Originally published September 2018

When The Last of Us first came out years ago, it was lauded as a revelation in the medium of video games. It was number one on many "Game of the Year" lists for video game journalists and entertainment websites. It was the greatest thing since sliced bread, toasted, buttered, and slathered with jam. Naturally, it took me a few years to finally get around to playing it. It was only upon seeing the E3 2018 trailer for the sequel that I decided I had put it off long enough and I had to finally play it. A few years out of the brilliant light of widespread hype, is it all it's cracked up to be?

The short answer is: yes and no. The Last of Us is a game that takes a number of risks for the sake of immersion and storytelling through gameplay. It tells a story that, while nothing wholly original, does not completely wander down the path of mundane or routine. It has characters that are deeply flawed, but still likable and interesting. And for the most part, it succeeds in doing all these things. Unfortunately, for all its successes, I really didn't enjoy playing it.

The Short of it

What I played

• The Last of Us: Remastered for PS4

• Main story to completion on default, Normal difficulty

• No DLC content

• No Multiplayer

Pros

• Joel is a flawed and interesting character, despite the various archetypal trappings

• Concept for the fungal zombie disease is a cool and effective one with inventive creature designs

• Remastered version makes you forget this was a game on the PS3; impressive visuals

• Combat is successful at being a frantic struggle in every encounter

• Music is effective in both its quiet and intense moments

• Ending is appropriate for the characters and the story arc being told

Cons

• Some upgrade paths seem mostly pointless

• Stealth mechanics are more frustrating than anything else

• Combat is stiff, sluggish, and annoying, yet seemingly endless once it starts

• Bullet sponge enemies

• So much of the game's length is padded by bad stealth and the process of searching for items in every trashcan like in Bioshock; a lot of it feels like a slog with very little progress

• Various game design mechanics like "monster closets" and AI break the immersion and make the gameplay more frustrating

The Rest of it

Considering I'm reviewing a game that is already a video game generation old, I didn't see the point in trying out the multiplayer. One of the disadvantages of playing games late: you miss out on being able to play multiplayer games before everyone else in the world is way better than you or the community dies off. Since the sequel is coming out soon, it makes even less sense to review a mode that will likely become obsolete anyway. You can view these as valid justifications for only playing the main story, or as excuses for not having to play the game anymore. Both are true.

Story

The zombie apocalypse finally happened, but in a way no one expected. A specific breed of fungal spores—like those seen in the Planet Earth documentary series about insects in the jungle—invade and infect the minds of people who come in contact with them. As the spores gestate within the host, the host becomes a violent, zombie-like creature intent on killing any person in its path and spreading more spores. After enough time passes, the host becomes more fungal in appearance until it finally dies from what one would assume is natural causes and the fungus reaches its final polyp phase, sprouting out of the host's head and becoming spores once again.

Joel is a worn-out, bitter, older man who saw the end of the world, lost everything, and has managed to survive through sheer grit and craftiness. He's lived to see the remnants of a government attempt to create and maintain quarantine zones. He's seen a self-righteous group of rebels called The Fireflies sprout up as the new group, seeking to rebuild the world. And he's been in enough hairy situations that he's done some terrible things to stay alive, hardening him into the angry, not-such-a-good guy he is today. A great deal of this information is provided through well-written dialogue and convincing characterization techniques.

In a somewhat simple tutorial-based errand, Joel and his friend Tess go out to tie up some loose ends with a man who owes them some weapons. After taking care of the errand and learning the various shooting and stealth mechanics of the game, Joel and Tess encounter a Firefly they know who needs them to deliver a very important package to a Firefly base. Obviously, this is no ordinary package like they assume. It is, in fact, the young girl, Ellie.

Ellie is very important to the Fireflies' cause and the daughter of a few personal friends within the Fireflies, so her survival is paramount to them and is revealed to be even more important later. To Joel, it's another annoying delivery mission, at first. As you would assume, things do not go according to plan, the Fireflies are nowhere to be found, and now Joel has to think on his feet about what to do with this girl and how to get her to her destination safely, while slowly becoming a surrogate dad in the process.

The story is extremely predictable down to specific moments and lines of dialogue, using the common tropes and twists of video games, post-apocalyptic settings, and stories about men and their adopted children. The story of Joel and Ellie is extremely similar to that of Wolverine and Laura from Logan, which was based on a few westerns as well. Considering the music choice in The Last of Us, the Western influence is pretty strong. Considering Logan was one of my favorite movies from last year, I'd say that following similar tropes doesn't automatically make a story pointless or boring.

In fact, for the most part, I enjoyed the story of The Last of Us, due mostly to the characters. Calling it a "revelation" is a stretch, but it does a lot to make the characters believable in their savagery, yet sympathetic at the same time. Ellie, like Laura from Logan, is a girl who has only grown up in a world of violence so she's got a foul mouth and a knack for survival. However, she is still a young adolescent who is seeking something friendly and familiar while dealing with the consequences of murder in the post-apocalypse. Throughout the story, Ellie has to deal with some traumatic moments and she grows as a character in a natural way.

Joel is very much like Wolverine: a man who may not be bad, but who does bad things to get what he needs. You get the impression that those bad things have taken a toll on Joel over time and he may not be so good anymore. Joel's actions are brutal, savage, and ruthless in a way that you know he made peace with it a long time ago and is almost feral because of how close he comes to killing people who may not mean him harm. A companion might be the thing that brings him back or pushes him over the edge. What will he do when pushed to his breaking point?

The story and the character dynamics of The Last of Us is not really new, but it is still interesting. Joel is an intriguing protagonist whose story I wanted to see through to its end. Ellie was not as interesting, but her presence was no real negative. The staged interactions she had with Joel or other characters in the world were effective in painting the picture of a girl who doesn't really get to enjoy a childhood in this harsh world. The path of Joel being the surrogate dad is a slow and steady one. It still feels a little forced just because we can predict it, but it's not unbearably sappy or meaningless. Then, it all comes together in a suitable conclusion.

However, there were plenty of moments where I cringed or frowned because, for every bit of well-written dialogue, there was a scene that could have been more effective if the game's storytelling techniques were a bit more refined, or just a little ambiguous. Had the developers more often just stopped a sentence short or ended a scene a few seconds earlier, instead of making sure we understood what happened, allowing us to figure it out on our own, it would have been way more effective. All that being said, I am still curious enough to see how Ellie and Joel have changed since the E3 trailer has confirmed they are both returning in some way in The Last of Us 2. I just don't look forward to playing it.

Gameplay

In case it wasn't clear enough from earlier parts of this review: I did not enjoy playing this game! I say this knowing that, despite my many frustrations with the gameplay, a lot of it was likely intentional on the part of the developers. In fact, I think that my misery in this game stems from the gameplay successes of The Last of Us. It's a game where you're supposed to be on edge with every encounter, having to think quickly about stealthily avoiding enemies and conserving your ammo for any impending firefight. The game never wants you to feel too comfortable, even when you're exploring an open area that doesn't appear to have any enemies in it. The Last of Us is definitely successful at making every new environment seem like a possible death trap that you're walking into.

Now, does that sound like much fun? It can be, as Dark Souls is the epitome of that metaphor, and I love that game. In this case, the problem is: once you're in that death trap, you don't quite have the tools to get out of it. This is further exacerbated by the fact that The Last of Us is largely a stealth game.

Stealth is one of the most difficult genres of video games to pull off well. In order for a stealth game to be fun, a few factors can be implemented. One method is to make the world a little less believable and to provide the player with certain tools to navigate it. Similar to other stealth games, like the Arkham Batman games for example, The Last of Us has a "sense" mechanic that allows you to see enemies through walls while slowing down the action. Unrealistic, sure, but in order for stealth to work in a game like this, the character needs some superhuman senses to make up for the fact that the player is not physically there to listen closely or use their peripheral vision to see around corners. If you don't have any sort of radar like this, stealth can become incredibly difficult and way less fun.

Most of the time in The Last of Us, it is in your best interest to stay undetected. Thus, a ton of time in the game is spent sitting next to a wall and listening in to locate the enemies and figure out their patrol paths. If you're able to pick one out that is far enough away from his friends, you can sneak up and choke him out. However, this can take a while, in comparison to other stealth games, like Hitman, where you can eliminate them in less than 2 seconds. Again, this seems like an intentional choice by the developers to make you nervously look around for any other enemies that might see you while you are strangling someone to death. You can't move the body, either. But, like lemmings unaware of their impending death, other hostiles that see a body will slowly walk over to it, allowing you to choke each one out in a murder conga line.

Another thing that is common in stealth games is that the AI is usually a little dumb. If you have enemies that are constantly changing their patrol patterns, or spin around quickly, or dive into cover like a person with a brain would do if they're being stalked by someone like Joel, then the experience is broken because it becomes extremely difficult to get in on the enemy fast enough. This sort of "smart" AI behavior is more acceptable in games like Dishonored or the Arkham Batman games because the protagonists of those games have a ton of tools at their disposal to handle the situation. They have many stealth skills they can implement to get the job done, as well as mobility options that allow you to get in and get out of a stealth opportunity quickly. All of Joel's tools make too much noise and would immediately end the stealth scenario, so he has to get in close and quiet to properly strangle guys.

Everything I've said about the stealth in The Last of Us is pretty much what you expect from a stealth game, and it's competent to some degree, but there are plenty of points where it all breaks down for me. First, the UI fails to properly inform you that someone thinks they might see you. Other stealth games have done this with arrow icons, like in Far Cry or Aragami, while even older games, like Tenchu and Metal Gear Solid, still gave you a little icon to indicate that someone thought they saw you. The Last of Us uses audio cues to let you know that someone is looking at you before they realize it. A visual indicator would be vastly more helpful in allowing you to immediately realize that someone sees you; sound takes a little longer to register and react to, appropriately. It would be especially helpful, considering some infected enemies can't see but can still be alerted just like everyone else.—Note: I saw that they added a visual cue in the demo for the sequel, so there is hope that this mechanic was improved in the next game.

Another issue I have with this brand of stealth is that, if any enemy becomes alerted, no matter if you were spotted or if you whacked them with your melee weapon before anyone else noticed, everyone else immediately knows where you are and starts coming for you. It doesn't matter if you were quick enough to kill the guy before an actual alarm was raised; the psychic link these guys all share immediately alerts them of your position and makes them extremely hostile. Once alerted, you enter the firefight mode, which, in most situations, is very difficult to get out of and return to stealth.

Things don't get better from here because the enemies are all bullet sponges. This was less of a problem in the Uncharted games—made by the same developer—because Nathan Drake was a tank who could quickly recover from his wounds and whose aim was a lot steadier. Joel, however, does not recover health easily and is not a sharpshooter. I had a difficult time hitting hostile enemies in areas where they might go down quicker, especially with an aim-assist function I couldn't figure out how to turn off. It was extremely frustrating. Considering you never have much ammo to spare, and shooting them in the body takes more than its share of bullets, it's in your best interest to aim for the head, but that tends to be easier said than done.

The combat just sucks. The experience was akin to swimming through sand. It's not fun and the guns don't do nearly enough to the enemies, considering how quickly you go down, even on Normal difficulty. If the guns were more effective, you would be less inclined to use the stealth and less concerned about looking through every drawer for extra ammo—maybe the crappy combat is intentionally trying to make you play it as a stealth game. I'm fairly certain that this game uses the Resident Evil 4 mechanic for ammo replenishment, where you will find more ammo in drawers that would normally be empty if your ammo count is low. Regardless, I was still left in many situations where stealth was the preferred approach, so I had to move very slowly through a rather long game. Even killing off enemies in an area did not guarantee I could finally get up and jog because of all the monster closet situations where new enemies would just suddenly spawn out of nowhere and start approaching your position.

This is where I think it fails completely. If you make a stealth game, part of the fun is figuring out your approach based on the enemies that are present. There is some fun in the process of scouting ahead and planning your assault. It's even more fun when the plan ultimately works and you feel like an infiltrating badass, or if it all goes to hell but you make it out okay. In The Last of Us, having these unforeseen wildcards suddenly appear makes those scenarios far less likely, in addition to breaking any possible immersion. It forced me to think and play along with how I thought the game was designed. So, I'd crouch and use my super senses whenever I crossed the threshold of a doorway to watch the silhouettes of enemies suddenly apparate like wizards in front of me. Was this sort of gameplay style what the developers intended?

When you're not sneaking around and not shooting guys, you're digging through rubble for supplies. Ammo and crafting materials are what you usually find. You can craft explosives, medkits, and small blades that can be used to open doors or open throats in the instance where you're grabbed by an infected "clicker" that can one-hit kill you. Each of these items is consumable, and you can only carry so many of them and the supplies on you at a time. Thus, you are constantly crafting and looking for more stuff.

If you find pills or tool bits, you can upgrade Joel and his arsenal. Apparently, the "hardcore" drugs that he finds lying around can improve his super hearing, his aiming, his proficiency with shivs, and his maximum health, but I never found enough opiates to satiate his druglust or to max any of these skills out. Likewise, finding the tool bits can allow you to upgrade your weapons to make them suck less, but this can only be done at tool benches, which are few and far between, and you never find enough to max any of those out either. Ultimately, the upgrade trees were not very rewarding and served only as more motivation to make you spend more time digging through trash like Booker De Witt.

To summarize the gameplay experience of The Last of Us: it's mostly successful at everything it does, but everything it does was done before by other games in ways that were more fun. Your reward for doing stealth correctly is not having to engage in the crappy shooting. When you have to engage in mandatory shooting scenarios, the aiming is clunky, the enemies absorb bullets like a black hole absorbs light, and Joel does not have the tools necessary to take anyone down with much ease. If you want to improve your chances of survival, you'll look in every corner for any pills, toolkits, or supplies, but even this only gets you so far. By the game's conclusion, I just desperately wanted to make it all end so I didn't have to play anymore.

Presentation

As time wears on for a game as old as The Last of Us, the physical presentation matters less and less in a review. That being said, the game still looks pretty good for something that is already nearly half a decade old and originally released on an older console. When you look close enough, you can see the rough edges and the somewhat blurry textures. Even some of the behavior and expressions of the characters seem a little off in a way that makes the game feel dated. Nonetheless, the environments, the water, the physics, and the visual effects of the game are still impressive enough to make the remastered version belong on the PS4.

If anything, the art direction of The Last of Us is probably the reason the game looks as good as it does. You can up-rez an ugly game and it's still going to be ugly, but if you up-rez something where there was a large effort paid to the art of the game, it's going to look a lot better. The Last of Us is a colorful game with numerous settings ranging from dilapidated cities, to abandoned towns, to sewer tunnels, to a dense wilderness in the winter, all during different times of day. Lighting in this game is extremely effective at conveying the mood and the colors that the game is going for.

The creature designs of the zombies are interesting to look at. The different infected types at their various stages are all hideously intriguing and do not have too many repeat body types. Even though they're still just zombies like those in most other video games, the novelty of the fungal growths taking over the heads and body of the host is still pretty cool.

Lastly, the sound of The Last of Us is top-notch, in addition to being important to the gameplay, for better or worse. I already mentioned how I didn't like that musical cues were the only thing you had to let you know that you were about to be discovered by an enemy, but aside from that, I think the sound and music are incredibly effective at setting the mood of the scene without being too overbearing, most of the time. A majority of the music is atmospheric and relatively non-intrusive; it's similar to how music works in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The sounds of the guns and explosives all feel appropriate and satisfying. The tingling noise of a bowstring stretching as you pull back an arrow is just as effective as the explosive percussion of a shotgun. The voice-acting is all extremely good, as one would expect from the developers who made the Uncharted games. The noises of the zombies are fine, though a bit repetitive and, sometimes, unintentionally funny. The grunts of the running zombies are all a bit goofy to me and made me laugh more than feel concerned. The clickers only seemed to have so many ranges of sound available to them, but they were at least a bit more effective at being unsettling. After the first few encounters with the infected, the noises they made were not effective enough to keep them as menacing creeps, just annoying bullet sponges.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

I respect The Last of Us for being a rebel of a game. It uses story beats and mechanics from other sources, but in a way that best suits the story and experience the developers were going for, for better or worse. It succeeds in creating an atmospheric, somewhat believable world set after the events of a worldwide apocalypse. It succeeds in creating an interesting, flawed protagonist with a meaningful story arc. It succeeds in making the combat a frantic scramble in every scenario, preventing you from getting too comfortable. However, some of the successes of the game conflict with my own enjoyment. I just really did not like playing it. The stealth mechanics were underdeveloped and the combat was frustratingly stiff. I don't normally recommend watching a playthrough on YouTube instead of playing the game, but if the sequel doesn't do anything to make the combat and stealth more effective or satisfying, I may just watch someone else suffer through it, rather than play it myself.

Do you agree or disagree? Tell me in the comments!

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