Drunken Reviews: A Sobering Look at The Last of Us

The Last of Us may begin slowly, but it takes no time at all for the game to pick up and for you to become immersed in the world. With rich story telling and a hectic multiple path combat system, this game provides a phenomenal play through. Players are able to go in with guns-a-blazing, or can utilize more stealth tactics to play through the campaign in what
ever way players are most comfortable with. This is one of those titles that have such an immersive and captivating story, even sitting back and watching someone else play is highly entertaining.

Its cinematic approach of drawing you in and getting you attached to the characters is something on an entirely different level.
The conversations between Joel, Ellie, and anyone else you happen to meet are priceless. Between Ellie’s swearing like a trucker attitude and Joel’s “father-like” worrying I was completely hooked.
The game is riddled with collectibles (comics, ‘dog’ tags and old relics from pre-infection Earth) so there is tons of treasure hunting to be done, and with ‘New Game+’ mode you are in for countless hours of game time.

For the record, I originally attempted to play this game drunk but quickly changed my mind. Not only was I sloppy and awful, but this is the kind of game (as I quickly realized) that makes you want to absorb every second of it – sober.

The game has 4 difficulties, though only 3 are available out of the box and 1 is unlocked after completion of the game, and a multiplayer mode (I wasn’t able to try yet – friends and family only until the 14th of June). All reviews seem to say the mulitplayer is something that isn’t just thrown in, such as Tomb Raider’s multiplayer.

Stock up before you begin a battle, because this game has a live combat system, meaning no pausing to open inventory to heal or craft anything, its all during game play.
The stealth combat is fun, you are able to toss objects around to distract enemies as well as being able to ‘silently’ kill them.

The game features a fairly large variety of enemies, 4 types of infected and loads of human ‘personalities’ (survivors with limited ammo, hunters with brutal melee weapons or even soldiers armed to the bone with body armour and assault weapons).
You have to adjust your combat style depending on the enemy you are fighting. Infected have an ability to “one hit” you or even swarm you and leave you feeling helpless. Humans have the ability to ‘think’ and attempt to out maneuver you by flanking and drawing you out of cover.

So far two multiplayer modes have been announced. Multiplayer modes are called “Factions”, the available ones being survivor and supply raid. Survivor is a one life team death match with a best of 7 wins, wins the game. Supply raid is a 20 lives team death match, where, unlike survivors, if you die you wait until the next round to play. Your team shares 20 lives throughout a 15 minute match, first team to lose all 20 lives loses the game.
The multiplayer mode starts with the player deciding which faction they would like to join, either the Hunters or Fireflies. From there the player must win multiplayer matches to complete “missions” in order to help their faction and thus fortify their own clan of survivors. Each player has their own group of survivors that are part of their ‘camp’.
By completing missions a player will expand their ‘camp’ size. This feature can be linked to the players Facebook page where the names of your “camp” survivors are linked to people of their Facebook friends list. Another bonus to linking your Facebook account to the game is you can obtain 3 ‘single use’ boosts to be used in the mulitplayer mode.

The Last of Us maintains the AAA quality we’ve all come to expect from Naughty Dog. Never is there a dull moment or section of the game that leaves you feeling bored. Hell, I didn’t want to put the game down.
On average, players have been kept busy anywhere between 12-20 hours. Depending on the play style and how much/little a player chooses to explore and interact with their surroundings for collectibles.

Several ‘challenges’ fill the game which are earned by completing certain feats, such as killing 3 enemies with one molotov or killing 5 enemies in a row with one weapon. Each completed ‘challenge’ will earn the player ‘cash’ for their wallet, that they can in turn use to unlock single player alternative outfits, concept art and even graphic modifiers. All of these can only be unlocked once a player has beaten the game according to the item’s unlock requirements.

A season pass is available to download for 19.99 CAD which entitles the player to a ‘Seasons’ worth of dlc for a reduced price. There is no say yet on what this DLC will include, though its expected to contain some single player DLC, some multiplayer maps and game modes, and maybe even some extra costumes.

Trophy Hunters – you are in for a treat. The Last of Us contains trophies that, at first glance seem a little tedious to get to Platinum, but with a few play throughs and some dedication to the multiplayer mode factions, The Last of Us can be conquered.

Leave your favourite Joel and Ellie moment in the comments! (mine is when they are driving, and she asks about why the skin mag pages are sticky and stuck together).