Players control Joel, who is tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States and defend her against cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus.

Part I was rebuilt for the updated hardware, requiring new animations, art direction, and character models to align with the original development team's vision.

It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its graphical enhancements, facial animations, artificial intelligence, and its added accessibility, audio, and controller options.

[17] In the included expansion The Last of Us: Left Behind, the player controls Ellie as she spends time with her best friend and love interest Riley Abel.

[20] The overhauled photo mode adds several features, allowing visual and gameplay modifiers such as slow motion and infinite ammunition.

[20] On PlayStation 5, the game supports hardware features such as 3D audio,[11][12] and uses the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the DualSense controller to emulate gameplay actions such as shooting a shotgun or drawing a bowstring.

[3] According to Escayg, the team approached the remake as "a love letter to our fans, to the franchise, and to ourselves as developers";[31] they felt a responsibility to preserve its essence and quality.

[6] The team re-evaluated thousands of "micro decisions" during development, removing objects deemed unimportant or distracting and detailing or redesigning those that required improvements.

[23] During the development of The Last of Us Part II, blind accessibility consultant Brandon Cole noted that visually-impaired players missed environmental context and the unspoken interactions between characters, but the production timeline limited the team's ability to implement a solution.

[27] The visual departments analyzed the original game to understand it better, focusing development resources on the most crucial scenes and storylines to maximize their impact.

Rather than simply improving the visuals, the team analyzed its cutscenes and narrative beats, employing modernized techniques to emphasize story moments.

[32]: 4:43  The remake was considered a good opportunity to expand some environments, such as adding detail and items to the back offices of the Boston museum, and visually shifting the university section for a more claustrophobic feeling.

The team reused much of the sound from the original game as they considered it iconic; some of the re-recorded audio included the workbench upgrades, as well as murmuration for the Infected, introduced in Part II.

The report claimed the game, codenamed "T1X",[g] had started at Sony's Visual Arts Support Group studio but was later moved under Naughty Dog's budget after some staff joined the project in 2020.

[48] Several players reported receiving damaged versions of the Firefly Edition due to poor packaging; Sony offered store discounts or refunds in some instances, but did not provide replacements.

[58] It was praised for its graphical enhancements,[59][63][67] updated facial animations,[61][66][68] improved enemy and character AI,[13][60][69] and its added accessibility, audio, and controller options,[13][61][62] though the response to its gameplay and level design was mixed.

[13][14][61] GameRevolution's Jason Faulkner found the absence of story additions to be "some huge missed opportunities",[60] and Game Informer's Blake Hester felt the lack of narrative changes exacerbated the outdated presentation of its themes.

[59] The Verge's Andrew Webster compared the improved graphics to modern blockbusters,[72] and Siliconera's Josh Tolentino wrote that it matched his memory of the original.

[61][64][66] EGM's Goroff and IGN's Reilly found they made the acting more effective, with new microexpressions adding depth to each character,[59][63] which Ars Technica's Machkovech compared to awarded film performances.

[13][60][69] Ars Technica's Machkovech compared the combat sequences to the original game's scripted reveal trailer,[68] and GameSpot's Jake Dekker found the improvements led to more tense and difficult encounters.

[61] Hardcore Gamer's Kevin Dunsmore echoed this sentiment but noted some "wonkiness remains" from the original, with companions failing to follow correct paths.

[63] Siliconera's Tolentino found the changes superficial due to the identical map layouts and encounter designs,[67] while EGM's Goroff felt the behavior remained simplistic, with enemies hasty to approach their fallen allies.

[61] The Telegraph's Silver found the updated controls made combat smoother,[71] while VG247's Orry said they retained "a slight clunkiness" but ultimately led to more tense gameplay encounters.

[63] Other reviewers similarly felt that combat and level design failed to compare to Part II's, though recognized the former as a vast improvement of the original.

[13][59][66] GamesRadar+'s Avard found the combat changes minimal,[62] while Ars Technica's Machkovech felt the gameplay "still feels like a PlayStation 3 game" at worst.

[74][85][86] Eurogamer's Richard Leadbetter described the game as "effectively a beta", citing poor optimization and intense system requirements;[87] MeriStation's Salva Fernandez felt it was not ready for release in its published state,[75] and Gamereactor's Petter Hegevall named it "the worst optimized PC conversion" since 2021's Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.

[88] PC Gamer's Phil Iwaniuk lamented scoring the game poorly but considered it necessary as the problems were "a real barrier" preventing the experience.

[78] GameSpot's Alessandro Barbosa praised the extensive settings options,[61] though Inverse's Grant Stoner found the limited key bindings customization disappointing due to Naughty Dog's focus on accessibility.

[100] Engadget's Nathan Ingraham wrote performance had improved on the Steam Deck after the first update,[101] though some reviewers and players felt problems persisted;[76][102] Valve listed the game as "unsupported" in early April.

[124] Following the debut of the television adaptation of The Last of Us in January 2023, the game became the eighth-most-downloaded in North America and tenth in Europe,[125] and sixth and seventh, respectively, in February.