This review contains spoilers
There have been a lot of critically acclaimed games over the years. Like every single year definitely has one very well liked game from reviewers from all around the world. However, some don’t always stand the test of time. Games like bioshock infinite, the original legend of Zelda, and even some original RPGs don’t get the acclaim they once did. I find it almost admirable if a game can somehow stand the test of time and still be respected even now. One of these games, that I believe aged very well and stood the test of time, was the last of us. Released in 2013 as the ps3 era was slowly coming to an end, naughty dog wanted to expand on the ideas they had pushed in the uncharted games. An all round more serious adventure with some dark themes. Even if the uncharted games scraped on these themes they never fully dived into them, but the last of us was where that changed. They went full in with a darker and more horrific world. A world with almost no hope left. So why do people find this game to be overrated?
The last of us:
You play as Joel. A standard guy who, after losing his only daughter, has been forced into a rough and violent world full of zombies. Your job is to take care of Ellie, who you find out to be immune to the virus that infected so many people and created the zombies. But this isn’t just some cakewalk, oh no, we all know how teenagers act when they want to be controlled, and as one I should know. Your journey takes you throughout America as you try to find a group called the fireflies who will hopefully create a cure using Ellie’s immunity. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. We haven’t even talked about the gameplay!
Compared to something like uncharted where you’re basically handed guns whenever you need them, the last of us takes a very different approach. You have the ability to craft items such as shivs, Molotov cocktails (make as many as you can), nail bombs, smoke bombs, and even melee weapons. These all require certain crafting items, and they don’t come up all the time. Weapon ammo is also not as wildly available as it is in the uncharted games. You feel as though every shot counts and believe me, it does. Stealth gameplay is encouraged but not necessary as you could shoot your way through fights but risk having barely any ammo left for the next fight. It makes you take consideration of what you should do with everything you have. The whole idea is that ‘this is a lot more hardcore than uncharted’ and it works. Unlike something like bioshock infinite where you’re killing really innocent people and get no reparations for it, the last of us definitely paints it more as you’re killing people who are just as bad as you are.
It’s a dog eat dog world.
Back to the story, as I was saying about the story, you will meet a cool cast of characters. Tess, Bill (the best one), Tommy, Henry and his younger brother Sam. You’ll also find some villains like David and Marlene. The characters are all excellently written and almost show how the world is affecting other people. For example Bill has become almost rude to others that meddle with his stuff because he hasn’t had much interaction with others in a long time and there’s an almost quiet sadness that’s he’s desperate to be with people. Henry and Sam are two characters that were dealt a very bad hand and in the end they ended up both succumbing to the world they were forced into. Even David is written excellently well. Someone who is painted to be quite friendly ends up becoming a very dark and evil person who tries to manipulate Ellie into getting what he wants.
Eventually, the pair finally arrive at Salt Lake City. After so much, they’ve finally arrived to find the fireflies. However, it isn’t as great as Joel first thought. To get the vaccine they need to kill Ellie.
The whole story has been you going along the journey of these unlikely strangers who were brought together. They seemed to hate each other but eventually they became extremely close. At the start of the game Ellie was the one talking a lot about her life and her passion for certain things, but nearing the end, joel was able to open up about his life. It’s a beautiful journey of how, if you can move on from your past and truly find the light, you’ll be able to enjoy life to the fullest. Joel ends up saving Ellie, not because it’s being selfish as such, but because he felt like Ellie had almost become his daughter. But it does make you think…
…Can you really blame him?
Left behind:
A year later, a dlc known as ‘left behind’ would release. The story is set during the part where Joel gets fatally hurt and is forced to rest. However, just before this, Ellie was forced to find some medicine for Joel so he could survive, so she came to an abandoned shopping centre (I’m not calling it a mall because I’m British and I think mall is kind of weird for a word). As she wanders through, she remembers a friend of hers named Riley.
Gameplay is pretty much the same as it was in the base game, only this time you’re playing as Ellie instead of Joel. For the shopping centre sections, it plays almost like the base game, though you do have the new funky feature of getting hunters and infected to fight each other so uhh…that’s cool. You’ve also got to work with Ellie’s lack of that much manoeuvrability unlike Joel. The Riley sections are pretty much linear lines with optional fun things to do. For a dlc it’s not the most mind blowing but to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be.
The story ends with Ellie and Riley kissing each other and then getting chased by a horde of infected. They both get bit and the tragedy is that they promise to stay with each other until they turn…but we all know Ellie is immune. It’s kind of heartbreaking when you think about it and it only makes more sense why Ellie still, even in the main game, talks about her and cares about her. Back to Joel, Ellie finds something to treat Joel’s injury and then that ends the dlc!
There can’t possibly be anything else…oh wait…THIS GAME HAS ONLINE MULTIPLAYER???
Factions:
Out of every single multiplayer game I’ve played, how the fuck is this one the most addicting and fun?
‘Factions mp’ is the multiplayer mode in the last of us and believe me, it’s excellent. You have the job of surviving 12 weeks either as the fireflies or the hunters. You go into matches to get supplies so you can keep your clan healthy and even get more members. There are even some nice boosters you can get if you do well and complete some challenges.
You have three modes: supply raid, survivors (you will likely not win in this mode), and interrogation (the best one). Supply raid is just a standard game where you have 4 on each team. If you die then you’ll be revived as long as you have a respawn. Each team gets 20 and they can run out very fast if you’re really shit. Survivors is basically like supply raid but you get no respawns but get better rewards. And finally there’s interrogation, if you get a player from the opposing team in a ‘downed’ state then you can interrogate them. If you interrogate 5 then you’ll be able to gain access to their lockbox. But be warned. The opposing team will set traps around it and guard it with their lives.
The mechanics also carry over from the base game with you even being able to spend ‘parts’ on things like armour and upgrades to your guns and even ammo. There are even some abilities that you can have which help you out in certain places during the matches.
Conclusion:
The last of us definitely isn’t for everyone. And I can see why some people have begun to not like it as much as they once did. There are definitely many other games that people can have fun times with but that’s not what the last of us is asking you to do, unless you play the multiplayer. The last of us isn’t about the payoff, it’s more about the journey. You either like it or you don’t, there’s no in between. But I think we should all respect how excellently written the game is and even now, it has aged a lot better than some games during its time…looking at you bioshock infinite.
Masterpiece, excellent music, great gameplay, really really good story, well written story and characters, decent dlc, multiplayer is excellent, I miss Bill so much
The last of us:
You play as Joel. A standard guy who, after losing his only daughter, has been forced into a rough and violent world full of zombies. Your job is to take care of Ellie, who you find out to be immune to the virus that infected so many people and created the zombies. But this isn’t just some cakewalk, oh no, we all know how teenagers act when they want to be controlled, and as one I should know. Your journey takes you throughout America as you try to find a group called the fireflies who will hopefully create a cure using Ellie’s immunity. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. We haven’t even talked about the gameplay!
Compared to something like uncharted where you’re basically handed guns whenever you need them, the last of us takes a very different approach. You have the ability to craft items such as shivs, Molotov cocktails (make as many as you can), nail bombs, smoke bombs, and even melee weapons. These all require certain crafting items, and they don’t come up all the time. Weapon ammo is also not as wildly available as it is in the uncharted games. You feel as though every shot counts and believe me, it does. Stealth gameplay is encouraged but not necessary as you could shoot your way through fights but risk having barely any ammo left for the next fight. It makes you take consideration of what you should do with everything you have. The whole idea is that ‘this is a lot more hardcore than uncharted’ and it works. Unlike something like bioshock infinite where you’re killing really innocent people and get no reparations for it, the last of us definitely paints it more as you’re killing people who are just as bad as you are.
It’s a dog eat dog world.
Back to the story, as I was saying about the story, you will meet a cool cast of characters. Tess, Bill (the best one), Tommy, Henry and his younger brother Sam. You’ll also find some villains like David and Marlene. The characters are all excellently written and almost show how the world is affecting other people. For example Bill has become almost rude to others that meddle with his stuff because he hasn’t had much interaction with others in a long time and there’s an almost quiet sadness that’s he’s desperate to be with people. Henry and Sam are two characters that were dealt a very bad hand and in the end they ended up both succumbing to the world they were forced into. Even David is written excellently well. Someone who is painted to be quite friendly ends up becoming a very dark and evil person who tries to manipulate Ellie into getting what he wants.
Eventually, the pair finally arrive at Salt Lake City. After so much, they’ve finally arrived to find the fireflies. However, it isn’t as great as Joel first thought. To get the vaccine they need to kill Ellie.
The whole story has been you going along the journey of these unlikely strangers who were brought together. They seemed to hate each other but eventually they became extremely close. At the start of the game Ellie was the one talking a lot about her life and her passion for certain things, but nearing the end, joel was able to open up about his life. It’s a beautiful journey of how, if you can move on from your past and truly find the light, you’ll be able to enjoy life to the fullest. Joel ends up saving Ellie, not because it’s being selfish as such, but because he felt like Ellie had almost become his daughter. But it does make you think…
…Can you really blame him?
Left behind:
A year later, a dlc known as ‘left behind’ would release. The story is set during the part where Joel gets fatally hurt and is forced to rest. However, just before this, Ellie was forced to find some medicine for Joel so he could survive, so she came to an abandoned shopping centre (I’m not calling it a mall because I’m British and I think mall is kind of weird for a word). As she wanders through, she remembers a friend of hers named Riley.
Gameplay is pretty much the same as it was in the base game, only this time you’re playing as Ellie instead of Joel. For the shopping centre sections, it plays almost like the base game, though you do have the new funky feature of getting hunters and infected to fight each other so uhh…that’s cool. You’ve also got to work with Ellie’s lack of that much manoeuvrability unlike Joel. The Riley sections are pretty much linear lines with optional fun things to do. For a dlc it’s not the most mind blowing but to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be.
The story ends with Ellie and Riley kissing each other and then getting chased by a horde of infected. They both get bit and the tragedy is that they promise to stay with each other until they turn…but we all know Ellie is immune. It’s kind of heartbreaking when you think about it and it only makes more sense why Ellie still, even in the main game, talks about her and cares about her. Back to Joel, Ellie finds something to treat Joel’s injury and then that ends the dlc!
There can’t possibly be anything else…oh wait…THIS GAME HAS ONLINE MULTIPLAYER???
Factions:
Out of every single multiplayer game I’ve played, how the fuck is this one the most addicting and fun?
‘Factions mp’ is the multiplayer mode in the last of us and believe me, it’s excellent. You have the job of surviving 12 weeks either as the fireflies or the hunters. You go into matches to get supplies so you can keep your clan healthy and even get more members. There are even some nice boosters you can get if you do well and complete some challenges.
You have three modes: supply raid, survivors (you will likely not win in this mode), and interrogation (the best one). Supply raid is just a standard game where you have 4 on each team. If you die then you’ll be revived as long as you have a respawn. Each team gets 20 and they can run out very fast if you’re really shit. Survivors is basically like supply raid but you get no respawns but get better rewards. And finally there’s interrogation, if you get a player from the opposing team in a ‘downed’ state then you can interrogate them. If you interrogate 5 then you’ll be able to gain access to their lockbox. But be warned. The opposing team will set traps around it and guard it with their lives.
The mechanics also carry over from the base game with you even being able to spend ‘parts’ on things like armour and upgrades to your guns and even ammo. There are even some abilities that you can have which help you out in certain places during the matches.
Conclusion:
The last of us definitely isn’t for everyone. And I can see why some people have begun to not like it as much as they once did. There are definitely many other games that people can have fun times with but that’s not what the last of us is asking you to do, unless you play the multiplayer. The last of us isn’t about the payoff, it’s more about the journey. You either like it or you don’t, there’s no in between. But I think we should all respect how excellently written the game is and even now, it has aged a lot better than some games during its time…looking at you bioshock infinite.
Masterpiece, excellent music, great gameplay, really really good story, well written story and characters, decent dlc, multiplayer is excellent, I miss Bill so much