Clambering through overgrown obstacles to find a path that might lead me out of an inexorable maze to a point of safety just beyond the sight of grizzled soldiers hellbent on revenge. Feeling the sheer terror as I peek over the precipice of a long since abandoned car, now adorned with the clear evidences of a state of nature that has gone long unchecked by the destructive hand of man, peering into the wild hearts of men bent on ending my existence. While the wilds of the Earth are left all about me to reach the limitless heights that we had, collectively as a race, pushed back and tore through to allow for the multitudes of humans to live in comfortable confined spaces, myself and those around me are set to one goal, the thoughtless and unnamed smothering of the ambition of those who stand in opposition to ones immediate goals. We are, all of us, playing the parts of our collective destruction. As we squabble for the limited resources left in our dire existences we ensure our mutual annihilation with reckless abandon. Almost as swiftly as we had previously taken what we needed from the Earth to ensure our survival with little to no regard as to the damage wrought from doing so, so to do we take from our fellow man.

Crouching. Leaning on old bones while old legs tread softly tread softly. As softly as possible. “Click”ing sounds ring out through the cavernous causeways of an abandoned parking garage. Reeking death fills the air with spores that once attached to cilia and other inner workings of your lungs will force you into being as one with the beings you currently cower in fear from. Moving, breathing, existing, as silent as possible, trying to avoid the gnarling death that will surely be wrought when of these creatures hears, pushing myself in slow creeping motions to that next eventual exit so that I might get us to that one more milestone in our journey. Suddenly I realize I have made a misstep and one of the creatures who still owns the gift of sight comes barreling down across a concrete slab. My pistol rages in my hand. The incredible cacophony with which I used to defend myself shutters my mind up with absolute terror for now I know that they all know… That I am here. A seeming horde comes clumsily bolting in my direction. An unquenchable thirst for my flesh pulses through their veins. I run with her, trying to find an exit in this ruinous maze. I stop and plant both feet. Place two rounds in the bodies of my pursuers to the soundtrack of an even greater booming calamity played out by my firearm. I turn to run again. This time it is not enough. One grabs hold of me from behind and sinks their terrible teeth into my jugular to give quite the stark ending to my long journey. An ending of infinite blackness, brought on after hours of labor, yet the whole of my death was realized in a matter of seconds.

The Last of Us is an experience that anyone who plays games absolutely needs to have under their belt. In a culture that has become so incredibly over saturated with post apocalyptic themes it somehow manages to stand apart despite having one of the most tired premises of our generation. The simple changes made to the concept of zombifying humans by infecting them with a mind controlling fungus would not be enough for The Last of Us to overcome the monotony of being yet another zombie game. A tired premise is also a hard thing to level criticism towards when considering the development time required for a game of this scale. After the four years it takes to actually make the game, any premise that is presented as the basis for development could be easily be rendered tired before the developers have any chance to pivot their basic premise for a story.

What allows The Last of Us to stand out among the hundreds of post apocalyptic stories to be had in this day and age is absolutely everything else that the game has to offer. The Last of Us presents us immediately with some of the best storytelling, character modeling, and world building, that video games (or even the visual entertainment field) has to offer. What’s far more impressive, however, is how all of the elements mesh together so well into the story that The Last of Us is trying to present. Post apocalypse is a wonderfully easy setting for video games. In desperate times we must make choices in which we would probably have to kill a great deal of people, or just simply other living creatures, in order to survive. With action oriented games trying to portray an adult story, it’s hard for them to exist without a great deal of mindless bloodshed to fill in the gameplay loops and the post apocalypse is a sandbox for that sort of nonsense that can actually make a modicum of sense. That being said, there is still no excuse for the same premise to be regurgitated over and over again in video games like a season of Scooby Doo.

What The Last of Us does for the genre of both action games and zombie storytelling, is show all the ways in which you can mesh the two in the most coherent of possible measures, then drops the mic and walks away. The visceral kick of the gunshots, the complex level design, the lush world building, the terrifying and guttural sounds coming from both the human and zombie enemies, the stretches of gameplay spent desperately foraging for materials to craft weapons and medical kits while solving puzzles to allow you to traverse the world. All of these elements are essential to experiencing the ambitious narrative that Naughty Dawg has presented to us and all are done in such a way that the game is a pleasure to play, while at the same time being incredibly terrifying and deeply emotionally effective. There were three major points in the game where I was literally brought to tears and many more in which the gravity of my characters actions brought forth heavy sighs or moans.

The main criticism that can be leveled against the game all lie within the fact that it is in fact a game. While The Last of Us does a great deal of things to embed you into its storytelling, the simple fact that it is a game is at once it’s greatest strong point and stumbling block. While crawling slowly past zombie like creatures that can only register your presence through the use of echolocation, some of your partners that you end up with clamber about throughout the level without any regard from the zombies or your partner that either one exists. This seems necessary in order to weed out frustration that could be caused by having a non playable partner being detected by enemies and ruining your game, however it does take you out of the experience and a lack of structure for the AI to avoid the zombies is unfortunate, but also seems to be a necessary component in order for the game to be enjoyable. Other elements, such as a brick breaking upon throwing it every time, shivs being an ever-present crafting necessity while your partner carries a knife throughout the whole game, and some other glaringly obvious gameplay elements that bring ones psyche out of the fold, are placed within the game to enhance play-ability with some small sacrifices concerning complete immersion into the experience.

When it comes right down to it these sorts of things are minor in the grand scheme of things, as we don’t play video games to experience something directly, (that’s what real life is for) we play them in order to simulate experiences. In the best case scenarios we simulate these experiences to gleam some insight into ourselves or the human condition as a whole, in the worst we simulate them to play out sadistic fantasies so that we might not perform the acts that we play out in the simulated experience in a realm outside of it. I believe The Last of Us represents the former of those scenarios and for all intents and purposes also represents a new standard in both narrative and gameplay quality for video games in the years to come.

The Last of Us 10/10

Pros:

+ Dense world building and character development.

+ What is perhaps the greatest story in video games.

+ Intense gameplay with the scariest enemies in video game history

+ Thought provoking themes

+ Stellar and heart shattering ending

Cons:

– Gameplay sometimes gets in the way of realism lessening immersion

– Complex labyrinthine level design sometimes frustrates one into running and gunning to find an exit, dying and restarting so you might be able to sneak past the enemies, which once again, causes some problems concerning immersion.

A 10 does not mean that a game is perfect what it does mean is that it represents the best possible execution in the medium, in the mediums current state. It is also representative of a must buy.