The Last of Us is made by my personal favorite Sony developer Naughty Dog, known for making Crash Bandicoot and Uncharted series, they made a genre that is unlike their previous work, a more darker, bloodier and serious title that ended up being a game to remember for years to come.
Story
The game starts off in the most different and jaw dropping intro ever in a videogame, that's as far as I can go since it contains spoilers, You are taking the roll as Joel, a survivor of the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis plague 20 years later, he has a partner named Tess in the beginning of the game and you start off by visiting a friend to 'Take care of some business' while doing that you find a woman named Marlene, the leader of a a group called 'Fireflies' an organization in pursuit of a cure for the infection. You meet up with Ellie, the second protagonist that she took care of for years because she knew her mother. You took a request to take Ellie to the fireflies's main base in this long, brutal, tearful and far adventure.
Gameplay
I know what you are thinking, and no, its not exactly like Uncharted, instead of having a run and gun style game, you actually get a really good stealth killing game, you can melee while being able to get a 2x4 or a led pipe with a durability bar, carry multiple weapons, crafting your own materials such as getting an alcohol bottle and wrapping paper for you to either craft a medical bag to heal yourself, or you can craft a Molotov cocktail instead. This is a very useful and a unique thing to have in this sort of game. You also have this ability that can outline your enemies if they are near you, making sounds and footsteps, Ellie sometimes needs a little help if she gets grabbed but she can still have your back. There is no climbing ledges like Uncharted but there are other things like using a platform to move Ellie to a side because she cannot swim. Later in the game it keeps happening and Ellie's response is always getting tired of the board for a comedic moment. Through the whole game I hardly ever fired my guns and stayed in the shadows.
You have several enemy types, the common enemies you face are bandits calling themselves Hunters, while having a unique type of enemies called Runners and Clickers, Runners are people that are early infected, they lost control of their body and will attack anything in sight wildly, Clickers are blind but react to loud noises and can kill you instantly if they get their hands on you. There is another version of the clickers and it is the Bloater, Bloaters are bigger and longer infected versions of Clickers that can throw projectiles at you and can brutally rip your face open if they get close.
Visuals
The visuals in this game is like none Ive ever seen before for a console game, its almost up to par with next gen, the character models look gorgeous like if they are straight from a living person, the environments look beautiful, even the death animations look really impressive such as you choking out a person silently while they are struggling it looks almost real.
Replay Value
The single player campaign is the longest adventure game I have ever played that isn't an RPG, it took me 13 hours to beat this game for the first time with no speed run, there is also a bonus gallery, like Uncharted 1 or 2, it has some good stuff for single player such as skins for Joel & Ellie, mostly some of these are shirts but they are a nice touch, such as Ellie wearing a Jak & Daxter or Naughty Dog shirt, it also has theme settings like a black & white mode, western mode, stuff like that but there isn't any infinite ammo because ammo is scarce in this game, every shot counts. Like Uncharted it also has collectables, I collected over 40 items through my adventure and the game says I did not find them all. It also contains multiplayer, I didn't really play much of it, its not bad or great its just there to play with your friends and making clans.
Overall
I really enjoyed The Last of Us, it had some annoying moments such as getting killed by a Clicker for the 145th time instantly, but the journey kept reminding me of the relationship between Joel & Ellie have a unique bonding unlike any other, A man in his late 40's that keeps reminiscing what life use to be like instead of having to fight for your life, and a 14 yearold girl who was born in the plague not knowing what the world use to be like. The single player is just worth your money and I recommend it for anyone who has a PS3.
My final rating for The Last of Us is a 9.5 out of 10.
