The Last of Us

What do you do when your world is turned upside down?

A fungal infection has turned most of the world's population into "zombies".  But there is still a glimmer of hope.  One man must escort a very special person across dangerous territory to possibly save humanity.  It's going to be a very long journey.

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Recommended Age Minimum Age Available On... 18 16 PS3 Overall Fun Length Frustration   Violence Sexuality Substances Gambling 8 8 7   10 1 2 0 Mods Religion Anti-Law Community Sports Magic Miscellaneous 0 0 2 4 1 0 7

1.     Gameplay

• Overall Fun - 8

Far too many of my friends and acquaintances have described this as “the best game of the year”.  Naturally skeptical, I decided that I had to give it a try.  The Last of Us is a survival game where some sort of fungus-like infection has made “zombies” out of most of the human population.  Those who remain have a daily struggle to find food and stay clean from the infection.  It’s not an easy task.

PROTIP: Make time for naps.

The game boils down into two different types of levels.  There will be sections where the player will have to fight human enemies and there will be sections where the player has to fight infected enemies.  Humans have powerful ranged weapons but tend to be easy to trick and kill and even easier to sneak up on.  Infected are much faster, much more difficult to predict, and much deadlier.

The story is easily this game’s highlight.  While the combat was smooth (mostly), the script and the story were by far the most engaging parts of the game.  Every character is well designed and believable, two things that are extremely difficult since most games like to boil characters down to overused stereotypes.  The Last of Us doesn’t do that.  Certain parts of it were predictable, but even then I was always looking forward to the next conversation.

Especially if that conversations involved infected.

The other thing that I have to praise about this game is the fact that Ellie and Joel talk to each other while they move around.  All too often games leave companions completely silent as the player makes his way through the world.  The Last of Us doesn’t do that.  Ellie and Joel will frequently have conversations as they explore, but only while the coast is clear.  It gives the characters a believability and depth that is vital for excellent storytelling.

Just play it for the story. It's worth it.

I wasn’t completely satisfied with the ending, but everything else more than makes up for it.  As long as players don’t mind the challenge that the survival style poses, I would definitely recommend this game.

• Length - 8

The campaign of this game is decently long.  It took me a little over 14 hours to complete the entire campaign.  I took my time through most of it, being as thorough as possible when searching for helpful items and crafting pieces, but this level of searching is necessary for most players to survive.  While some players may be able to go through the game in a significantly shorter time, since I had to restart a few sections (see “Frustration Factor” below), at best new players will only be able to shave off an additional hour or two off of my time.

There is also a “New Game +” feature so that the player can replay the campaign with his items and upgraded abilities.  This significantly increases the replayability.  I know that I missed a lot of things and was unable to upgrade many of my weapons, so going back and replaying again is a completely viable option.

There is also a multiplayer mode to this game, but it doesn’t offer anything really unique.  I don’t expect most players to pick up this game for the multiplayer elements.

• Frustration Factor - 7

This game is a survival-style game, so hoarding resources and carefully managing ammunition, health, and supplies is just a part of the game.  Frequently, if I felt that I had done too poorly in a situation, I would retry it and attempt to do better.  This was the case for many of the open-combat situations (meaning combat scenarios where I failed to be stealthy).  Against people, I’d usually end up getting shot once or twice after the enemies flanked me, so I just restarted and didn’t make the same mistakes twice.

Unfortunately, the infected didn’t like to play by the rules.  I found it extremely difficult to remain hidden from them, and once they found me every zombie in the area would run straight for me.  This made dealing with them extremely difficult, since I usually didn’t have enough shotgun ammunition to take them out quickly, but pistols and melee weapons were far too ineffective against the fast-moving zombies, especially when they attacked in groups (which was almost always the case).

This still wouldn’t have been too bad except for one ridiculously overpowered zombie type.  The “clickers” were technically blind, but had the uncanny ability to find you if you weren’t crouched and moving extremely slowly.  And once they did find you, they’d run at you with almost the same speed and determination as the normal zombies.  Problem is that if a clicker grabs you, you’re instantly dead.  It grabs you and kills you.  No matter how much health or ammunition you have, you’re done.

I'm done.

There is one ability that gives you the option to fight back if you have a shiv (by far the most useful ability in the game), but it takes a while to find enough “pills” to unlock it.  Until that time, the player is screwed if he gets caught.  And clickers aren’t easy to put down either.  Their heads are lightly armored, so it takes a couple of shots to kill them.  Oh, and punching them doesn’t help either, they’ll just shrug off your unarmed attacks and bite you anyway.

I hate clickers.

I hated this enemy type.  It ruined the infected sections for me.  Clickers were in almost every infected encounter in the game, so every time I was stuck moving through infected areas I was on edge.  There was one section in particular where I had to carefully maneuver through a graveyard filled with clickers.  I ended up having to redo that section over and over and over again because I failed it so many times.

2.     Parental Notices

• Violence - 10

Violent content will take up about half of the overall game time (the other half will mostly be exploration), but when violence is included it’s impossible to miss.  The environment and its dangers are designed to be brutally harsh in order to emphasize the need for constant vigilance in the face of certain death.  The types and spectrum of violence that the player will encounter will vary considerably depending on the tools the player has available and the situation the player finds himself in.

Sometimes the only tool you need is you.

The most basic forms of violence, and the forms that will be most common (since they do not require the use of valuable resources) will be hand-to-hand combat.  This comes in a couple of different forms.  The most common is the player’s ability to sneak up to and strangle any enemy type.  As long as the player isn’t seen while this happens, it is completely silent and the player can maintain his stealth.  He simply chokes out his enemy and places the limp body on the ground.

"Why, Joel?" he seemed to say.

If the player breaks stealth but still manages to grab his enemy, instead of choking the enemy he will hit them to kill them.  If the player has a weapon, this can involve pistol whipping the enemy.  However, sometimes this will involve throwing the enemy to the ground and stomping on its head.

Or smashing a plank over the enemy's head.

For human enemies, the curb stomp doesn’t cause any blood or visible damage.  However, infected enemies are much more fragile.  If the player curb stomps an infected, the infected’s head will be crushed.

Foot down, head gone.

If the player has a shiv (a small makeshift blade), he can stab the enemy he has grabbed to instantly kill it.  This is the most effective way to deal with clickers, so the player will encounter this relatively frequently.

I really hate clickers.

In some sections the player will play as Ellie.  While she is able to use some firearms, her primary weapon is a knife.  In order to kill an enemy from behind, she jumps on the enemy’s back and proceeds to stab him repeatedly in the chest.  This results in more blood than the normal shiv attacks.

I'd be scared of her.

The player can also use molotov cocktails and a flamethrower to light enemies on fire.  However, while this was effective against zombies, it was extremely ineffective against humans and armored targets.

Who wants toast?!

If the player is grabbed and killed by an infected, that infected will bite his neck and rip off a chunk of bloody flesh.

AAAAAH!

The player will have access to firearms, but their use will be severely restricted by the lack of ammunition.  When the player does use them, headshots will be vital.  Non-headshots on infected and any hits to humans will result in some blood but it can be pretty easily lost.  The only time it becomes obvious is if the bodies in an area begin to pile up, since each body does create a small pool of blood.

You barely notice the blood though.

Headshots to infected, especially with shotguns, and some headshots to humans with high-damage weapons like the hunting rifle or the assault rifle will result in some significant gore.  In most cases, the enemy’s head will either be seriously damaged or completely destroyed.

It's like "Where's Waldo", except you're looking for the zombie's head.

This level of violence is even more obvious and graphic in certain cutscenes.  This usually involves an enemy’s head being completely blown off or removed.  For example, in one scene an infected jumps on Joel and tries to bite him.  Another character comes up and hits the enemy in the head with a machete, then proceeds to decapitate the enemy.

Eeeeew.

While many games include violence, I have never seen a game that depicts violence against children until this one.  The player will never, ever commit violent acts against children, but there are two sections where the player will see violence against children.  For example, in the sections where the player controls Ellie, the enemies will (obviously) attempt to kill her.  The player will, in turn, have to kill these enemies.  The only difference between these examples of violence and the violence present in the rest of the game is that the player is controlling a character who is under the age of 18.

She's deadly for a 14-year-old.

The only other time when violence against children is depicted is when a young child is bitten, infected, and turns.  The boy’s older brother is forced to shoot the boy in order to protect Ellie.  It is a necessary act to protect the group, and since the child was turned into an infected it’s difficult to consider him in the same realm as a human child.

That was unexpected.

• Sexuality - 1

In one cutscene Ellie steals a gay pornographic magazine from another character and makes funny, awkward comments about the content before throwing it out the car window.  This is the only time sexuality is included in the game.

"How does he walk around like that?"

• Substances - 2

Substances are a minor factor in this game.  The player will have the ability to create and use health packs by mixing rags and alcohol.  These health packs are hardly ever seen, though, since they’re just a crafted item present in the player’s inventory.  Using a health pack involves the character wrapping himself in bandages.  There is no substance mentioned in any of this (other than the alcohol, but it’s implied that the alcohol is the rubbing type, not the drinking type).

One of the few full health packs I found in the game.

The player will also be able to pick up pill bottles and plants.  These “pills” can be taken to upgrade the player’s abilities.  When the player upgrades an ability, the character opens a pill bottle and swallows the pills.  It’s a very brief animation that does not occur often and what exactly the pills are isn’t specified (although the bottles look like vitamin bottles).

Pills here!

There is also a section where Ellie trades deer meat for penicillin.  She eventually injects Joel with the medicine.

• Gambling - 0

Substances are not a factor in this game.

3.     Other Factors

• Mods - 0

There are no modding tools available in this game.

• Religion - 0

Religion is not a factor in this game.

• Anti-Law - 2

Early in the game the player will have to escape from under the watchful eyes of the military.  The outbreak has resulted in a pretty extreme version of martial law.  Police raid apartment complexes, drag people to the street, and test them to see if they’re infected.  If the tests come back showing infection, the infected individual is killed.  If anyone tries to run from the tests, they’re killed as well.

Pick up that can.

In order to escape from the quarantined zone, the player will have to either avoid or, much more likely, kill some military personnel.  Once the player exits the area around the quarantined zone, the military is no longer seen and anti-law is no longer a factor.

Caught, but not for long.

Online Community - 4

I was surprised and a bit disappointed that this game included multiplayer since it definitely doesn’t need it.  However, there were people playing online.  The way that the game is set up forces people into a particular faction which affects overall scores for all players.  I still don’t really completely understand it, since it wasn’t explained very well in the tutorial, but I was more worried about figuring out what to do in the multiplayer matches anyway.

The online community seemed decent enough, but there are going to be a few more frustrating moments.  The game is designed so that even new players are going to be relatively equally balanced with the veterans.  The veteran players have the advantage of experience, which helps them figure out which weapons and perks are best, but I didn’t feel completely outclassed even at rank zero (yes, there is now a level zero).

But I did get “teabagged” once after I was executed.  That wasn’t fun, but I’ve seen much worse.

• Extreme Sports - 1

There are a few sections when the player will have to walk across planks or climb through elevator shafts.  The only very dangerous act the player will have to do is jumping off a bridge into a rushing river below.  Other than this, extreme sports is not a factor in this game.

I think I'll stay over here where it's safe.

• Magic - 0

Magic is not a factor in this game.

• Miscellaneous - 7

Interrogation / Torture

At one point in the game, Joel has to find out information about where Ellie is kept.  He ties up one enemy to a chair and handcuffs another to a radiator.  After torturing the one in the chair for a bit by using a knife, he extracts the information he needs and then kills his captives.

Kidnapping

Later in the game, Ellie will fight off the infected with another random survivor.  This survivor ends up knocking Ellie out after the fight is over and taking her back to his camp.  He holds her against her will until she eventually manages to break out.

Not out of the cage, though. That'd be too easy.

Cannibalism

There is one section where Ellie and Joel must escape from a camp of survivors who have resorted to cannibalism in order to survive.  A “meat ledger” indicates that they may have eaten as many as 5 people a month (over 1000 pounds of meat).  The player will also see one of these “survivors” chopping up a man’s torso with a butcher’s knife.

Does this count as red meat? Probably.

Human Disfigurement

All of the infected were, at one time, people.  As they succumb to the infection, they develop plant-like growths.  The longer the person is infected, the greater the growth.  For example, while a newly infected person will still look mostly human, the most severely infected individuals will look like walking coral reefs.

This is what Arial would have really looked like if she'd wished for legs.

Execution

While Joel killing his interrogated captives in a previously mentioned section would count as execution, there is also a better example much earlier in the game.  The player can watch as civilians are taken out of their apartment complex by the military and tested for infection.  When one individual is found to be infected, the military executes her on the spot.  When another tries to escape, he is killed as well.

The military holds a strict "no running" policy.

Suicide

In one scene a character has to kill his younger brother, who was infected and had turned.  After killing the younger brother, the character realizes he has nothing left to live for.  He then proceeds to shoot himself in the head.

At that angle, he'd probably miss (and live to regret it).

There is another scene where the characters come upon a man who has hanged himself.  When one of the characters recognizes the man as his former partner (and possible gay lover), they cut the hanged man down.

Language

Language is definitely a factor in this game.  Surprisingly enough, Joel is not the source of most of the language though.  Ellie swears to a pretty ridiculous degree.  Every time the player kills an enemy, Ellie says something like “Shit, Joel” under her breath.  If the player passes by a dead human enemy, Ellie frequently mutters something like “Fucker…”  Initially it wasn’t as bad as I expected, but the frequency makes it absolutely impossible to miss.