Beautiful visuals and an amazing story put The Last of Us on instant classic status and proves games can be much more.
The Last of Us tells the story of Joel, struggling to survive in the post apocalypse after a fungus rises up and wipes out most of humanity. After a stunning, and I mean stunning, prologue which sets Joel up for the journey ahead, we are transported 20 years after the outbreak, where our 'hero' starts down his path that represents most of the game.
I placed the word hero in quotes because Joel isn't the goody two shoes straight arrow we usually see in games of this type. Much like Uncharted's Drake, he has a past that haunts him, but unlike Drake, Joel is seen to push this past aside, passing it off as just trying to survive in a world that is not what it once was. He is emotionally shut off, offering only the barest of emotions throughout the 15 hours or so it takes to get through this game.
There is one that starts to get to Joel though, and that is his young ward, 14 year old Ellie. Joel is charged with helping her get across the country and this mission is the driving force behind what you do in The Last of Us. This is not your typical escort mission though, that would be excruciating for 15 hours or more, and as the game progresses you soon discover Ellie is more than capable of taking care of herself.
In a technical sense, this is due to the fact that enemies do not 'see' her unless she attacks directly, which is a massive bonus when trying to sneak around and take out enemies without using precious ammo, which is at a premium at all times, even on the easier difficulties. It's a great way to handle stealth, and means you can focus on the job at hand without your cover getting blown by dumb AI.
The game controls brilliantly, just to get all of the technical stuff out of the way, with weight and power behind everything that you do. Melee kills are especially brutal, and if you're into such things very cool to see. Joel has the ability to go into a 'hearing mode' where the screen goes black and white and you can hear opponents move around, giving you chance to set up kills and who to get first, but also allowing multi kills with bombs and Molotov cocktails so long as you're smart.
The only thing I will say against the combat is that the bow feels a little overpowered, especially when enemies haven't seen you. That is not necessarily a bad thing because several of them have one hit kills so being able to dish out the same is satisfying - like all the combat - but it is noticeable.
The universe this game sets up is just amazing. It's what some would call a more 'realistic' take on the Zombie apocalypse, which is actually pretty accurate. Much like Telltale's The Walking Dead, the infected are not the main threat here. Humans trying to scratch out some sort of living are the true evil, bandits, 'freedom fighters', worse, each are trying to etch out an existence by any means necessary, and that does indeed mean any means.
You'll notice I describe a lot of the things in this game with quotation marks. The reason for this is that, in this world, there is no good or bad way, no right or wrong decision, everything is a grey area - which is how it should be. The people that inhabit this version of earth are just trying to survive, worrying about when they can next eat, that the slightest cut might kill them. Some factions describe themselves as 'freedom fighters' but does that really work in this reality?
It's an interesting thought, and is part of the reason The Last of Us is so special. The biggest chunk of that reason, though, is the story of Ellie and Joel. Ellie is 14, and has known nothing but the outbreak, but Joel knows the world before it went to hell, and slowly starts to each her about it, breaking down his emotional barriers as they progress on the journey set before them.
The brilliance of the characters are that they are broken in some significant ways. Joel is broken from the beginning, but Ellie goes through some serious stuff in this game and that starts to break her down too, but not so much as what happened to Joel, because she has Joel. That might sound weird, but trust me, play the game and you will understand what I mean.
The emotional dynamic between these two characters is the real draw of the game, and provides a brilliant story that can be enjoyed just as much by watching someone else play, and that makes it something truly special. Personally though, I didn't find it as emotionally draining and engaging as The Walking Dead, mainly due to a lack of any kind of moral choice or story divergence. This is not a bad thing, just how I found the game to be. It doesn't take anything away from this game, nor does it make the story inherently bad - far, far from it.
If The Last of Us is indeed the big AAA game the PlayStation will end its fantastic run with, then Sony and Naughty Dog should be proud. It shows that such titles can be more than just 12 hour gunfights, and rivals and even exceeds similar entries in other mediums. A truly fantastic game.