The Last of Us (2013) Review

The Last of Us

PS3 (exclusive)

Sony, Naughty Dog

Survival, Horror, Third-person action

ESRB Mature, Pegi 18+

Every now and then, a game comes along and re-shapes a genre or even the entire industry. It may not be the best. It may be a game testing out a new concept or approach method, laying the grounds for future games to provide incredible experiences, but the game itself fails in execution. This has never been a problem for Sony owned Naughty Dog studios. They have always been amongst the most acclaimed and respected developers in the entire world. In the PS2 days they created timeless classics, for instance the «Jack and Dexter»-series. After some time staying quiet, they rendered the world of video games speechless with Uncharted: Drakes Fortune. A game that became synonymous with the PS3. If you got the PS3, you got Uncharted. Since then, Naughty Dog has thru their most famous franchise, and whats very much became the Playstation 3’s flagship, twice shown us they are absolute masters of storytelling, visual esthetics and amazingly engaging characters. 3 Uncharted games have been released to raving reviews, always being scored at the very top of the scale. The franchise seemed unrivaled, until early summer 2013. That’s when i, as millions like me was literally mind blown. The Last of Us took storytelling, emotional depth and visuals to a whole new level, even surpassing many of the best looking PC games.

In The Last of Us you meet Joel. In the early hours of a apocalypse outbreak he suffers a great, personal loss. Years later, he is a hardened survivor with trust-issues and being afraid of losing a loved one again, he is determined in not letting anyone in on him. The US has been divided into quarantine zones, where brutal military forces rule with an iron fist, operating with lethal force and not letting anyone out of the quarantine zone. Life is difficult and dangerous. A rebel force known as the Fireflies are attempting to take control and fight the oppressive regime. Joel and his partner Trish have made a deal with the Fireflies. In exchange for a shipment of heavy weaponry, they’ll have to smuggle something out of the quarantine zone, to a location a few states away. The deal turns out to be the smuggling of a 14 year old girl, Ellie. When the Fireflies base turns out to be a lot further away than they thought, and very unwillingly Joel takes on the mission. You play as Joel, and in a short segment as Ellie, as they travel across a post-apocalyptic United States. 

The main gameplay consists of stealth, combat and solving puzzles. In the world you face a mix of infected and humans. Originally enough is that for once you’re not facing zombies gone brainless from some unknown, fictions virus. The virus in play here is one that is very real. So called Fungus, a virus witch takes over the brain, very much like a zombie-virus. In todays world however, this is «exclusive» to flies. In this alternate future, the disease has jumped species, something witch is not unheard of, and people infected become violent, unstable and unable to control themselves. It all feels very similar to a zombie outbreak, but at least here it comes with a much more believable backstory. In addition to infected you face humans. Groups of survivors who have escaped the quarantine zone and shoots on sight to protect themselves. This provides good variety to combat. Your strategy when fighting the infected compared to when your fighting humans, have got to be very different if you are to stand a chance. The puzzles works as more of a distraction though. They’re never much more than «how do we get up there», «how do we get across here» kind of stuff. They all make sense, and aren’t overused, but there are a few of them that i deem slighlyt unescessary. In most games, stuff like that would need to be there, to fill in with additional gameplay, but in The Last of Us, there is no need for this. The combat, crafting and the story is plenty. Sometimes i even felt slightly frustrated because puzzles where stalling my progress. I was so excited to get to progress the story and learn what happened. Unlike the puzzles though, the previously mentioned crafting works as a very well implemented RPG element. You gather supplies of many different kinds, and use them to create makeshift weapons, ammunition for the various weapons you pick up, medicine and painkillers. You also need to upgrade your weapons. The supplies are very scarce. Especially if playing on the harder difficulties. This means you’ll never have enough to upgrade everything, even if you collect every last supply, thusly you’ll have to carefully choose what you want to upgrade. This adds to the already exceptionally immersive survival-theme in the game.

In the end though, what really makes The Last of Us stand out as a truly unique experience isn’t the engaging combat or the gathering of supplies, nor is it the visuals. It’s the story. It’s the way Joel and Ellie interact with each other. How Joel refuses to grow affection for Ellie, and she seems unable to understand why. You feel great sympathy with her because after all she is just a little child. One born after the outbreak. She has lived her short life knowing nothing but the suffering of the post-apocalypse. You feel genuinely sad for her, because she is hungry for recognition and love, as is any child, and Joel stays ice cold. At the same time however, you never feel like Joel is a douche bag. You know what he’s been trough. I almost genuinely cried with him when he suffered his loss. You understand why he’s become what he’s become. The real story here, is how Joel gradually warms up to Ellie. From where he started out, wanting nothing to do with her, to eventually being willing to do anything for her. Loving her like a daughter. Another stroke of genius is how the people you fight are given a face. In most other games, despite it having a great story, there is one flaw they all have in common. You go trough the campaign, fighting countless faceless enemies who are only there to fill the void of gameplay. Without spoiling it, i’ll say that In The Last of Us, later on in the campaign, you get to more deeply meet a group of survivors. You hear them speak of their friends, who some time ago was sent on a supply run to a location you’ve just cleared of enemies and raided. There is more to this, but i won’t spoil it. All you really need to know is what you learn here, and the way it’s presented, gives you a feeling like each and every person you killed in the game is something more than just another disposable body. It humanizes them. Beyond this, there is humor deriving from Ellie’s inability to understand a world she’s never known. Stuff like she not knowing what a job is, or never having read a comic book. How she doesn’t know what it used to look like. There are also several very emotional moments, but you’ll have to play the game. The Last of Us is all about the story, and i don’t want to ruin you’r playthrough of what is without a doubt the greatest, most emotionally deep story i’ve ever been told. And that includes not only video games, but movies, music and books.

As a first on this blog, I will award The Last of Us with 100/100.