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What's up everyone? This is Dennis from lvl Cap interactive and this is a review of
Naughty Dog's latest release, The Last of Us.
The story in The Last of Us focuses on Joel and Ellie and their struggle to survive in
various locations throughout the United States, destroyed as a result of a fungal infection
that spread 20 years ago. Joel is a survivor of the events that took place involving the
infection and knows what life was like before it spread. Ellie however was brought into
this world post infection and has never experienced life outside of surviving in this
environment. As you progress through the campaign, you witness the two characters
naturally build their relationship through their experiences and conversations had along
the way. While more could be said about the details of the story, I'll leave the rest
up to you and the other players out there to experience
it for yourselves. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.
The story telling in The Last of Us is excellent. The combination of fantastic writing,
great voice acting and character facial expressions make for a believable experience that
draws you into the game. The more progress you make through the campaign, the more
you'll want to keep playing to see what happens next. The story is a major part of this
game and is a key reason why this is one of the best games to be released this year.
Not only does The Last of Us deliver on an excellent story, it also features a solid
and unique gameplay experience. The way the game
handles combat and upgrading your character is unlike what you've seen in other
games.
While you'll find ammo and health packs throughout the game, these are very rare
occurrences. In order to survive, you will need to create your health items and certain
weapons using the game's crafting system. Scattered throughout the game you'll find
random supplies that when combined, will create health and weapons that you can use.
For example, the combination of a rag and alcohol will create a health pack. Once
created, the health pack can be used and once used you'll watch as Joel literally patches
himself up.
The crafting system will sometimes have you make tough decisions. For example, you
may be in situation where you're low on ammo and health and you may have just enough
supplies to craft either a health pack or Molotov cocktail. These two items require
you to use the same supplies to create them. If you
don't have enough supplies to craft both items, you'll have to choose which item is
necessary depending on the situation you are in. While you are thinking about what items
you need to craft, keep in mind that this is all
happening in real time, which means that you can still be attacked by enemies should
they approach you.
You can also upgrade Joel's skills and guns as you collect bottles of pills and
miscellaneous parts throughout the game. The pills will enable you to speed up your
crafting ability or max out your health. The parts will allow you to increase your gun's
clip capacity or decrease the time it takes to reload. The pills and parts are not always
easy to find and are in short supply. This adds to the game's challenge, as you will
gradually become stronger as opposed to maxing out all upgrades in a short time.
Combat in the game is intense and brutal. From the impact of smashing a clicker's head
in with a pipe, to a shotgun blast to a hunter's face, I never grew tired of taking on
whoever was in my way. The controls are spot on, which makes everything from
gunfights to hand-to-hand combat near effortless. However, do not mistake The Last of
Us for a cheap Uncharted clone. The combat is quite realistic, especially with how it
treats melee weapons such as pipes and baseball bats. These weapons have limited use
and will break apart after a few hits. That being said, all of the weapons have limitations
and this is done on purpose. Between the scarcity of ammo, usage of supplies and brittle
melee weapons, your combat strategy and techniques will constantly be changing. These
touches along with the crafting system add a level of realism and depth not seen in many
games today.
Regarding the enemies, there are two main types that you will encounter; human
survivors and the infected. The human enemies consist of hunters and an assortment of
other dangerous survivors. If you approach them carelessly, you won't get far since in
most cases they will outnumber you. They are also very intelligent individually, alerting
others in the area that they are in danger and taking notice when a downed ally no longer
verbally responds.
As for the infected, you'll mainly run into runners and clickers. The runners, due to
the infection, have lost the cognitive ability
for reasonable thinking and have become bloodthirsty savages looking for you to be
their next meal. Should they see you, they'll run feverishly in your direction to attack
you. The clickers on the other hand can't see
you but that doesn't make them defenseless. They hear extremely well via echolocation
by making a "clicking" sound. When they hear something,
they immediate focus on what was heard and move in that direction to either
investigate or attack. Unlike the runners however, getting attacked by clickers usually
leads to an instant death.
When building a strategy for approaching enemies in The Last of Us, sometimes rushing
in on enemies is appropriate but most times a stealth approach will be key to your
survival. You'll notice that in the campaign, The Last of Us does not display an on screen
map to help you navigate or pinpoint where enemies may be hiding. Instead, the game
implements a listen mode to keep you from entering sections blindly. This is an
innovative gameplay element that allows you to plan your attack or evade a confrontation
altogether.
To sum it up, the game play in The Last of Us is fun, engaging, and will keep you on
your toes.
Visually, The Last of Us is stunning and the attention to detail in the environments makes
it feel as if you were there, struggling to survive. The destruction and abandonment of
cities over the years has made way for plant life to reclaim areas that were once
flourishing. The interiors of homes and businesses clearly illustrate the fear and
desperation people experienced during the events that took place during the outbreak.
Bodies of water have developed in certain areas, forcing you to swim to get to the next
section. While other games have presented similar environments, Naughty Dog has added
the extra polish that makes the game's environments more in line with what you'd see in
a major film.
The character design is some of the best I've seen in a game. Their facial expressions
truly express what they are feeling at the time and make them feel more human. The
infected look treacherous and you can see how the infection has taken over their bodies,
especially with the clickers. Their awkward movements further illustrate that they are
not to be taken lightly. The animations are smooth
and I have yet to see the game hiccup or slow down. If it is raining or if you have
to swim you'll notice that Joel's clothing will
get wet and gradually dry off, similar to Nathan Drake in Uncharted. I always thought
this was a cool effect and it works really well in The Last of Us.
A great visual presentation should always be backed up by high quality audio and The
Last of Us excells in this department as well. The voice acting is top-notch and you can
hear the emotions expressed by each character whether you are watching a cutscene or in
the middle of play.
The infected sound great as well. The runners' disturbing grunts and screeches along with
the clickers' frightening sound will remind you to take caution when moving around. I
must say that Naughty Dog did an excellent job creating the clicker and the sound that
they make matches perfectly with how they look.
The sound design team didn't stop at the characters however. They've managed to
produce high quality environmental sounds as well. In particular, there's a part of
the game where it is raining and you come across
a truck's cargo container. As you make your way through the container, it sounds
just as if you were inside the container and you
will hear the individual rain drops hitting the container from outside. This was very
impressive and displays the dedication the team had in perfecting the game's sound
effects.
So while you're playing The Last of Us, be sure to keep the volume up so that you can
appreciate the hard work that was put into the game's audio.
With all of the technical achievements and sophistication shown in the game play, visuals
and audio, The Last of Us makes it simple to jump in and start playing. The most you'll
see on screen during play is a small HUD on the lower right that displays your health,
ammo and current weapon, and melee weapon strength. When you need to craft items,
upgrade Joel's abilities, or read through notes you find along the way, you simply press
select to bring up a more detailed HUD. While some games present menus with a vast
array of options to choose from, The Last of Us keeps things simple to allow the player
to focus on the action.
Multiplayer
Following an excellent campaign, I wondered what type of multiplayer experience The
Last of Us would offer. Well I'm happy to tell you that the multiplayer mode, known
as Factions, is awesome and is an excellent compliment
to the campaign. What makes the multiplayer so good is the fact that you don't
have to learn much in order to jump in and start playing. Many of the gameplay mechanics
that make up the campaign work in Factions. In other words, if you have experience
playing the campaign, you already know how to play Factions.
There are two modes in Factions, survivors and supply raid. Both modes are similar
however there is no respawning in survivors.
While the gameplay in Factions is similar to the campaign, there are some notable
differences. For instance, the parts that you normally collect in the campaign are
automatically converted to supplies and unlock loadout points that you can use to
upgrade your character. As far as weapons go, there are a few that are not availble
in the campaign. For example in Factions, you can
use silenced weapons to help take out the opposing team. You can also customize the
look of your character so that you standout amongst other players. Finally, listen mode
needs to recharge after a long period of use.
Final Verdict
The Last of Us redefines what it means to develop a top-tier game in the industry today.
If you own a PS3, do not hesitate to pick this one up, it is worth every penny and you
will not be disappointed. For those that don't
own a PS3, this is your reason to get one. We
give The Last of Us a perfect score.