The Last of Us Remastered

i wish my father loved me

I HOPE I CAN EXPERIENCE A GAME LIKE THIS AGAIN IN THE FUTURE

The Last Of Us is that type of generation-defining experience that holds up extremely well in today's industry standards. It's quite a big shakeup from Naughty Dog's usual lighthearted approach, in which they managed to do the complete opposite and create a quite grim adventure that stays with you long after you roll the credits.

You obviously can tell that this is a PS3 generation product, but it still manages to look really well even today. Characters are distinct, detailed with great motion capture and lip synch in and outside of gameplay; the environment tends to use vibrant colors where it fits with some beautiful sunsets and lush vegetation. The environment, though, is mostly city and countryside scapes overgrown with vegetation; it manages to be varied since they try their best not to repeat a location type they use once. The remastered version provides native 1080p and 60 fps, which do improve the feel of the experience quite a bit.

The gameplay of The Last Of Us for its time was the most in-depth Naughty Dog has ever done and a good step up from Uncharted. It's a survival horror game that has resource and ammunition scarcity. I found it to be balanced the best in survivor difficulty; everything below hard is too generous, but even on higher difficulty, the game likes to give you something extra when you are running low. Weapon variety is decent; it's just a standard set of what survival horror games tend to give. The bow even though is powerful, has an arc mechanic that is just overly frustrating more than anything; besides that, shooting feels pretty good. Weapons can be upgraded with scraps, but personally I didn't find most options, besides expanding ammunition carry amount without reloading, to be the most substantial improvement you can make in most cases. The crafting mechanic is decent; I mostly enjoy how shivs can be used in many different ways: to take down an enemy fast, escape from an insta-death Clicker grab, and open up a safe room full of resources. I wish other items would have such multi-usage. Stealth is good, but AI at times can be a little lacking; it's especially poor before you alert enemies for the first time, stuck on the same walking path, especially ridiculous in the last chapter. Other items like bricks and bottles can be picked up and used to stun or fast kill an enemy. I found it to be quite fun, running from an enemy to suddenly see one of the items lying around so you can pick it up fast and turn the tide—combat of TLOU at its best. Enemy variety is decent, but mostly with infected; humans only differ with what weapon they carry and how much armor they have on, while infected can be a fodder, Clickers that can insta-kill you if not careful, stalkers that try sneaking up and avoiding being shot at, and of course the tanks that are bloaters, fun mini-bosses mixed with other types of enemies have the best combat encounters in the game.

The story of TLOU, of course, is the main highlight; it's a compelling drama that both starts and ends on a high note. Joel is a grizzled survivor afraid to allow anyone to get close to him; Ellie is a kid that is still untainted by the horrors of this world. Because of that, they manage to bounce well off each other, and it's especially compelling to see them gradually switch roles throughout the story. Side cast is great too; although most don't stick around for long, they are all memorable, with each having a different role to play, with David and Bill being the most compelling to me. The main narrative is well structured without pacing issues, and section I dread revisiting, with maybe only Boston taking too long to allow the game to start properly. It's an enjoyable experience all around, but I don't get why people act as if this is something extremely unique, a post apocalypse story focused on human struggle and relationships instead of the threat at large, it was already done many times before in The Walking Dead show and tell-tale series, as well as the movie "The Road" being quite similar to say the least. I mean it's really good, but that high horse people sit on needs to get down a peg.

Factions multiplayer is a pretty well-done multiplayer addition I found myself lost in for at least a hundred hours; gameplay shines the best here but at the same time shows how some of the weapons are unbalanced. Factions uses perks that give player certain edge towards the style of gameplay they want to focus on; be a better marksman, be a stealthy killer, be a spongy tank with close coarter weapons or be an equipment reliant trickster. What is a big issue is that players that sunk more hours than you have a much better set of skills and unlocked weapons that are much more OP and unbalanced, making it at times frustrating. It's a shame Naughty Dog cancelled Factions Multiplayer; this type of experience had some potential.

To sum up, The Last Of Us is a Sony exclusive at its best, a compelling and well-made experience I can still recommend a decade after its release. I still hadn't tried the remake yet, which I will once the price finally becomes more reasonable.

One of my favourite. Feels realistic. Awesome experience. Want to play this kind of story more.

I gotta admit that this game didnt live up to the hype for me.

I had heard about people crying at the end because it was so emotional but perhaps I was expecting a lot more because of this.

It's a good game with some great dialogue and action so it is worth playing but if you, like me, was expecting a game that will blow everything you thought you knew about gaming out of the water then you may be disappointed.

One of the best single-player games ever made.

Play thus before you die.