Finally got my hands on this immensely popular game, and with all the perfect reviews that it received I obviously had high expectations. I actually wasn’t too hyped about it because of the cliché zombie genre – I’ve played enough zombie/post-apocalyptic type games to have experienced it all and I didn’t see anything extraordinary from the trailers. But I knew I really wanted to play it because of the developer, Naughty Dog, the creators of the Uncharted series (which I thought was perfect). The Last of Us was touted as the explosive send-off game for the PS3 before the PS4 came and it definitely delivered.
I got through the game in two sittings and fourteen hours total. The only reason I split it into two sittings was because I first played until 2:30 am and I knew my parents would come down to yell at me if I didn’t quickly retreat to my bed. As soon as I got up and ate, I was back on the couch to finish it. I’ve never done that with any game before. What kept me gripped to my controller was the storyline; you’ll hear from everyone that it’s like a really good movie – deep characters, incredible scenarios, and edge-of-your-seat action. But like I expected, there was actually nothing innovative about this zombie world. A weak government, a rebellious faction, a crazy guy living alone, corrupt humans, zombie-infested remnants of lost human colonies, etc., these are all things you’ve seen before and these are all things you’ll get. What makes this story different is how much detail was put into creating this fantasy world and how tight the drama was written. The contrast between the little girl who was born into this hell and the older man who knew a better life plays out beautifully and you develop a sincere attachment to this duo. Atmospherically, you can feel the scarily empty environments and you truly become engrossed in this earth where humans have reverted back to the food chain and are scrambling to put things back together. And that’s just the foundation of the narrative that builds sky high upon it.
I haven’t spoken much of the zombies, and there’s not much to say about them. You’ll find that they are no longer the main conflict. It’s the world that they’ve created that becomes the enemy, and your quest across America will make you wonder if it’s even possible to bring civilization back to what it was before or if it’s better to adapt to the new world as it is. This game is deep man.
But now I’ve got to talk about the worst part of the game, which is actually the gameplay. Combat is kind of clunky. I remember they advertised ‘environmentally aware melee’ where you use your immediate surroundings to finish off enemies and create a cinematic-looking scene. It’s nice, but it loses its novelty quickly. Because the enemies are so deadly and the bullets so scarce, the game pushes you to use alternative methods to defeat enemies, including stealth mechanics like crouching in the darkness, moving slowly to be quiet, and taking out enemies quietly by strangling. I feel like they tried really hard to involve this kind of gameplay (it’s like 80% of it) but because of their inexperience in this stealth genre, it feels forced and it’s not done well. There will be scenarios where if you take a step in the direction towards a zombie it will instakill you, but your npc characters will be running around at full speed, yelling and bumping into zombies, and they won’t be noticed. It just takes away from the feeling of realism. And because half the zombies are able to instakill you, these stealth situations just turn into puzzle games where you play the scene over and over again until you know exactly where to walk and who to stab at the right times. AI is dumb so I felt the enemies became tedious, but I’m probably ruined by the Metal Gear series. Talking about puzzles, all you will ever do is “find the object and put it in the right place”. Literally literally literally. Nearly all the puzzle objects are either ladders or wooden pallets, and they are sometimes ridiculously well hidden. I’d spend 15 minutes of just running around not being able to find the thing and then a hint will finally pop up and reveal to you where it is. It’s really boring and really annoying. So the game’s difficulty just comes from instakill enemies and very well hidden objects.
Summing things up, it’s is a definite must play. Even though I’m not too big a fan of the infestation zombie genre, the story is undoubtedly the best in any game I’ve ever played. Gameplay-wise, it’s not that fun. There is little to do and much of it is unsatisfying. But traversing through the beautifully crafted environments and progressing through the drama makes you ignore all of that and want to push through it as fast as you can to find out what happens next.
Rating: 5/5
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