It’s one of the first stops for modding a new game, like “Hello World” 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 recently uploaded a preview of their in-progress first person mod for The Last of Us on PC.
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, Dark Souls, or Elden Ring, 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, 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, and they also have a Patreon with exclusive videos.