Joel and Ellie barely survived the initial ambush. Cornered and outnumbered, the duo’s only chance of survival was for me to steer them through it. Out of ammunition, I was in for a hell of a fight.
I am not a ‘gamer.’ Occasionally, I play “Call of Duty”or “Battlefield” with friends, but “The Last of Us,” released in June of 2013 as a Playstation 3 exclusive, is something different. “The Last of Us” is a suspenseful, third-person, survival game –– realistic, emotional, and enthralling.
It was produced by Naughty Dog, which also produced the award-winning “Uncharted” series.
Set in the post-apocalyptic world so often abused by video games, it is easy to believe “The Last of Us” is simply another ‘shoot em’ up’ game.
It’s not.
Rather, it focuses on two major characters, Joel and Ellie, as they cross a disease-ravaged United States from Boston to the West Coast.
The main story is set 20 years after a fungal outbreak killed millions and turned even more into crazed ‘infected.’ A weathered survivor of the initial outbreak, Joel promises a dying friend that he will escort Ellie, a resilient and resourceful 14-year-old girl, to a secure facility over 2,000 miles away, where her safety can be assured.
As they venture from a military quarantine zone in the ruins of Boston, the duo faces hordes of ‘infected,’ particularly frightening creatures called ‘Clickers,’ and more commonly, packs of survivors who kill to stay alive.
The infected, unlike ‘traditional’ zombies, are fast and work together in groups to swarm and subdue their victim. ‘Clickers’ are worse. In them, the infection got creative, blinding them and forcing them to develop an eerie ‘clicking’ sound which acts as a form of echolocation.
Placed in Joel’s shoes for the game’s majority, the player is almost always outgunned and outmatched by various opponents.
Dark and intense, “The Last of Us” never slows down. Between the intense moments, powerful scenes draw the player emotionally closer to the duo. Joel and Ellie both connect through the course of the game, as they cope with loss together. They are not mere means to an end. I found myself caring for them and responding emotionally to their triumphs and failures. Unlike the mindless characters in a shoot ‘em up game, Joel and Ellie provide purpose amid the violence. Their personalities ground the game in real human responses rather than knee-jerk volleys solely for the sake of violence.
Players find themselves as underdogs, forced to employ a variety of tactics to outwit their enemies and survive. Ammunition is scarce, so you are often forced to rely on using the environment to your advantage by improvising weapons from whatever you can find, be it a table leg or Joel’s bare hands.
“The Last of Us” is a compilation of motion-capturing technology and years of intense graphics work. The characters look, move, and sound real. It is often difficult to tell when the game transitions from play controlled by the player to pre-programmed cinematic moments.
The game producers paid close attention to detail: from the exact layout of the University of Eastern Colorado to tiny streams and puddles that add realism to Joel and Ellie’s world. Players find themselves battling enemies in Pittsburgh’s flooded tunnels, searching for survivors in the hallways of abandoned and collapsing dormitories, and even hunting deer in the frozen and snowy wilderness of Colorado. The constant change of scenery ensures that the gameplay never grows old.
The multiplayer aspect of the game mimics the campaign’s third person gameplay for a more realistic and difficult combat experience. Similar to online gameplay, the player can ‘level up’ and gain new weapons while also building skills that can be used on the battlefield.
Having received perfect and near-perfect review scores from major publications such as IGN, Metacritic, and GameInformer, the game is slated to win the Game of the Year award for 2013. The powerful and captivating storyline coupled with the outstanding graphics and gameplay put “The Last of Us” at the forefront of a new era of story-driven games that look and feel like movies.
