My Thoughts: The Last of Us

*whew* FINALLY.

It took me quite awhile to get to this. I spent a long time in the game just enjoying it. Lots of things to go through, so let's go. Oh, and don't worry about spoilers. I think this game deserves to be enjoyed as a whole, and so I will try not to spoil anything.

The game revolves around Joel and Ellie. Joel is tasked with smuggling Ellie across America in a post-apocalyptic world infested with infected beings. Like the Uncharted series, Naughty Dog made this to be what some might view as a movie-esque game. The plot's great, there's substantial character development, and the setting is convincing thanks to decent graphics and music.

So, let's get down to business.

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The setting is such that some people might expect it to be an open-world roaming game. However, it isn't. The whole game is very much linear, with minor explorations that can be done (think F.E.A.R).

I played this game on hard mode and I have to say, that is probably why it took me so long to complete the game (or maybe I just plain suck). Resources were scarce and enemies were hard to take down. See, this game is not like Resident Evil 5, 6 or Left 4 Dead. You make a mistake, you pay for it. Everything you do has a short-term and long-term consequence. You cannot, and I repeat, CANNOT, be a Rambo in this game. 

The characters are controlled from a 3rd-person POV, and they need to maneuver through hordes of infected and other times, human scavengers. Depending on who the player faces, different strategies are needed. Do you fight it out? Do you utilise stealth? If you were spotted, what is your escape path? Do you have anything that can help with escape? As players keep thinking about these things, they slowly learn about strategising, which is quite cool.

Most of the time, the thought of resources running out stops players from doing the stupid rubbish some "survival horror" allows them to do, like taking on 10 enemies. If you do that in this game, you will most likely get flanked, surrounded and killed. The characters are human enough to die easily, especially if you run into this one type of enemy that can instant kill you if it catches you. Also, you risk losing resources by choosing to engage, and might wind up being really vulnerable later on.

The game sounds rather difficult to play, but it is all these things that gives it the sense of realism and tension which I find to be great. It can be really taxing for players as they fail again and again, however. Yet the sense of achievement you get when you maneuver through the level without wasting resources is so profound, it makes those failures and attempts worthwhile.

As for level designs, the whole aspect about puzzle-solving is really simple. Heck, one might not even consider them to be puzzles. However, the variations of what happens make it more of a tool of storytelling instead of a pure puzzle game, which is rather nice.

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So the game plays great, what about the story? And the characters? Well, if anything, Naughty Dog has pretty much outdone themselves this time. I have played Uncharted 2 and 3 before. Even though it is similar in style to Uncharted, The Last of Us, to me, outdid Uncharted. 

I could tell that Naughty Dog was really meticulous with this one. Every bit of minor chatter and trivial things, which we people take for granted, made the characters real. For comparison's sake, I will use Heavy Rain. In Heavy Rain, the characters were over-emphasised. There was no space for trivial chatter or hesitation. Everything presented must be of the greatest cause and of utmost importance. The characters must have huge impressions and, whatever David Cage wants them to be, they must portray those characteristics at any chance they get. And so, you get to hear them constantly whining, talking about stopping the antagonist and being totally obnoxious. Because of that, the characters in Heavy Rain, to me, felt distant and fake.

In The Last of Us, Joel and Ellie had plenty of small talks. They also try to hide their feelings, and do little things like looking away from who they are talking to or pouting. "Oh wow, these sound super lame." Yes, perhaps, but they do make things so much more relatable than "I am a man who fights for the great cause of saving my son and I will talk about it every single chance I get while whining at things". No. No such bullshit.

There are lots of minor details that players can find in the game. A good example would be when you get to control Ellie. All your items and learned skills are gone. She also takes a ton of damage. The feeling of controlling a weaker character gets through because everything gets tougher. Also, if players check Ellie's notes and mementos, they are different than Joel's and some of them reveal more of Ellie's past. Such small details, such good stuff. Kudos, Naughty Dog.

Character development is huge. Joel starts off with a painful past and then comes along a girl who reminds him of it. The feelings Joel have to deal with were subtly planted and showed in-game, if you pay attention. As he starts to grow out of that and become closer with Ellie, while journeying through America and encountering obstacles which helped them to bond, you feel a connection to Joel and Ellie which frankly speaking, is wonderful. You become a part of the world that is The Last of Us.

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There were some parts that could have used some fixing. In the early stages, when I was taking my time exploring, Joel's sort of weirded out when I climbed up a ledge sticking close to the wall. The character animation probably freaked out when it had to deal with a wall, a ledge and a hole I had to crawl through. Grabbing an enemy from under a ledge resulted in Joel releasing the enemy, which then alarmed the mob. I think there is probably something wrong with ledges here.

Combat mechanics were a little rough, especially the shooting. When I melee an enemy, sometimes I whiff it completely, sometimes my character dashes to the enemy and hits him. I can't tell if there are conditions which tell if you will or will not hit the enemy, but it just feels dodgy. Shooting mechanics feels like it came out of Uncharted, but harder because you don't zoom in as much and the enemies' heads are really tiny from far away. You miss your shots but they hit you with pinpoint accuracy, which is rather perplexing and degrading for me. I absolutely loved using the bow and arrow, if only it had more killing potential and better aiming. Sometimes, the character's body blocked the crosshair, which absolutely infuriates me. However, since the game presents the theme of survival, the combat was secondary to the overall gameplay, which might explain why it seems less developed than the stealth mechanics.

Conversation audio clips would sometimes go missing. I only noticed this when I was reading the subtitles alongside listening to what they were saying. Perhaps the final script was not what was given to the subtitling team, either way it doesn't look good. The sceneries were absolutely fantastic. I liked how everything looks, except maybe the sky, which seemed to me to be a huge JPG picture of a sky. Honest.

Well, thankfully, all these weird little problems does not mess up the overall gameplay experience. Sure, they are irksome but the fantastic journey you have in this game from beginning to the end does not change.

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If you are a gamer who likes to be challenged, or you are just someone who would like to enjoy a good story, The Last of Us is definitely a good buy. This game stays true to the genre of survival horror, and yet at the same time presents a wonderful storytelling. The characters present a compelling realism and the ending of the game (no spoilers) created in me an internal conflict which made me want to go against what Joel did, but at the same time I support his decision. It's a pretty heavy feeling.

This game deserves an 8/10. If they fixed the combat system and made it a slightly more open world with things to explore, I would definitely give it a 9. I am down for a sequel of the game, or even if it's just a game that's based on this world. 

I have been straining myself to play this game at nights, due to bright lighting in the room in the mornings and evenings. Promise to write a better review for other games. Till then.