You know what I hate? Apocalypses. You know what kind of apocalypses I hate? The fungal kind. Do you know the only good thing about being in a fungal apocalypse? Having good company. Welcome to The Last of Us.
This game took the gaming community by storm. It has won countless awards and despite being only two years old, it has already seen a remaster release on the Playstation 4. I got this game shortly after its initial release on the Playstation 3 but I didn’t beat it until now. Let’s just say that one certain part of the game stopped me from ever picking up the game again.
The story of The Last of Us deals with the character Joel needing to take a young girl named Ellie across the country to get to the Fireflies. You find out early on in the game that Ellie is immune to the infection which is why the Fireflies want her so they can develop a cure. The story is fairly simple and not at all complicated. I like that in my games.
What makes the story great is its cast of characters. You meet a good deal of characters that you end up falling in love with (or greatly despise (I’m looking at you David)). These characters are the biggest driving force to telling the story and Naughty Dog does an excellent job developing these characters.
But here is my biggest peeve about the story. The story is divided into the four seasons starting in summer and ending the game in spring. Much, if not majority, of the game is heavily invested in the summer portion. The summer section of the story has three arcs: Tess’ arc, Bill’s arc, and the brothers’, Henry and Sam, arc. A bulk of your hours will be in there. I felt that the following seasons were overshadowed by this.
Let us move onto gameplay. The gameplay is divided into exploration and combat, very much like the Uncharted series. The split between exploring and fighting is done very well giving you an equal amount of time for both. The exploration is similar to that of the Uncharted games. You run around the area finding supplies and collectibles and running into puzzles. The puzzles are more or less getting from point A to point B. Most of them involve having Ellie help you, and mostly it deals with her getting a ladder for you to climb on. Exploration also happens underwater. This is the one thing I hated the most. The camera screws you up a bit since it also controls your motive. There were times when I was adjusting the camera and I ended up surfacing to the water instead of diving down further.
Now with combat. Combat is difficult because you have limited ammo. You have to make every shot count. You also can use melee weapons but they can break after so many hits. The enemies range from the infected to hunters. The infected can prove to be your biggest challenge. There is one part of the game (the part that made me stop playing two years ago) where you are caught in one of Bill’s trap that lands you hanging upside down. Great idea Naughty Dog but holy crap, I hated it. There is so much weapon sway that it is unbelievable. Another thing real quick, it is better to be stealthy in this game. I feel that much more is accomplished by being sneaky than running around screaming that you are there.
While you explore, you’ll end up finding ammo, supplies, and collectibles. Supplies range from broken scissors to sugar. These supplies are used to craft shivs, first aid, smoke bombs, and explosives. You’ll also run into finding pills and spare parts. Pills are used to upgrade Joel, whether it is maxing out his health or speeding up his crafting speed. The spare parts are used to upgrade your guns, ranging from firing speed and clip capacity. The collectibles are harder to find. By searching every nook and cranny, you can find either a comic, a Firefly pendant, or an artifact. I have never found an artifact but they are around somewhere.
The game does have multiplayer but I have never played it so I can’t be much help on that feature.
Overall I enjoyed The Last of Us and hope that Naughty Dog does write a fantastic sequel if they so chose it. Will I ever play it again? It depends… Do I really want to be hung upside down while dying to the same clicker over and over again?
The Last of Us
4.5/5
Oh yeah… Be prepared for some serious feels. I found myself tearing up to the point of sobbing while playing this game.
