‘The Last Of Us’: Five Ways It’s A Great Game (And Five Ways It Isn’t)

UPROXX - The Last Of Us is a game that our own Nathan Birch was worried would flop this year. But that was before we played it. It’s in no danger of flopping; it’s simply too good for that to happen. Which doesn’t mean, however, that it’s perfect: Here’s what Naughty Dog did right… and what went wrong.

[snipab8t]

I thought it was pretty damn good. Most of those negatives are pretty negligible and forgiving considering how good the rest of the game was.

[GabeSA]

I agree with you - hardly noticeable at all when the game itself for most part is such a huge positive

[snipab8t]

My only disappointment was that it didn't have much replay value as such. I think in a couple months I will play it again but I just don't get the urge to play it through again straight away. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, just a side effect of a heavy story-driven game.

[GenericNameHere]

I like to hear and listen to Let's Players' commentaries on the intro for the game (you people who've played the game, you know what I'm talking about). It's cool how the game was able to affect most of them emotionally.

Anyways, yeah, I don't think The Last of Us is a game that was meant to be replayed right after you watch. You either let it sit, and play it again a few months later, or you do play the story again, but only to collect all 141 artifacts, listen to Ellie's jokes, get all the tags (like heashot 30 people with the Hunting Rifle, use Melee on enemies 5 times in a row, etc), or beat it on harder difficulties. Or you can go on multiplying the awesome multiplayer.

I think for most people, The Last of Us is like a movie. Let's compare it to The Dark Knight for instance (yeah, not the same genre, but still both have a really good story, and the characters are excellent). You don't watch the Dark Knight every day, now do you? No, because then it takes away the magic of the story. However if you watch at least once a month, you forget enough that you don't exactly forget EVERYTHING about the movie, but you still know some small details, and you also start to appreciate even the smallest details more. Not the best analogy, but you know what I'm saying.

[GenericNameHere]

Not gonna be like "Oh you had negatives with the game?? Your site sucks!!", but I will try to have my opinion on them, based on my experiences.

•The “Clicker” Enemy Type Is Severely Overpowered
In some areas, you don't have to fight them at all. Just sneak by very carefully. One example is the area between the Church and the High School. There's like a million Clickers, but if you are very careful, it's possible to not kill a single Runner or Clicker at all. Either just slowly crouch past them (since Clickers can't see you), or throw bottles or bricks to make a Runner to away for a bit (since they still can see you). However, in areas where you are forced to fight them (like the beginning of Winter), it does suck that there are Clickers and Runners in dozens trying to kill you, but it's not impossible. Just keep running, shoot your enemies, throw Molotov or bombs, grab dropped ammo, and rinse and repeat.

•There Are “Boss” Enemies
I wouldn't call Bloaters "Boss" enemies. More like mini bosses. They're not too hard either. Try to shoot the glowing sacks on its body. Also, throw one or two molotovs at it, and a few shotgun rounds, and it's dead. Be careful when it throws its spore bombs though. They take off ALOT of your health if you stay in the spore.

•The Game Spawns Enemies Out Of Nowhere
I kind of agree. In the security camp place, the one with the library, and the second place where you get to listen to Ellie's "pun"ny jokes. I know I defeated everyone on the outside. I know I defeated everyone upstairs. I know I defeated at least everyone on the right side downstairs. Then when I go to stealth kill the enemies on the left, I get stupid and get spotted, and suddenly there are people coming down from the stairs. I was like WTF??!!! So I die on purpose to get me to the last checkpoint, and the respawned enemies are there >:/

•It Can Be Unclear What To Do Or Where To Go
Ehh, I think this is kind of nitpicking, but it did happen to me once or twice. I was stuck for like 5 minutes, the L3 button appeared, but it disappeared before I could press it. Had to actually Youtube it, and I felt stupid after. It was RIGHT THERE, and I couldn't see it -_- again, not really a negative thing. Just a really minor annoyance

•Ellie, Learn To Swim
Haha, story is about a year long, and Ellie still doesn't know how to swim. There HAD to be a river or beach off screen. In fact, there was a river and beach onscreen. Don't know why Joel couldn't spend a day trying to teach her. Oh well, it happened several times, and it does make you groan and say "HURRY UP! I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO!!" on your second or third playthrough, but on my first playthrough, I groaned after the third time, but it didn't break the game or anything.

[GribbleGrunger]

Just as a matter of interest, do we know that Ellie didn't learn to swim? At the beginning, yes, it's mentioned that she can't swim. But from that point the pallet was for elevating Ellie to a high enough position to climb onto the side, which was made clear by the fact that Joel couldn't climb up even though he could swim. Ellie would still have had to climb onto a pallet to complete the mini puzzles, even if she'd learned to swim. So can we know that for sure, given there was no other mention of her not being able to swim after the first time? Just a thought.

@GenericNameHere: Yes, I tried that too and like you said, Joel was too heavy.

[GenericNameHere]

That actually makes sense. In all cases, it's because you can't just jump to the next place or climb above because it's too high. She always grabs a ladder so you can ascend. I actually tried jumping down the pallet to see if Joel can float on it, but it seems he's too heavy.

Nice observation!! +bubbles

[ravinash]

I like the fact that the clicker can kill you with one hit.
It make you fear them and adds to the challange.

[GribbleGrunger]

Yes, the one hit kill Clickers aren't a negative at all, they're a design choice, and a bloody good one at that.

Bubble to you and Generic.

[Ezz2013]

what amazing about that one hit kill:

1. it's a world where there is no cure which mean one bite DO/should kill.

2. it make the game very tense
where you have to think before you make a move on them or trying to stealth them

if it was like all the other games that have infected or zombies look bad
because when they bite you in those games
you don't die or turn ...even though there is no cure

[NeoTribe]

Game was epic. Not only is it an amazing game but its a survival horror game, which cease to exist nowadays. Hope they make a sequel on ps4.

[Fluke_Skywalker]

My only problem with the game was a personal one. I'm not really a big fan of stealth gameplay so some parts felt like a bit of a chore for me to play. But the rest of the game was so damn amazing that I completely ignored my dislike of stealth gaming. No other style of play would've fitted in with the story anyway.

[plaZeHD]

You don't have to play stealth. You can go for combat if you want.

[GenericNameHere]

In a game like Uncharted, you can run up to an enemy on Easy, and manage to kill 4-5 dudes without dying. In TLOU, even on Easy+ with your health fully upgraded, the enemies can still deal a pretty good amount of damage to you. One example I experienced was the raid in the Dam. I got upstairs, and there were 2-3 guys covering the entrance. Again, in Uncharted, it would be pretty easy to just run up to them, and shoot them without almost dying. However, Joel feels heavier, so he can't run as fast as Drake. Plus, the enemies' bullets can push you back a little, so if you run up to them, they'll probably get 2 free shots at you before they hide and reload.

It's fine to go all out in the game, but try to make sure you do it when there aren't enemies all around you who will gun you down in a matter of seconds, and turn your health from max green, to mid yellow.

[Einhert]

It is not a 10/10 game, probably an 8 or a 9 for me.

- repetitive boring mechanics like getting a ladder or a crate

- AI glitches threatened immersion at times

- Only one stealth kill animation and stealth in general was not very well done.

apart from that it was a great game but not without its flaws, flaws which would get any other game marked down.

[TryMe]

-Yeah but the ladder/crate only occurred 4 times in the game..and yeah, I counted. So there's a point if it occurred 10+ times or so..but 4? If you played the game for 15 hours (which I did, and most of the community on neogaf on average did for as well), than you would do a crate/ladder once every 5 hours. Hardly see the repetitiveness in that.

-AI glitches are rare, they happen, but there rare..if your primarily discussing ellie standing and walking 1 feet away from a clicker..well that's not a glitch, but rather 7 year old console tech that limits what the devs can do (from an ai standpoint)

-1 stealth kill animation..I guess they could've added a few more into the mix, but hardly a deal breaker...An I felt for a game that wasn't built as a stealth game (say akin to how MGS or Splinter Cell are fundamentally built around being a stealth game)the mechanics worked pretty damn well. Could they be improved? For sure. But if you consider this is Naughty Dogs first effort into the stealth genre, and also the consideration that this game isn't primarily a stealth game, but rather more akin to a Survival Horror game [with action and stealth elements] than alot of the complaints can be overlooked imo.

Overall, yes it's a game that has flaws. There will never be a game that gets things 100% right, 100% of the time. In the 100+ years of cinema there has never been THE perfect film. In the Thousand(s) years of literature there has never been THE perfect Novel. In the 30+ years of this game industry there has never been THE perfect game.

There will always be flaws. But the weight of the flaws is what sorts the champion from the flood of failures. An imo, the weight of The Last of Us flaws is microscopically small compared to many games out there. An that's what overall (among the exponential amount of things it does right) is what makes The Last of Us a champion.

[Einhert]

The instances were you had to go and pointlessly fetch something for the game to progress were repetitive to me and they happened ALOT.

still doesn't excuse the AI breaking immersion

They had stealth in Uncharted so no It really is not and adding a few more animation varieties would have helped, the stealth became mundane for me and I just started shooting everything.

Who ever said anything about perfect? I just said to me it is not a 10/10 game, sorry if the playstation fanboy community can't accept that to me it is not the greatest game ever made.

[plaZeHD]

The Last Of Us has an AI other games don't dare touch. But just because the companion AI can't get detected in stealth you completely diminish the game?
And there are two stealth animations, choking and stabbing with a shiv.
I am starting to think this is your poor, pathetic attempt at making The Last Of Us insignificant.

[plaZeHD]

There are some downgrades from the E3 demo. Which kind of sucks. For example enemies don't search for supplies anymore, you can't disarm enemies anymore, and meleeing with a brick doesn't feel as intense or as detailed. And there are animations that you would expect from Naughty Dog, but aren't implemented. Like looting body animation, folding paper animation...ETC

[feraldrgn]

1# IMO, clickers were necessary, they gave a good sense of dread.
Besides, a molotov, shivved weapon, or headshot (if alone) is a one hit kill for them as well.

2# I wouldn't call the bloaters "bosses", they're just tanks, they act pretty much the same way as clickers, molotov or flamethrower can kill them easier.

3# The game spawning enemies out of nowhere is fair enough, I ran into a few glitches when they spawned but didn't move, so I had enemies stuck in the middle of some stairs at one point.

4# As you pointed out, there's a marker that shows sometimes. Personally, I'm glad it doesn't hold my hand all of the time.

5# It would have been nice, I suppose, if later in the story (after quite some time has passed), she swam with Joel, it could have been a nice bonding moment.
As it was, it was a nice interaction with Ellie & Joel anyway.
But if it hadn't been for her inability to swim, what puzzles could they have given you that didn't feel stupid in a real world environment?

[GribbleGrunger]

Well said. Bubble.

[Lykon]

I haven't played this yet but my nephew has. I saw him yesterday and was excited to hear what he thought. He said 'Yeah it's ok , it's good but it's short. It's like uncharted '

[Ezz2013]

either he didn't play it or he just trolling you
1. it share nothing with uncharted games...at all
beside the gfx engine ofc
the gameplay is very different
2. the game takes to finish 15-20+ hours to finish
while uncharted games take max 10 hours to finish
look here for example of how long TLOU:
http://www.giantbomb.com/fo...
if that short to him ...then damn
it took me 21 hours to finish and wasn't stopping to look at the gfx BTW
the game offer alot of exploring

don't listen to him and play it for you self

[Lykon]

He did play it . I don't think he would lie to me and like me he is a one console playstation fan. But I accept your points and will definitely play it myself. I don't complete games very quickly at all and I love exploring environments and collecting things. My nephew is not very eloquent at describing his experience , maybe he found some similarities but just generalised. Anyway I'm dissapionted he didn't pass it on to me (he sold it apparently) .

[ravinash]

I'm only half way through my first play through, but there is no point while I'm playing that I think, this is just like uncharted.

Sure the art style is similar, but the story line is so good, and the game play enjoyable that it just doesn't even cross my mind.

[BABY-JEDI]

Should really call this article 10 ways why you can't please everyone
; P

[sprinterboy]

I got more of a half life feel from certain parts of the game, like the dam section than uncharted. Truely a remarkable game

[HaleKaden]

Somone tell me where that animated gif came from in the artical? cause i dont remember any enimies in the part of the game?