The Last of Us, a game that by its very name speaks misfortune. Such is the life of the characters in this game. You follow the tales of Joel; a man who has lost everything and has stopped caring about anything in life and has done some horrible things, yet who I sympathize with because if it were me that all that had happened to, I would be a sadistic bastard myself. He has made tough choices and does terrible, selfish things. But I can't blame him. He's lost everything. It's what I'd do. And Ellie; a young girl, immune to the infected and the only hope for mankind, who has a very cheery and upbeat attitude compared to all the desolation and despair around her. She constantly takes interest in the world around her, reading magazines, making jokes, trying to look on the bright side of life even when the light is so far away. She is an extremely like able character and you can't help but hope that everything will be alright, for her sake. The story is gripping and engaging, heart wrenching and sickening. It makes you think, something a lot of games abjectly fail to do. It has one of the best intros to a game I have played and a fantastic build up to an ending that even though I saw coming, still gives me chills.
The shooting mechanics are nice and realistic to me, Joel isn't a trained professional, or a seasoned veteran, he's just an old man trying to survive. His aim reticule sways quite a bit at first but there is a way of lessening it. The cover system is automatic, simply crouch behind something and there you go. Behind cover you are, you can blind fire or pop up and shoot. Not difficult to control but not holding your hand either. The upgrade system is also very nice. You upgrade by finding pills hidden throughout the game. It forces you to decide carefully, do you want more health? Or do you want to be able to stop that clicker from killing you, stop your aim from swaying so much or do you want to craft faster? The choices are slim, but highly valuable.
You also have the option of upgrading your weapons as you go along by finding workbenches, illuminated by a desk lamp, they give you plenty of options for upgrading your weapons and same as with the skill upgrades, choosing what to upgrade on your weapons can be crucial as well. You have to find scrap parts, also hidden throughout the world, not as well hidden as pills but if you search hard enough you find higher amounts of parts.
Surviving in this beautifully detailed wasteland is a chore, but, if you do it right, not an impossible one. They have a very good and easy to use crafting sytem. You can't pause this game when you do stuff like craft, heal, change weapons and all that. So it makes the tensions a lot higher. You can make shivs, molotov cocktails, smoke bombs, grenades, and first aid kits. Finding materials becomes more and more scarce as the difficulty goes up and as you reach survival mode, you search every corner, nook and cranny for that alcohol, tape, scissors, etc. you can also upgrade your equipment through training manuals found throughout the game to make your shivs last longer, bombs do more damage, and healing kits heal more health.
The enemy AI in this game is wonderful to me. They flank you, distract you, and generally act how I believe someone trying to kill you would act. As for the partner AI, I saw no trouble. People complained how they would talk near enemies or leap out in front of them and the enemies would look right past them. But I think it was done on purpose. AI can't be perfect. Errors happen. So Naughty Dog made it to where they wouldn't be noticed as easy. I've read reviews about people complaining how Tess, who would shoot before they had a chance to sneak, but I never had that problem. I think the AI works just fine. And when you are hiding behind cover and you cover Ellie with your arms, wonderful. The little things matter.
As for the Infected, damn. I'd rather face any of the people over the infected. Ruthless and tough to kill. You have 4 types of infected, you have your regular runners, who when they see or hear you, scream and run at you, alerting every other infected within a 500 mile radius it seems. You have the stalkers, who are somewhat like the runners. For me it was hard to tell the difference what with me panicking and all, but the stalkers seem to be better at detecting you than runners and also seem to have tactics when it comes to trying to kill you, they'll strafe and take cover and be smart about trying to eat you. You have your clickers, they are blind but have fantastic hearing and are almost impossibe to kill early on in the game if they hear you. You can mostly only kill them with a shiv, choking is not an option. Guns work too but not as well, as they are super fast and when they get a hold of you, they rip out your throat. Although, you can upgrade to stop them from doing so later in the game. And then lastly you have the rarest of infected, the bloaters. They are big, fat, strong and tough to kill. They have armor, long range attacks and an instant and unblockable grab. Luckily, there aren't very many throughout the game. But, they are not easy to avoid. All I can say is, good luck.
There are a few downsides to this game, though slight, compared to the grander of the game. I know I said I didn't have an issue with the partner AI but it does break from immersion when you see Ellie standing a few feet away from a clicker or yelling something at Joel while there is a gun wielding madman right behind her an neither of them do anything about it. It would also be nicer if there was a wider range of enemies to fight. It does get slightly repetitive seeing the same enemy over and over again.
As for the graphics, the best I have seen this generation so far. The details on the faces, backgrounds and everything else is amazing. The voice acting is also outstanding, some of the best I have ever heard in a game. The characters really bring this game to life and help you become a part of the world by being so outstanding. The music is beautiful yet subtle, it brings the tension without being too loud or in the way, it accents sad or touching moments without being too overbearing and the sounds help make the world breath. The sound of infected a few feet away from you, the crunch of dirt beneath an enemies foot as he draws ever closer to his death, the sounds of the struggling enemies as they draw their last breath, the gurgle of a man you just stabbed in the throat, really stop and make you feel bad, and make you realize you just took the life of a man, no more hard done out than yourself, just trying to survive another day..
"The Game Music Foundation are today very proud and pleased to announce an additional concert, circling back to the roots of Game Muisic Festival in Poland. On April 28th, 2024, the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw will once again become a place to celebrate the art of video game music, featuring scores from The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II." - The Game Music Foundation.
Najam from eXputer writes "It's time fore a new installment in the series, not another pointless remaster."
They are working on something new. Not to be rude but it is impossibility stupid to think ND next major announcement is going to be a remaster or their next Last of Us entry is going to be another remaster.
I think this is in response to them releasing a remaster for the sequel, a game that didn't need a remaster.
Basically a "why did you put out a remaster no one asked for when you have all there options available"
They remaster is to put out something quick while they are deving new stuff. I don't get how people can be so static.
That was a Remake. I guess they could do that to 2, but man…. They should wait a couple generations so it can look like a major upgrade.
Naughty Dog released The Last of Us Part 2 over 3 years ago, and since then, the only good thing we have received is a TV series.
not complaing tbh, i love the last of us but for me the story is done, i dont need more it. they couldve left it at 1 and i wouldve been happy with it.
i have no interest in playing as abby what so ever or anyone else not named joel or ellie for that matter.
give us a new IP naughty dog, its bloody time, insomniac has snatched your throne as sonys best studio, remind us again how talented you are!!
I'm with you on that. People might not have noticed yet, but Naughty Dog has worked on basically only Uncharted and The Last of Us for almost two decades now. It's pretty much 3/4 of their entire history under Sony, dedicated to those two franchises.
This series should have been put to rest since the first one.. tlou2 was absolutely not needed because the first one was perfect.
Now i how ND wake up and give us something to be excited for
Honestly even if Joel was was still in it, I'm still fine with just not having another game period. Like even after the first game, I was fine with the option of just leaving things as they were, and I feel the same about TLOU2. yeah they're great games but the story would be fine left as it is imo, just takes if a messed up situation in a messed up world
insomniac is only big because they are working on Spider Man. Give that ip to any good studio and they will succeed. So i don't feel that is fair to say for that reason. i would like a part 3 with ellie only, where she is old 40 years old or more and end the story there somehow but there were some rumors of multiple playable characters which makes me not so interested. A new ip is a hard sell, i trust them but at the same time not sure about current ND talent to deliver on that front.
Yea let's just ignore 4 games in 5 years and ratchet and clank.
All absolutely quality quality games, theybdeserve the kudos!!
It did! It’s called The Last of Us Part II and it currently holds the record of the most awarded game of all-time! Highly recommend it!
And yet I could give you a dozen games which didn’t get as many awards but are better.
Even 2020…Ghost of Tsushima gave us not just one great revenge tale but two.
Well that's on you Fox. Most people seems to like it wich the awards are a proof of.
Honestly, TLOU2's story came off as more of a comedy of errors masquerading as a 'serious' game.
Not to mention, despite having all of these awards much of which only existed once, TLOU2, a sequel to a critically acclaimed game, took as much time as Horizon: Zero Dawn, a new IP and a huge gamble for Guerrilla at the time, to hit 10 million sales. Heck, Ghost of Tsushima nearly hit 10 million sales by the 2 year mark and that one was also a new IP.
@CombatEmu
"Heck, Ghost of Tsushima nearly hit 10 million sales by the 2 year mark and that one was also a new IP"
Exactly
And they were only behind TLOU2 by like a million
Put it into perspective
A brand new IP which could have gone either way vs a massive 7 years in the making sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed games in the last 10 years.
Yet they only managed a million more...
People are still mad about TLOU2. 😂😂
Great game and I’m prepping for another playthrough. Might have to wait until they release the PS5 version and see how that is
The rumors say it's development wasn't up to par with internal expectations, so it's on ice for a while, but there's been nothing official saying what's happening with it for a while.
We should have gotten some new information once the remake of Part 1 was done.
ND has to have something new to announce, they've been quiet for a while now.
Meanwhile half their dev's are now unemployed... I wouldn't count on anything for quite awhile.
@JackBNimble: The studio had over 400 Staff back in July, about 25 staff have been made redundant, this could very easily be because a game has had a large part of it's development finished and ND are the biggest they've ever been.
Scaling back to focus more and cut the fat isn't a bad thing.
The studio could easily still have close to 400 staff, it's also been 3 years since their last release, it's very likely that they're gearing up to announce their next game and release it within the next year or so.
The game is wonderful.
I totally love it when Joel covers Elllie while in Cover.... Thats so beautiful :D
Its great to See how others experience this game
You should play the Multtiplayer as its One of the best I have played andd many others say so!
I agree with both statements above, less to the fanboy comment. Multiplayer is a surprisingly fun and well put together experience and should really be played to see there is more to the game than just single player.
Giving it a 10 kinda made me think off the bat that there was a little bias for the game, but not fanboy. 10 means their should be no Downs/Cons in the review at all. The partner A.I. and in some cases the enemy AI are flawed to a point where it breaks immersion and should be counted against the game.
That being said, I agree it is one of the better games this generation and should be given a 9-9.5 depending on how hard you want to fault them.
All in all, good review but a little to nice on score and judging A.I.
All reviews are opinionated, and yours is just a dime-a-dozen joke review.
Thanks for providing us with nothing new 2 months after the game is launched.