THAT LAST-GEN GAMER REVIEW: The Last of Us

I remember spending hours in front of my PS2 as a kid playing the Jak and Daxter games, enjoying their big, colorful and lively worlds. I still consider them to be some of the best offerings that console ever gave us, which is a testament to their studio’s quality and experience. A few years later and the good folks at Naughty Dog have graced us with the game that was quickly known as one of the PS3’s crown jewels.

The story starts out with one of the most touching intros in the history of games, more closely resembling a cinematic drama than a videogame. I won’t spoil anything for those of you who haven’t played it yet but just be sure you’re going to take a blow in the feels. From then on, TLOU plays out as an original and non-cliché post-apocalyptic story, based on some disturbing events which are actually grounded on a real-life infection. Scientifically speaking, the scariest part of this story is the actual possibility of it coming true. You’ll know what I’m on about as soon as you play it but meanwhile trust me, it is very good. I don’t want to ruin any details for you, so if you really want to know more about what goes down, a quick google search will tell you.

So, what else makes this game so good? Let’s get to the specifics:

GRAPHICS

Simply put, The Last of Us is probably the best looking game on PS3. The whole look of the game is generally very realistic and aimed at providing a believable world design which could in turn contribute to a more meaningful environment for the story to develop in. The lighting effects are really well done and although there are times when the game looks too dark, you come to realize that it’s just not holding your hand and it makes you use a flashlight in situations where you’d need to in real life in order to see anything. That adds to the immersion a great deal, making you ponder whether to see clearly or risk being spotted either by humans or infected.

«The Last of Us is probably the best looking game on PS3»

Throughout the story you’ll come across a plethora of environments and landscapes, ranging from desolate city streets to rotten warehouses, abandoned family homes, huge buildings and even forests. Every one of the distinct locations is filled with detail, be it growing vegetation taking back its territory, litter in the streets, the occasional dead body and, most importantly, the remaining traces of civilization such as abandoned vehicles, items and notes and messages. I can assure you you will come across some truly awe-inspiring moments which will have you slowly panning the camera around you, taking in the beauty of this decaying world and wishing this had a Photo Mode (only available on the PS4 version).

«(...)you will come across some truly awe-inspiring moments»

The animations are spot-on and are a huge contributing factor to the whole cinematic feel of the game. The cutscenes feel just like you’re watching a movie play out in front of you (I’ll talk about the stellar voice acting later on), seeing as all the characters are brought to life in an unusually natural way with every word, feeling and tone just flowing out of their bodies seamlessly. Their facial expressions were designed and perfected to the smallest detail and it shows. The same goes for their in-game animations – on the one hand you can see the tension in their body language during action sequences and on the other hand you could realize who was having a conversation with whom even if you weren’t listening to the game.

My only negative regarding graphics in TLOU is that the color pallet in some situations (mainly when heavily sun-lit moments) tends to be highly saturated and on the warm side, sacrificing a more neutral and probably more realistic hue. That aside, this really is a fantastic looking title and an homage to the system’s capabilities.

GAMEPLAY

Keeping on the realistic side of things, the gameplay in TLOU feels solid and well-thought-out without having the game hold your hand too much. I played it both on Normal and Survivor difficulties and can say that the experience varies greatly between those settings. This is a tough game overall and it is really up to you to play it on a more stealth-focused or action-heavy way, although you’ll find the first option much more rewarding most of the time. Don’t expect to just breeze through the game without breaking a sweat even on Normal difficulty because this will pit you against some very stressful situations and you will have to be smart about managing both your strategies and your resources.

«This is a tough game overall»

Having said that, I definitely recommend playing on Hard difficulty or up if you consider yourself an experienced player. Granted, I haven’t tried “Grounded” difficulty, so I can’t comment on that but I did play the whole game on Survivor and it completely changes the way you approach it. Comparing this to Normal, you really do have much less items to pick up throughout the places you visit and I was shocked at how few resources I could find in all the abandoned houses and dark corners I explored. Bullets are both a rarity and a luxury on this setting all the way to the end credits, meaning you will have to think not twice but three or four times before you fire one and even more about missing your target. This wouldn’t mean much if you could make up for it by always having a melee weapon on you but, gladly, these items are destroyed after only a few hits (like real improvised weapons bashing against armor or bone would) so if you’re lucky enough to have one, your best bet is to save it for emergencies only.

Another major difference is that the helpful “Focus Mode” which allows Joel to focus his hearing and spot enemies behind walls in Normal difficulty completely disappears on Survivor. I absolutely loved this and found it made the game a lot more stressful, realistic and strategy-provoking than when I first played it.
As far as mechanics go, this is a great feeling game. Aiming feels properly difficult and has a certain heaviness to it, making your best shots all the more rewarding (especially the brutal, skull-exploding headshots). You can improve aiming, combat and more by gathering performance-enhancing pills which you find in the world and take to boost specific abilities. If you choose to max your aiming improvements (weapon sway), you stop swaying at all, which I was a bit disappointed by because I feel it sacrificed some of the fair and believable difficulty in aiming and pulling out crucial shots towards the ending.

«Aiming feels properly difficult

and has a certain heaviness to it»

You move through the different levels in surprising and mostly exciting ways, rarely taking a regular path from one section to another and rather working with your companion to go up this or under that or through something or other. This works mostly in favor of the action but I did notice a couple of cheesy moments in which the enemies seemed to dumb down a good deal in order for certain characters to survive a given cutscene while working out how to proceed. The paths you take can sometimes get repetitive but always do a good job of introducing totally different environments from one section to the next.

Probably the biggest flaw I found in the game, friendly AI can be inappropriate and even break the immersion for a few moments. When your heart’s racing because you’re trying to sneak up on an enemy-filled area and Ellie suddenly decides to break cover and run directly in front of an NPC without him saying a single word or looking twice, that is a cringe-inducing thing in an otherwise masterfully realized atmosphere.

«(...)friendly AI can be inappropriate»

Last but not least, the mechanics used to equip gear, consume items and read or inspect documents are used as an extension of the action, meaning that you can’t pause the game to do any of this. Instead, you actually reach for your backpack and go through your items in real time. This also means you need to think ahead and consider where you can be relatively safe and not vulnerable, instead of using your items for any last minute emergency. The same applies to switching weapons and using health kits, as this is done without breaking the action and, on top of that, you’ve got different slots for different weapon types and items.

All in all, TLOU features addictive, balanced and tough but fair gameplay, leaving you to hone your survival skills instead of paving the way for you.

SOUND

Where to start with the sound in this? Everything has been thought of, from the top-notch voice acting (featuring the likes of Troy Baker and Nolan North, among others) to detailed environment effects and the emotional soundtrack.

As I have mentioned earlier, all the characters in this game feel like real people acting in a movie. Besides the brilliant motion capturing and animation work, it’s the voice acting that really complements these characters’ presence in this world. Troy Baker delivers an exceptional Joel, coming across as rude, raw, mean, badass and caring as he needs to be. He doesn’t skip a single note, doesn’t hesitate in bringing any sort of emotion to the table in as believable a way as possible and shines throughout.

On the other hand, Ashley Johnson seems to have been the perfect pick for Ellie. You’d never guess that the voice behind her wasn’t actually a cute 14 year old but instead a full-grown woman. You can’t help but warm up to Ellie and her innocence, her courage, her story (what you know of it) and her situation in this rotten world. She has this melodic tone in her voice and that along with the excellent script brings out this character in a way only the coldest heart can ignore. Whether she’s afraid, unsure, amused or contemplative, you get seriously sunk in her words and think along with her – in both good and bad times.

«(...)all the characters in this game feel like real people acting in a movie»

All the side characters are just as well interpreted and it is amazing how Naughty Dog managed to introduce so many different people in the same world and never have them feel similar to one another.

The infected enemies have been given chill-inducing sounds, ranging from desperate screaming and crying in case of the “runners” (which very much bring out the human part in them) to the disconcerting clicking of the “clicker” infected and the "bloaters"' bubbly, deep-tone.

Environments feature a dynamic range of effects such as birds singing, rain hitting different materials, wooden floors and ceilings cracking, bricks being tossed around, etc. Everything sounds exactly like you’d expect. Furthermore, you’re constantly startled by distant and sudden background effects which stop you on your tracks to figure out if you should be worried about them or not.

To top all this off, the soundtrack for this game is an original work by Gustavo Santaolalla which hits all the right notes. It is subtle, deep and always appropriately used to convey tension, fear, tranquility or confusion. I’d go as far as to say it is worth picking up on its own.

My only gripe with the sound in TLOU is that there could have been more variety in enemy NPCs’ lines and voices. Although human enemies do engage in conversation and coherently so, their lines are limited and they are given few different voices. This is a minor issue but nonetheless noticeable in such a long game.

VERDICT

The Last of Us is not a good game. It’s a really, really great game, the sort of game many people should buy a Playstation 3 for. Featuring excellent graphics, brilliant voice acting, a touching and meaningful storyline and quality soundtrack, this title absolutely shines as one of the – if not the definitive – masterpiece of the Playstation 3’s lifetime. It is a swan song for what the system could manage and what storytelling can achieve and Naughty Dog deserves all the praise they get for it. Friendly AI and some other minor gripes keep it from being a perfect title but it comes remarkably close. Do yourself a huge favor and pick it up now. You won’t regret it.