Throughout the last decades of video game history developers have always aimed to innovate. Wondering how to turn a new idea into another breakthrough. You can’t stand out in the gaming market unless you have something unique and it takes a long time for an idea to pop into a creator’s mindset. I do have to clarify that not every idea has to be original. There are already so many pieces of fiction about going into space or surviving a haunted sanctum. What matters most is the execution of the idea and whether or not it sticks the landing. Naughty Dog is one of those companies that aimed for perfect execution. Constantly pushing out works of art that aim to be something bigger. The original Crash Bandicoot trilogy was where it all began. Naughty Dog’s creativity started off at a low yet high point with a simple 3D platformer about an anthropomorphic bandicoot who spun around and hopped on other animals. Then came the Jax and Daxter series where the companies’ ideas really started to flourish from beyond another simple 3D platformer. Both series were really successful.
Their biggest breakthrough though had to be Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune back in 2007, an Indiana Jones like adventure following the footsteps of a legendary treasure hunter named Nathan Drake. Ever since the first entry for the Uncharted series, Naughty Dog has always found a way to take things a step further. Expanding the action packed gameplay with new cinematic set pieces, writing incredible storylines and characters, and designing locations so majestic and detailed it felt like you were actually there. I played Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End a year or two ago and I can say it’s a game I heavily enjoyed. With all it's fun set pieces and how it pushed the Playstation 4's hardware. Naughty Dog is pretty good, but I feel like we’re forgetting something. Something important. Something that helped them set a benchmark for storytelling in video games and very well may be their greatest achievement besides the Uncharted series. Oh, it’s in the title of the review. The Last of Us released back in 2013.
When it came to the development of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and a new IP, Naughty Dog split into two development teams. One team worked on Uncharted 3 and another began development on an entirely latter. It wasn’t until 2011 when Uncharted 3 released that Naughty Dog announced the title to their new game, The Last of Us. People were speculating what The Last of Us was and what it would be like, and as time went on the hype for the game began to grow. Unlike the first three Uncharted games which were directed by Amy Hennig, The Last of Us was being directed by newly hired director Neil Druckman who previously worked on the Uncharted series. He took inspiration from works like Ico and Night of The Living Dead, and wanted to make an apocalyptic novel where it wasn’t just about survival. It would feature topics about humanity and reason to live. Finally in 2013, The Last of Us was released and what seemed like another zombie turned into one of the biggest releases of the year. Perfect scores from almost every review outlet out there, critics praising the game for it’s tense survival action and emotional story, multiple Game of The Year awards, and many more. It was deemed one of the greatest games of all time and it became one of Playstation’s best selling games with over 10 million copies sold worldwide.
It was later remastered on the Playstation 4 one year after release and even though not many changes were made to the game it was still declared an instant hit. It helped the Playstation 4 compete against the Xbox One and it boosted Naughty Dog’s reputation by a long shot. I have played a good chunk of the exclusives on the Playstation 4 and almost all of them are near perfection. Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man, Shadow of The Colossus, all of these are amazing titles. My most favorite games on the system have to be God of War, Death Stranding, Persona 5, and finally one of my favorite games of all time Bloodborne. I love the Playstation 4, but one of the games my friends have been begging me to play was The Last of Us. I was planning on skipping out, but with recent excitement for the sequel I decided to finally play the game. After playing through the entirety of The Last of Us, I can say one thing, "Wow. Just wow." This game is amazing and I can see why so many people praise this game even to this day. It did something special and there's reasons why people still talk about it more than other major Triple A titles. Today we’ll be talking about why I loved The Last of Us and why it deserves your attention. So gear up and prepare to travel across a ruined world.
Story
It was an average day for Joel Miller, a single father who lives alone with his daughter. He comes back home after a long day at work to be greeted by his daughter, Sarah. She is practically Joel’s life and he would do anything to protect her from harm. She gives Joel a silver wrist watch and thanks him for being the amazing parental figure he is. Just an ordinary day for an ordinary guy. In the middle of night something strange happens. It’s announced on the news that a mutated fungus has been released nearby and that it is rapidly transforming people into mindless flesh eating zombies. The apocalypse, what is a fictional and unimaginable event, has just arrived.
Joel calls up his brother Tommy and together they try to escape while fungal zombies quickly flood the streets. Their car gets rammed over which leads to them running away on foot. Joel and Sarah manage to escape the zombie horde, but encounter a US soldier who is heavily armed. They beg him to help them escape, but someone pitches in on the officer’s headset. The police officer is given orders to open fire since the two of them could have possibly been exposed to the fungal infection, which leads to Joel and Sarah being shot at. Sarah is shot in the neck and she starts choking as blood spews everywhere. Tommy steps in to save Joel, but they witness Sarah as she falls into permanent sleep. No one is there to save her since the end had just begun. Mankind is falling apart, and during the apocalypse people change.
Several years pass and Joel lives in a heavily guarded city, filled to the brim with government officials willing to execute anyone who has any symptoms of the virus. Just walking around the streets we see them forming firing lines and publicly executing people. Joel works with his partner Tess and every so often they take illegal smuggling opportunities to earn the supplies they need to survive. One day their payment is stolen by a black-market dealer named Robert, and when they confront him he tells them he sold the supplies to the Fireflies. The Fireflies are a group of anti-government individuals who believe they can save humanity from the virus by developing a cure, and will do anything to get what they want. Otherwise terrorists with a somewhat believable goal. Joel and Tess debate on what to do now that their supply cache is gone until they are greeted by the leader of the Fireflies, Marlene.
Marlene is heavily wounded and promises to double the amount of goods that were supposed to be given to Joel and Tess if they smuggle a girl named Ellie to the other side of the city. Joel and Tess take the job, but while sneaking their way through the city they are caught by government officials. While on the run Joel and Tess get separated, but Tess then discovers a bite mark on Ellie’s arm similar to the one an infected makes. They then learn that Ellie has the virus, but her body is immune and they both discover that The Fireflies are trying to convert her blood into a vaccine that can either increase immunity to the virus or cure it entirely. Joel and Tess realize how important it is to deliver Ellie to the other side of the city, so they try to escape while the government officials are still on their tail. Tess is then infected and shot to death by a group of soldiers, leaving Joel and Ellie to run away alone into the unknown.
At the other side of the city, Joel waits for The Fireflies to show up only to discover they actually didn’t. No one came to pick up Ellie at the other side of the city and that their journey is about to go on longer than they expected. Ellie begs Joel to help her reach her destination, and since Joel can’t go back to the officer flooded city since he is now a wanted man, he decides to go on a painful trip across the US. There are strange people out there in the world. Some who want them dead, others who will do much worse, and others who will do anything to survive. What will Joel Miller do to survive?
Gameplay
Similar to the Uncharted series, The Last of Us focuses on third person shooting and environment based puzzles. Unlike Uncharted though where you can do a majority of the puzzles yourself, most puzzles involve Joel and Ellie working together. Rather than be the gun toting action that the Uncharted series is known for, The Last of Us is more focused on survival with a couple of horror elements sprinkled in. Imagine the combat of Resident Evil 2 if it was a bit more decent. Let’s start with the puzzles first, because that’s where teamwork gets involved. Usually there are two spots to puzzles, one that is easily accessible with your own capabilities and another that only Ellie can reach. You may even have to wander off to find objects to help you solve the puzzles blocking your way forward, or carry Ellie across gaps just to get to where you need to go.
While exploring you’ll find various resources and they can be used to craft weapons, throwable items like grenades, and even permanent upgrades. You are given a lot of satisfying tools to use, but you don’t want to pump every bullet you have into enemies. Enemies can take multiple shots to kill with headshots sometimes being necessary to save up supplies, and ammunition is scarce as most supply caches or buildings you would expect supplies have been pillaged. Which makes sense compared to a majority of survival horror games out there, because it's the apocalypse It's not like you'll encounter a factory which still continues to manufacture bullets. There are a variety of weapons you can use in this game, but stronger weapons tend to have harder to find supplies. You are given the option to sneak past enemies or stealthily take them down before an actual fight ensues. Take whatever chances you can, and if you do get thrown into a fight make every bullet count. Resort to throwing punches if you have to. Search every drawer, room, and shelf because they may contain what you need to survive.
One of the most deadly enemies in the game are the Clickers. The Clickers are a special mutated fungal zombie who can’t see you, but will immediately know where you are if you cause too much noise and kill you in one bite. If they grab you can use a shiv to get out of their grasp, but the amount of shivs you can hold is limited. Two collectibles I do hat are very valuable are gears and pills. Gears allow you to upgrade your guns' stats. Categories like accuracy, reload speed, ammo capacity, and sway. Pills allow unlock new traits and may improve Joel's physical stats. I guess swallowing multiple pills at once is a good idea for you for some reason. Besides that there really isn’t much else I can say. It’s third person shooting with survival elements and occasional sections where you have to push a box against a wall to progress. I feel like there would be more to talk about, but that would lead me to spoil later sections of the game. Survival of the fittest if I say so myself. Hopefully you can transport Ellie to the other side of the USA.
Thoughts
The Last of Us is an amazing game, without a doubt it is worth your time. The story is incredibly well written, has memorable beats, and gets pretty darn emotional at times. I wouldn't say it's the journey that makes The Last of Us great, but rather the people you encounter and the scenarios you get placed into. The characters you meet flesh out the world and showcase how desperate people are during the apocalypse. The worst scenarios bring out the worst in people, and sometimes humans can be worst than the monster's trying to kill them. See the stress and anxiety build up, only to witness them snap and do terrible things you wouldn’t expect. Take drastic measures to survive and get what they want. Graphically, The Last of Us still holds up. Lighting, detailing, the places you visit, and the atmosphere of the game. It's enough to keep you at awe.
Gameplay is solid and I would as far to say The Last of Us of the best survival action gameplay I've experienced at the moment, but this is where I have a few of complaints. There are constant shifts between when the game wants to be blood pumping action akin to Uncharted, slow pace puzzle solving, strategic survival, cryptic tense horror, or unnerving stealth. A nice variety of things to do in an extremally linear game. Most of it's done really well like one of the beginning sections where you sneak past Clickers. One level has a moment where you are dangling off a ceiling, and you have to fight off waves of infected baddies while Ellie tries to get you down. A good chunk of these enemies are Clickers and it gets really stressful as being hung upside down makes aiming a bit harder. However, not all these sections are handled well. Some of the environments are not really built around stealth, and the times they do enforce action are often not in the best environments. Not saying combat is terrible. All the guns feel satisfying to use and every single blow has weight to them. Fights are brutal, not difficult but brutal. The combat is good and everything besides the puzzles which limit down to pushing a box or finding a ladder half the time works, but some players may have a problem with how much the game cages in what it wants to be. How it's shifting in game design.
Due to the linear structure of the game some sections aren’t as enjoyable the second time through. You can't skip cinematic cutscenes, forced puzzle sections, or sequences where you just walk and talk. I didn't really mind it though, because one of the reasons why people play games like The Last of Us and God of War is because of the story and important character moments. Not every game has to constantly push you forward or just go "Boom! Boom! Boom!" Yes, I know that contradicts what I said during my Doom review but I'm starting to open up to slower paced games with the more I play. I hope in the sequel Naughty Dog tries to aim for more open level design and environments that actually support stealth. In my opinion the game is enjoyable whether you play for the story, the gameplay, or both. It's one of the more accessible survival action games I've played and I would go far as to say I like it more than something like Resident Evil.
I had a really good time with The Last of Us and can highly recommend it to anyone who has a Playstation 4. It it perfect and is it one of the best games I have ever played? No, because just because it's one of the most highly acclaimed games made does not mean I'll have the same opinion as a majority of people. Hell, it's not even one of my favorite PS4 games. However, I can agree it's a masterpiece that has held up against the test of time. Maybe after this I’ll go back and replay Uncharted 4 just to see how Naughty Dog’s direction carried on from their previous work. In the end I am going to give The Last of Us a 9.t/10 for excellence at best. See you guys for the sequel!
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