Often touted as the swansong for the Playstation 3, does it live up to the expectations?
Playstation Now version reviewed.
The Last of Us is a survival game published by Sony and developed by Naughty Dog for the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.
GAMEPLAY
Variety of ways to approach
Your allies actually help out
The enemy AI wasn't great at times, such as when they're trying to locate you in stealth mode, however the AI does actually try and flank you to draw you out of cover, so there are ups and downs.
A couple of bugs here or there, door not opening, shooting through walls, certain parts not responding
STORY
The story was fantastic and wouldn't have felt out of place in a movie, perhaps going through the form of a video game was the better choice though, as you get to go through many moments at a closer level of detail. The premise is pretty simple and something we've seen many times before, but this isn't just your standard post-apocolyptic game.
It is the characters, rather than the story, that what really makes this game stand out. Not only the interesting main duo of Joel and Ellie, but almost every other character you meet along the way are memorable and well written. Probably the biggest standout though is the development of Joel and Ellie along the way, usually shaped by the other cast members. The story is on a level above what you'd expect from the majority of games, and even some movies.
GRAPHICS
SOUND
Voice acting was really good and the soundtrack was fine.
I did notice a few times that the sound for some more ambient sounds was a little bit off, at certain times you could hear water really loudly through one ear, then when you moved the camera slightly it sounded really quiet, it didn't happen very often but it was enough to pull you out the experience a bit a couple of times.
VALUE FOR MONEY
OVERALL
If you're a fan or character-driven stories then you need to own this game because this is probably the best I've ever seen in a video game. The gameplay is fine, if a little lacking, and while I feel it's worse than the Uncharted series, the variety of approaches you can take on in how to tackle the levels is a welcome upgrade and makes up for it to some extent - not to mention this game is supposed to be much more gruelling and survival based than Uncharted. The most important part of this game though is undoubtedly the story though as it really is incredible and sets a whole new bar for gaming.
The single expansion for this game was pretty impressive, while not the longest playthrough, it offers you more of what the base game did best - telling you stories about great characters.
