For his or her newest trick, the pixel-analyzing masters at Digital Foundry picked a hot-button merchandise: The Final of Us Half I. Although the query on the core of Half I—does this must exist?—continues to be very a lot in play, you may’t deny a glow-up once you see one.
Introduced final week at the Summer time Sport Fest kickoff occasion, The Final of Us Half I is a complete remake of Naughty Canine’s seminal third-person survival sport, first launched in 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and once more in 2014 with a remastered version on PlayStation 4. Half I is supposed to burnish the visuals of the unique and convey its gameplay to fashionable parity with The Final of Us Half II, launched in 2020 for the PlayStation 4.
The announcement set off a debate on social media, to the purpose the place “the final of us” began trending on Twitter. Some observers mentioned it barely seemed any higher than the unique. Others appeared blown away to the moon and again over the ostensible enhancements. As with all such arguments condensed into byte-sized bickering, folks selectively selected screenshots that bolstered their particular factors.
Learn Extra: The Final Of Us Followers Debate PS5 Remake’s Graphics
It’s unimaginable to evaluate whether or not or not The Final of Us is any enjoyable with 2020-era Naughty Canine controls till the sport comes out in September for PlayStation 5. (A PC launch is coming down the road.) However you will get Digital Foundry, recognized for best-in-class breakdowns of visible high quality, to talk to the graphics. They went deeeep. Anybody who even tangentially engaged with final week’s debate will need to test it out:
The massive takeaway is obvious: Primarily based on publicly out there footage, The Final of Us Half I is unambiguously extra lovely than the unique(s). It’s particularly noticeable within the foliage, which seems extra lush and full, as if it signed up for a plant’s model of Hims. Facial textures are head and shoulders above the unique and remastered variations—that is particularly notable with particulars as granular because the creases round Joel’s mouth—and the lip sync is definitely in tune with vocal tracks now. At one level, Digital Foundry even factors out how Ellie’s eyes transfer mechanically in a cutscene from the unique. However within the remake, in response to trailer footage, Ellie’s eyes are extra pure, transferring to numerous focal factors on much less of a linear foundation. (That is the place in-the-weeds visible comparisons begin to lose me a bit. The unique eyes look completely wonderful to me!)
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Digital Foundry additionally in contrast footage to see how Half I stacks up visually to Half II. Brief model: There’s little or no daylight between the 2, one thing that’s most obvious once you take a look at the environments. “If I offered these photographs with out labels, you may assume they’re from the identical sport,” Digital Foundry’s Oliver Mackenzie mentioned over footage of two related panorama screenshots located subsequent to one another. The identical level stands for the character fashions (which can be why Joel in Half I seems older than he did within the 2013 unique, to be extra in keeping with his age in Half II).
It’s a powerful rundown. And, after all, Naughty Canine—notorious for a studio-wide tradition of perfectionism and for some reported cases of lengthy hours consequently—is showcasing visuals that set a gold commonplace for the trade. However I’m nonetheless skeptical in regards to the deserves of this remake, and can reserve judgment till I truly play it. Because the Twitter person KazHiraiCEO—a well-known spoof account that aped former Sony boss Kaz Hirai—joked in 2015, “Saying The Final of Us Remastered: Remastered for PS4. Joel’s beard may have 5% extra element than within the first Remastered model.”
