The Last of Us Part I – A Masterpiece Rebuilt for the Modern Era

🎮 Introduction

🍄 This review is part of the The Last of Us Part I & II – play Naughty Dog’s masterpiece in order.

There are games you play to relax, and then there are games you play to feel something. The Last of Us Part I falls squarely in the latter category. Naughty Dog has long been celebrated for their cinematic storytelling—we are huge fans of the Uncharted series for its pulp adventure vibes—but here, they strip away the quippy one-liners and replace them with a raw, desperate humanity.

This remake (and it is a full remake, not just a remaster) brings the 2013 classic up to the visual and mechanical standards of its sequel. The result is a game that feels seamless. The friction of age is gone, leaving only the friction of survival. For a busy dad, this is a commitment. It’s not a game you pick up for five minutes. It demands your attention. But in return, it gives you one of the most compelling father-figure stories ever told in media.

You play as Joel, a smuggler hardened by twenty years of survival in a world destroyed by a fungal infection. His task is simple: smuggle a 14-year-old girl, Ellie, out of a quarantine zone. What starts as a job becomes a journey that deconstructs what it means to be a parent in a world where protecting someone can mean losing your soul.

For our game series hub, see The Last of Us Series.

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The Last of Us Part I (PS5) (opens in a new tab)

Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters in the definitive version of the game.

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🌍 Story & Atmosphere

The atmosphere in The Last of Us Part I is fantastic. It is heavy, oppressive, and utterly convincing. Naughty Dog has created a world where nature has reclaimed civilization. Skyscrapers lean against each other, greenery bursts through concrete, and spores drift in the light of broken windows. It’s beautiful in a haunting way.

Unlike Uncharted, where the set pieces are bombastic and explosive, here the tension comes from silence. You find yourself holding your breath as you creep through a dark subway tunnel, listening for the telltale click of an Infected. The game makes you feel vulnerable. You aren’t a superhero; you’re a guy with a shiv and three bullets.

The story is the star. The relationship between Joel and Ellie evolves naturally over the course of their journey. It’s not rushed. You see Joel’s icy exterior melt not through grand speeches, but through small moments—a joke from a pun book, a shared view of a herd of giraffes, a frantic attempt to save her from drowning. It captures the terrifying responsibility of fatherhood: the knowledge that you would burn the world down to keep your kid safe.

Personally, we prefer the lighter, swashbuckling setting of Uncharted—it’s easier to digest on a Tuesday night. But we can’t deny that The Last of Us pulls you into its history in a way few games do. You feel like you are in the story, not just directing it.

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🕹️ Gameplay & Mechanics

The gameplay loop is a mix of stealth, resource management, and brutal combat. You are constantly scavenging. A pair of scissors and some tape isn’t junk; it’s a shiv that will save your life. Alcohol and a rag become a health kit or a Molotov. This scarcity forces you to think. Do you use your last shiv to open a locked door for loot, or save it to defend against a Clicker?

Combat is desperate. Enemies—both human and infected—are smart. They flank, they communicate, and they beg for their lives when you get the upper hand. The “remake” aspect shines here, with AI behavior lifted from Part II. It makes every encounter feel dynamic and dangerous.

The “feel” of the game is weighty. Joel moves like a man in his 50s carrying a heavy pack. The guns have kick. The melee hits with a sickening thud. It grounds the experience. There is no double-jumping or wall-running here.

For a parent, the accessibility options are a godsend. If you want to experience the story without the stress of resource scarcity, you can tweak the difficulty to give you more ammo or make enemies less aggressive. It allows you to tailor the frustration level to your current energy.

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🎨 Graphics, Audio & Performance

On PS5, this game is a stunner. The facial animations are incredible—you can read the sorrow in Joel’s eyes or the fear in Ellie’s without a word being spoken. The lighting engine transforms mundane environments into works of art.

The audio design is equally masterful. The sound of a Clicker—that dry, guttural clicking—is iconic for a reason. It triggers a primal fear response. The score by Gustavo Santaolalla is sparse and acoustic, perfectly matching the lonely tone of the journey.

Performance is rock solid. The game offers fidelity and performance modes, and we always recommend performance for the smooth 60fps, which makes aiming and movement feel much better. The DualSense controller is used to great effect, with haptic feedback letting you feel the rain or the tension of a bowstring.

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The fantastic TV adaptation that faithfully captures the spirit of the game. A great companion piece to watch after playing.

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👨‍👧 The Dad Perspective

Session Length: The game is broken into chapters and encounters. You can usually make good progress in 45-60 minute chunks. The save system is generous, letting you save almost anywhere outside of combat.

Suitability: This is 16+. It is violent, grim, and scary. The “bloater” death animations alone are nightmare fuel. It deals with heavy themes like suicide, the death of children, and torture. Do not play this with little ones around.

The “Dad” Factor: As mentioned, this is the ultimate Dad Game. It asks the question: “What would you do?” It validates that protective instinct but also questions its limits. It’s a powerful experience to go through as a parent, even if it leaves you emotionally drained.

Friction: The only friction is the emotional weight. Sometimes, after a long week, you might not want to inhabit such a bleak world. That’s when you switch to Uncharted or Mario Kart. But when you have the emotional bandwidth, this is unbeatable.

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🔁 Remake vs. Original: Is the Price Justified?

We have to address the elephant in the room, because it’s the main reason to hesitate: this is a full-price remake of a game that originally launched in 2013 and was already remastered for PS4. Asking $70 for a third pass at the same story understandably raised eyebrows, and it’s the one genuinely fair criticism leveled at Part I.

So what’s actually new? Quite a lot under the hood. This isn’t an up-rezzed port — it’s a ground-up rebuild on the Part II engine. That means dramatically overhauled visuals and lighting, fully re-recorded performances captured with modern facial-animation tech, the smarter, more dynamic combat AI from the sequel, and that landmark accessibility suite. The world is denser, the characters emote with far more nuance, and the moment-to-moment combat feels modern rather than dated.

The honest verdict: if you’ve played the story to death on PS3 or PS4, the remake is a luxury, not a necessity, and it’s worth waiting for a sale. But if you’re a PS5 owner who has never experienced this story — or you only watched someone else play it — this is unquestionably the definitive version, and the most polished way to take the journey for the first time.

🦠 Why the Infected Still Terrify

A huge part of what makes the atmosphere work is the enemy design, and it’s worth appreciating how clever it is. The premise — a mutated strain of the real-world Cordyceps fungus that hijacks human hosts — is grounded enough in actual biology to feel plausible, which makes it crawl under your skin in a way generic zombies never do.

The enemy types escalate beautifully. Runners are recently-turned and still human-shaped but fast and aggressive. Clickers — blind, fungus-blossomed, navigating by that iconic, horrifying echolocation clicking — force you into pure breath-held stealth, because one grab is an instant kill. Then the lumbering Bloaters arrive to make you panic. Crucially, the terror is driven by sound: the game trains you to fear audio cues, so a distant click in a dark room does more for your heart rate than any jump scare. It’s masterclass-level horror design that the remake’s upgraded audio only sharpens.

📺 The HBO Adaptation Connection

It’s impossible to discuss Part I now without its hugely successful HBO series, which dramatizes exactly this story. The show became one of the most acclaimed video-game adaptations ever made, praised for treating the source with real respect — Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s Joel and Ellie won over even skeptical fans.

For a dad weighing where to start, the two make a brilliant companion pair. The game lets you live the white-knuckle survival and the slow-build bond through dozens of hours of shared danger; the show distills the emotional beats into a tighter, more accessible package your partner who doesn’t game can enjoy too. Play the game, then watch the show (or vice versa) — each deepens the other, and the differences between them are a genuinely interesting conversation in their own right.

🎯 Who Should Play It (and How)

So who is this definitive version really for? First-timers on PS5 should buy it without hesitation — there’s no better way to experience one of gaming’s landmark stories, and the modern controls and visuals mean it never feels like a decade-old game. Story-driven players who somehow missed the original owe it to themselves to play it. And parents who loved the HBO show but have never held a controller in anger will find the accessibility options and adjustable difficulty make it more approachable than its grim reputation suggests.

Who should think twice? Anyone who’s already played the PS4 remaster to death — the story is identical, so this is a luxury re-experience rather than new content, and a sale price softens the sting. And, obviously, this is not a family game: the 16+ rating is earned through intense violence, horror, and genuinely upsetting themes, so it’s strictly an after-bedtime experience. For a dad, the ideal approach is to treat it as a “season” of prestige TV you actively play — 45-to-60-minute evening chapters, generous saves, no rush. Played that way, Joel and Ellie’s journey is as moving and memorable as anything the medium has produced.

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✅ Pros & Cons

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🛒 Must-Own Options

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📌 FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions

Is it too scary for non-horror fans?

It leans more into “tension” than “jump scares,” but it is definitely scary. The Infected are terrifying. However, on lower difficulties, you can mitigate the panic.

Do I need to play the original version first?

No. This “Part I” remake is the definitive version. It replaces the original PS3/PS4 remaster entirely.

How long is the game?

Expect about 12-15 hours for a first playthrough. It respects your time and doesn’t drag.