The Last of Us Part I is a remake of the 2013 video game The Last of Us, an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective.[13] The player traverses post-apocalyptic environments to advance the story, and uses firearms, improvised weapons, hand-to-hand combat, and stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures known as the Infected, who have been infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus.[14][15]
For most of the game, player character Joel escorts a young girl, Ellie, across the United States.[16] The player controls Ellie throughout the winter segment,[15] and briefly controls Joel's daughter Sarah in the opening sequence.[17] In the included expansion The Last of Us: Left Behind, the player controls Ellie as she spends time with her best friend and love interest Riley Abel.[14][18] The original game's online multiplayer mode is omitted from Part I,[19] and its narrative is entirely unchanged.[20]
The remake features revised gameplay, including enhanced combat and exploration.[11][12] The overhauled artificial intelligence (AI) allows more non-player characters (NPCs) on screen,[6] with enemy AI acting more aggressive and tactical than in the original game.[15] The Infected received gameplay adaptations, such as new Stalker animations and a charge move for Bloaters.[21] Gameplay additions include a permadeath mode, a speedrun-focused mode, and new costumes for Joel and Ellie.[22] The expanded accessibility options include customizable controls, audio description for cutscenes, and haptic feedback during dialogue;[23] difficulty modes can be customized to change enemy resilience, stealth efficacy, and resource availability.[20] The overhauled photo mode adds several features, allowing visual and gameplay modifiers such as slow motion and infinite ammunition.[20]
On PlayStation 5, the game supports hardware features such as 3D audio,[11][12] and uses the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the DualSense controller to emulate gameplay actions such as shooting a shotgun or drawing a bowstring.[24] It can display at native 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, or upscaled resolution at a targeted 60 frames per second; with variable refresh rate enabled, both modes allow an unlocked frame rate, capable of more than 60 frames per second.[25][26]
