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The Last of Us Part I is a 2022 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. A remake of the 2013 game The Last of Us, it features revised gameplay, including enhanced combat and exploration, and expanded accessibility options. The single-player story follows Joel, who is tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States and defend against cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus. The game includes the expansion The Last of Us: Left Behind, a single-player campaign following Ellie and her best friend Riley. The original game’s online multiplayer mode is omitted. Development was led by game director Matthew Gallant and creative director Shaun Escayg, who replaced original directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann. Part I was rebuilt to take advantage of updated hardware, requiring new animations, art direction, and character models to align with the vision of the original development team. The visual departments analyzed the original cutscenes and narrative beats to identify crucial storylines and their original direction and purpose. The team expanded upon the gameplay, technology, and accessibility features of The Last of Us Part II (2020), using its game engine and building upon it with the updated technology. The cutscenes feature audio descriptions, for which the developers collaborated with Descriptive Video Works. Part I supports 3D audio, as well as the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the DualSense controller. Following several leaks, The Last of Us Part I was announced in June 2022 and released for PlayStation 5 in September. It received positive reviews, with praise for its graphical enhancements, facial animations, artificial intelligence, and its added accessibility, audio, and controller options. The response to its gameplay and level design was mixed, and several critics questioned the necessity of a remake, especially considering its price. It received an award at the Visual Effects Society Awards, and nominations at the Game Awards and Golden Joystick Awards. The Windows release in March 2023 was marred by performance problems.
