It’s difficult to rate the Last of Us in the context of other games. This is not necessarily because it is good, but rather because the game isn’t trying to do the same thing as Lollipop Chainsaw, for example. A game like the Last of Us is attempting to create an expansive and dark world, the kind of post-apocalyptic situation where everything has gone to hell and no one is going to come out on top.
Plot and Dialogue
The Last of Us is probably one of the best written games I’ve seen in the last couple of years. This is not because of the plot, necessarily. Any fan of post-apocalyptic films will be able to discern what is going to happen.
If you ask for good video game writing, a lot of people will point to games like Bioshock Infinite or Borderlands 2, as being good examples of the medium. Personally, these games do not deliver on plot for me. Bioshock Infinite would, frankly, make a decent episode of Doctor Who, and Borderlands 2 often falls into jarring pop-culture references. The Last of Us delivers on creating a steady and believable relationship between main character Joel and all of the secondary characters he interacts with.
The relationship between Joel and Sarah is believable and makes what happens even more jarring. Later, the interactions between Joel and Tess as well as Joel and his brother Tommy are fleshed out and understandable. You can see these people as if they were crafted whole cloth from real life, and you can understand their motivations. It makes their decisions more fluid and their conversations more varied.
Where Naughty Dog really delivered was the relationship between Joel and Ellie. Throughout the game, you will spend most of your time with Ellie. She is spunky in the best possible way, determined but still a fourteen year old girl. Dialogue is not just used to discuss important events, but rather used for incidental conversations about comic books and bad movies, to create a varied emotional world. You grow to like Ellie, the way that Joel does, and that is important and a fantastic job on the part of the developer.
The nuance is what really makes the game. Having just finished Naughty Dog’s other offering Uncharted 3, it’s easy to compare the two. Where Nate Drake is a larger-than-life man-child whose interactions with others are underdeveloped and assumed, Joel’s relationships are well thought out and the dialogue really contributes to character development.
Even the dialogue between secondary characters, soldiers chatting while they walk , hunters thoughtfully considering when their shift is over, contributes to the world as a whole. Some games use these moments to have the characters saying something really evil about killing puppies or torturing babies, but that isn’t what happens in the Last of Us. They instead draw you into these moments, and make them seem that much more real.
Gameplay
The fight sequences are probably the weakest part of the Last of Us. The game is hindered by the conventions of the third person shooter.
When you enter a room and discover that it is populated by chest high boxes, you know immediately what is going to happen. It is the worst kind of foreshadowing and telegraphs immediately to the player that there is going to be a gun battle.
The gun mechanics are alright. They’re survival based, so you have to conserve your ammo and take as few shots as possible. The downside to this is that unless you turn on auto aiming (which I finally did halfway through the game) your gun will buck and move “realistically,” making it almost impossible to get a solid shot.
A lot of the game is tension filled stealth, and it’s at it’s best when you tuck yourself behind a wall and the angle of the camera is just so that you can see someone peering over the wall to try and find you. It’s heart stopping and well done.
Unfortunately for a game where stealth is so important, if you are seen by one person, typically every “bad guy” in a mile radius immediately hones in on your position. Another aspect that takes you out of gameplay is when one of the characters that is going with you is easily visible but is not seen. It’s an understandable trade off, and one that Bioshock Infinite made as well with the character of Elizabeth, but it’s really breaks you out of the moment when you have to hide and your partner is visible by twenty guards. The opposite however, would be an awful escort mission, but it’s still an annoyance.
Joel is incredibly fragile, understandable for a man of his age, but this also means that when you die (and you will die), you have to restart the same scene multiple times. Often times, you’ll be stuck in the same corridor for five or six restarts, and it can be very grating.
The game is also restricted to some giant set piece battle sequences that drag on for far longer than they should. You have battle after battle after battle, and there can be a disconnect between the fantastic story and the extensive battle sequence. It’s another instance of the game being hindered by the strict third person shooter format.
One positive of the fight sequences is that many of them are optional, if you’re good enough at stealth. You usually don’t have to clear out an entire room of enemies, and if you can successfully avoid them, sometimes it’s better for your supplies if you don’t.
Another positive that stands out is gameplay as it directly relates to the zombie-like creatures. Clickers, one of the zombie types, are effectively blinded by their malady and you can stealth your way around them. Fail to do so, and they’re a worthy opponent. When the room has several zombie types it can create dynamic combat opportunities, especially if you are low on supplies.
There is a moment early in the first game that really sticks with me, where after successfully navigating a room full of Clickers without alerting them, I come across a padlocked gate. Having just finished playing Uncharted 3, I attempt to shoot the lock. It has no effect. When I turn around, the entire room full of Clickers has descended on my location, and are just standing there, waiting. They immediately kill me. But turning around and seeing those Clickers was one of the most terrifying moments I’ve had in games, and is a testament to solid character design.
Sound Design
One of the elements that really stands out in the Last of Us is the sound design. Not only is the voice acting above par, the score is exceptionally well done, and the sound created by the enemies is unparalleled.
The Clickers, as referenced by their name, click. And it’s a sound that is almost natural and wood like and really contributes to the ambience of a scene. It would almost be pretty if it weren’t for the destructive capabilities of those zombie types.
The game also has runner-like zombies, and they moan. There’s really no other way of putting it. It’s such a human and heart breaking sound, and you can almost make out words like “help me” in their cries. They are clearly in pain. It is not typical zombie noise of mindless hunger but rather unchecked and longterm pain.
Character and Enemy Design
There was some controversy over the design of Ellie and how similar it was to actress Ellen Page. There is definitely a resemblance still, but not in a terribly jarring way. Joel has the standard Texan good ole’ boy vibe, and you can really see the years on his face.
The high point for character design is definitely in the enemies. The Clickers are these bizarre looking creatures, human from the neck down but with these fungal sprouts all over their head. Runners are in varying state of humans in decay.
For me one of the weaker character designs were bloaters. Aside from their odd connection to the zombie types in games like Left for Dead, it didn’t seem like their presence was necessary and in the Last of Us universe, it seemed really odd to have characters that basically threw pus at you.
Bloaters were an incredibly difficult enemy type to combat, and were probably the closest the game came to boss battles.
There was a certain amount of repetition in the character design. There’s a moment where you have to fight off wave after wave of runners, and you shoot like five in a row and look down at their bodies and realize they’re all basically clones of each other. It’s a very bizarre moment and sort of mentally removes you from the game. The same with hunters and such, where you’ll run into a group of people who are all dressed in identical outfits. It’s a minor qualm, but it did bug me during gameplay.
Overall
If you haven’t played the Last of Us, you should go play it.
There’s a multi-player section as well, but I didn’t end up playing it. Some have been calling for a sequel, but honestly the story from the game wraps up so well in the end that it doesn’t seem necessary.
This is definitely a “Buy It” sort of game, more so than any game that I’ve played recently, especially from a bigger studio. The game has such depth and overall polish, that it’s hard to describe it succinctly.
Published: Jul 9, 2013 02:06 pm