The Last of Us (Remastered)Game Review

Naughty Dog has been on a roll and with their latest addition to the arsenal they have truly given us an exceptional franchise. The original game “The Last of Us” published by Sony Computer Entertainment in June 2013 for the PlayStation 3 all in all was an epic game with great graphics and a sensitive storyline. Winning over 200 “Game of the Year” awards and selling over 1.3 million copies in its first week proved Naughty Dog’s success on this game. Naughty Dog really wanted to explore more in depth with a particular character in the game and that’s where the “Left Behind” DLC comes into picture. And then Naughty Dog made the decision to bring Last of Us to Next-Gen. This decision had a huge impact on the Last of Us franchise and gamers got excited again for the game to the same level as they got for its first iteration. With the new Re-mastered addition as a PlayStation 4 Exclusive, Last of Us made a whole lot of new fans. People new to the franchise joined it just because the game was marketed so well. It started to come with the DLC pack, multiplayer gameplay and got in a lot of PS4 Bundles. It’s like Sony wanted gamers to enjoy the PlayStation experience with Last of Us Re-mastered. Last of Us Re-Mastered is the highest selling re-mastered game ever produced.

BACKGROUND:

The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror game. The game starts in 2013 when there is a huge outbreak of a mutant Cordyceps fungus that ravages the United States. This infection transforms humans into aggressive monsters. People often relate this to a zombie survival game but the infected are not zombies. In-fact the game never uses the word “zombie” in it. Cordyceps fungus is an actual infection that occurs in insects and it’s very cool to see a game that ties real things to their story in order to make it so real. The story revolves around Joel, perfectly voiced acted by Troy Baker, who is his early 30’s. The story moves 20 years forward where human civilization has sort of developed itself to cope up with the infection. The character development of Joel throughout the series is what turns this story to be so sensitive. Ellie, voice-acted by Ashley Johnson, is a 14 year old girl who was born in this infected world and meets Joel due to situations. Their relation is something that Naughty Dog has tried to keep as the main focus of the game. It is also cool to see how Ellie interacts the infected world differently when she tries to understand what the world used to be like through Joel. As an explorer attributed gamer it is remarkable to explore the relationship between Ellie and Joel and see how it evolves. This game develops the story in a fashion where it keeps an opportunity open for a sequel.

GAMEPLAY:

The game has focused its attention to provide gamers with a third person perspective gameplay. This game is not your typical shooter game with infected monsters so don’t play it as one. This game involves stealth, strategy, decision making, being resourceful and using a Mossberg 500 shotgun when in dire need to blow off an infected head. The game involves an incredible crafting mechanism allowing the gamer to craft items to increase resources in their inventory. Using crafting skills one can also upgrade weapons and tools. Your gameplay would vary a lot depending on what kind of threat you are encountering. You could be dealing with humans who are intelligent, who talk to make sound and have weapons. You could be dealing with the infected. And there are many kinds of infected depending on the shape and size of the human that was infected and also on the duration of the infection on a particular human being. Different kinds of infected are to be dealt differently. You would have to learn about the Runners, Clickers, Bloaters and more kinds of infected to survive and make your way out of a dangerous situation. This game requires patience and skill. The AI in the game is a little flawed which is so easy to notice when you play the game and catches off-guard and then you see the messed-up part how the AI interacts with the world. But it is still something that won’t change your mind about the game a lot. Till the end this game gives a solid 20–25 hour gameplay. It can extend to as much as you want depending on your exploration of the game. Adding to that the DLC adds 4–7 hours. And then there is multiplayer and other harder playable modes for the gameplay.

MULTIPLAYER:

Its impressive to see how mechanics from the Single player tie in the Multiplayer. The game does not have the best online multiplayer experience but for a Studio who has never done this sort of thing with a focused single player game, it is a huge accomplishment. It’s not the best but it is out there. And it gives an outside look on the Last of Us world and a different touch towards survival. It has currently three multiplayer game types, each hosting a maximum of eight players. Not the game types can increase in the future if Naughty Dog intends too. The game modes include “Supply Raid” the player has to pick a faction and raid the supply of the opposing faction is a death match scenario with re-spawns. “Survivors” is a team-death match with no re-spawns. “Interrogation” involves interrogating the enemies after defeating them to learn the location of the enemy team’s lockbox. First team to capture wins. Gameplay involves killing enemies, reviving allies and crafting items to provide a combat advantage. Players can personalize their characters with hats, helmets, masks, emblems etc. Each game mode counts as a day. By surviving 12 weeks, the player would have completed a journey and can choose their faction again.

MUSIC:

This aspect of the game turns out to be one of the highlights of the game. Naughty Dog has focused on creating the game to be an emotional masterpiece. So it’s fitting for the soundtrack to be emotional rather than scary. Composed and written by Gustavo Santaolalla, a talented individual and a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Original Score, the soundtrack in itself is a masterpiece. The sound is peaceful and also alerting in an emotional sense. The guitar work on the musical piece stands out and creates one of the best scores to emulate an emotional touch in a game.

Rating: 9 out of 10