’The Last Of Us’ is an incredibly confusing game for me to put my thoughts into because it's one of those titles that is really close to being amazing to me, but just falls short due to some significant issues I have with it. I don’t even have a lot of negatives, it is just the ones I have are very important to me. I’ll state now that this will be a more traditional look at ’The Last Of Us’ and it won’t be specifically talking about this remake and how it compares to the original alone, although there will be a paragraph dedicated to how it compares to the remastered counterpart (as I have not played the original PS3 version of the game). I also feel I should mention that this is the only Naughty Dog game I have played, although I do plan on checking out the ’Uncharted’ series very soon.
The biggest fault this game has is it feels conflicted in whether it wants to be a game with tense, difficult combat or a game where you don’t do much besides hold forward. It is paced pretty poorly because of this. The games combat sections are usually paced with walk and talk moments that last an incredibly long time or a “puzzle” of moving a certain item to another area that tends to be ten feet apart anyways. I wish they did a bit more to spice things up or focused on a certain style similar to ’Resident Evil 4’ or ’Dear Esther’ instead of switching between thirty minutes of action game then thirty minutes of walking simulator.
The combat itself though is actually pretty fantastic. Mind you, I played on hard difficulty as well as never used the listen mode and saved melee for last resorts mostly as I felt for me, those mechanics made the game a bit too easy. That’s something I do enjoy about some of the features. You can avoid most of the things that make the game easier and it feels completely natural. It’s nice to have something that can make the game more accessible for people who want an easier experience without making it a necessity. There is one thing that doesn’t follow this rule though which is how the sprinting animation changes between when you are in combat and when you are out of it. It ends up being this little tell of knowing you are safe or not which ruins some of the tension of the combat encounters.
There are two different encounters that you will run into. Ones that contain zombies and others that will be with normal humans. They both are executed well. With the humans, I never got good at fully stealthing past all of them so I would just go for a crazy fight and that was always pretty fun. They’re pretty smart too! Some of them will stay behind cover to distract me as another guy flanks me. I felt I constantly had to make sure every corner of me was safe. The zombies I would always attempt stealthing as their quick and odd movement made it hard for me to shoot. Especially since the clickers are blind and can only hear, so it’s made to be stealth encounters usually. Although it does get interesting when they combine normal zombies with the clickers. I will say also that playing the DLC after made me wish the base game had encounters with both humans and zombies, but I’ll talk more about that when I cover the DLC.
You’ll pretty much for the entire game have some sort of npc companion to help you. They don’t have limited ammo and can only die whenever they are grabbed and you haven't saved them in time. They also can’t be seen whenever you are trying to be stealthy which is helpful. I wonder if there was ever at some point an idea to include online co-op? It was a trend at the time with games like ’Resident Evil 5’, ’F.E.A.R. 3’, and ’Dead Space 3’ going this direction. I’m curious if ’The Last Of Us’ was going to have this feature at some point because it kind of feels built around that idea.
The gunplay does a lot to increase the difficulty of the combat in the game. The aiming I never felt I had a whole grasp of which did a lot to never make me feel too powerful. The game gives you plenty of weapons to use and all of them feel useful so I ended up switching between them constantly. This is cool because switching between some weapons will make you have to dig in your backpack for a second and switch between them which can be super tense. Especially since ammo is super limited, this was something I had to constantly worry about and that made combat so much more memorable for me.
Speaking of limited resources, this game is very hit or miss with it. It attempts to do it and is successful with the limit of ammo, but mostly everything else you can craft which just makes it way easier. The items you craft you won’t find much at all in the world either so you have to craft them which is pretty disappointing. I found myself swarmed in materials more than not, but the items you do have to find in the world are scarce. Enemies do drop items, but it is such a rare case similar to ’The Evil Within’ that it never became something I expected to get.
The exploration is okay. The game is incredibly linear with the occasional side path to small areas. I did feel disappointed sometimes when I was thrown into a huge environment and I didn’t get to explore much of it, but I’m not necessarily surprised by this. It is nice how the characters will mention something if you’re going the “story progression way” so if there hasn’t been something you’ve explored, you can do it now. There isn't much to do besides collect items and solve very minimal puzzles which is lame, but I guess it’s something.
I feel a lot of those issues that I have come from the fact that ’The Last Of Us’ is a very cinematic game. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I do love these types of experiences, but I feel ’The Last Of Us’ is conflicted. It feels less like a video game made to be a cinematic experience, but like an idea for a show that they ended up turning into a game. It feels hesitant to push the game aspect of it outside of combat, yet the combat itself is very gamey. It also suffers from having a QTE for every insignificant action like opening a door. I don’t mind QTEs for major set pieces, but I never understood why it was used for such simple parts. It’s not like it’s more immersive considering I have a giant flashing button on my screen telling me to spam it.
To mention some of the stronger aspects of the game. I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I think it is well written and the things they went for worked well. It isn’t the most original or unique tale, but I find its execution, especially with the characters, excellent. The voice acting is superb which elevates the emotions you will have towards a character due to how realistic the performances are. I don’t think there was a single one that felt out of place or didn’t have as much love put into it. You can tell all around everyone who worked on them really cared about bringing these characters to life and I see it as successful. I won’t get too deep into themes or anything because I never want to spoil an experience and I know some people want to go in as blind as possible and although the story may not be the most special thing ever written, it’s well told enough that it makes me understand why so many people hold it very dear to them and I feel it is something worth experiencing to see if it clicks with you too.
The presentation of ’The Last Of Us’ is quite phenomenal as well… mostly. The sewer location wasn’t the most interesting for me although there were some rooms that were cool there. The office locations weren’t the best either, but most of these environments that weren’t that strong tended to be very dark which definitely ramped up the tension for the zombie encounters so they did have something going for them. Other than that, you’ll see an almost entirely abandoned world where nature begins to take over the buildings and roads that people have built. It gives a feeling of loneliness that you and Ellie are the only ones here and that the rest of the world is gone. Obviously, that’s not true, you fight plenty of normal people throughout the game, but being lost just staring as the grass and trees take everything back made me forget about that, even if it was just for a moment. There has been issues for a very long while now of games sacrificing the actual art design of the world in favor of photo realism, but I feel ’The Last Of Us’ does a very good job at not sacrificing any interesting art. It also runs well now which is cool. I know the PC port was pretty shitty when the game first came out, but they’ve fixed it a ton since then. The game did crash on me once, but it was only one time and I never figured out what caused that to happen.
This is a remake, but don’t think of it as a completely new experience or anything. It is the same game that came out a decade ago with very few quality of life improvements, slight HUD change, more accessibility options, and a graphical upgrade. It’s not even similar to the ’Resident Evil’ or ’Dead Space’ remakes. It adds nothing really new and doesn’t cut anything out (well except the online lol). That is the most important thing to know about this remake so you can make up your mind whether that is worth the price tag or not. Visually, the game does slightly differentiate itself. The remake can look a bit more washed out of color which I am not sure how I feel about. I think both styles work well enough. The lighting is absolutely fantastic in the remake. The face models do look a little different from the originals, but it wasn’t an entire overhaul or anything. They just touched up on it a little. There is one thing the remake adds being a speedrun mode. This basically gives an in game timer on your screen and will pause at cinematics and loading screens and I thought this was really cool! I used to speedrun and livesplit can be a pain in the ass so this was pretty dope to see.
’The Last Of Us’ I feel has the potential to be so much more, but just misses the mark. It has a well told story, decent combat, an interesting world, yet is all held back by the confused mess of what kind of video game it wants to be, if one at all. I do recommend it, it is a game people adore and I am one person out of those who are a bit more harsh on it, but it still is an enjoyable experience and I would say it is worth trying.
The biggest fault this game has is it feels conflicted in whether it wants to be a game with tense, difficult combat or a game where you don’t do much besides hold forward. It is paced pretty poorly because of this. The games combat sections are usually paced with walk and talk moments that last an incredibly long time or a “puzzle” of moving a certain item to another area that tends to be ten feet apart anyways. I wish they did a bit more to spice things up or focused on a certain style similar to ’Resident Evil 4’ or ’Dear Esther’ instead of switching between thirty minutes of action game then thirty minutes of walking simulator.
The combat itself though is actually pretty fantastic. Mind you, I played on hard difficulty as well as never used the listen mode and saved melee for last resorts mostly as I felt for me, those mechanics made the game a bit too easy. That’s something I do enjoy about some of the features. You can avoid most of the things that make the game easier and it feels completely natural. It’s nice to have something that can make the game more accessible for people who want an easier experience without making it a necessity. There is one thing that doesn’t follow this rule though which is how the sprinting animation changes between when you are in combat and when you are out of it. It ends up being this little tell of knowing you are safe or not which ruins some of the tension of the combat encounters.
There are two different encounters that you will run into. Ones that contain zombies and others that will be with normal humans. They both are executed well. With the humans, I never got good at fully stealthing past all of them so I would just go for a crazy fight and that was always pretty fun. They’re pretty smart too! Some of them will stay behind cover to distract me as another guy flanks me. I felt I constantly had to make sure every corner of me was safe. The zombies I would always attempt stealthing as their quick and odd movement made it hard for me to shoot. Especially since the clickers are blind and can only hear, so it’s made to be stealth encounters usually. Although it does get interesting when they combine normal zombies with the clickers. I will say also that playing the DLC after made me wish the base game had encounters with both humans and zombies, but I’ll talk more about that when I cover the DLC.
You’ll pretty much for the entire game have some sort of npc companion to help you. They don’t have limited ammo and can only die whenever they are grabbed and you haven't saved them in time. They also can’t be seen whenever you are trying to be stealthy which is helpful. I wonder if there was ever at some point an idea to include online co-op? It was a trend at the time with games like ’Resident Evil 5’, ’F.E.A.R. 3’, and ’Dead Space 3’ going this direction. I’m curious if ’The Last Of Us’ was going to have this feature at some point because it kind of feels built around that idea.
The gunplay does a lot to increase the difficulty of the combat in the game. The aiming I never felt I had a whole grasp of which did a lot to never make me feel too powerful. The game gives you plenty of weapons to use and all of them feel useful so I ended up switching between them constantly. This is cool because switching between some weapons will make you have to dig in your backpack for a second and switch between them which can be super tense. Especially since ammo is super limited, this was something I had to constantly worry about and that made combat so much more memorable for me.
Speaking of limited resources, this game is very hit or miss with it. It attempts to do it and is successful with the limit of ammo, but mostly everything else you can craft which just makes it way easier. The items you craft you won’t find much at all in the world either so you have to craft them which is pretty disappointing. I found myself swarmed in materials more than not, but the items you do have to find in the world are scarce. Enemies do drop items, but it is such a rare case similar to ’The Evil Within’ that it never became something I expected to get.
The exploration is okay. The game is incredibly linear with the occasional side path to small areas. I did feel disappointed sometimes when I was thrown into a huge environment and I didn’t get to explore much of it, but I’m not necessarily surprised by this. It is nice how the characters will mention something if you’re going the “story progression way” so if there hasn’t been something you’ve explored, you can do it now. There isn't much to do besides collect items and solve very minimal puzzles which is lame, but I guess it’s something.
I feel a lot of those issues that I have come from the fact that ’The Last Of Us’ is a very cinematic game. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I do love these types of experiences, but I feel ’The Last Of Us’ is conflicted. It feels less like a video game made to be a cinematic experience, but like an idea for a show that they ended up turning into a game. It feels hesitant to push the game aspect of it outside of combat, yet the combat itself is very gamey. It also suffers from having a QTE for every insignificant action like opening a door. I don’t mind QTEs for major set pieces, but I never understood why it was used for such simple parts. It’s not like it’s more immersive considering I have a giant flashing button on my screen telling me to spam it.
To mention some of the stronger aspects of the game. I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I think it is well written and the things they went for worked well. It isn’t the most original or unique tale, but I find its execution, especially with the characters, excellent. The voice acting is superb which elevates the emotions you will have towards a character due to how realistic the performances are. I don’t think there was a single one that felt out of place or didn’t have as much love put into it. You can tell all around everyone who worked on them really cared about bringing these characters to life and I see it as successful. I won’t get too deep into themes or anything because I never want to spoil an experience and I know some people want to go in as blind as possible and although the story may not be the most special thing ever written, it’s well told enough that it makes me understand why so many people hold it very dear to them and I feel it is something worth experiencing to see if it clicks with you too.
The presentation of ’The Last Of Us’ is quite phenomenal as well… mostly. The sewer location wasn’t the most interesting for me although there were some rooms that were cool there. The office locations weren’t the best either, but most of these environments that weren’t that strong tended to be very dark which definitely ramped up the tension for the zombie encounters so they did have something going for them. Other than that, you’ll see an almost entirely abandoned world where nature begins to take over the buildings and roads that people have built. It gives a feeling of loneliness that you and Ellie are the only ones here and that the rest of the world is gone. Obviously, that’s not true, you fight plenty of normal people throughout the game, but being lost just staring as the grass and trees take everything back made me forget about that, even if it was just for a moment. There has been issues for a very long while now of games sacrificing the actual art design of the world in favor of photo realism, but I feel ’The Last Of Us’ does a very good job at not sacrificing any interesting art. It also runs well now which is cool. I know the PC port was pretty shitty when the game first came out, but they’ve fixed it a ton since then. The game did crash on me once, but it was only one time and I never figured out what caused that to happen.
This is a remake, but don’t think of it as a completely new experience or anything. It is the same game that came out a decade ago with very few quality of life improvements, slight HUD change, more accessibility options, and a graphical upgrade. It’s not even similar to the ’Resident Evil’ or ’Dead Space’ remakes. It adds nothing really new and doesn’t cut anything out (well except the online lol). That is the most important thing to know about this remake so you can make up your mind whether that is worth the price tag or not. Visually, the game does slightly differentiate itself. The remake can look a bit more washed out of color which I am not sure how I feel about. I think both styles work well enough. The lighting is absolutely fantastic in the remake. The face models do look a little different from the originals, but it wasn’t an entire overhaul or anything. They just touched up on it a little. There is one thing the remake adds being a speedrun mode. This basically gives an in game timer on your screen and will pause at cinematics and loading screens and I thought this was really cool! I used to speedrun and livesplit can be a pain in the ass so this was pretty dope to see.
’The Last Of Us’ I feel has the potential to be so much more, but just misses the mark. It has a well told story, decent combat, an interesting world, yet is all held back by the confused mess of what kind of video game it wants to be, if one at all. I do recommend it, it is a game people adore and I am one person out of those who are a bit more harsh on it, but it still is an enjoyable experience and I would say it is worth trying.