The Last of Us

Before playing the Last of Us, I didn't know very much about the game.  I knew it was from Naughty Dog, the guys who do the Uncharted series.  I knew the girl in the game wasn't Ellen Page, even though she looks a lot like her (and in the pre-release footage I saw looked a lot like Ellen Page). I knew a lot of people prior to the game's release were saying it was the best thing since sliced bread.  But other than that, the game was a mystery to me. 

I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of Uncharted, with it's remarkable fluidity of gameplay.  I guess I was expecting Uncharted with zombies.  But what I ended up getting was much better than what I was expecting.  (Because I'm sure what I was expecting would have been terrible...)

The Last of Us takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a fungal outbreak has turned the majority of the world's population into mindless zombie-like creatures that like to tear your neck out with their teeth.  Civilization has collapsed but pockets of survivors have established their own (brutal and violent) societies.  You follow survivors, Joel and Ellie as they make their way across the United States in hopes of a cure. 

The thing that stands out to me about the Last of Us is the maturity of the game.  Not mature like most games would be, as in, "blood, gore and boobs" (though there is blood and gore... I can't remember if there are actually boobs?) but mature as in complex and ambiguous.  The world of the Last of Us is a world without right or wrong, per se.  It's a world of survival.  So, while you play through the game as Joel and Ellie, they're not necessarily "good" or "heroic".  But they do what they need to do to survive, like everyone else you encounter in the game. 

Everything about the game is masterfully constructed.  It is probably the most immersive game I've played to date. Though, for the first few hours of playing the game, I couldn't play through long stretches without taking a break.  It just felt exhausting.  But after a certain point of the story, I wanted the game to keep going. 

You can choose either to play through sections of the game with stealth or by taking out your enemies.  I naturally lean towards stealth, but I'm pretty sure Naughty Dog constructed sections so that it's damn near impossible to go through stealthily.  I remember one particular sequence where there were a number of clickers (infected people who no longer have sight so they sense you via clicking their tongues and some sort of radar).  I got through about 75% of the sequence with stealth when a clicker heard me.  Instead of dying and restarting, like I would in any other game... I ran for my life.  (Which is what I'm pretty sure what I'd do in real life, provided I had not already been eaten.)

If there's any shortcoming of the game, it's in the "puzzles".  I use the term "puzzle" loosely because they're mostly "find a ladder, place the ladder".  They're not exactly rocket science, but I understand the choice to make the puzzles simplistic as to not break the game's immersion.  It's probably a better fit than Resident Evil's "why did the owner of this mansion build pressure plates that can only be activated by pushing this particular statue on top of it to reveal a snake key that opens a door that can only be accessed by crawling through a pit of zombies" puzzles. 

But the Last of Us does share a lot in common with those early Resident Evil games.  Resources are scarce.  Death is common.  It's sometimes better to run than to fight.  But the Last of Us has better acting and story than the best of all of the Resident Evil games combined (which, thinking of that, would make one mess of game... it'd be like a porno without the sex).  Those Resident Evil games are categorized as "survival horror", which is almost a good description of the Last of Us.  If anyone asked me, I'd probably just call it a "survival" game. 

Rating

I think the Last of Us deserve all the praise it's getting.  If you own a PS3, this one is a definite "buy".  If you don't own a PS3, you might consider getting one just for this game.  (Hey, we're on the cusp of a new console cycle, so you should be able to get a PS3 real cheap, real soon!)

Recommendations