Few games are able to have an actual impact on our daily lives - The Last of Us is one of them.
The game has you playing as Joel for the majority of the time, a 50-some year old guy, with a past as a single father to a beloved child. An outbreak of the horrible fungy disease turns into a pandemic, and "zombify" the poor population of Boston, and several other areas in the US and the world. Joel, his brother Tommy and Sarah tries to flee the attack of their suburban home, and upon fleeing, they are met with several challenges, one is ultimately going to claim the life of Sarah, Joel's daughter. It's a heartbreaking moment, that quickly has us empathize with our main character.
In the future, areas are protected by the military, but is challenged by rebels called "Fireflies". Our hero has no interrest in either, and works only for one reason: survival. Him and his companion Tess do their best to get supplies and ressources for the everyday-challenges. This is done through criminal activity such as selling weapons, or smuggling things. Picking up on this, is the leader of the Fireflies, who wishes Joel and Tess to smuggle her friends daughter out of town. This is where we are introduced to our second main character, a stubborn, strongwilled, slightly naive, yet ever so likeable Ellie.
The purpose for their long travels are now set: Ellie needs to get somewhere, and Joel is set out for the job, in order to claim some ressources he thought to be his and Tess's.
But this is clearly only to give context to the games really interresting writing: the development of the main characters. Joel and Ellie see many changes through the game, for better and for worse, and their relationship evolve, aswell as ours towards theirs - especially towards Ellie, who i fell in love with ever so slighty, in fact i wanted to protect her at all cost, which had me think irrationally at some points in the game, when i was forced to think more strategic, i instead rushed forward, to save Ellie in time, not really thinking about the fact, that nothing is realtime in the game... Stupid me.
Through the story we're also introduced to other characters, they aren't that important, and not very interresting either, but again they are there to produce changes in our main characters way of thinking, acting, and behaving around eachother. The cast of characters all have an impact on Joel and Ellie, and only helps to make us care even more about those two.
The ending is unique. I have rarely experienced something so bittersweet. There's nothing obvious about the ending, so don't think i just spoiled everything, 'cause you won't see it coming a mile away. It's cleverly thought out, and then again, at that time we have had so much time with our two characters, that we understand the choices that are being made through out the game, especially the end, though we wish we could just yell at the screen (which i did in frustration).
Gameplay is much like Uncharted, but gives us more RPG elements to play around with. It's slightly shallow, but it does in fact make a great deal of change to the firefights in the game. Usually you're thrown into a small area filled with objects to cover behind. From here, it's about having a generel view of your enemies position, and strike at the right time. Joel has an ability to "hear" the enemies, which basically provides a silhouette of the bad guys, so we can see them behind walls and object. It's a nice way to give us a sense of what's going on. Though the fights are very similar to Uncharted, enemies are not. Humans are careful, yet aggressive when challenged, runners (zombies of sorts) are plain aggressive, and clickers, those full out infected by the fungus disease, they are blind and react on sound, which also gives us a strategic element within the game, in which you can make use of objects to produce sound and in that regard distract enemies.. or collect them, and **** them up with a molotov cocktail.
Ressources are scare, so beware of your bombs and molotov cocktails - they can change a fight within seconds, and give you the clear overhand. But because of limited ammo and ressources, the fights are usually really tough, not in a literal sense, but in the sense that you feel a kind of stress, you almost get anxious during fights, especially against clickers, seeing as they kill you as soon as they get near you. Some people don't like that feeling of fear you get, but i think it's part of the game - a way to understand the troubles the characters go through. It's great game design, and a nice twist to up what is an otherwise decent 3rd person shooter, and nothing more. Stealth is there too, but it's sort of "decent" and nothing more either. This goes for most of the game, nothing with regards to gameplay is ever outstanding, but it's solid, and it's an acceptable way of driving the games momentum.
Sound is obviously fantastic, same goes for voice acting. It's hard to say what could be done better, 'cause honestly i think this game might have the single best voice acting of any game - ever! The combination of beautiful animation and perfect voice-acting provides a nearly unimagineable experience! We're talking about "acting" that's far surperior to most real-life actors. I can only compliment the people involved, and say you did GREAT! These characters are as close to real as it gets!
So what about it? Why should you get the game.
The ending justifies it all, but it's hard to explain why The Last of Us is such a damn masterpeice, it's all subjective in the end. It has its moments where it drags on, there's far in between humerous moments which can help lighten the mood of an otherwise heavy story, and it's just a very tough experience that i thought best to enjoy over several sessions. It shows a relationship between two people that is strong, that evolves, and evolves into something very interresting. The story you're presented with might not knock off your boots, but if you're able to dig in deeper, understand the following: fungus-people and rebel groups aside, here's a story that's best percieved through the eyes of the characters. Joel WAS me for a while, until he took choices i saw unhappy with. He was my tool to save a character i really came to care about - Ellie. Facial expressions and the dialogue between the two, is some of the strongest writing in gaming history, and i would go so far as to say, it's one of the most entertaining pieces of entertainment. It provides a sense of struggle, an urge to "get done with it", but there's always peace in you, and on screen, when Joel and Ellie are together, and safe.
It's a beautiful game, don't miss it!