The Last Of Us tells us the story of Joel, a smuggler in the year 2033, living in a world run by martial law where civilians are housed in Quarantine Zones in the now ruined USA. Towering walls make up these QZ's littered with lookouts and checkpoints, marched through by soldiers securing the perimeter and ensuring residents are safe by any, including brutal, means necessary. Joel has experienced firsthand the emotional backlash this new crumbling world can deliver as shown in a harrowing prologue that you play.
A note here, as during this prologue was my first gasp of excitement. Playing as Joel's young daughter, Sarah, you stagger half-asleep to find your father not in his bedroom which is bathed in the glow of an urgent newsflash as an explosion happens downtown. An explosion which you then see outside the bedroom window in the distance. This moment told me that I had invested wisely in Naughty Dog's latest IP.
A plague has swept the nation, a strain of the Cordyceps virus - just one Google image search will send your nightmares to a new level. Turning humans into mad violent braindead murderers and spreading by way of spores and bites, eventually turning the host into blind creatures ravaged by the fungus in which the virus developed. This latter stage, known as Clickers, are some of the more nightmarish game villains I have seen to date. Their presence signalled by the clicking of which they gain their name as they hunt for you with echolocation. One sound and they come running, even when you are switching out your distraction weapon from a brick to a bottle you have found lying in the environment. Once found, by Clickers or Runners (the early jabbering Infected), the next few moment are overwhelming and unrelenting. You will be killed.
The environment itself is also a dangerous foe. Debris and detritus aiding or abetting your journey across the wilderness of the USA. The environment is definitely a character that people will be talking about for generations to come as games gain more recognition as an art form. A lot of love has been put into the decay of towns untouched in twenty years. Nature is slowly reclaiming its place as trees become too big for their planters and roots sprout through the brickwork. Buildings have toppled over, through human force and lack of maintenance. Televisions are dusty but still adorn the homes of various Survivors despite there never being anything transmitted.
From big cityscapes to small towns and homesteads, the outbreak of the Cordyceps Brain Infection has changed the entirety of the nation. The success of a created world is dependent on there being no need for explanation for its total being. It is what it is because this happened. Akin to Blade Runner where decaying buildings are retrofitted with new technologies; you don't know what it does but it just makes sense. The Last Of Us is inspired by a lot of pre-existing post-apocalyptic franchises but in a very good way. These are pleasant reminders and don't feel thrown together. The love is definitely there and that is evident by the level of detail in everything you encounter, including the various documents that are strewn across the landscape piecing together what has happened. There is a lot of I Am Legend in the environment, Children Of Men in the character development and The Road in the emotional attachment between these characters. Naughty Dog are very good at delivering a cinematic experience as evidenced by their Uncharted series without forgetting that they are a games developer.
This is the second IP that the company has developed for a current-gen console and one that has room to develop should they choose to create a sequel or a prequel. DLC will be made for The Last Of Us but aimed at the multiplayer online aspect as opposed, and rightly so, to the singleplayer campaign. Reviewers are already citing the game as a masterpiece which, to me, signifies that their shouldn't be another installment for Joel's story to remain untainted as it were. Not that I feel Naughty Dog would do that to their own franchise as easily as it is to taint an original well-received film. This universe has a lot of replayability, if not for the collector and the challenged in you but for the character-driven player you may be. This brings me to my final point; the onscreen chemistry between Joel and his cargo-cum-adoptive daughter, Ellie.
As Joel, you travel across America with Ellie for the good part of a year, from Boston to Pittsburgh and everywhere in between. The weather changes with the seasons and this is a good reflection of their dialogue. At times Joel can be defensive when Ellie, innocently, ponders into her courier's past but at others he can be outright protective. This shines through when he finally gives into allowing her to have a firearm as a means to protect herself when he cannot. Her inability to do this early on is frustrating as their are some tight spots where Ellie can become a hindrance. But this is all development and makes for a fantastic game-changer as, like their fondness for one another, develops into something better and stronger when all hope feels lost as they journey empty-handed from town to town. There is nothing Lolita about the characters' strength and love for one another, it's a very real feeling. From Joel it feels like a plea for forgiveness for not being able to save someone he loved early on, even though the odds were outright against him. His sharp conversation-enders hang coldly in the air, and Ellie reacts to his bitter tone. You can certainly fill in these empty gaps in dialogue with the thoughts they may be feeling for one another. She clearly doesn't understand the world that Joel has been forced to live in and he clearly doesn't understand what it is to know just this world and experience it through the eyes of a child.
Their journey is accompanied with new emotions when new friends are made and ultimately lost. What starts as Joel's delivery of Ellie to a resistance group called the Fireflies turns into a personal quest to finally help someone where he otherwise could not. This becomes very apparent in the final season of the game. His love for this person, as a friend or an adoptive family member, is a struggle and certainly challenged where he has to be reminded that this is a job. In the end, you are never too sure whose side Joel was ever on, as he explains to Ellie early on that he has been on both sides of the fence. The final lines of the game left hanging in my mind as I was not sure what to make of the entire journey when I felt I knew what I was doing. I questioned as to whether I had done the right thing. It is in the last fifteen minutes I was made to feel unsure and unsettled in Joel as a person. I wouldn't call him a hero despite the extraordinary circumstances and unrelenting journey laid bare for him; a killer most certainly, even in the face of pleading Hunters and doctors I still executed all of them but because I had to. In a world where there is no law, letting one of your oppressors free only leaves them open to return and in force to rinse and repeat the current situation. It can be terrifying when a game questions your ability as a human being in moments like this.
The multiplayer is an interesting and welcome facet to the game too, playing as either Hunters or Fireflies securing supplies in 4v4 deathmatches to ensure the survival of your clan (members named after your Facebook friends) over a 12 week period. But with the singleplayer journey over, the game can be played again and again through the golden autumns and whitest winters meeting the interesting characters looking for their own way through this world; the lone trapper, the brothers looking for a place to call home, your own family building a future and those who would be friends doing the best they can to survive but are ultimately against you for unwittingly wronging them in the past. There will be moments that you missed the first and second times that will be a delight to encounter the next time. This definitely feels like, in the aftermath of E3, the PlayStation's swansong for this generation and can only mean for bigger and better things from Naughty Dog.
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