Good Review: The Last Of Us

Finally, I'm done with the game and I've tested it properly so I can write down a good review of what many call the best game this year, or even of this generation of consoles. The game in question is The Last Of Us by Naughty Dog, the guys that made that little trilogy known as Uncharted. I gave it fourth place in a list of top ten games you should play on this generation of consoles.

So, did Naughty Dog deliver another masterpiece. While some say yes, and some say no, let's go trough it all step by step and decide whether it's good or bad.

So, let's start with the basic premise of this game. It's supposed to be a survival horror where the player controls two characters and tries to reach their destination alive. It's also a very heavily story driven game.

THE STORY

The story is set in modern world that is suddenly turned into a post apocalyptic world where it's every man for himself and social ruled don't apply no more. How and why it happens.. there's no real explanation. All that you do get to know is some sort of virus or whatever has appeared turning people into.. guess what.. ZOMBIES. Original isn't it. Don't know why, but for the last couple of years everyone seems to use zombies as their favorite theme. 

 
The game follows Joel, a man whose daughter gets killed in the intro. Twenty years later, people live in quarantine zones under oppressive police rule or secluded settlements. In between is a wasteland filled with bandits and zombies and you're tasked to get Ellie to a group that will use her to make a cure (as she has been bitten but hasn't evolved so yeah.. that's how it goes in any zombie story).

From that point on you travel for about a year and I won't spoil the rest of the story, but in my judgement it IS NOT so epic and imaginative as people make it out to be. It contains too many zombie cliches and loose ends to be considered a truly great story.

GAMEPLAY

OK, moving on to gameplay, the mechanics are pretty simple, move, crouch, shoot etc.. Nothing new there really and weirdly enough there's no real cover system in a game that should be focused on stealth and avoiding enemies whenever possible. Instead it often makes you fight, like making it impossible to interact with doors until you've defeated enemies in the room and such.

Also, stealth is awfully done, AI makes it all look retarded and that's BAD for this game. It's too immersion breaking at so many points. Enemies often don't see you, and especially your AI companion when you're sneaking in plain view right in front of them in a well lit room. And your companion AI can also start shooting when you're trying to sneak. For a game that bragged about great AI, that is nowhere near what was promised. OH, the zombies are supposed to have great sense of hearing.. yet your companion will often talk loud right behind then and they won't even care, just like no enemies will give a damn if they find a dead body (for zombies that's normal, but normal humans would be expected to react, raise alarm or do something).

GRAPHICS

Moving on to finer point of this game, graphics are great. Just great. At few places they are amazing, and really push this lovely old PS 3 to it's limits. Locations are done pretty good, though at times they seem a bit too linear, which is good for the looks of the game but ruins some of the immersion. But fear not, great looking models and textures will put you right back into this world, and a lot of natural looking animations will keep you entertained.

SOUND

Well, this is one thing that can't be looked down upon. Sound is perfect. Every melody in the background, every voice and breath by the characters is perfect. The game, being what it is, could easily be recorded and sold as a TV show instead of a game and no one would mind just because the sound is so natural.

GOOD OR BAD

So, is this the best game of this generation.. or this year? NO. The story, as much as it tries to pull you in emotionally and it succeeds a lot of times as Ellie is easy to get attached to, is pretty generic overall. It's just another zombie apocalypse where there's one person who is immune and needs to be saved. There's a twist at the end, but that's about it.

Gameplay is basic at best, with weak AI that breaks the immersion far too often and it's better to WATCH this story then it is to PLAY it.

So, as much as fanboys may hate it, this game is a 7/10 in my opinion. I'd even go lower honestly, but let it stay at 7 for now. It's just not special and has it's flaws that shouldn't be there.