Sure, camera shots can be altered, post effects improved, and shading quality upgraded – as we see with the increased light sources, edge lighting on characters, and even minor changes to motion and skinning. Issues like characters warping into new positions from grabs or combat are much better now than the remaster, but the movement and timing of moment-to-moment gameplay and cutscenes are a match. Here on PlayStation 5 they are all real-time but based on the exact same core data, which means the improvements to models, animation, etc. Some original sequences on both PS3 and PS4 were all still in-engine but not real-time instead, they were pre-rendered out to a video file via a PlayStation 3 rendering farm back in 2013.

The “nearly” is because not everything is a match for the newer game, and Naughty Dog’s team is still working with the older core game engine code, motion-captured vertex movements, and decade-old performance capture. The quality here is exceptional and nearly brings Part 1 in line with its 2020 sequel. Changes to faces can be subjective, but the increase in detail, photorealism, movement, and sheer fidelity cannot be argued. Some characters have also been redesigned from scratch, with Tess standing out as a drastic shift from the original.

The animation and bone rigs of faces have also been improved with significantly better vowel forming of mouths and a wider emotive set of facial expressions. This is the single biggest leap from either of the previous two editions, and many of the models are the ones we saw in the sequel. Many new rendering techniques have helped bring The Last of Us up to date, such as the oil painting-like materials in the world, impeccable character models, and skin rendering complete with movie-level physically-based shading. Today we’ll be digging into the improvements in the new version, the performance modes available, and how everything looks and plays compared to the original version. This reinvigorated PS5 version has benefited greatly – but it is not a case of simply porting things over, as this is likely based on the PlayStation 4 Remastered code, which has been updated with the latest rendering technology within the updated Sequel’s engine. What has changed is the experience, thanks to the updated Naughty Dog engine that powered the sequel.

The story of Joel and Ellie needs no introduction, and nothing has changed here on that front.

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