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    The Last of Us

    Game » consists of 11 releases. Released Jun 14, 2013

    Joel and Ellie must survive in a post-apocalyptic world where a deadly parasitic fungus infects people's brains in this PS3 exclusive third-person action-adventure game from Naughty Dog.

    How long did it take you to finish The Last of Us?

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    selfconfessedcynic

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    Poll How long did it take you to finish The Last of Us? (311 votes)

    < 11 hours 3%
    11-12+ hours 7%
    13-14+ hours 17%
    15-16+ hours 17%
    17-18+ hours 11%
    19-20+ hours 6%
    >= 21 hours 3%
    See Results / Haven't finished it 35%

    After having seen responses like "what? it's only 12 hours long?" at the end of some reviews, it got me thinking about the average play-length for most people who've completed this game.

    Firstly because responses like that make me think that some people have been living under a rock this generation (where games have been tending towards being 6-8 hours long), and secondly because I personally took ~18.5h to finish the game so it's entirely up to the player.

    So, out of curiosity, how long did it take you?

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    BulletproofMonk

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    #1  Edited By BulletproofMonk

    Just over 17 hours.

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    Soap

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    14 hours 23 minutes I think?

    I thought I had been pretty slow though tbh.

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    selfconfessedcynic

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    @soap said:

    14 hours 23 minutes I think?

    I thought I had been pretty slow though tbh.

    :D - I dunno man, I was actually surprised to realise there was a "running down stairs" animation when I did a wrap-up spoilercast for the game (as silly as that sounds). Seriously, I'd never ran for long enough to go up or down stairs whilst running, that's how much I chose to simply walk in this game.

    So yeah, redefining taking a game slow over here. I've never done that before, not even in Metal Gear games in which I run half the time. I just got engrossed in the environments, I guess - plus, I had to catch my breath a lot of the time, really embracing the moments with no combat.

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    EVO

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    @soap said:

    14 hours 23 minutes I think?

    I thought I had been pretty slow though tbh.

    Same here. I had roughly the same time and was surprised with it, although I didn't scour the environment for supplies and collectibles.

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    RonGalaxy

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    A little over 16, and I played on hard/was super meticulous about scouring the environment for secrets

    I honestly expected way less than that. ND's original estimate was 10-12, which usually translates to 8-10. Seeing so many people say between 16 and 18 is a nice surprise

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    Petiew

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    #6  Edited By Petiew

    Around 15 hours. Does it take into account your deaths and restarts?

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    BBAlpert

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    #7  Edited By BBAlpert

    My game clock said like 18 hours, but there were at least 3 separate instances where I had paused the game/left it running to go do some laundry or help my roommate bring in some groceries or something, so that time isn't really accurate.

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    selfconfessedcynic

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    @petiew said:

    Around 15 hours. Does it take into account your deaths and restarts?

    I think it counts deaths/restarts as it says I died 38 times. Crazily enough, I can only remember dying like 6-7 times... but w/e.

    Hmm... yeah, I have no clue how it got to 38, but who am I to argue with stat tracking :D - maybe it counts "restart encounter"? I did use that a bunch of times.

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    geirr

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    No clue.

    I played an hour here and there for 4-5 days. Also I would never turn the PS3 off since loading the game took FOREVER! I could literally clean the kitchen when trying to load a save after booting. Then of course the save bug happened so I had to redo 30% of the game.

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    Barrock

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    17 hours.

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    selfconfessedcynic

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    @geirr said:

    No clue.

    I played an hour here and there for 4-5 days. Also I would never turn the PS3 off since loading the game took FOREVER! I could literally clean the kitchen when trying to load a save after booting. Then of course the save bug happened so I had to redo 30% of the game.

    : (

    I just booted the game and loaded the start of Winter and the loading screen only lasted for 6 seconds. Then again, I've got the digital version on an after-market hard drive (still 5400rpm though, so nothing fancy). Makes me want to go digital from now-on, though I really miss having a box on my shelf, especially for this game (I really love it).

    Anyway, yeah, I had made it to meeting Ellie for the first time when hit with that bug. Really sucked.

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    49th

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    I finished in 19 hours on hard. I search each area multiple times trying to find hidden stuff so that time does seen accurate. I also finished Bioshock Infinite in a similar time also looking for stuff.

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    RonGalaxy

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    @selfconfessedcynic: same here. I have the digital version on a modest 5400 rpm hd, and the load times were nothing. Then again, the ps3 br drive is pretty terrible, so that's probably a factor

    the drive speed is 2x, which is very low for a disc drive. Good thing the ps4 is beefing it up to a 6x drive. That should be fast enough where installing games to the system is no longer necessary

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    Yummylee

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    #15  Edited By Yummylee

    I think it was 15-16, though that's only a guess; I know it took me a fair while because I remember thinking how incredibly long it was. It was on Hard mode anywhoo, and I went out of my way to scour as many collectibles/memos that I could find.

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    KowalskiManDown

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    15 or so hours, if I remember rightly. Took the game real slow, wanted to take in as much of that game as I possibly could.

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    selfconfessedcynic

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    @naru_joe93 said:

    @selfconfessedcynic: same here. I have the digital version on a modest 5400 rpm hd, and the load times were nothing. Then again, the ps3 br drive is pretty terrible, so that's probably a factor

    the drive speed is 2x, which is very low for a disc drive. Good thing the ps4 is beefing it up to a 6x drive. That should be fast enough where installing games to the system is no longer necessary

    Yup, performance on the digital version seems ace.

    But on the note of PS4 stuff, even with a 6x drive next gen textures, levels, etc are looking to be much larger. Remember that for current gen, everything in your immediate vicinity has to fit on 512 mb of ram (heck, the game engine is actually only like 5mb in TLoU - which is insane).

    That said, Cerny did talk about installing games to your harddrive whilst playing them as a feature of the PS4, which hopefully works out in a best-of-both-worlds fashion.

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    Dark

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    My save said 12 and a half, however I have no idea if that includes stuff up and going back to checkpoints. I played it on hard so I did a whole lot of getting stuck and dieing at points.

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    zidd

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    #19  Edited By zidd

    roughly 14 hours

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    MightyDuck

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    I think I was right around 13 hours or so. I was playing on medium up until the Winter portion and then switched the game to Easy so I could just enjoy the story.

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    Sooperspy

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    My save says exactly 12 hours. That was on hard, too. And I found around 70% of the collectibles. I'm sure I missed out on some of the Ellie conversations, though. Could have/should have taken it slower, I think.

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    JasonR86

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    I came in just under 15 hours.

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    spankingaddict

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    It took me a little over 15 hours .

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    UpInLights

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    it took me about 14 hrs on hard

    it took my brother about 16 hrs on normal

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    superfriend

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    About 16 hours.
    I was just about ready to dismiss the game as some sort of Manhunt ripoff after maybe 3 hours.. but it really keeps getting better and better.

    Finished it yesterday. What an amazing game! The parts near the end were.. I´m speechless. Oh god, and the MP is actually worthwhile?! Daaaamn, I wish I had more time to play games.

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    I_Stay_Puft

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    Finished the game in about 3 sittings consisting of about 5 hours during the first weekend it was out.

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    bkbroiler

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    About 15 hours on Normal. Replaying on Hard now while getting all collectables, and I'm already at 15 hours about 3/4ths of the way through.

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    MEATBALL

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    Just shy of 20 hours with 19 hours 57 minutes.

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    BigBoss1911

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    15 hours approximately on hard.

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    Scampbell

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    I suspect the way you play the game, stealth or just plowing through factors a great deal into the length too. I basically insisted on stealth anywhere it was possible, and killing as few as possible. This led to a great deal of frustration, especially when the game forced me to fight.

    I just felt it would add more realism, as single-handedly killing hundreds people, well, it just doesn't seem realistic, especially in the context of the story. Of course I was still forced to kill a pretty absurd amount people, and by the end I had basically almost given up on the idea, and had adapted to a mix between stealth and guns blazing. This style, though probably more frustrating than it worth did lead to a lot of intense moments. Sneaking around those dark spore filled rooms while listening to the snore of a Bloater(?) was one of the scariest moments I've ever experienced in a game (keep in mind though, I'm not a fan of horror games, in fact I couldn't even make myself play Doom 2 back in the days).

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    SharkEthic

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    "what? it's only 12 hours long?"

    That right there pisses me off. I honestly have no idea how long it took me to finish. Might have been closer to 10 than 20. Might have been the other way around. But really, with this level of immersion, this level of storytelling, this level of quality, who cares? If you'd finished The Last Of Us, and still felt the need to complain about the length of the game, I kinda feel sorry for you...

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    lusence

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    on my first play-through not counting the 4 hours on my very first play where i hit the save bug it had me at 13hours. died 50 times lol and that was on normal. not sure how i managed to die so much, i think i was stuck at a few zombie attack areas for lots of deaths. not so much vs the bandits. those damn clickers mixed in with a group of runners kept eating me.

    i think playing on survivor could add 10 hrs or so due to having to repeat sections etc.

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    Nodima

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    #33  Edited By Nodima

    14:47 so I voted for 15-16.

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    NewDust

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    #34  Edited By NewDust

    First time on hard just over 20 hours (kept dying/restarting encouters I should be able to fully stealth, didn't really worked out that well), than another playthrough on survivor almost took 17 hours, wile easy+ with collectibles only took 9 hours.

    12-14 hours first playthrough on normal sounds reasonable to me.

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    Hector

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    Too me a little over 12 hours. Died a bunch of times. lol

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    deactivated-629fb02f57a5a

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    15 - 16 on normal. I switched off with my brother and he takes things really slow and searches every possible little niche. He also has no sense of direction in games and gets lost easy.

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    Raineko

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    13 hours normal. The only part where I really got stuck once was

    in the winter part where you play Ellie and have to find a way out the town.

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    Nekroskop

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    18 hours on hard. I checked every nook and cranny.

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    TooSweet

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    It took me 23 hours on hard. I took my time and looked everywhere and I still missed tons of stuff. I enjoyed every bit of it though. I also killed just about everyone I ran across.

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    FluxWaveZ

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    #40  Edited By FluxWaveZ

    12 hours and 31 minutes on Normal.

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    jsnyder82

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    I'm loving the game, but I have to admit, sometimes I don't want to play it simply because it makes me wait about 6-7 minutes just to load the damn game (should have bought the digital download). And on top of that, I doubly don't want to play it because Joel just turned a generator on in a basement, and enemies swarm to me and kill me within seconds. I have no idea how to get out of there.

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    Klei

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    12 hours and 30 minutes on normal. Did everything, walked, didn't rush. Don't know how you can take much more than this, honestly.

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    Scampbell

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    #43  Edited By Scampbell

    @jsnyder82 said:

    I'm loving the game, but I have to admit, sometimes I don't want to play it simply because it makes me wait about 6-7 minutes just to load the damn game (should have bought the digital download). And on top of that, I doubly don't want to play it because Joel just turned a generator on in a basement, and enemies swarm to me and kill me within seconds. I have no idea how to get out of there.

    There is a hallway with a door on the right which needs a key card. Not sure which direction that is, but I think it is the way the Bloater is coming from. I just ran to it when I had figured out where it was.

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    jsnyder82

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    @jsnyder82 said:

    I'm loving the game, but I have to admit, sometimes I don't want to play it simply because it makes me wait about 6-7 minutes just to load the damn game (should have bought the digital download). And on top of that, I doubly don't want to play it because Joel just turned a generator on in a basement, and enemies swarm to me and kill me within seconds. I have no idea how to get out of there.

    There is a hallway with a door on the right which needs a key card. Not sure which direction that is, but I think it is the way the Bloater is coming from. I just ran to it when I had figured out where it was.

    Oh, jeez, I just now realized I have a keycard. I kept looking at the keycard icon down at the bottom right and had no idea what it was. Must have missed that part. Thank you!

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    leecoste75

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    Took me about 16 1/2 hours that's on normal, walking/running and looking everywhere I could look, great game & to be honest I am a xbox head (have been for years & will remain 2 be, sorry) but bought a ps3 solely for this game, and cause the console was going cheap, but yeah lived it, great game, an asset to PS3

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    MightyDuck

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    I want to say it took me about 12 hours or so to finish. Definitely a great game that I enjoyed this summer. I recently "rediscovered" how fun the online multiplayer is as well. I've sunk a few hours into that over the past few weekends too.

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    JBG4

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    I was at 15 hours 38 minutes when I finished it. I loved it, a great, emotional experience.

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    CityName

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    #49  Edited By CityName

    Just about 15 hours, and then I spent about twice that time sitting completely still while I thought about the ending.

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    Castiel

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    My first playthrough was around 17 hours and 36 minutes I think, which was longer than I expected. But I also took my sweet time checking the environments making sure I didn't miss anything.

    I'm on my second playthrough right now, on hard, and I think that's gonna be about 14 hours judging by how far I am right now.

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