As I sit down to write this review, the chilling main theme “The Last of Us” by composer Gustavo Santaolalla rings through my head. Because of that theme, I remember the harrowing journey that I have taken with PlayStation icons Joel and Ellie about five times now.

I am reminded with each playthrough how expansive this world is. I am also reminded that no matter how many times I experience The Last of Us’ thrilling gameplay, exceptional level design and the beautiful and deep characters the game will always be one of the greatest experiences in any media I have ever had. For me, it continues to keep developers Naughty Dog in place as one of the most respected video game studios of all time.

As many of you know by now, The Last of Us is touted as one of the greatest games of all time, with a myriad of different awards and achievements. It is likely that you have already experienced its excellence, whether from first-hand experience or from watching a friend or  favorite Youtuber play it. With The Last of Us Part II having just released as of June 19th, 2020, what better time than now to go back and get caught up with the characters and story.

The Last of Us stars Troy Baker as Joel and Ashley Johnson as Ellie. Joel is a grizzled survivor in this post-apocalyptic world and after 20 years he has picked up his fair share of experience and knowledge of survival. Ellie on the the other hand is a 14-year-old who has known nothing but a world filled with death and sadness.

Through certain circumstances these two are bought together and are tasked with making their way across a dangerous post-apocalyptic America that is teeming with infected and humans alike. It is not the infected that scared me however, it was the unpredictable nature of the humans that struck fear into my heart.

For the uninitiated, at first glance The Last of Us is “just another zombie game” but that is far from the truth. The thing that makes Naughty Dog’s infected different from your average zombie is that the infected are just that, infected.

To elaborate further, the infected are plagued with a real world virus known as “Cordyceps” that affects insects in a multitude of different ways. The infected have to be living hosts for the fungus to take effect. The dead don’t walk among the living, once the fungus dies so does its host. It is a very terrifying process, as the longer the infection takes hold the more grotesque you become.

Short-term infection leads to what the characters call “runners”, which will shamble and attack on sight. After runners you turn in the titular “Clickers”, who are completely blind and rely on sound to catch their prey. Hiding out and avoiding clickers becomes one of the games most stressful and tense moments.

However, bloaters are the The Last of Us’ most dangerous form of infected. With hardened fungal growths, they can take shots like a tank and are most easily taken down with fire, assuming you have the necessary supplies.

Scavenging is a main part of the gameplay, and it adds so much immersion that you never pause to craft or upgrade Joel’s armory or skills. If you’re running low on health during a fight and have the items needed to craft healing items, you better pray that you can lose your pursuers and find a break in the action long enough to craft and heal.

You can choose from a decent sized arsenal of craftable items. There are nail bombs that can be planted for motion detonation or thrown for immediate damage, Molotov cocktails, aforementioned med kits, smoke bombs, shivs, and dangerous melee weapons. In truth the choice of items you make and use, is yours, and they truly are choices.

The Last of Us doesn’t give us much player agency in the story, but it gives so much freedom in how you tackle a situation. Some combat scenarios can be completely avoided with good stealth tactics, while others will require you to go in guns blazing.

Like any survival horror game, resource management is a big component. I found that on normal difficulty I had just enough supplies to get by. While I never ran out of crafting materials, it was the ammo that I used sparingly. When I found myself low on ammunition in one gun I noticed I would have just enough in another to get by, so I never felt any frustration in that regard.

On harder difficulty levels, supplies are virtually nonexistent and you have to use extreme caution to avoid putting yourself in what feels like un-winnable situations. The action-stealth gameplay is brutal and can be hard to stomach at times. Blowing peoples heads off, choking enemies slowly and seeing them fight to survive can be down right heartbreaking, but it feels necessary. This world is a dangerous and unforgiving place.

The world of The Last of Us excels at its environmental storytelling. When you walk into a house to search for supplies, you will come across notes written by the previous occupants. Seeing how some people dealt with the beginning of the pandemic was very uncanny in 2020 and even in 2013 I found it quite believable and relatable.

The world was a confusing place when the cordyceps took hold of society. Some people left in a panic while others waited it out to see if loved ones would find their way home. Each location you visit tells similar yet vastly different stories.

Ellie will comment on these elements in the world as well. One of my favorite examples was when she was asking Joel what an “Ice Cream Truck” was and she was in disbelief at his explanation. Ellie has known nothing but her world, and getting glimpses of what the old world was like in her eyes was fascinating and was played beautifully by Ashley Johnson.

The Last of Us came with a jam-packed story mode, but it was also packaged with an excellent multiplayer mode called “Factions”. Factions brings over the same great gameplay from the single-player mode. Two teams of four players each have customized load outs with different perks and skills.

These skills are things that allow you to pick whether you wanted to be a more team-oriented medic or a tank with an M16 machine gun. It was up to you on how you wanted to play. I loved being stealthy with my bow and healing my team from certain death.

At launch there were two modes, “Survivors” and “Supply Raid”. Survivors gives each player one life and is a sudden death mode. “Supply Raid” has players tasked with hunting down a certain number of enemies team deathmatch style.

When I first heard of the multiplayer component, I was skeptical. I was not a fan of the Uncharted multiplayer but I quickly found myself enthralled with the intense combat of this multiplayer mode as it made me feel the same things fighting in the main campaign did. I played around 80 or so hours of the multiplayer alone on PlayStation 3, and I still find myself turning on The Last of Us Remastered every so often to experience that unique thrill once again. The Last of Us was one of the greatest PlayStation 3 games ever made. The remastered edition is no different, and quickly finds itself as one of the PlayStation 4’s best experiences as well.

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The Last of Us Remastered

$19.99

10

Score

10.0/10

Pros

• Outstanding Characters
• Engaging gameplay
• Surprisingly Deep multiplayer Mode
• Gustavo Santaolalla’s Score
• Gorgeous Visuals