While remakes like Why Sony Approved A Last Of Us Remake
The Last Of Us Part 1 Adds Accessibility Features
Combat, stealth and exploration are essentially unchanged in The Last of Us Part 1 from the original game, but Twitter and journalist Naughty Dog's most accessible game ever by a wide margin, but TLOU Part 1 pushes this even further with more features and multiple preset settings. The addition of these features, which were mostly nonexistent in the original release, means that an entirely new community of players can experience Joel and Ellie's journey across America.
Audio Descriptive Cutscenes Drastically Improve The Last Of Us
Among the bevy of accessibility features introduced in The Last of Us Part 1, Grant Stoner points out Audio Descriptive Cutscenes as a particularly monumental addition to the experience. This feature activates descriptive audio during scenes, which can help visually impaired players experience key visual elements of a cutscene. The mechanic even describes information about facial expressions and animations, which is crucial to fully enjoying The Last of Us and its emotional cinematics. It would be impossible to update the original Last of Us with this system, given its age, so a remake was the only way to introduce such an important accessibility feature.
Many fans are critical of The Last of Us Part 1 due to its lack of moment-to-moment gameplay innovation, but the remake does introduce valuable accessibility features to the post-apocalyptic epic. Audio Descriptive Cutscenes, in particular, are crucial to letting visually impaired players enjoy the game and would be impossible to add into the original version of the game through an update. These additional features help the original game more closely rival TLOU2 in accessibility options in ways that were impossible to achieve when The Last of Us first launched in 2013.
Sources: Grant Stoner/Twitter