There will probably never be another game I review on this site before finishing all the missions, but for The Last of Us P1, I don’t think the prequel chapter will change my opinion of the game. If it does, however, I will make sure to come back here and edit this. But otherwise, I am pretty confident about my feelings for this game and have allowed myself to think back for a few hours before writing this so this is not an impulsive reaction to finishing the main story.
Almost the entire duration of the main campaign (I keep stressing on this because I am aware there is a short prequel chapter I need to complete to get the complete experience) I kept telling myself, when I review this what should I point out as negatives? What are some things I wish were different? And section after section, as the game kept going from strength to strength, I came up with blanks. For the longest time, I was convinced this was the perfect game – the difficulty, the pacing, the story, the presentation, the progression, everything was flawless. Ultimately I did find something to complain about but that too might be subjective, and will only be touched upon slightly at the very end of this writing because there is simply too much to celebrate about this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The centrepiece of this roughly 17-18 hour visit to a dystopian United States in the near future is the story unfolding and the people involved in it. Often I found myself playing through the action-centric parts just to reach the cutscenes at the end, or a quiet section of light platforming-puzzle solving where the characters would be conversing and further details about the world and their individual stories would come to light. These conversations, these quiet walks through a desolate landscape are what sell the ambience of the setting because there is hardly any background music to accentuate the mood. I remember clearly stopping play to stare at the skyline for minutes before continuing on. The presentation like voice acting and graphics is not only enhanced for the current generation but looks like nothing any other game offers in terms of immersion. The movement animations and the environment ironically come to life in the absence of it.
The individual personalities of Joel and Ellie shine through the story and how they interact with each other and their own goals give them a stronger footing in realism than other expertly-written characters in video games before. I will have to be extremely cautious with spoilers as the entire story is filled with moments that make you feel a certain way about certain things. These moments punctuate an otherwise gentle progression like a gunshot at times completely changing how you felt about the state of matters. These moments will also be where the majority of the spoilers come from and as such I will not discuss them any further, just know that I was left covering my face with my hands or jumping backwards in disbelief or at the very least watching on with dilated pupils.
The story itself is pretty simple from the very start. You are instantly thrown into the middle of it from the introduction (which is probably the best darn title introduction in any video game) and it only proceeds from there linearly. Without giving away too much of the story, it’s about surviving in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. This oversimplification is deliberate and will not take away from the slow unravelling of further details. The way it sets itself apart from other zombie-centric experiences is it focuses on the people and their relationships instead of on big set pieces or bombastic moments and only shocking you with the greatness of the writing instead of straight-up scares much popular with this genre.
If writing and atmosphere sell the game, the gameplay handles the cash. Much of the time you will be traversing through gorgeous desolate landscapes looking for a way through to the next clearing while coming across “enemies” at regular intervals. It’s pretty straightforward and light puzzle solving only adds a little flavour to the gameplay. You would think the story alone should not be able to tide you over a boring and repetitive gameplay like this but you would be absolutely wrong. A linear and predictable design allows you to customise your approach to every encounter and the game makes sure you have sufficient tools to work with. You could become the second coming of Sam Fisher or make it a sequel to Spec Ops, the gunplay and stealth are equally compelling approaches every time. Upgrades to the weapons and supplements that allow you to enhance your character are scattered throughout along with crafting materials that let you craft consumables like bombs and knives which makes exploration a joy and completely optional at the same time. Right until the end you can take on enemies with the bare essentials without upgrading anything and still feel rewarded. This is also in part due to the excellent difficulty that can be customised individually to fit the experience you want including auto-aiming which never feels like a hack because as I had already mentioned before, it's not about the battles outside that will draw you in…
The only, and I mean only qualm I have is there isn’t a sufficient progression towards enemy design and encounter patterns that will challenge you to adapt your methods and while that fits the story and perfect difficulty narrative perfectly, from a gamer perspective one might be left feeling a little underwhelmed at how easily you finish the final encounter without even realising it. This is probably why I can defend the idea of a sequel where I am expecting a little change in the regular gameplay in terms of the addition of elements that will pull me out of my comfort zone because otherwise, this feels so perfect, so emotional and so complete an experience that I would have otherwise wished it to exist in isolation, an example of how love and dedication from the developers can create something so magical.