The Last of Us Part I
A full remake of the 2013 post-apocalyptic classic, following Joel escorting Ellie across a ravaged United States -- a genuinely excellent, morally uncomfortable story that Part II then had the courage to actually follow through on.
- //A full ground-up remake of the 2013 original, rebuilt with current-generation visuals, animation, and gameplay systems rather than a simple remaster.
- //The ending is deliberately morally ambiguous -- Joel's choice at the Firefly hospital is framed as costly and indefensible, not heroic, even as the game makes you feel the emotional pull toward it.
- //Directly sets up The Last of Us Part II, which follows the consequences of Joel's choice to their actual logical conclusion.
- //Adapted into a critically acclaimed HBO series that closely follows the original game's story in its first season.
- //PC port launched with real performance issues that were patched significantly in the months following release.
The Last of Us Part I is Naughty Dog's ground-up remake of their 2013 original, casting you as Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting Ellie, a teenager who may hold the key to a cure, across a United States devastated by a fungal pandemic. The gameplay blends stealth, scavenging-based crafting, and desperate, resource-scarce combat, but what carries the game is the relationship between Joel and Ellie and an ending that's more morally complicated than its reputation as a triumphant story suggests -- Joel's final choice is framed as costly, not heroic, and Ellie's expression in the closing scene doesn't read as someone who fully believes what she's been told. The remake rebuilds every system with current-generation fidelity while preserving the exact story that made the original a defining game of its decade.
Excellent, and worth understanding correctly: the ending is not the triumphant story its reputation suggests. Joel's choice is shown with real moral weight, not celebrated -- and reading it as simply happy means you're operating at a shallower level than the game was actually working at. Play this before Part II, and let the discomfort of what Joel did sit with you rather than resolving it too quickly.