The Last of Us was one of this year's most anticipated video games—and quite possibly one of the most anticipated games of all time—and it has finally arrived on the PlayStation 3. After originally being revealed at the end of 2011, gamers around the globe were on the edge of their seats to learn more about Naughty Dog's new IP. Naughty Dog, responsible for the critical success of the Uncharted franchise certainly knows how to craft spectacular gaming experiences and The Last of Us is no exception.
Naughty Dog took into theme one of our most disturbing fears as The Last of Us puts players right into the action during an apocalyptic overtaking; a viral outbreak supplied by a terrorist organisation known as Firefly. Right from the beginning of the game, players will see an unprecedented amount of effort and expertise in development and narrative. The action begins right after the first five minutes and never truly ends—it only lightens up briefly—and it's a thrilling experience.
The Last of Us introduces a man named Joel whom players will control in a third-person perspective and the ever popular Ellie is controlled by AI. Following the phenomenal prologue, the game takes place twenty years after mankind's almost-complete annihilation by a parasitic fungus that turns its host into mutated and deranged killers. Survivors reside in heavily militarised quarantine zones—think of the opening scenes of Half Life 2—and the lesser civilised exist within clans of savage scavengers or fortified camps. The start of the game takes place on the outskirts of Boston, where Joel meets Ellie for the first time; this is truly disturbing for me on a personal level as Boston is a mere hour and change from my place of residence.
The Last of Us offers a truly gripping and powerful narrative that illustrates the trauma, fear and aftermath of an apocalyptic event and it does so in ways much more potent than any film I've seen or book I've read on the subject. It's a story you'll find yourself truly getting into; you'll feel the emotions, the tension and the situations as the characters do and that is something I'll stand and applaud for. This sense of dread and violence is present throughout the game, both in terms of its story and gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, its presence in The Last of Us is undeniably functional and enjoyable. While the narrative is strong, it isn't comparable to say, Heavy Rain. The Last of Us is a video game, not an interactive drama—not saying there's anything wrong with Heavy Rain of course, as it was very good—and Naughty Dog knows how video games should be. It's a surprisingly violent game, but it works well with the theme and overall sensations.
Naughty Dog's new AI called "Balance of Power." This new system allows enemies to react realistically to any combat situation they're placed in. They'll take cover if they see the player, call for help if necessary and even exploit the player's weaknesses; for example, if they hear the clicking of an empty gun.
A new gameplay mechanic introduced is a feature that the developers call "dynamic stealth," and it offers many different strategies and techniques in every situation, to which enemies shall react differently. The player's variety of abilities will grant multiple ways of accomplishing the same mission, which is illustrated in your ability to craft weapons and upgrades. You're able to gather items like alcohol and rags and combine them to make either a healing pack or a Molotov cocktail, for example. However, crafting takes place in real time and you'll have to choose an appropriate place and time to do it.
Combat is deliciously brutal and sometimes frantic. For a majority of the game, your arsenal is understandably limited. A few pistols, a hunting rifle and a shotgun is what you'll spend time getting to know before more advanced weaponry is discovered. However, the hand-to-hand combat is the best part...if you can get close enough to use it.
Melee is a substantial component in combat, with various types of weaponry including wooden planks, steel pipes and knives at your disposal. Each melee weapon has limited uses before breaking—similar to Dead Rising—so you might find yourself in the middle of a fight seemingly without a chance in hell of staying alive. However, you can upgrade your melee weapons to give them more oomph. But fists will still suffice if you can avoid being beaten or shot to death first.
Joel's hand-to-hand combat is quite fun and also quite brutal. He lunges into his attacks, sometimes grabbing an enemy by the head and slamming him into the wall. As I said, the game is incredibly violent, but it's understandable and it fits well. You'll often find yourself complaining that Joel didn't beat the enemy hard enough in some tense moments.
It isn't a perfect third-person shooter—nothing truly is—but the combination of melee, shooting and stealth is forceful. You truly feel like you're in for the fight of your life as you try to stay alive in a dark and gritty world; you'll feel vulnerable but strong at times and it works brilliantly.
Jogging back over to the narrative before I wrap this up, it's important that I touch on the relationship between Joel and Ellie; it's an undeniable triumph. Ellie is a teenage girl in every way and Joel is a world-weary and hardened, but compassionate survivor. Their relationship starts off as hostile but it develops and grows over the course of the game both in and out of cutscenes. Their relationship illustrates the theme of the game: it's not just about survival, but why we survive to begin with or why we even bother.
Visuals in The Last of Us are absolutely stunning and pretty much what we'd expect from Naughty Dog and a PlayStation 3 title and then some. Forests stretch out, water flows crisp and clear and wildlife darts through the trees. The nature within the game is illustrated so beautifully that it's easy to forget the dark and ruined world around it. The game traverses the seasons and we see the world go from green to browns and oranges to the soft white of winter.
You're brought back into cities and you see how ugly the world truly is. Darkened rooms, ruined streets and killers and mutants coming at you from every direction. The people in this shallow world are often uglier still. Betrayal, selfishness and lust for power run rampant, as well as cruelty and waves of grief.
Character animations are consistently brilliant, realistic and believable. Of course though, with visuals basically pouring out of the console, there's an understandable (and sometimes illusion breaking) hiccup; slow-loading textures here and there and the occasional blip of blurriness or softness and sharpness on a character model.
The Last of Us certainly isn't perfect, but it's the closest I've ever seen. A substantially gripping narrative, believable characters and acting and beautiful visuals and gameplay bring life and appeasement as we near the end of this generation's cycle. I only own a PlayStation 3 for exclusives like Heavy Rain and Uncharted, but The Last of Us is a game that I would have purchased a PlayStation 3 for if I hadn't had one already.
The PlayStation 3 is Sony’s most interesting home console ever, but what’s most interesting of all is trying to nail down the very best games on a console with hundreds of incredible games. Let’s give it a shot.
We desperately need Motorstorm back. Evolution is no more though and this makes me sad
Sly Thieves in Time
Stay the Party
Portal 2
Dj Hero
Demon’s Souls
God of war Ascension
2 of those games got railed through the “gaming media” during release.
Sly and god of war.
Both of which were fantastic games.
Yes it’s a decent list of popular games with a heavy hand on FPS and no Warhawk or Starhawk 2 of the best games (not sale wise) on ps3.
I would buy a Starhawk again even if it didn’t have a graphics upgrade hell I would even take a new one with micro transactions 😱🤯
I've noticed a recent nostalgia for the PS3 and I don't get it for me it's been my least favourite generation to date and I've been gaming since the NES I just feel like the ambition of the developers outweighed the capabilities of the consoles so I remember lots of games running in the lower end of 20fps range and I remember for the first time ever actually disliking the duelshock 3 and it's curved triggers
Sure there were some standouts and great games but that's the only gen I switched entirely to PC gaming
Maybe the recent nostalgia is because pretty much all of its games are trapped on that console. People want to play them on more modern hardware. hell... if XB can do it then so can Sony. there are competent emulators out there that can run on PS4/5 hardware but Sony just wont let them become official... why is that?
If we are talking least favorite generations (personally) then this one is certainly mine. i had more fun playing 8th, 7th and 6th gen stuff than 9th. And it isnt like i dont have access to do so... the heavy hitters just havent shown up anywhere close to those previous gens. The few here and there just doesnt cut it compared to the likes of constant good games that showed up in 6th, 7th and 8th gen. hell.... I'll even throw in 5th gen has been better than this one.
I tend to agree there's lots of amazing games locked to the PS3 like GTA IV or mgs 4 but then again my issue was never with the content the PS3 had but rather it's performance many other people have said the PS3 felt like it couldn't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time using PSN and downloading a game could take a few minutes to just start a download.
I typically don't worry all that much about performance I've never had a problem with games that run at 30 but games like crysis 2, Skyrim are good examples where the performance was so unstable you would never even touch the top of the frame cap and the hitching was worse than say Goldeneye on the n64
I think emulation is more than possible on the ps5 though it's just that Sony has no incentive to rush it's development it will likely be a ps6 feature if it ever happens at all.
But yeah the 9th gen has been so bad from a content perspective thats a given I see constant articles where people are frequently expressing their disappointment around the industry as a whole right now to much live service competition that sinks longstanding studios and consumes Devs time less ambition and games cost so much to make they have to play it safe.
The 5th gen was easily better than the 9th we had some all time greats crash, Spyro, Tony hawk, mgs, Mario,64, Goldeneye, Mario kart 64 the list goes on. The 5th gave us a new dimension and I remember being blown away by how much more open gaming had become the 4th gen with the mega drive and SNES was great and very easy to still revisit some of the greatest games of all time came out like earthbound, secret of mana, sonic , Mario world etc but saving our games was still not a standard function or a given so gaming was still evolving but it was very impressive to see some of the tricks Devs used like dithering to give us new experiences those earlier gens limitations bred innovation.
if XB can do it so can sony? I didn't know xbox had a cell processor in their older consoles, that's the reason why ps3 was so cool, but also the reason why games are hostage there and no, xbox did nothing similar even though their backward compatbility is good, they always had a similar architecture to their consoles.
Sorry Michael... I guess you missed the obvious part where i said there are already emulators out that do this. and that is what XB is doing... emulators for OG and 360 games. Its why the full slate is not BC on XBO/Series.
TNS: "Sony unveiled one of its new gaming hardware and concepts at CES 2025 and the gaming tech is a promising leap for immersion."
Sony is so far ahead of everyone else it's crazy. I just wish I could be around 70 years from now. Sony gaming is going to be out there.
Imagine sending a scent message in a online game? It gives new meaning to "I fart in your general direction" 😅
Lol 😂
But aside from that, it would be interesting to breathe the scents of the scene you are in like a beach/island, snowy mountain, smell grass from a grassland/marsh, etc.
Here is a list of some of the best combat game set in a post-apocalyptic world
I would think that Horizon ZD/FW franchise would be on the list for apocalyptic games, I mean it has combat also, or do they just mean gun combat.
It’s not exactly post apocalyptic but modded STALKER & TARKOV are truly are unrivaled when it comes to FPS combat
I heard some people complained about the AI, but I think it's pretty smart. As you said, when you're out of ammo they come for you, and they will ask for help or even try to flank you, and that adds quite a lot to the gameplay. Great review.
great review
very well done
i will put mine soon
Best PS3 game I’ve played imo. Yes the AI wasn’t perfect and it doesn’t notice your allies, but I think they did this on purpose. Would be very frustrating if they would spot them each time.
The story is simply amazing and I know many didn’t like the ending. I think it was perfect, because I would have done the same thing. Multiplayer lacks a bit, but its still fun.
I hope we see a sequel good review btw
I've come to the conclusion through my experience that the ai not seeing your partner ai is deliberate. This is because the ai is not scripted, so I think I would be extremely unfair to punish you for actions that were not your own.