It seemed like an eternity waiting for Naughty Dog's next big hit. The hype was high, and anything short of amazing might have been very disappointing. The result? Just a bit beyond amazing, just as Naughty Dog has accustomed us to expect from their games. From storytelling to gameplay, from graphics to sound, these talented developers have done it once more, they've delivered another fine gaming spectacle.
The Last Of Us may be similar in setting to certain other TV shows or games that deal with post-apocalyptic survival, but it stands as a new jewel as far as storytelling goes. Right from the beginning, when the parasitic fungal outbreak occurs, you will experience the game's dark nature, the loss of loved ones, and the last bit of hope left for mankind. Joel is a brutal character, a man that has been strengthened but both numbed by the events that have unfolded in his life since it all started. Meanwhile, Ellie is an outspoken teenager, wild, friendly, a rebel of sorts, who easily makes a connection with Joel. A type of ..Father-Daughter relationship builds throughout the game, but very, very slowly. It isn't until much later in the game that you will see Joel open up to Ellie, and this really makes a beautiful contrast between the man that Joel is at the beginning, and the man he is at the end. At first, his concern is to take Ellie to the Fireflies(militia group looking for a cure) as asked by their leader, Marlene. Joel is reluctant to do this, but Tess, a long-time "partner" of his, seems able to convince and urge him to carry out the mission. For Joel, his purpose is soon completely flipped, and the focus becomes his relationship with Ellie, and her safety. Throughout the game you will learn to care for these characters, and Naughty Dog does a fine job of making it all unpredictable, leaving you really unsure of what happens up until the end.
The Last Of Us has a powerful storyline, but it wouldn't be complete without the horrifying infected. Well, they aren't exactly horrifying, but they are certainly a little more unique from what we've seen. Your main concern in the game will be the Clickers, a specific type of infected that use echolocation to find you. Then there are Bloaters, who have a much thicker fungus layer and will require you to be well equipped with molotovs, bombs, or you'll have to run a bit, considering they also spit some type of fungi/spore bomb at you. Other than those two, there are your Runners and Stalkers, which can also serve to be quite troublesome under certain circumstances. The Stalkers will try to ambush you if they can, instead of mindlessly running towards you from the start. Because the enemies are so difficult and even smarter than the average, you'll have to stealth your way through some portion of the game. In every difficulty except survivor, you can just hold down R2 to listen to your enemies' movement, which will reveal their positions only if they are close enough. Relying too much on this feature will eventually backfire, since sometimes enemies will be unseen because they are crouching or maybe changed positions. There is a bit of a problem with the AI obviously seeing your teammate (Ellie, Tess, or others) and not reacting. At one time, I actually found Ellie running towards me along with a hunter. This issue breaks some of the suspense or thrill of the stealth in this game. Despite this, it really doesn't happen as much as I expected, and usually I found Ellie staying pretty close to Joel or behind in a safer place for cover. Ellie will also sometimes tell you where the enemies are if she sees them, which highlights them on your screen, and she'll even throw a brick or bottle at an enemy to stun them. Basically, AI in this game is smart, they just all have something against Joel for some reason.
In addition, patience reigns supreme here, you'll have to craft weapons and med kits, and most of the time choose between the two. Looking for supplies and tools would be wise since you don't want to find yourself with only a brick to defend yourself from about five armed hunters. Using weapons in this game is extremely accurate and fun, leading to some realistic and challenging firefights. Not to mention, if you happen to run out of ammo, the enemies you are facing will come out of cover and hunt you down. The Last of Us will force you to be accurate with your shooting, and be mindful of how much ammo you have. This adds a lot to gameplay that is already accurate and thrilling. Taking cover, shooting, throwing objects, climbing, it all works almost perfectly, and it's something that makes Naughty Dog's games so great. Your last resort of course is melee combat, which is simple yet satisfying.
When it comes to graphics, The Last of Us is quite impressive. The towns and cities you come across are drenched in that post-apocalyptic tone, with abandoned vehicles and trash everywhere, destroyed and flooded buildings, it's a depressing setting. The water effects are simply beautiful, especially when you run into a forest after being in a destroyed city or town for so long. The only issue is that there is some low quality textures here and there, and it would be nice for the environment to be more destructible. However, these are minor things, in the end the graphics are appropriate by Naughty Dog's standards. The visuals do a great job of presenting such a hopeless setting, but the sound in this game is simply the perfect complement. The music will set moods of suspense and worry, and you will hear movement from your enemies, whether it's door's closing or opening abruptly or a few stalkers sprinting from the corner of your eye. Furthermore, voice acting is perfect, so you can catch more of each character's personality pretty well.
For a game with such an excellent campaign, the expectation was an equally fun experience with the online multiplayer. This isn't exactly the case, but writing off this game's multiplayer completely would be a mistake, unless you hate stealth, and love your Call Of Duty and Battlefield. If you aren't use to this type of gameplay online, it will be a punishing uphill journey. You will pick between being a hunter or a Firefly, and you will basically lead a "clan" that you must take through weeks of survival. Basically, every match you'll pick up parts which will be converted to meds, which will increase your amount of survivors. More survivors means new unlocked weapons and customization options. Every element of the singeplayer is here, which includes listen mode and crafting on the go. It's a very slow paced style of gameplay, but still fun even as uncommon as it is. Unfortunately, there's really no clan support, there aren't enough stats, there isn't enough customization as far as characters go, and worst of all, not enough game modes. There's only two game modes, Supply Raid and Survivors, which are both basically team deathmatch with Survivors having no respawn. There's also challenges you must complete, like getting a certain amount of downs or executions, to boost the amount of new members or to save perhaps 50% of your clan...These challenges must be completed in 3 days (matches), which leads to frustrating situations for those who lose connection to their match and lose a day to complete their challenge. There's a lot to be improved for multiplayer, but it is a nice change from the fast paced online shooters out there, as it asks the player to be strategic without ruining the fun.
The Last Of Us is one of those entertainment journeys that once the credits hit you think to yourself "wait, that's it!?". This isn't because you are disappointed by the ending, instead, you are just left wanting more. Joel and Ellie are greatly constructed characters just like their relationship is. Gameplay would be perfect if it weren't for some AI issues, and the graphics and sound are just stunning. Naughty Dog have delivered an unforgettable game, one that no PS3 gamer should miss.
"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.
Endure and survive! I was surprised that Ellie didn't say anything about the comic movie ad on the bus near the end of the game. Multi does seem incomplete but it's better than most complete multiplayer games. Good review!