The Last Of Us Crafting Table Might Be The Most Satisfying Thing In Games

thegamer.com:

The Last of Us Part 1 doesn’t change a lot about Naughty Dog’s masterpiece. It looks a lot prettier and the animations help convey more emotion, but the core experience is near identical. You are still bonding with Ellie, murdering infected, and taking a very sad roadtrip across America in the midst of the post-apocalypse. It’s still depressing as fuck to boot.

But when it comes to gameplay, there are a few welcome additions to be found. Gunplay is far weightier, while melee attacks possess a heft more reminiscent of the sequel than what came before. You really feel the corpses hit the ground after a flurry of punches, or want to look away after an explosion of gore spews forth from Clickers after a well-placed shotgun blast. It feels amazing to play, with all these little bonuses adding up to a worthwhile whole.

Related: Your First Time With The Last Of Us Doesn't Need To Be The Remake

But nothing feels more satisfying than the crafting table. Watching Joel go to town on this bad boy is almost orgasmic in how intricately detailed each and every motion manages to be. The Last of Us’ approach to crafting and upgrades is more simple than the games that would follow. Your arsenal is smaller, and thus there are fewer avenues for customisation as the campaign progresses.

Naughty Dog has still done a fantastic job here though, transferring over the crafting table mechanic from Part 2 and making it feel like it was here the entire time. Joel can use tools and scrap to upgrade weapons and create new holsters from nothing, and these locations are spread just far enough apart that coming across one feels like a reward in itself. Finally, I can spend all of my hard-earned resources on new gadgets.

Upgrading weapons and crafting