The Last of Us (PS4) - Video Game Review

There are certainly plenty of games out there that I am a huge fan of, but there aren't many that I would consider true masterpieces. I certainly intend to always maintain a lack of bias, but The Last of Us remains one of the timeless few that I would put on that pedestal of truly fantastic games. In preparation for starting The Last of Us Part 2, I went back to this gem. For clarity's sake, I have beaten The Last of Us numerous times on its original PS3 version, however this review will focus on the remastered PS4 version. 

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Where You Can Find It: This was originally a PS3 exclusive, however it has since been remastered for the PS4.

General Information
The Last of Us was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was originally released in 14 June 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and then it was re-released in a remastered version in 29 July 2014 for the PlayStation 4. It's a third-person action-adventure game with some survival-horror elements, although I'd argue there's not much horror in this game. The game won numerous accolades as 2013's Game of the Year upon release and has even been considered for both television and film.

The Story
The game follows protagonists Joel and Ellie, who must journey across a post-apocalyptic U.S. that has been ravaged by a fungal pandemic. The fungus is named "Cordyceps" and is actually based on a real fungal parasite that infects insects, which hijacks their brains and eventually grows from the bugs' corpses only to release spores and infect more insects. The use of a realistic plague is fascinating, however, even by 2013 zombie outbreak kinds of games were pretty old.

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An actual image of the Cordyceps fungus. Now imagine this with people...

Although the setting of Last of Us is pretty well-worn, the actual plot is more focused on Joel's and Ellie's journey than dealing with fungal zombies. Joel is a middle-aged smuggler who has been through some serious shit and Ellie is a teenager who has never known life without having to worry about vicious zombies or murderous bandits. Joel must escort Ellie to a special facility run by a paramilitary group known as the Fireflies however this is far easier said than done.

Where the story truly shines is the chemistry between Joel (voiced by the famous Troy Baker) and Ellie (voiced by the equally stupendous Ashley Johnson). Their relationship builds throughout the story from simply smuggler and cargo to a father-daughter dynamic that is truly heartwarming to behold. The harsh world the pair must navigate through is incredibly unforgiving and even a cold-hearted bastard like me got a little teary-eyed at certain points through the campaign.

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The Gameplay

The majority of the game focuses on third-person action where either Joel or Ellie must navigate through locales cluttered with infected zombies and bandits. Players can either go in guns blazing or stealthily sneak past enemies. Although both styles are standard fare in countless games, Naughty Dog has provided fairly unique additions to both.

From a combat perspective, players can expect to have very little ammunition throughout the game. It's pretty rare when I was able to carry a full magazine of ammunition in any weapon, so players must be very conservative when choosing to shoot. There was more than one occasion where all I had to fight with was a brick and Joel's bare fists. Choosing to duke it out isn't easy in this game either, as the bandits will tactically flank the player and the infected will try to overwhelm with numbers. It doesn't take too many bullets to kill Joel and Ellie and a single bite from a "clicker" is instant death!

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Those clickers want more than just a little cuddle

On the stealth side, Joel and Ellie can use "Listen Mode" where they detect the location of enemies through the use of sound. The range on this mode is limited and only shows enemies that are either moving or making sounds (a stationary attacker won't show up at all). Joel and Ellie can use loose bricks or bottles to distract enemies but bandits are fairly thorough in their search for the player, while the infected react to even the slightest sound. Clickers, who are zombies that have been infected so long that they are now blind, seek out the players through echo-location by making clicking noises, which means players must not only stay out of sight, but also keep quiet.

There's a decent amount of crafting and upgrade mechanics too, however the game doesn't go too far in those aspects, which is actually refreshing. During a time where skill-trees were the hip, new thing, this game keeps it relatively simple so players can focus on the gameplay and story instead. 

Audio/Visual
The Last of Us was one of the last major games for the PlayStation 3 and it's clear that Naughty Dog drew out every bit of that system's capabilities when they made this game. Both the PS3 and PS4 versions are beautiful with numerous locales looking absolutely stunning. Cities have now been retaken by nature and some of the snow-filled areas are impressive. The violence of this game is extreme but grounded. Watching Joel strangle a hunter, or seeing Ellie stab an infected in the throat is brutal and can be a little hard to watch. The violence never felt over-the-top, but seemed to more-so emphasize the harshness of the world the characters live in.

From an audio perspective, the sound is top-notch. The background music is fairly minimal, but the sound effects give players plenty to listen to. The sound of a clicker screeching its "click" from down an abandoned hall always sets me on edge, while the sobbing of infected bring both pity and disgust. The voice acting of non-infected is pretty stellar with the writing help flesh it out further by making both Joel and Ellie incredibly relatable. I personally recommend playing this game with a good set of headphones.

Multiplayer
In a game that's already packed with a stellar campaign, no one would blame Naughty Dog if they decided to not include a multiplayer but they decided to and I can't thank them enough. The multiplayer brings the limited ammo and stealth mechanics of the campaign to a shareable experience where players can choose to either play as fireflies or hunters who must fight in a 4v4 match-up with three different types of objectives. A neat little addition is that players "level up" by building up their own little camps of survivors which they can sync to their Facebook accounts so that the survivors are shown as actual friends. Nothing beats seeing a notification that your ex is gnawing on rat bones because you failed to secure enough supplies in the last match!

Supply Raid adds a slight nuance to the tried-and-true Team Deathmatch mode by subtracting points from a team when a player dies as opposed to awarding points to a player that kills. This means that instead of having a player carry a team, you can actually have someone sink another team by dying often. Survivor Mode puts each team in short back-to-back matches where each player only has one life, which makes for some tense gameplay as players must be very careful in what they do so as to risk leaving their team without backup. The last mode (and my personal favorite) is Interrogation, where teams must down the opposing players and perform an interrogation to find out where the opposing team's safe is. Once the safe is located, the team must then break through the opposing team's ranks and crack it while avoiding getting interrogated in the process.

All-in-all, I'd argue that the multiplayer for this game is one of the best I've ever played, although I'm not much of a player-versus-player gamer. There's a very real requirement for players to utilize tactics and strategy and teamwork is more imperative than in shooter games like Destiny or Call of Duty. You'll likely spend twice as much time in the addictive multiplayer as you did in the superb campaign.

Micro-Transactions/Downloadable Content
The remastered version on PS4 packs in all of the multiplayer maps as well as the additional Left Behind expansion DLC. I really recommend checking out the Left Behind DLC (but only after beating the main story). Left Behind helps better explain Ellie's sad history as a half-prequel as half of the DLC covers life before she met Joel and the other half takes place during a part of the main game that the story skipped over. It's a heart-wrenching extra story that adds an extra 3-4 hours of further gameplay to the campaign.

There is a ton of extra content for the game's multiplayer mode as players can purchase alternate masks/hats for their avatar as well as weapons and skills that weren't featured in the main game. Honestly, this is the only part of the game that really bothered me as I know some of this content was on-hand for the original version's multiplayer, while the guns/skills are particularly troubling as they give off a pay-to-win vibe that is rather unsettling. I specifically recall playing with a friend of mine that had just gotten the game and he wanted to use the tactical shotgun, but was unable to as it was hidden behind a paywall. I can understand cosmetics, but actual weapons and skills seems a bit too far when it comes to making sure multiplayer is fair.

Replayability
The Last of Us features numerous difficulties, as well as a New Game+ mode that lets the players restart the story with their upgrades intact. I believe that it is impossible to fully upgrade every weapon and ability in the first play-through so there's a big incentive to give the game a second go. Beyond that, there's a ton of collectibles to include notes, comic books, firefly pendants, and dialogue events that the player can go back and try to find (you don't have to re-find ones you already located in the first play-through). You can also pick a new difficulty on the second go-around, which adds a new challenge (I personally favor the Hard difficulty).  

The Best of the Best: The back and forth between Joel and Ellie. By the end of the game, I found myself caring for both of them and their relationship felt truly earned.

The Worst of the Worst: The AI can be a little annoying at times. When you're not alone, NPC's that follow you can get a little bothersome as they run around and break immersion during stealth sections (AI characters can't be seen or heard by enemies). Additionally, there was more than one occasion where an NPC following me blocked me from going somewhere so I had to herd them out of the area and return so I could go down a narrow alley or hallway.

Calhooey Score: 9/10 - Fantastic

Would I Recommend?

*****

Absolutely! This game is a legitimate masterpiece for the PS3 and PS4. If you own a Sony console, you should try this game. If you don't own one, I highly recommend watching a Let's Play of it on YouTube. You won't regret it!

For PS3 Owners: If you own the game already on PlayStation 3, I likely wouldn't recommend getting the PlayStation 4 version. The graphics haven't changed much and unless you're dying to get back into the multiplayer, I don't think you're missing out on too much.

-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------

• David (voiced by Naughty Dog veteran, Nolan North) was a fantastic addition that brought an incredible sense of menace to the game. I know everyone talks about that epic ending to the campaign, but I found the story surrounding David to be the best part. 
• The way the story drops that David was actually hunting Ellie and Joel and how calm he is about it all was bone-chilling while the creep factor jumped to eleven when he started telling Ellie how "special" she is. 
• Throw that all in with Ellie running from David and his goons while a revitalized Joel races to the rescue made for an outstanding chapter to the overall story. 
• The "boss fight" with David was equally creepy as he would skitter around that abandoned restaurant in such a skin-crawling manner. I would've loved to see David come back somehow, but I'm pretty certain Ellie made sure he's not coming back...

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

(1) Gamestop. (2014). The Last of Us Remastered game cover image. Retrieved from: https://www.gamestop.com/video-games/playstation-4/games/products/the-last-of-us-remastered/10114511.html?utm_expid=.Hn2ODSotSjW4yWszOrBF7Q.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F. 
(2) Walter, J. (2019, July 18). Ant infected with Cordyceps image. Discover. Retrieved from: https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/how-a-zombie-fungus-takes-over-ants-jaws-to-deliver-a-death-bite. 
(3) u/Elrap. (2020). Joel and Ellie image. Reddit. Retrieved from: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/ha22z5/replaying_the_last_of_us_remembering_the_feels/. 
(4) Game Media. (2019, August 18). The Last of Us clicker attack image. Retrieved from: https://news.game.co.uk/best-video-game-zombies/. 

(5) Punkett, L. (2014, July 30). Joel gif. Kotaku. Retrieved from: https://www.kotaku.co.uk/2014/07/30/another-stupid-gif-starring-joel-last-us.