Played on Playstation 4

I’ve been meaning to play The Last of Us ever since it first came out in 2013, but for some reason or another have just not gotten around to it until now in 2020 (just in time for Part II to come out!). I am so incredibly glad that I took the opportunity to finally play it, because if I hadn’t I would have missed out on an absolute masterpiece of gaming. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that The Last of Us is one of the best games that I’ve ever played.

This is very much a story-driven game, which is good because The Last of Us has one of the best stories I’ve seen in a video game. You play as Joel, a father who loses his teenage daughter amidst a panic during the beginning of a zombie outbreak. We then flash forward 20 years after the start of the outbreak, and Joel has clearly become jaded by the past 20 years. His life starts to change, however, when he agrees to take on a mission: taking a teenage girl named Ellie across the country. Ellie has been bitten by the infected, yet somehow has not turned, implying that she has some sort of immunity. Joel is given the mission to take Ellie to a group known as the Fireflys in the hopes of having Ellie be studied to potentially create a vaccine.

The game has an interesting concept to start out with, but it actually isn’t so much the plot itself that makes the story of the game such an enjoyable ride. The Last of Us is much more of a character-driven game than a plot-driven game, and this is really where the game shines the most. There are some other side characters introduced throughout the game that are also very interesting, but for the most part the main focus is on the relationship between Joel and Ellie. Both of these characters have lost so much, and manage to find a relationship in each other that they didn’t realize they needed. There are some very complicated feelings that come with this, such as Joel trying not to compare Ellie to his own deceased daughter. I don’t want to spoil anything, so that’s as far as I’ll go into it here. But regardless, the point I want to make is that the relationship between Joel and Ellie is one of the best I’ve ever seen in a game, and it really helps drive what an emotional ride this story is.

While I had always heard people rave about how good the story is, I was also surprised by how much I loved the gameplay. This is kind of in the old-school Resident Evil style of game where you’re given very little ammo and supplies to work with, so you have to make the most of what you have and scavenge as much as possible. Some people might not be a fan of this, but for me it gave me a reason to want to explore the great world that Naughty Dog crafted here. You will definitely be able to get through the game if you search for supplies, but if you’re more careless then enemy encounters are going to be a lot harder for you.

This ends up making up the crux of the challenges that you’ll face in the game. Armed with what little you have on you, you’ll enter areas that have groups of infected or other dangerous survivors, and you’ll have to figure out the best way to take down your enemies. This ends up creating some really intense moments throughout the game, and I was surprised to see how much adrenaline I was feeling at different encounters.

However, as great as these tense situations are, it’s actually the quieter moments that I liked the most in The Last of Us. Part of what makes Ellie’s character so great is that she’s been sheltered for all of her life so far, and so this is her first time really getting to experience the outside world. So, she ends up feeling genuine joy and excitement when she sees things for the first time. As a player, it was these moments that made me stop and appreciate the beauty around me, even in such a desolate and destroyed world. It teaches you to appreciate the little things, and these quieter moments ended up being some of the most powerful in the game.

Everything else in the game is simply top-notch and fine-tuned to perfection. Everything looks beautiful, from the character details to the breathtaking environments. While the load times felt slightly long to initially boot up the game, once you’re playing it everything runs really smoothly, and I never experienced any slowdown. The somber music ends up adding a ton of atmosphere to the game, and these melancholy tunes end up driving its hard-hitting moments home. I also just have to give a ton of praise to the performances/voice acting, especially for the two leads. This is some of the most believable, genuine acting I’ve felt in a game, which only adds to how organic the relationship between Joel and Ellie ends up feeling.

As far as the length goes, it will only disappoint if you’re someone that seeks out very long games. I got through the game in about 15 hours, although there is also the Left Behind DLC included in this remastered edition that added another 3 hours to my play time. I understand that some people feel like they want to get the most bang for their buck, but I’m someone that feels that game length should be dependent on the type of game you’re playing, and for a game like The Last of Us I felt like 15 hours was the perfect length. I’m also a believer that it doesn’t matter so much the number of hours you’ll spend in a game, but rather the quality of those hours spent, and The Last of Us uses all 15 of its hours in the perfect way. I should also mention that there are collectibles in the game that you’re likely going to miss, and also some harder difficulties to play through, so if you’re someone that likes to try to get the platinum trophy for games, then you can sink way more hours into this.

I consider The Last of Us to be one of the best games I’ve ever played, even now years after it was first released. It uses its entire play time to craft both intense enemy encounters and somber moments of beauty. It also provides one of the best stories I’ve seen in a video game, and gave me two main characters that I became very attached to. The dynamic of their relationship alone is a great reason to play this. I know most people have played the game by now, but for anyone like me that hasn’t gotten around to it, I definitely think you need to give it a try. If you’re looking for a great story-driven experience, The Last of Us is one of the best that video games has to offer.

5/5