To help set the tone, my thirty minute play session opens with a video from the BBC documentary ‘Planet Earth’. It features a look at some ants and insects which have become infected by a plant like spore organism. It has infected them and is growing in their brains and turning them into brain dead zombie like states of their former selves. The plants have slowly grown out of their heads and created horrible growths all over their bodies. In the game this fungus infection has spread to humans and has brought about the end of our days. This is the world of ‘The Last of Us’; and it is not very pleasant.

The opening sees me dropped into the post apocalyptic world the game is set in at night. In front of me is a large cityscape which has mostly been destroyed, I’m told that this was the governments’ doing and not the infected. Immediately it’s clear this game looks incredibly detailed and highly polished even in its Alpha Build, I was told this version was a month or so old and was about 90% finished. The section I’m playing is from early on in the plot where I have just met with a woman and have been tasked with taking the young girl Ellie somewhere safe. I’m in control of Joel, our main protagonist, who feels much different from Naughty Dog’s previous outing with the Uncharted series with lead Nathan Drake.The Sony rep informs me that this game is made by the more experienced team who created the wonderful Uncharted 2. Unlike Drake, Joel feels more realistic in his movement and even feels heavier to control. He is a far cry from leaping bounds across the map and clambering up vast buildings from impossible heights. A great deal of care has gone into making this game feel much more believable and each part of the game has been grounded in some form of realism.

A quick try of the controls shows me the various mechanics the game is trying to follow. Jumping is limited and more human unlike the gazelle heights Nathan Drake could leap while climbing seems much more possible for any of us to consider attempting. The cover system works off of the crouch button and snaps you to walls and tables etc when you need to hide. Your AI companions can take care of themselves and are usually much quicker to help you than ever require your help. Weapons and items you pick up, can be throw or fired using the standard shooter controls of ‘L1 and R1’ combo while melee weapons can be interchanged with directional buttons and are mapped to the square button for brutal close combat encounters. Triangle seems to be used mainly for context sensitive events and picking up items. Crafting is actually one of the main features of the game but it isn’t a complex system or require much management. It is brought up in real time using the SELECT button and a list of required items are brought up for you to pick from and choose what to craft by holding ‘X’ when they have been met. Your light or torch is mapped to R3, powered by batteries which you must collect but tends to last for a long time.

After getting to grips with the controls I move forward into one of the buildings and begin exploring. While there is a bare linear path you must follow to progress; getting from “a to b” can be done in a variety of ways and there are many opportunities to look around and scavenge supplies, which will obviously lengthen playtime. Manoeuvring over collapsed walls and moving through doors the atmosphere is tense and the pacing is wonderfully slow but altogether eerie. Out of nowhere I then encounter my first brawl with one of the infected who almost overpowers me during a quicktime event until my companion shoots it dead during a scripted event. I’m then allowed to move forward to try take some of them out myself. I have several options; go in directly, distract them or take them out stealthily. With limited ammunition I try using a brick to distract one of them while stealthily taking another out. I have the option to either use one of my crafted shives to instantly take them out or slowly strangle them. Choosing the latter I take him out in a deadly strangle of my arm.

Next up I’m introduced to another of the game’s mechanics; the sound detector. Joel can show you nearby enemies by listening intently as you hold the ‘R2’ button. Unlike the recent Batman games you can’t leave the game in this deceive mode like vision which is a nice touch as I felt that aspect ruined my playthrough of those games. Using this mechanic I can see there are four enemies ahead but this time I try using my gun. Bad move. Taking one or two of the infected “runners” was kind of easy but I quickly run out of bullets. I attempt to switch to a melee attack but I’m instantly bitten by one of heavily infected. Instant deaths make the rest of my playthrough a much more calculating and intense experience as every movements and bullet really does count. The Sony rep reminded me that these elements sort of harken back to the older Resident Evil titles where every bullet counted and head on encounters were discouraged out of fear. Using a much more well thought out approach I manage to distract them all long enough to climb up some broken bookshelves to higher ground and continue on.

One of the strengths of the game which is immediately clear is the wonderful changing of pace. You start off exploring this eerie location scanning the environment for supplies and the like until you suddenly find yourself in an encounter with some of the incited enemies where you have to ration your resources in order to get through these moments unscathed. It’s a much more challenging experience than I expected and it helps that the respawn times to your checkpoints are almost instant. This also encourages you to try several different approaches to how you can take on the various obstacles. I soon took this notion into action when I was in a subway like location with many enemies in front of me. I was told that the enemies I was dealing with had limited vision but later ones would infect be able to spot my torch’s light and give away my position. A shotgun was placed strategically before me obviously to encourage some more up close combat. I opted for a more stealthy approaches taking out various enemies until I realised that some of the more infected could not be strangled leaving me vulnerable are jumping one of them. After scrambling to pull out my shotgun it was intact my female AI companions who came to my rescue; a fantastic change from the ‘Bioshock Infinite’ school of “Brooker catch while I do nothing and act helpless”.

As my demo with ‘The Last of Us’ came to an end I was tasked with trying to move some objects around to make a scalable path for us all to climb. I was a race ain’t time as infected enemies began to surround our area as we ran to lift a shutter door. Joel of course pulled the whole “go ahead I’ll be fine” routine as he held the door open for the girls as the enemies swarmed in for the attack. Bam. Title screen.

Overall: These thirty minutes or so I spend with the game was an excellent glimpse into the world our characters live in as well as how the core mechanics work within the game. I was blown away by the way context sensitive attacks worked when you pushed enemies against walls, doors or desks for instance. It all flowed seamlessly against the backdrop of a gorgeous graphic pallet of colours and textures.

DOES [The Last of Us Alpha Build] SUCK?!: I have always been a big fan of Naughty Dog’s work on the Playstation 3 and I can’t wait to see how their final send off game for the platform plays out in its final form. It’s incredibly atmospheric, wonderfully placed and brilliant to play. I look forward to its full release next month where I will give my full analysis of the product.

5/5