Upcoming The Last of Us first person mod zooms in on Naughty Dog's broken world

1 year ago 98

first person view shotgun aimed at fungus zombie in a drainage ditch

(Image credit: Naughty Dog, Voyagers Revenge on YouTube)

It's one of the first stops for modding a new game, like "Hello World (opens in new tab)" for programming⁠—no I'm not talking about the nude mods, though good guess, I'm talking about an old fashioned perspective shift. YouTuber Voyagers Revenge (opens in new tab) recently uploaded a preview of their in-progress first person mod for The Last of Us on PC.

first person view blasting fungus zombie with revolver

It seems to accomplish the look by zooming in the camera to Joel's eye level while keeping the same animation work. While this approach often lacks the mechanical finesse of a bespoke first person perspective, I always appreciate the immersive effect it has. Your character holds their weapon like a real person would, and not just superimposed in front of their face like a Doom sprite, and you of course get the joy of looking down and seeing your body in the world instead of just floating six feet off the ground.

Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic environments really hold up zoomed in like this, and as with similar mods for the Witcher (opens in new tab), Dark Souls (opens in new tab), or Elden Ring (opens in new tab), it's refreshing to get a new take on these familiar locales. I always find I want the best of both worlds whenever it's possible to make it work in a game⁠—Bethesda will always have a special place in my heart for letting you freely switch between first and third person view since Morrowind, and I'll always lament Troika's canceled Fallout-style RPG (opens in new tab), which would have done this with a first-person view and classic RPG isometric perspective.

It's unclear when Voyagers Revenge's first person mod will be made available to the general public, but you can keep up with developments on their YouTube channel (opens in new tab), and they also have a Patreon (opens in new tab) with exclusive videos.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.