Modding weapons in The Last of Us Part One was a huge part of the game, giving you the option to attach long range scopes, silencers, and extended mags to your favourite guns. Workbenches were always a delight to stumble on – providing you had enough tools, of course. However, using them weren’t exactly the most visually pleasing things due to the wall of text that met you when you set your tools down. Well, according to a recent leak, the remake of the game will actually let you see the Joel work away on his chosen gun.
The footage comes as part of a series of leaks given to Nick Baker of Xbox Era and it shows a complete overhaul of the workbench system. While the menus themselves are similar to the original game, they’ll no longer fill up your screen. Instead, Joel will grab the gun you’re looking to upgrade, make it safe before putting it on the workbench, and then set to work.
In the footage, which you can watch down below, Joel grabs a hunting rifle and increases its magazine capacity. Here he goes into his toolkit, grabs a pair of pliers, works on the magazine, before then slotting it into the rifle. When he adds a scope, you can actually see him configuring the dials at the top.
It’s not as realistic as the modding in Escape From Tarkov, for example, but given the workbench system just used to be one big old overlayed menu in the old game, this is a nice little addition that adds a bit of flavour to the game and brings it in line with the animations shown in The Last of Us Part 2.
Anyone wanna see the new workbenches? They look pretty coolhttps://t.co/DE3vGH247Y
— Nick (@Shpeshal_Nick) July 20, 2022
Baker also highlights a number of other leaks on Twitter, from improved accessibility options that allow you to skip puzzles or enable combat audio cues, the controller layout, and some general gameplay footage. The Xbox Era founder says the footage comes from the latest build, although its unclear if this is the final one or not.
Many online have argued that the footage looks a little “washed out” and that the only changes appear to be graphical. While the workbench change suggests the Naughty Dog team is innovating in different ways, the studio has been forced to defend the remake against “cash grab” claims in recent weeks.
The Last of Us Remake release date is set for September 2, 2022.