The Last of Us

When it comes down to it, there isn’t a whole lot of game in The Last of Us. There are only really four types of enemies, you mostly just do the same thing a dozen or so times and though it doesn’t feel like it, it’s every bit as much on-rails as the first half of Final Fantasy XIIIbut simply more adept at hiding it. If you hate the kind of game that feels mostly like a movie you can minimally interact with, you may not enjoy it that much. But in terms of sophistication, seriousness, a good story and just plain out-shining any Hollywood zombie film for many, many years (especially World War Z), you can’t go wrong with The Last of Us, and it does feel like a bit of a milestone.

On a superficial level, it goes for ‘lots of swearing, deaths that hit hard and plenty of gore must mean the product is grown up’, but it actually does back this up with depth, which is what counts. It explores a whole lot of difficult subjects, from grief to self-sacrifice, and is happy to end on a moral grey area that some could argue is so open because it’s gunning for a sequel, but I prefer to think of as bittersweet, making it clear that despite what Hollywood may tell you, always opting to save the innocent individual whose death may actually save many, many more may not actually have been wise.

Grizzly Joel has survived the zombie apocalypse and is making a living as a tough-guy smuggler, delivering products where they’re needed in the quarantined zones. One day he and his partner get mixed up with smugging a girl named Ellie – who perhaps inevitably may be the key to a cure. Soon he’s left alone with her, and they have to get through a series of difficult spots, brushing with death several times until they can reach the ‘fireflies’, the biggest underground organisation in the infected zones. Getting from place to place involves dealing with zombies, including the blind but fearsome ‘clickers’ and the foul and very dangerous ‘bloaters’, as well as soldiers and other human adversaries, snipers defending their homes and even a group of cannibals who want to make a ‘toy’ out of Ellie. Along the way they make some great allies, including Joel’s brother making his living in a hydroelectric dam, a grizzly but tough-as-nails recluse who may be the most awesome explicitly gay character yet in a video game, and a pair of black brothers who have a very sad story only outdone by the story of the people in the sewers (apparently obliquely referencing a book called Earth Abides) that unfolds only with notes and the clues left behind – including ‘They didn’t suffer’ daubed onto the floor in front of a blanket that doesn’t stop anybody seeing what it covers.

There are very uplifting moments, too – the best of them of course featuring giraffes, which will no doubt be one of the more memorable scenes the game leaves behind. There are some fun little references to other games, too, most obviously Jak and Daxter (Naughty Dog’s previous project), as well as Uncharted, which is this game’s most obvious forebear. There’s  even a newspaper claiming Justin Bieber will be playing Drake! I have to say, it does also continue to amuse me that the very last thing  you do as a player is to jump off a log, too.

This is a much, much better game than any Uncharted, though. It’s serious and demands some thought. Its stealth sections are much trickier and though occasionally frustrating, it always feels well-balanced, at least on the hard setting I played it on (one day I’ll probably tackle ‘survivor’). The only thing is that there’s not a whole lot making me want to replay, because rather than missing the gameplay or the challenge, I have the feeling of satisfaction of watching a brilliant film, though with some challenges along the way.