The Last Of Us
Every month we celebrate the most important, innovative or just plain great games from PlayStation’s past. This issue, we try to protect our precious braaaains, as we dive back into Naughty Dog’s undead, all-time classic adventure…
There’s never been a PlayStation pairing quite like it. Not Ico and Princess Yorda. Not Ratchet and Clank. Not even BioShock Infinite’s electrifying tag team of Booker and Elizabeth. When it comes to disarming double acts, Joel and Ellie take every last slice of the cake. The scintillating, sorrowful relationship between Naughty Dog’s unlikely allies not only makes The Last Of Us a towering example of digital storytelling, it transforms the stealth shooter into arguably the best PlayStation game of all time.
Well, at least that’s what you thought back in OPM #100. When we asked you to vote for PlayStation’s greatest-ever game in our anniversary issue, the verdict was clear: there’s never been a finer title to grace a Sony console than the masterful apocalypse adventure. Considering it beat the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII, and Grand Theft Auto III to nab your ultimate accolade, that’s quite the compliment.
And who are we to argue with your impeccable judgement? There’s no single element that makes TLOU such a classic. Instead, Naughty Dog crafted a game where a variety of meticulous moving parts all combine to create an experience that’s terrifying yet tender, heartfelt but rarely sentimental, and above all, perfectly paced.
UNCHARTED TERRITORY
PlayStation’s most respected studio mastered how to lay out a game over the course of PS3’s Uncharted trilogy, but The Last Of Us spaces its chills and thrills in more thoughtful fashion. One of gaming’s most harrowing prologues is quickly followed by a gentle, prolonged stroll through a dystopian Boston, Naughty Dog elegantly explaining mechanics as Troy Baker’s emotionally shattered gunrunner offs Infected in between simple puzzle-solving with partner Tess. As first hours go, TLOU’s opening salvo is tough to top.
The 15-hour adventure that follows has arguably never been equalled, let alone bettered. After Joel first encounters Ellie – discovering that her immunity to the cordyceps fungus may hold the cure to saving humanity from extinction – the pair embark on a cross-country journey. Intelligent, introspective, shockingly violent, and told with bold authoritative agency, The Last Of Us has titanic storytelling testes. Important characters bite the dust with nary a hint of mourning, while locations constantly evolve.
The doomsday duo’s sneaky, shooty journey has more standout moments in its brisk(ish) runtime than some series can muster in a decade (we’re looking at you, COD). That nerve-shredding dance with death inside a Boston civil war museum, as Joel evades a pack of Clickers (the game’s brutal, blind Infected). The wonderfully written ‘Go Big Horns’ university campus chapter. A late encounter with a herd of elasticnecked herbivores in the penultimate bus depot chapter.
Almost all the mesmerising moments we’ve mentioned centre around careful character-building and pitch-perfect scene-setting, not violent firefights. That’s not to say TLOU is a slouch in the action department. Five years on, the game’s cat-and-mouse stealth, which rewards breaking enemy sightlines before unleashing controlled bursts of aggression – usually while wielding a rusty hammer – is still utterly riveting.
LAST OPUS
Even for a studio that regularly delivers knockout classics, The Last Of Us still stands as Naughty Dog’s ultimate accomplishment. As an example of triple-A storytelling, it’s peerless. As a sensory experience, it’s an evocative, upsetting triumph. As evidence of how far the industry has evolved since Crash Bandicoot, it’s a humbling work of fiction. Basically, it’s a bit good.
AN EXPERIENCE THAT’S TERRIFYING YET TENDER, AND PERFECTLY PACED.