Ashley BirdI didn’t play Naughty Dogs The Last Of Us first time around on Playstation 3 because horror games had never really been my thing. When I was using the PS3 I was just a casual gamer, picking up Call of Duty and Fifa quite regularly but that was about it. That all changed when I got my PS4 and I started to play games with a story. Quickly after getting serious about games I began to regret letting The Last of Us go. It seemed everyone I spoke to about games had played and loved The Last of Us and I had just ignored it completely thanks to my own stubbornness . So when Sony announced that the game would be remastered for PS4 I was inevitably excited to get the chance to play the game that the entire gaming world had raved about. Such is the love for this game that when I went to pre-order it and I told the guy in the shop that I hadn’t played it the first time around because it didn’t really interest me he looked at me like I was a crazy person.
The first thing I can say about the game is that it is gorgeous. I spent a lot of time in the game just wandering around the crumbling ruin of our world looking for new views to take advantage of the new photo mode that enables you to take screenshots whenever you want with so much ease that you can take a snap of the zombie horde chasing you down the street, give it a quick edit to get the angle and colour tone just right before you share it with the world, or your face book friends, and then go back in the game with out missing a beat to try to escape a gruesome death. I found my self using this tool far more than I thought I would because almost everywhere deserves to be captured forever in a picture. Everything looks crisp and at times eerily real which really helps to get the emotional impact that seeing some one devoured by relentless zombies should have on a person.
The main characters are developed really well thanks to great writing and more detail in facial expressions to convey emotion and reaction because of the more powerful console. Joel, who you control for the majority of the game, is one of the great anti heros. Begrudgingly picking up the reigns when no one else can with a traditionally tragic background that is par the course for such characters and Joel doesn’t stray from that tried and tested mould but it works brilliantly alongside the vulnerable and belligerent Ellie who has learnt to hold her own but at the age of fourteen needs protection in a hostile world. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the game is watching the two bond throughout the game. The storyline is good but a little predictable with nothing really surprising happening and yet it is gripping enough to keep me playing for at least a few hours a day until I finished the game. The foes you meet on this epic journey range from vicious humans to long infected “bloaters” with each providing a different challenge. The highlight though are the Clickers. Infected humans eventually turn into these creatures that have lost their eyes and now rely on echolocation, sending out loud clicks to survey the area and locate prey. Thanks to the PS4 controller having speaker you can be creeping through a hallway feeling quite safe and then stopped dead in your tracks by a loud click from around a corner. It is the first use of this speaker I have noticed and it really did heighten the atmosphere, hopefully more game developers will follow suite and use this feature.
Ellie doing her thing
If I have a criticism of the game it would be the online multiplayer, it just isn’t very good though I should say that I haven’t played much of it. I played a few games to try it out but honestly it felt a little slow and dull. I would say it is only there because almost every game has an online mode these days and Naughty Dog didn’t want look like they were making us pay for half a game. The truth is after playing a single player mode that has clearly had a lot of care and love put into it you go into the multiplayer expecting the same level of play and for me it just wasn’t there and I think the game itself was good enough to have left that out and nobody would have complained
The Last of Us is a rare exclusive for Sony and based on this evidence they should have more because The Last of Us is one of the best games to be released on the PS4 so far and if like me you didn’t play the game first time around it is one very good reason to buy the console.
Joel and Ellie in all their glory