The Last of Us Game review

The Last Of Us is a game developed by people who understand the perennial appeal of setting a story in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Whether social order was wiped out by a series of earthquakes, a nuclear war or a zombie plague is immaterial.
The fact is, it’s gone and the law of the jungle has returned; the focus here, then, should be not on the crumbling landscape or the monsters lurking out in the darkness. It should, instead, centre in on those having to survive in the rubble of civilisation.

The Last of Us is a video game that wears its influences proudly. A bleak, profoundly brutal examination of human nature at the end of the world, it recalls Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novella The Road and the dystopian ambience of Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men.

It’s a bold departure in tone for developer Naughty Dog --a studio better known for matinee adventure Uncharted and the cartoon action of Jak & Daxter-- but their aim of tying narrative and gameplay together has never been as focussed. Or as successful.

From its sensational opening to its hammer-blow finale, The Last of Us is pushed on by narrative momentum. Story and action are one and the same, a gritty and grim tale furnished with tense horror and shocking, unglamorous violence. In no uncertain terms, this is Naughty Dog’s story. While many video games dally with the power of player choice and branching narrative, Naughty Dog exert their authorial control with no apology. It’s a focus that works for them, bringing a clarity and purpose to their narrative.
Joel has done a lot more of the latter since the outbreak, making him a fascinating video game protagonist. He’s not an anti-hero, he’s not any kind of hero at all; he’s a violent, selfish survivor. He hates himself for it, but he’s not about to apologise for it either.
Troy Baker’s terse, grumpy turn as Joel is offset wonderfully by Ellie, played with prickly fortitude by Ashley Johnson. Naughty Dog’s skill at characters and direction is manifested in its two leads’ chemistry, a virtue all too rare in gaming’s repertoire.
Dialogue is sparse and understated, Ellie reacting with glee and horror to the beauty and desperation of world around her, while Joel reacts as if he’s seen it all before, and is sick of the sight of it. It’s a fabulous relationship, and earns its place as the game’s beating heart.
While you would expect the makers of Uncharted to succeed in their cinematic inspirations, what impresses --and perhaps surprises-- is that it’s not a crutch.

The Last Of Us: Gameplay

The Last of Us tells a strong story, but it’s also a fantastic action game, offering well-paced variety throughout. Conflict with the infected and the human scavengers is inevitable and frequent, and when the violence hits, it hits ferociously. Combat is weighty and sickeningly brutal. Joel will jam shivs into the necks of infected, and smash bricks into other men’s skulls. It is done without fanfare or glory; rather as mucky, desperate necessity. Along the way, Ellie and Joel run into other survivors – some friendly, some hostile – and a large number of the mindless, feral ‘Infected’ and ‘The Hunters’, a faction of humans who prey on others for supplies and sport.
It’s here that The Last Of Us throws Naughty Dog fans their first curveball. Like the developer’s Uncharted series, this game places players in the shoes of a scrappy, likable character, but Joel, unlike Nathan Drake, is no action hero. His hand-to-hand combat skills are negligible, he aims with less-than-steady hands and he drops if a couple of bullets enter his body.
Most of the time, his best option is staying out of sight, striking from the shadows and pausing to listen out for where enemies are positioned.
So The Last Of Us, then, plays like a vintage survival-horror game, with some crafting and some third-person (albeit slightly ropy) cover-based mechanics thrown in. This may come as such a surprise to players, that many may be put off by the game’s opening hour – as I was – where the temptation to juggle melee attacks with gunplay needs to be actively resisted.
 
Leap into a fray all guns blazing, and you’re likely to get turned into paint in some of the most eye-poppingly gruesome death scenes we’ve seen since Tomb Raider and Dead Space. The Last Of Us isn’t easy and sometimes it isn’t fair, but hey, that’s life when the zombies (or in this case, The infected) run rampant.
 t also respects challenge. The Last of Us is a tough, uncompromising game, and there was worry in earlier previews that the game’s difficulty could interrupt the flow of the narrative and cause frustration. On the contrary, that death comes often and suddenly is integral to the game’s atmosphere.
There’s a danger that The Last of Us could falter when veering into straight up shooter territory, as the gunplay doesn’t have the sharpness of its contemporaries. This is entirely deliberate, as Joel’s aim wavers under stress during the panicked, ferocious skirmishes.
It’s the perfect foil to place shootouts as a last resort, but when the game forces shooting upon you, the illusion begins to lose its lustre. It’s something that Naughty Dog are keenly aware of, however, and the game’s pacing sees to it that no section outstays its welcome, effortlessly switching from stealth, to sieges, to set-pieces.

The Last Of Us: Verdict

The gentle environmental puzzling could have stretched beyond shuffling ladders around and opening doors, but one of the game’s greatest strengths is making its quiet moments as impactful and important as its firecracker ones. Using that contrast helps to weave a story that always feels whole and connected to its gameplay.
And that’s where The Last of Us becomes Naughty Dog’s finest work and one of the best games of this generation. It would be disingenuous to suggest that The Last of Us is immune from blockbuster video game excess --the total number of kills at the final stats page will still run into the many hundreds-- but it’s one of the few games to try and make some kind of sense of it without compromising its quality of action.
In that, and so many other things, The Last of Us is a triumph.
The game’s ending provides closure, but it doesn’t offer up its melancholy delights neatly wrapped in bow. This is one of the only games in recent memory players with finish with a lump in their throat. That alone is enough to confer The Last Of Us with the status of greatness.

The Last Of Us release date: 14 June 2013

The Last of Us price:  £39.99