I have been playing games from Developer Naughty Dog for years. From the wacky adventures of the Jak and Daxter games, to treasure hunting thrills of the Uncharted games. Though there was one game that came out in 2013 that I never picked up called The Last Of Us on PlayStation 3. It wouldn’t be until late 2017 that I got the Remastered Version for Playstation 4 that I finally got to play the game….and by God it was gut wrenching. I had so much fun with the game both from a gameplay and a story standpoint that I just have to talk about it.

This game….THIS GAME….IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL!



Can we just briefly mention how beautiful this game looks. This game is legitimately stunning to look at. Especially with the Remastered version on the Playstation 4. The ruins of civilization, the lush greenery taking over the buildings, the fungus growing, the bugs and rats scurrying around. This is just so beautiful to look at that I had to stop at certain points in the game just admire how it looks. It all runs at 1080p and 60FPS. Especially during the cutscenes. It was always such a treat and always ran so smoothly.

Wow….Just Wow….Even after playing it looks beautiful.



Gameplay

The Gameplay is your standard 3rd Person Shooter in terms of it’s combat with a natural cover system. The shoot feels natural and real, especially when things get intense. You will be missing a lot of your shots but that’s okay. You can find ammo and other weapons from dead enemies that you can stash in your bag. However in the event that you can’t find any firearms there is melee combat.

The gunplay is mixed with melee combat similar to that found in Naughty Dog’s other series Uncharted. However this game feels a bit more fluent and your melee attacks feel like they have more weight to them than most games. You really feel the power behind your punches or if you have a melee weapon that you picked up off the ground randomly or a deceased enemy. And holy crap it is satisfying to beat the ever living crap out of your enemies. Now you can’t always run up to enemies and beat the crap out of them. You’ll have to rely on stealth as well.

Now Stealth is EXTREMELY important in certain parts of the game mainly because this game can get difficult and let me tell you. There will be enemies that can kill you in one hit. You’re gonna die, a lot. Thankfully the stealth element is there, and trust me you are gonna want to take the path of least resistance. You can throw bottles and bricks to distract enemies, you can crouch and slowly walk past enemies and even assassinate enemies which I highly advise doing. Especially with shivs that you will need to craft, speaking of which.

Gotcha ya damn Clicker!



Crafting

Yes, there is an actual crafting system in the game. This crafting system allows you to upgrade weapons that you find in the field whether at a crafting table which you will find throughout your run through or crafting bombs and such in the field. Now how exactly you craft is pretty simple.

Throughout your run through of the game, you’ll find scrap and many other objects around the world that you can collect, you can use all these normally meaningless junk and upgrade the weapons that you have acquired throughout the game. Making them more powerful, giving them a bigger ammo capacity, farther zoom etc. Weapon upgrades usually take place on crafting tables in safe areas throughout the game so keep an eye out for them.

You can find melee weapons like a wood board, metal pipes and baseball bats throughout the world. You can upgrade them to become even more powerful one-hit kill weapons, granted you have the right materials for it. You can upgrade them straight from your inventory so no need to find a crafting table.

You can create things such as first aid kits, molotov cocktails (which I highly recommend you save), nail bombs which act as mines, and shivs which help with those damn Clickers!!! And trust me, you will feel vulnerable without shivs. You can find items around the world which will help you build all of these tools you’ll need. You can craft these items in the field straight from you inventory so you don’t have to worry about looking for a crafting table.

However, that’s not all you will be needing. You’ll also need pills. Pills are used for upgrading your abilities like, listening distance, max HP, steady weapon aim, healing and crafting speed etc. You can find pills all around the world and take them straight from your inventory.

I don’t have enough materials!!!



Combat



As stated before, all combat is mainly third person with a natural cover system. No need to press a button to go into cover, just press yourself up against a wall or box or something and the character just naturally takes cover. This comes in handy during firefights which there will be a lot of in this game. There are many different ways to kill your enemy’s in this game. First and foremost, let’s talk hand to hand combat.

Hand to hand combat is the most satisfying combat in the game. As stated earlier, you can feel the power behind your punches and it is gloriously brutal. You also use the environment around you during hand to hand combat. Like pushing an enemy against a wall and knocking them out, or smashing an infected head into a table. It is so brutal.

Next kind of weapon is with a blunt weapon. Whether it be a wooden board, baseball bat, or metal pipe, you can beat the absolute crap out of your enemies that way. These types of weapons you can upgrade as stated in the crafting section. Or why not pick up a brick or bottle and smash it in enemies faces, and while you can’t upgrade these weapons, they are still just as effective.

The guns are the main weapons of the game. There are quite a few guns in the game, from a pistol to a revolver, a shotgun to a bow and arrow. Thanks to the crafting system mentioned earlier you can upgrade all these weapons for more ammo and such. At first you can only carry one primary and one secondary and can switch between the two. As you go through the game and upgrade your bag you can hold two primaries which definitely helps in a pinch. The gunplay is rather smooth in this game, with the natural cover system attributing to that. There will be times your character Joel will shake a lot trying to shoot while taking on incoming fire from other survivor enemies or sometimes you’ll miss a shot or two with a pistol trying to get those sweet headshots against the infected in a panic. You’ll find ammo from fallen enemies and inside drawers and closets and stuff along the way. Try to use as little ammo as possible, try to save your ammo for clickers or against survivors.

There is some stealth based combat in this game, as you can sneak up against unsuspecting enemies and either choke them out or use your shivs to kill them which I highly recommend you try doing most of the time. Trust me, you’ll be thanking me. And save the shiv kills for the Clickers, you’ll die otherwise.

Come get some!!!

Enemies

While there aren’t that many types of enemies in the game, you should be when you do encounter them as they will do everything they can to kill you.

The first type of enemy you should be aware of is obviously the humans which include looters/bandits/cannibals and at some points even the Military! They will be armed and dangerous, whether that’s a rifle or a bat, just watch out, these guys are pretty likely to kill you if you’re not careful. In a pinch they are known to charge you and engage in hand to hand combat while the others shoot you from afar, so be careful.

The second types are of course the infected. And they come in four variants.

Runners – The name says it all. These guys run up at you and in hordes. These guys have no problem seeing you so ready a shotgun, cuz they will all be running at you at once. They will also try to grab you and nom on you. You can usually counter when they grab you unless you have no health, then you’re dead.

Stalkers – These guys have the vision and speed of a Runner so it’s hard to tell the difference. The way you can tell is if there is fungus on one of its eyes, but then again why would you look anyways. They usually have the ferocity of a Clicker so be careful when trying to stealth kill them, they might turn around and try to grab you, fortunately, you can counter when they grab you. Unlike our next variant.

Clickers – These guys will become the bane of your existence in this game. Unlike Runners and Stalkers, these guys can’t see you so they use echolocation to find you, kinda like bats. This is where stealth comes in handy, as well as your shiv, and ammo if they know you’re there. You usually wanna stealth kill these guys with your shivs as quickly as you can. If they grab you, it’s an insta-kill. Fortunately, there is an upgrade later to counter this. However, that upgrade is useless against the last variant.

Bloaters – These guys are massive hulking infected that can and will kill you with ease. I hope you saved up your molotov for these guys because you absolutely need them. These guys can throw sacks of toxic gas to slowly kill you so try to avoid these. Whatever you do, do not go near these guys. They will grab you and rip you apart and there is nothing you can to counter it. So steer clear.

Welp….I’m dead….

Difficulty



Just a quick side note, this game can get very difficult, especially on the higher difficulty settings. There are five stages of difficulty:

Easy – Crafting supplies, healing items, ammo, melee weapons, are all over the place and enemies are quick and easy to kill. Great for beginners.

Normal – Supplies spawn at normal rates, enemies are fairly strong, and sharp melee weapons spawn late in the game. Great for casual players

Hard – Supplies are rare to come by, non-infected enemies are more aggressive and use cover often. Power weapons like the Machete and Hatchet are almost never seen. Great for experienced players.

Survivor – Supplies are extremely rare to come by, game hint and prompts as well as Listening Mode are all disabled. All enemies do double damage and powerful melee weapons only appear once. If you really want to a challenge, this is the mode.

Grounded – Supplies are next to non-existent, Listen Mode is disabled, all enemies do triple damage, and your HUD is disabled. Enemy AI is smarter than you, multiple mid-combat and mid-stealth checkpoints have been removed, and allies will not give you ammo or health kits with the exception of one. However, the revolver does one hit kill enemies without armor. This is great for the hardcore players who want to experience a real zombie apocalypse and suffer.

Fair warning, if you choose Hard or above YOU’RE GONNA DIE, A LOT.

Story

The Story itself is relatively simple. In 2013 a dangerous virus called Cordyceps (A real-life fungus by the by that infects insects) broke out all over the world with Joel (The main character and the person you play as.) right in the middle of it. 20 Years later in 2033, Joel is approached by the leader of a group called The Fireflies to take a 14-Year-Old girl named Ellie (your partner in the game) across the country from Boston all the way out west as she could quite possibly be the cure to the virus.

As you travel along the way you will meet a variety of characters. Some that are from Joel’s past, some that are absolutely crazy like a bat outta hell, and some that are honestly just trying to get by in this crazy new society. Along the way you get to see Joel and Ellie’s relationship grow as they become closer to each other in a sort of father-daughter relationship with Joel being the disgruntled old man. You see their struggles as they try and look out for each other, the little moments they share with each other and often funny banter between the two. Ellie isn’t a damsel in distress either, as she can look out for herself and is fiercely independent and by god curses like a damn sailor. Sometimes assists you in combat as well. Despite not being the most original story in the world it’s the emotion and the tale of this adventure between the two of them that makes this game so worth it, especially near the end of the game.

Joel and Ellie having a moment together. It’s so adorable.

Left Behind

The adventure doesn’t stop there though because Naughty Dog saw fit to have DLC called Left Behind! I highly recommend you buy the Remastered version as it comes with the DLC for free. This DLC explores more of Ellie’s past featuring a girl named Riley who was a friend of Ellie’s. It’s really more about kids just being kids, playing with water guns, trying out video games, and trying to lead a normal life despite all the things going on around. It also reveals some surprising things about Ellie which I won’t spoil here. There are also certain parts of this DLC that take place, in between the Fall and Winter events of the main game. I highly recommend playing the main game before playing Left Behind so you’re not confused on what’s going on.

Ellie and Riley

Multi-Player



To add even more value to this game, Naughty Dog saw fit to add its own dedicated multiplayer to this game! It’s an interesting take on the standard Team Deathmatch formula as you pledge allegiance to either the bandits or the Fireflies. You import your pack of survivors from your friends on facebook, that you care and look out for as their leader. In the game this allows you to level up your clan and unlock new abilities and weapons in the matches themselves. The matches still retain the crafting system and visual listening mode from the main game to create a cat and mouse kind of play style. It’s 4v4 and coordination between your teammates and your readiness of your gear of will win you matches. This also includes extra map packs as well!

Readying up my weapons in multiplayer.

Conclusion

While admittedly the main game is linear, don’t let that drive you away. The level design is expertly crafted to allow you to explore alternate pathways and hidden areas, especially in some of the more open areas to allow to look for those cool little hidden collectibles and really allows you immerse yourself in this world to fullest extent. The attention to detail is absolutely amazing and it’s difficulty is expertly balanced. The DLC and Multiplayer just add so much more to the games life and quality giving you an extra 10 to 15 hours to the main games about 10 to 12-hour run through.

In the end this game is just brimming to the teeth with content, and quite honestly is a must own for the PlayStation 4. If you already have this for the PlayStation 3 with all the DLC and bonus content you can pass but for everyone else this is a must own. I honestly would have to give this game a full 10/10 rating just because it’s so amazing! If you have a PS4, BUY THIS GAME! Thanks for reading! See you when The Last of Us Part II comes out!



Final Verdict: 10/10

Thank You For Reading!!! See You Later!!!

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