Collecting awards left and right, including over 200 Game of the Year awards, Naughty Dog’s juggernaut of a game, The Last of Us, was truly a watershed moment in videogames. The game, which was in development for over four years, even took home the official DICE Award for Game of the Year, making it the official game of 2013. This justifies the reason for why Naughty Dog, the games developer, would decide to remaster it for the PS4. Hitting the next-generation expectations of 1080p and 60FPS, the game now runs and looks even better than on the PS3. The game, which sold over 7.5 million copies, was the best-selling new franchise last year. In summary, the game was in the top ten most bought games last year, the only console-exclusive game to do so. Many traits and elements make this game into the wonderful experience gamers enjoy, each essential to how successful the game was, ultimately allowing Naughty Dog to remaster it.
When most adults think about video game like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto, they probably only think about senseless killing with hardly any backstory or plot. Those two franchises thrive on gameplay and recycled mechanics. This is where Naughty Dog takes the first step to immerse the player in post-apocalyptic America, where the game takes place. The Last of Us takes place 20 years after a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus spreads and turns into a pandemic that eventually consumes the entire world. The fungus infects a human host slowly over the course of two days, turning the host, essentially, into a mindless, cannibalistic monster, similar to a zombie; however, there is a catch.
Over the twenty years since the outbreak, the fungus has begun to emerge from beneath infected skins. Eventually, spores and fungal shells emit from the host’s skull, forming what is called “clickers.” Clickers use echolocation to seek out the player who controls Joel, a male from Texas in his late forties when the game takes place. This goes into further depth in the game; I don’t want to spoil the whole story, but the entire backstory is revealed to the player in cutscenes and collectibles found throughout the game that detail the previous events, truly immersing the player in the world.
Gameplay in The Last of Us is brutal to say the least. In some cases, the infected are the least of your worries as you journey west across the U.S. with a 14-year-old girl named Ellie. As it turns out, other survivors who are scavenging to survive will attempt to kill Ellie and the player out of a pure desire to survive. This puts the player in a dangerous “kill or be killed” scenario. So while dealing with infection and being under the constant threat of other survivors, the player will scavenge for weapons and supplies that can be crafted into med kits, nail bombs, Molotov cocktails, etc.—anything useful that can help the player survive. What makes this game truly feel like a post-apocalyptic world is the fact that all of these items, including bullets, are extremely scarce. This forces the player to not waste anything and to make every shot count.
In regards to combat, The Last of Us is truly a deadly game. Being forced to construct crude weapons from various scrap metal makes hand-to-hand combat intimidating and dangerous. Few games go into displaying the horrific realism it takes to actually kill someone. In games such as Call of Duty or Assassins Creed, the player merely swings their sword or knife in a quick swipe killing the enemy almost immediately; yet in The Last of Us, the player realizes right off the bat that it isn’t a simple task.
The developers nailed the reality behind melee combat: war and survival of the fittest isn’t a pretty thing, and the brutality in the combat displays this. For example, the player may swing a club with spiked metal ends at an attacker, which is then followed by several brutal strikes. The relentless nature behind the combat is jaw-dropping and truly makes the player question his or her morals in the game. Even in other games where the player may simply snap an enemy’s neck, The Last of Us pushes towards reality, as choking someone out isn’t a fast or pretty thing to do. It takes 4-8 seconds to slowly choke someone out as they struggle, and the attention to detail regarding facial animations is slightly disturbing and once again makes the player question their actions as the enemy struggles and takes their last breath.
However, this game isn’t all violence and torturous killing. What makes The Last of Us stand out is the fact that it was able to portray a story unlike any other franchise in its medium. Taking full advantage of cutscenes, player interactions, and items, the game itself feels like a movie. The cutscenes alone clock in at 203 minutes, with not one of them wasted in this deep story. To match the story, the game’s characters also have much depth to them. Joel, voiced by the veteran voice actor Troy Baker—known for voicing Booker Dewitt in Bioshock Infinite, The Joker in Arkham Origins, the main antagonist of Far Cry 4, and many more games—truly brings the gritty Texan, Joel, to life. When interviewed by IGN, Troy Baker stated that Joel is “purely a survivor, who has few moral lines left to cross.” This sums up Joel in a short manner, yet there is much more to him as the player will discover later in the game.
Ellie, voiced by Ashley Johnson, is a girl who never knew the world without the pandemic or crippled society. She simply wants to survive and, without going into further detail, is paired with Joel to go on a journey. These characters in the beginning hate each other for various reasons and don’t get along to the slightest degree. But as life or death situations occur and their survival begins to depend on each other, the player begins to notice a sort of father-daughter relationship between the two characters, which for a video game is the best transformation I have seen. These two characters begin to not only trust each other, but genuinely will do anything to see the other survive.
In summary, The Last of Us: Remastered is an incredible refresher to an almost perfect game. The new graphics that are possible thanks to the PS4 are quite noticeable, especially the new lighting in the darker areas of the game. The textures, which looked fantastic but somewhat muddy on the PS3, are now crisp, clear, and well-polished. This game’s Remastered version gives me high hopes for the now current-generation console’s capabilities. So if you missed out on The Last of Us on the PS3, I highly recommend this game as it was one of the best games of the last console generation.
