The Last of Us reviewed by Ominous Prime
I wanted to wait until a lot of the hype died down to play this game because I knew in my mind it would not live up to what was built up. It's not to say that The Last of Us is a bad game. I will try and be spoiler free for those of you left to play it. It's actually quite good, if not one of the best games of the year as far as story telling goes. Naughty Dog demonstrates that the current generation still has gas left in the tank, and that story telling is not all about next gen particle effects or how many blue balls can be on the screen at once. The Last of Us shows what a talented group of artists can accomplish if given enough time to develop a quality title. There are quite a few moments, like in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, where you just want to take pause and look at the scenery!
Now let me cover what I liked here. Joel and Ellie are written very believable as characters in the situation they are in, and the heart of the story is of loss, how people handle it, and how people can move forward. I love that they take these two characters and focused on that instead of the usual tropes of cure the "zombie" infection that plague most video games and movies. The supporting cat of characters are equally well acted, and the performance of each character avoids the "uncanny valley". There will be moments that will tug at you, and it's recommended to have a box of tissues with you. If you've ever had a kid, you'll understand. The gameplay is well varied and the game isn't too long with me getting to the end in just over 10 hours. There will be some of you that will be the game in a more timely manor as I was taking in the sites. There are some puzzles is the game to solve that Naughty Dog is known for placing in the Uncharted games, but not as difficult. For a game that is pretty linear, there is still a sense of exploration, but an urgency to keep moving forward. With limits on supplies, the game test you on your approach to handling various scenarios. I played The Last of Us as a stealth game, trying to avoid combat as much as possible. I really enjoyed the archery combat here as well. The construction of weapons and supplies still manages to be fun through out the game, and the supplies you can create in the beginning are equally useful towards the end of the game, which is not common in games.
Now here are the parts that brought down the expereince for me. There are a few recurring game bugs that pulled me right out of the moment in the game. I had dead bodies that bounced around the screen like in Perfect Dark Zero when I bumped into them, I had a store front disappear and reappear when moving the camera, and I had enemies spawn out of thin air. The last "bug" may have been actually done like this on purpose, but it's weird when it happens in an open area and they pop into existence like a tree in a game with poor draw distance. When everything else is done so well, it stands out. One other thing I will bring up here is the enemy A.I.. It's very inconsistent. I have seen several moments where human enemies will run into a wall and keep running in place while looking for me. If I walk past them, they don't notice me either as if they are stuck in a program loop. Another issue is when shooting human enemies, they stand there and take it and don't fire back. In a particular place, it happened in a corridor and none of the enemy reacted to the gunfire and just let we eliminate them to get through the door they were guarding. It happened frequently after dying and trying the area again. Now when encountering infected enemies, there was little consistency to how they react. "Clickers" are pretty much everywhere and can be a one hit one kill to you. The thing is "Clickers" are not supposed to see you and react only to sound. There are parts of the game that no matter how quiet you are, "Clickers" will know where you are and stampede you. I found that strange because the game trains you on how to deal with "Clickers" near the beginning parts of the game, only to chuck that out the window in different areas where you are in an area that you must kill everything to move forward. Now these issues will not ruin the game in anyway for most, but the are worth mentioning. This concludes the gripes, and this is why I give the Last of Us four out of five stars. If you haven't played the game and you have a PS3, why do you own a PS3 then? Go play it for the experience. Games like this are rare!
