Kris Wall reviews The Last of Us….
Post-apocalyptic action adventure – four words that have now become almost guaranteed to raise a yawn amongst the gaming collective looking to seek out new and exciting adventures. So, from the creators of Uncharted, Naughty Dog, comes another post-apocalyptic action adventure that riffs on everything from The Road and Children of Men to I Am Legend and The Walking Dead, yet confidently treading its own path and defying everything to create quite possibly the best game of this generation.
The Last of Us begins at the end, the end of the world as a viral outbreak devastates civilisation as we know it. We see this through the eyes of a young girl as she wakes up to the first reports of the outbreak via TV and radio broadcasts, glimpses of panic and chaos on the horizon nearing closer to home, and the blinding flashes of the emergency services attempt to halt it. As far as prologues go, Naughty Dog has crafted one of the most brilliantly atmospheric set ups yet seen in a video game. Reminiscent of the opening 10 minutes of the Dawn of the Dead remake, you attempt to escape the town with your father as the world around you goes goes to hell, ending on a shocking statement of intent that will stay with you long after you’ve finished playing, and that’s just the first 20 minutes.
Fast forward 20 years and the game casts you in the grizzled shoes of Joel, a smuggler trying to survive in a world where rules and morals no longer apply, life is cheap and can be extinguished with the slightest of wrong moves. Joel isn’t cut from the same athletic adventurer cloth as Nathan Drake; he’s sluggish and gets exhausted easily, can barely climb without the aid of a ladder, he fights with desperation, and he never has any one liners for any occasion. Joel ekes out a living with fellow smuggler, Tess, trading with others for rations while avoiding the attention of the peace keeping forces that patrol the quarantined zone and the rabid attacks of the infected that have managed to break in. Joel’s world changes when he’s asked to smuggle Ellie out of the quarantine zone and cross country to a group of rebels know as The Fireflies, and it’s here that The Last of Us plays its greatest card, just like Bioshock Infinite, you’re not really the main character, Ellie is.
Ellie is an absolute marvel to behold, edging out this years other standout A.I counterpart, Elizabeth, from Bioshock Infinite. Ellie is a 14 year old Ellen Page lookalike with a vocabulary that would make a sailor blush. Born after the outbreak, she has never known the world we have and has been raised in the quarantine zone to survive at all costs. She’s incredibly naive but highly inquisitive to the world she never knew and seeing her grow as a character as she encounters things she’s never seen is a truly wonderful experience. Leave her idle in a record store and she’ll thumb through vinyls asking about the artists in question, she’ll tinker around on an old piano and melt at the sight of cute woodland creatures she’s never seen, not to mention she’s handy with a gun in a fight and will scout out ammo for Joel. In Ellie, Naughty Dog has created the benchmark by which all A.I partners should be judged. Despite being a construct of pixels and polygons, you’ll genuinely care for her survival.
Initially mis-matched, Joel and Ellie don’t see eye to eye at all. He’s the lone wolf type unsure why he’s smuggling her, she’s got a loud mouth and a penchant for throwing bricks at people when they need to be quiet. Joel and Ellie are aided by some great voice work from actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, both giving nuanced performances that really breathe life into the characters. A great script from Neil Druckmann allows the characters to grow together on their journey, trading some great banter and back story, that by the end you’ll really believe in Joel’s transformation from reluctant to smuggler to protective surrogate father of Ellie.
Violence and death are never far away in The Last of Us, but unlike the celebrated death orgy that is Call of Duty, there’s never any satisfaction gleaned from taking a life, just the rush of relief that if it hadn’t been them, it would have been you. The violence in The Last of Us is shockingly brutal, yet rather than feeling gratuitous, every life taken here serves to show just how fragile the human body is. As someone claws at your face while you strangle them to death you feel how cheap life has become in this world, and how quickly it can be taken away by someone else’s need to survive. There’s a ragged desperation to fights that makes every encounter feel different, you never feel empowered due to lack of resources, and when something hits the fan, which it inevitably will, you’ll find yourself in heart pounding battles for survival where improvisation is your best ally and while Joel may be able to respawn, the tangible threat of death that lingers over everything will still have your pulse racing.
You’ll be going up against other humans and the infected on your travels, both of which force you to play differently and adapt on the fly. Lawless humans will work together to flank and pin you down. The infected attack with blind fury, clawing, tearing and screaming at everything in their path. Later on, Clickers make their horrible entrance; blinded by the fungus that has overcome them, they hunt by echolation, letting out horribly guttural clicks from their throats. If they get their hands on you, it’s game over immediately and the only way to take them down is to brave a gunshot and risk your location or bravely move up on them with a shiv. Either way they’ll haunt your dreams for a long time to come.
The Last Of Us employs a great salvage and crafting system to upgrade and survive in this world. As you travel around, you’ll be able to collect bits and pieces to store in your backpack, things like rags and alcohol can combine to make bandages or molotov cocktails, tape and scissors can make shivs while sugar and explosives can fashion smoke bombs and salvage can upgrade your guns. All of this is done in real time as well, so you’ll need to pick and choose your moments to craft, leading to some truly pulse pounding moments as you’re hunkered down behind cover trying to make a shiv while a clicker feels around just feet away, or bandaging up your wounds as your enemies close in to finish the job, do you use the last of your rags and alcohol to heal yourself or make a molotov to go on the attack? The game really does well to make you feel like you’re struggling to survive with whatever you have to hand, and you’ll make sure you’re scouring every corner to grab what you can to get by.
Naughty Dog have pushed the PlayStation 3 to its absolute limits graphically and the result is the best looking game of this generation. There’s beauty to behold in the decay of the ruined world, nature has now reclaimed much of the land, with panoramic vistas framed by beautiful sunsets. Character models look great and facial expressions far outstrips anything that L.A Noire ever laid claim to. The animation and physics at work lend everything a tangible weight, Joel will be carried off his feet by the impact of a bullet, scramble to regain his balance after a missed punch and wince as a bullet smashes into cover just inches from his head, if Ellie is cowered next to him, he’ll instinctively place an arm around her like the protective wing of a bird. All of this is married to a great score that feels inspired by the work of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis – a sort of Southern bluegrass vibe that really lends itself well to Joel & Ellie’s struggle across America.
I really can’t praise Naughty Dog enough or heap superlatives on The Last of Us to do it justice. It’s great to see a game not be afraid to pull some serious punches and avoid Hollywood cliché resulting in a story and gaming experience that will be talked about long after the credits have rolled. If this is Sony’s swansong for the PlayStation 3 before it ushers in the next generation then it couldn’t have gone out with a bigger bang. The Last of Us is a thrilling tale of survival that rips up the post-apocalyptic rulebook and confidently stakes out its claim as not only the best game of this generation, but one of the greatest games ever made. Absolutely unmissable!
Kris Wall
