The Last of Us Discussion

With the Last of Us part 2 in the works by Naughty Dog I feel this is very much needed.

If you have not played The Last of Us yet already, what the hell are you doing with your life?

This is one of my favourite games like EVER. I am normally not a fan of zombie games but this one, F*** this game is absolutely incredible. The characters, the story, and by far the graphics of this game are stunning.

What I love about this game the most is it actually created a zombie apocalypse that is chilling and makes you stop and question the possibilities of something like this actually occurring, in this world they had the outbreak happen via

Outbreak cause:

. THAT in my opinion is very frightening.

Story:

Basic summery:

Now, the things I want to talk about are the graphics, gameplay, and the emotional journey this game takes you on. I shall start with the story, be warned spoilers, do not click the tags unless you want to them.

I have been playing on Sony consoles since I was like eight and my hobby with video games has led me to play a great many mostly on Playstation systems or pc, with that being said I have NEVER encountered a game that has made me cry within the

first five minutes:

and this one did. Now movies or TV, yes I sob like a baby but I'm pretty stone faced with gaming.

The thing with The Last of Us is though, half of the time you could feel or kind of see what was going to happen just before it does, but the voice acting and how they played these events out is what makes this game so deeply impacting.

First example:

Second example:

Third example:

We have already established at this point that the game is an emotional one as it is meant to be.

Let’s talk about the gameplay.

Third person action because it's beast.

The Last of Us has a mix of different types of gameplay. You can be stealthy, you can shoot the damn buildings up, or you mix it up.

You have listen mode, bricks, bottles, shivs, and of course your own eyes to help with stealth. However I think the infamous crushing mode has listen mode removed from the skill set for added difficulty.

Graphics.

THIS is my favourite part of the game. Naughty Dog blew their audiences with The Last of Us environments.

Rotting wood, various papers now turning yellow with age, nature taking over structures, algae in water, streets and towns flooded from the elements, bridges collapsed from lack of maintenance.

As we transverse through buildings and houses long since abandoned, the details inside often tell their own unique stories.

For example, the hotel when you enter one bathroom we see two decaying bodies male and female, sitting in waist deep liquid, likely water, blood, and god knows what else. There is a clear evidence in the deteriorating room that the two were a couple and that they both committed suicide when the end days came. Joel's quiet "Jesus..." wasn't even needed to understand that, and this is my favourite out of many similar things we come across through this game.

The designers weren't just trying to tell the character's stories, they also understood that it is important to show the fates of civilization in various different ways throughout the tale and that is what Naughty Dog pulled off amazingly with this.

Blood and gore is not skimped upon either in this. Character deaths are BRUTAL and often have their own mini-cinematic effect. Clicker's ripping Joel's/Ellie's throats out someone or some sort of mortal impairment fit with screams of agony.

When a character gets injured later in the game, ALL THE BLOOD that we see left behind in streaks, bloody footprints/handprints, drag marks and blood spatters.

They covered graphics from head to toe spot on in this game, the only thing I do have to argue with is their ah... horse graphics.... which baffled me because Uncharted 3's horse scenes were amazing.