The Last of Us Part 1 [Remake] vs Remastered | Direct Comparison

welcome back everybody to another episode of direct comparison in today's episode we're going to take an extended look at naughty dog's upcoming release the last of us part one and see how it compares from a visual perspective to the previous version of the game the last of us remastered now in case you're unfamiliar with this series or are just confused by this naming convention the last of us is a third person action adventure game first released for the playstation 3 way back in 2013. it was then re-released a year later as the last of us remastered for the ps4 and offered a few modest visual and performance improvements the last of us part 1 however is a top to bottom remake of this original experience using a modified version of the engine that was used to build the last of us part 2 back in 2020 the result is a dramatically overhauled visual presentation with redone character models environments lighting effects animations ai and even a few new accessibility features and ui redesigns all of which i plan on covering today for this analysis both games are being played on a playstation 5 console with the visual settings set to a locked 4k resolution at 30 hertz in order to deliver the highest quality possible i've also disabled both the film grain and the motion blur options where possible in order to capture cleaner still images that being said i did also capture a lot of gameplay footage in the remakes performance mode as well and we'll be using that footage occasionally throughout the course of this video alright so let's kick this comparison off by first looking at the changes made to the game's cinematics now at first glance everything should look somewhat familiar all the same characters are present all the voice lines sound the same and the camera angles are mostly identical however once you actually go back and play the two versions side by side the changes become much more apparent for starters the cut scenes in part one are now rendered in real time as opposed to before where important cinematics were pre-rendered and set to play in between levels by doing this part 1 maintains a more consistent visual tone and aesthetic than its predecessor with things like resolution and color tone no longer abruptly changing between the gameplay and the cinematic additionally the animators and environmental artists at naughty dog have spent a considerable amount of time updating every frame of these sequences adding in necessary detail in some areas while removing distracting elements and others take this sequence at the end of the capital encounter for example as you can see practically every aspect of this environment has been altered in one way or another the grass now fully extends across the ground leaving no ground texture visible like before and the structure housing the subway entrance has been redesigned to be some sort of concrete public walkway as opposed to the oddly place storefront buried in boulders from before by removing things like this red awning here the viewer's eyes are now more likely to focus on the preferred subjects in this case joel and ellie though if the viewer does look away the background environment does at least make more logical sense and creates a more believable world another interesting example of this is immediately after exploring the ruins of the museum where ellie crosses across a plank in between two tall buildings in the remake you can now much more clearly make out ellie's profile as she crosses the beam thanks to a much less aggressive depth of field better lighting and a rework to the appearance of the windows in that distant structure examples of these little changes can be found in practically every cutscene as the artists were no doubt trying to improve subject presence in every frame and the end result is both familiar yet improved at the same time another big change that you've probably already picked up on are the changes that have been made to the character models while the character models in the original game aren't necessarily bad looking they haven't aged particularly well either there's an uncanniness to characters like joel and ellie that doesn't quite escape looking like a pair of digital characters no matter how expressive their animation work is the remake however brings these characters more in line with their appearances in the sequel with more realistic hair rendering superior texture work and vastly improved light interaction you can see all these improvements clearly with the in-game model of joel here whereas hair density has been increased considerably on a scalp and beard and when you zoom in really close you can see that same visual noise that we observed with the last of us part 2 suggesting that this is likely the same technique at play the character's skin also appears to be reflecting light a bit more naturally thanks to subsurface scattering ensuring a more proper dispersion of light and color than the almost wooden appearance of joel in the original versions then of course there's the eyes that appear to be borrowing the fantastic eye rendering techniques used in part two doing away with those fixed white dots that were previously used to fake the eye's reflective property this improvement is even more noticeable when looking at ellie's model whose giant puppy dog eyes in the original game always looked a little bit off but now her eyes look as though they're reflecting the environment in some scenes which is critical in creating a believable human character the interesting consequence of this is that many of the characters almost look like entirely different people now with the improved lighting and shader work now accentuating details that weren't as noticeable before joel for instance always had bags under his eyes and wrinkles on his forehead but they didn't really have any depth and appeared as just lines drawn onto his face now there's an actual difference in the color tone between the bags under his eyes and his cheekbones and the shadowing with each line and wrinkle ages the character considerably tessa's transformation is even more dramatic as her original model lacked pretty much any defining facial features aside from a few cuts on her cheek and forehead but now large laugh lines freckles wrinkles along her neck and more gray hair established this character as someone who is slightly older than how she first appeared alongside improvements to each model's face skin and hair part 1 also redoes a lot of the clothing and accessories too the core of each outfit remains more or less the same with similar patterns material and other important details but you'll find some of these smaller rips and blood stains aren't as prevalent this time around joel's shirt almost looks like it was just pressed and cleaned and unfortunately it doesn't seem to get any dirtier later on in the campaign either henry's tank top is sort of the same way with almost all the blood and sweat stains being traded out for a thick layer of dirt and grime instead but the higher fidelity texture maps along each of these clothing items and things like the character's backpacks more than make up for this as the low res textures of the previous character models stood out a great deal when played at a higher resolution moving on we have animation for the most part a lot of the character animations found throughout the course of the gameplay experience remain the same as what you remember the movement and control feel about the same with the only exception being that joel doesn't seem to reach out and touch walls as often and will now hesitate before dropping off of a high ledge some animations have even been introduced from the last of us part 2 mainly the great looting animations that see joel reach out and grab items directly and the extended workbench animations whenever a player wants to upgrade their weapons but a bulk of the animation work can be found in the game cinematics where each character is now much more expressive these redone animations help to really amplify the excellent voice over work throughout the course of the game demonstrating genuine fear and concern in ways that were really only implied before characters will sometimes even spit as they're yelling which is a nice touch naughty dog have also made some much needed improvements to the game's artificial intelligence too despite some really great enemy ai that will actively attempt to fight the player during combat and use cover realistically the friendly ally artificial intelligence has always been somewhat problematic characters like ellie and bill would regularly dash back and forth in front of the player while sneaking around sometimes walking directly in front of the enemies and breaking the immersion completely with the remake this annoying problem has finally been addressed friendly characters can predict the path of an enemy from further away than before allowing them more time to reposition and hide out of sight it's still not perfect as characters are still sometimes in the way during combat and in one rare instance i even had ellie get stuck out of bounds but it's still not as problematic as it was before the game's ui has also seen some interesting changes bringing it much more in line with the design of the ui used in the sequel button prompts that previously displayed a colored playstation button symbol over top of a scratched black overlay are replaced with a much smaller more cleanly presented white button prompt instead other more elaborate ui indicators like those shown when revving up a generator are replaced with a new rounded dial design though the mini-game associated with it still remains the same meanwhile the ui for the player's backpack the inventory and the weapon crosshairs have all seen some minor changes though none quite as drastic as the change made to the bow and arrow that replaces the old green parabolic aim indicator with a new metered crosshair instead however if the player once they can always go into the settings and revert this back to the original classic style instead collectibles are also handled differently in that they're now treated as actual physical objects like they are in the sequel this means picking up something like a firefly pendant or a notebook will see joel literally pick up the object and then examine it directly with a zoomed in view it's a little bit slower and more cumbersome this way but it does at least add a bit to the immersion next up let's talk environments the last of us offers a collection of some richly detailed environments all buried under a thick layer of post-apocalyptic grime and disrepair it's arguably one of the most interesting aspects of the entire experience venturing through familiar looking pieces of americana that have since been transformed into a deadly stealth action survivalist battleground and thankfully the remake does a fantastic job of not just preserving these beautiful locations but also enhancing them with an impressive increase to the amount of detail in every conceivable corner of the playable space take this pizza shop towards the start of the game for example while the main pathing remains virtually identical all the details built into this path have been completely redone to both enhance the appearance of the scene and to help create a more realistic sense of place examples include a new vintage half wall wood paneling along the perimeter of the structure new power outlets fire alarms and emergency lights some tablecloths on each of the tables each spread in a different way to enhance the scene variety and an adjustment to all the other smaller props like piles of trash tabletop accessories and other small details that if you actually stopped to think about it didn't actually make sense where they were in the original game once we venture outside we can find even more drastic improvements thanks to the large uptick in the amount of vegetation density all across the environment unsightly patches of flat ground textures are no longer common in the remake replaced by hundreds of small grass objects similar to those used all throughout the last of us part two underneath all of this overgrowth are totally reworked facades for each of the buildings added detail in the out of bounds areas and sky boxes and an exhaustive list of changes to things like sign positioning vehicle types artwork debris and dynamic prop placement it's honestly overwhelming just how much has been changed in each of these locations from visual improvements to important props like this arcade cabinet to extra cars outside to fill in the unused space from before yet none of these changes ever feel like they're actually hurting the flow of the gameplay as none of the combat arenas or main paths are ever directly impacted by the objects being added lighting is another area that has unfortunately aged very poorly with the original last of us game back then naughty dog relied exclusively on baked lighting to create their scenes carefully crafting interior environments around their light maps to achieve their desired mood for each sequence and then adding in some aggressive volumetric effects in certain areas with the last of us part 1 lighting now behaves a little bit more naturally it's still baked in using pre-computed light maps like before though the game also makes use of physically based material rendering to better approximate the way light will bounce off of each type of material this i found results in a much darker somber tone throughout the course of the game with scenes that previously felt flooded with excessive red and yellow light now appearing slightly cooler overall and interior scenes especially those with limited light feel much much darker alongside ambient lighting part 1 also offers a lot of other lighting-based eye candy to enjoy from the higher fidelity reflective surfaces for things like puddles and water surfaces to the great volumetric effects used to illuminate the rain during this sequence all delivering a technically superior final result shadow rendering has also been given some much needed attention when i went back to record footage of the remaster i was shocked to see just how harsh the shadow rendering used to be this location near joel and tessa's safe house features a stark contrast between light and dark to the point of almost looking broken but in the remake light now properly trails off based on the angle and distance from its source and the resulting shadow blends more naturally than it ever did before the ambient occlusion has also been given some much needed attention adding an additional layer of depth to the environment on top of all the great reworked geometry discussed earlier and there's even some additional dynamic shadow work at play now like shadows generated from the player's firearm or from a thrown molotov cocktail that further enhance combat encounters then of course we have our fx the last of us part 1 offers a wide range of improvements to its various effects first there's the fire that not only sports higher fidelity alpha effects for its animation loop but also projects additional ambient lighting across any nearby environmental surfaces along with this part 1 also sees similar improvements to the alphas used for various smoke and fog effects and will now properly reflect ambient light and the player's own flashlight but one of the most striking improvements have been made to the water simulation that looks considerably better than the almost gelatin-like water rendering used previously this improved water simulation is also coupled with the nicer cube maps as well which makes scenes like this large river outside the hotel in pittsburgh even more beautiful part 1 also takes advantage of the ps5's additional resources in order to bump up the number of on-screen physics-based objects allowed at any given time this means more dynamic objects and enhanced destruction which is put on display a great deal during sequences like this one where the machine gun turret from the hunter's truck will shred nearby debris and break apart concrete structures this also plays into the revised gore system in the remake as well as a lot of the dismemberment that was on display in part 2 seems to have returned along with that brutal last man standing elimination mechanic finally let's wrap up with a brief sound comparison which game do you think offers the superior audio presentation so so um [Music] what was that i don't know let me get down where did you learn to shoot what was that i don't know that we get down how did you learn to shoot man screw you [Music] turn around ah [Applause] [Applause] what's that all about you know we're coming to the hotel oh easy don't worry i ain't gonna drop you what was that all about get on we're coming through the hotel um okay and lastly you do what i say when i say it we clear sure repeat it what you say goes and lastly you do what i say when i say it we clear sure repeat it what you say goes and that wraps up this episode of direct comparison overall the last of us part one is a remarkable improvement over the previous 2014 remaster just about everything has been addressed in one way or another whether it be the outdated character designs and unnatural lighting or the distracting cutscene transitions and broken ai naughty dog really did go out of their way to make one of their best games even better and after having played it i really don't see the reason to return to the original outside of the novelty of playing what now just feels like a prototype build that being said there is at least one major feature that unfortunately didn't make the cut and that's the faction's multiplayer mode this competitive elimination style deathmatch mode was a fantastic addition to an already great game but because naughty dog is currently committed to a brand new last of us inspired multiplayer mode it has not been included with this release of the game and will likely not be included when the game eventually releases on the pc as well it's for this reason that i can understand gamers may be waiting on the price for this remake to come down a bit as the value for veteran last of us players may just not be there though for die hard fans or for those players who still haven't had a chance to experience joel and ellie's first adventure this is undoubtedly the best way to experience the last of us but what do you guys think do you think the improvements naughty dog made are a big enough difference to double dip or are you content with the older versions of the game let me know in the comments section and of course don't forget to like and subscribe for more videos like this posted every week [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Nick930

Views: 1,887,030

Keywords: TheLastofUs, The Last of Us, Part 1, TLOU, Naughty Dog, Gameplay, Review, Remastered, Remake, Remaster, Sequel, Comparison, Downgrade, Upgrade, Ray Tracing, RTX, Side-by-side, Graphics, Ultra, PS5, Direct, Lighting, Environment, Joel, Ellie, HBO, Zombie, Outbreak, Infected, Clicker, Breakdown, Games, Gaming, Analysis, Digital Foundry, Features, Stealth, Action, Early, Access, Twitch, Trailer, E3, Ultimate, Complete, Final, Retail

Id: E9PFOhaKNFw

Length: 24min 53sec (1493 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 02 2022