The Last of Us

The Last of Us released at just the perfect time in the Ps3's lifespan. It served as sort a final hurrah for the PlayStation 3 and the 7th generation as a whole. Released on June 14, 2013, The Last of Us was praised for it's storytelling, likable characters, and outstanding gameplay. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world after a pandemic claims the lives of most of the world's population. You step into the shoes of Joel Miller, a smuggler who is tasked to smuggle a little girl named Ellie who is immune to the virus and she is the key to humankind's survival. As you progress through the story, Joel and Ellie form a close father-daughter type bonding and by the end of the game, are very close. While the characters and story overall is very well written, it cant help but feel like a generic "zombie apocalypse" story. But looking past that, the game is very unique in the gameplay department. The melee combat is very satisfying as well as the shooting. There are tons, and tons of craftable items that can make or break weather you survive or not and that alone keeps me coming back for more. The gameplay is not without it's flaws, though. Certain animations such as stealth take-downs are the same every time, and seeing how much you need to play stealthily, that becomes stale quite easily. The same can be applied to the melee finisher animations to a certain extent, which play out when you deliver a final blow to a stunned enemy. There seems to be around 5 or 6 and that alone just doesn't really seem to cut it. Another flaw worth mentioning is the AI, because it can be very bad at times. Sometimes enemies don't even notice that I'm loudly sneaking up on them and that kind of breaks the immersion. Also, there are certain sections in the game where Joel needs to grab a drift board for Ellie to jump on so they can get across deep bodies of water because Ellie cannot swim. These sections are repeated quite a bit through the game and I found myself dreading every second of those parts. It also doesn't help that Ellie's AI can be awful at these points, from not jumping onto the raft to not being able to get off, these areas really show the flaws in the game's AI. While definitely not perfect, The Last of Us delivers a heartbreaking, and captivating story that really shines on the second or third playthrough. Along with that, the combat system is very satisfying and the movement mechanics are also very fluid. Naughty Dog never ceases to amaze with their games. The Last of Us receives an 8/10.