squirming and groaning, with broken glass and frame kicks when hit, it just enhances the experience. “
Enhanced combat and sound
Speaking of combat, the original game’s combat always emphasizes that no two playstyles are alike. Part I of The Last of Us pushes that principle even further thanks to the PS5’s hardware.
“A lot of the changes to the combat system could be broadly described as taking something we had to hack together [in the original],” said lead programmer John Bellomy. “There are scenes in the original game that are scripted, that play out in a very specific way.” Bellomy takes the example of enemy foraging and traversing behavior: The PS3’s hardware limitations mean that those aren’t able to analyze the environment and adjust accordingly.
“Coming to The Last of Us Part I,” Bellomy continued, “we took those combat encounters and applied our AI toolkit and tools to do them ‘for real.’ We have more dynamic encounters thanks to new investigation and paired search behaviors, terrain analysis with pathfinding, and visibility exploration, so things like stealth and ambush will works in more situations. These ultimately make the game more enjoyable for the player. It doesn’t happen all at once, all the time. You can put yourself in new and interesting situations that perhaps even us at Naughty Dog couldn’t have reckoned with.”
Another limitation that has been overcome when using the new hardware is the amount of active enemy AI present in a given situation. Lead designer Christian Wohlwend explains that one of the most important limitations of the PS3 original was the eight NPC limit. To solve this problem at the time, Naughty Dog had to turn the attention of these NPCs on and off. However, this limitation is no longer a concern on PS5.
Besides using more advanced technology, The Last of Us Part I advances combat in other meaningful ways. “The way our melee system has evolved has been spectacular,” Wohlwend said. “So we were able to use all those new development tools from Last of Us Part II in this remake. It makes it much more flexible, easier to improve and prevent errors, and enhances things there.”
Part I of The Last of Us begins to immerse players in skirmishes like never before, using the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback to simulate sensations (such as the feeling of rain) and develop 3D sound declaration.
“3D sound is starting to be limited on PS4,” explains Sound Director Neil Uchitel. “On PS5, Sony made the Tempest Engine, a processing engine that takes whatever sound they get from any game and then uses some very sophisticated tricks to render it in a way give it more space in the world. So you feel like you’re moving through the world more and what it definitely did was add more accurate height information. So if something is going above you, it feels like it’s coming from above you, etc.”
This innovation is noticeable right from the opening of the game. You hear the scale of raging fires, the screams of panic in the streets, and the scratching of infected people all around you as you work your way out of the place Joel once called home. But Naughty Dog also uses 3D sound in slower, less intense moments. Dialogue while exploring further into the world, Ellie’s voice coming from specific directions, the quiet rustle of leaves everywhere.
More realistic and realistic animation
The Last of Us Part I’s remastered animation is the final piece that completes the puzzle, adding subtle yet beneficial additions to enhance the storytelling.
Escayg cites the example of a tear duct overflowing when Ellie and Joel argue over his abandonment of her at Tommy’s, or red skin during emotional scenes.
“All these animation improvements make the scene even more powerful,” said Art Director Erick Pangilinan. “Because you are increasing the fidelity of the wording. You’re making more subtle gestures to feel more natural. “
And the animation improvements aren’t limited to characters. The world presents a higher level of image fidelity and detail thanks to new lighting and animation technologies.
“Part of the original creative vision for the first game was not to have a dark, outdated apocalypse overall, but to emphasize the beauty of nature reclaiming its territory. ,” sketches Art Director Sebastian Gromann. “While foliage is very limited on PS3, with the power of PS5 we can have very complex shaders, more complex models, and more fidelity and volume in the foliage to It feels like nature recreating the city.”
“We’ve made major improvements there that allow us to include more polygons in our characters and environments,” adds Pangilinan. “We were able to create more depth because we were able to bring out more detail in more distant environments like mountains and buildings beyond what was in front of us. That can’t happen with the PS3’s GPU. “
He notes that the advantages of hindsight and better technology have resulted in an amazing amount of extra detail, from sight to touch. A more emotional story and more immersive gameplay experience. Naughty Dog has committed to a job the team is proud to have accomplished, and as Game Director Matthew Gallant concludes, this is the definitive way to experience the first part of Joel and Ellie’s story, “for old fans who just picked up the PS5, the stuff featured in the upcoming TV series, and anyone else. ”
The Last of Us Part I launches September 2 on PS5.
