Welcome to The Attic… why are all the pages stuck together?

The Last of Us was one of the biggest reasons I had decided to buy a PS4 instead of an Xbox One. Sure, there are many other games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, No Man’s Sky (let’s not talk about that one too much..) and Uncharted that made me sway from being an Xbox girl to a Playstation girl, but The Last of Us was way up there on my list. When I finally purchased it last week, my hopes were so high that I was almost skeptical. I’ve learned that when my hopes are highest, I usually end up disappointed. So, did it live up to my expectations, you ask? Let’s get into it.

The art design was fantastic. I loved the contrast of abandoned cities with bright green overgrowth

I finished the game in an undetermined amount of time (does anyone else wish PS4 logged hours of playtime like Steam does?), but I do know based on rough estimates that it was over 20 hours. I had heard that the game can be finished in 10, which is quite short, and I’m glad that wasn’t the case. Maybe some of this was a result of taking my time and really going stealth as much as possible. I’m sure you can fly through The Last of Us in a lot less time than I did, but you’d not only be missing out on the intense experience, and you’d also be blowing through resources to a point that I’m not sure is even doable. Resources, including bullets, are scarce, and based on my experiences, remaining unseen from humans and infected alike is usually the best course of action.

At times, I felt like the story was a bit stretched out, but at the same time I was so in love with these characters that I didn’t want it to ever end. Joel is the main protagonist, and the one we control for most of the game. In the intro, we see him and his young daughter witness the beginning of the outbreak, and during their attempt to escape town, she is sadly shot and killed. Honestly, I have never felt so attached to characters in a game so quickly, and this scene had me cutting onions. It’s rare that I get such an emotional reaction to a video game at any point, let alone near the beginning. It really goes to show how strong Joel is from the start. You instantly love and care about him, despite his gruff exterior.

A frustrated Joel taking care of Ellie

I knew that The Last of Us featured a young girl, and I had assumed that it would be his daughter through the whole game. I had avoided as many trailers and articles as I could over the years, and therefore missed any spoilers that may have ruined this moment for me. When she died I was shocked, and had no idea where the story was going from there. It jumps ahead in time, and Joel has now found a partner, Tess, to survive with. Their relationship has clearly gone beyond work, and they make a good team. On a trip outside the borders of the town they encounter a young girl, Ellie, and her caregiver, who they know from previous encounters. They make a deal with this woman to protect and transport Ellie to a group, the Fireflies, that she is supposed to meet up with, in exchange for a large weapon cache.

Not long into their journey, this discover that Ellie is special for one very important reason: she is immune. She was bitten by an infected, and yet has survived for weeks without turning. This outbreak has appeared to be unstoppable, but this one girl may hold the key to a vaccine. When Tess is murdered, Joel turns cold to Ellie, but they press on. Struggle after struggle, they become closer on their travels together, and he finally learns to lean on this young girl as a teammate rather than a burden. They begin to form a father/daughter bond, and when Joel’s life is in jeopardy, we get to take the role of Ellie for a while. It is really great to see the relationship from both sides, and it is clear that they would do anything to keep each other alive.

When the two finally arrive in Salt Lake City, where they have been instructed to go, Ellie almost drowns and the Fireflies save her. As Joel wakes up in the hospital, he learns that Ellie is being prepped for surgery, and while this may help them find a cure for the outbreak, it will also kill her in the process. He will not let this happen, and fights his way through countless guards to save this girl who has become his family. He gets to her just in time, and when she wakes up hours later in the car, Joel lies and tells her that they didn’t need her anymore. The doctors had used other immune patients, and nothing worked; they had stopped looking for a cure. Ellie clearly suspects that he is lying, but when she asks him to swear it was the truth, he swears without hesitation. With Ellie’s simple reply of resignation, the game ends.

The most debatable part of the whole story was whether Joel did the right thing or not. Some may argue that he was being selfish, and in fact, he was. But I felt such a great sense of relief. These two had grown so close, and meant so much to each other that I couldn’t imagine one living without the other. After losing Tess, Ellie was Joel’s only real reason to keep pressing on… His only reason to survive. And along the way it shifts from being a job, to a family doing everything they can to stay together.

These characters were so strong that they reminded me of something out of The Walking Dead. Yes, there is the zombie connection, but even setting that aside there are similarities. An unusual pair of people coming together after losing everything to form a bond that is more family than friendship, strong enough to kill for each other and risk their own lives to save each other. I really loved the character development as well, especially with Joel. You can tell early on how broken and bitter he is, and dealing with a young girl seems to be the last thing he wants to do. He’s cold and harsh towards her, but with time his fatherly instincts kick in, and then he will do anything to protect her.

Something about this scene tugged at my heartstrings. A very touching and beautiful moment

So while the argument may remain whether Joel should have let her try to save the world by sacrificing herself, I think he did what any father would have done, and chose to keep her alive. I really don’t think you can fault him for that, but it will be interesting to see how the sequel plays out. Will Ellie learn that he lied? And if so, will she forgive him or will this cause a conflict between them? What is the state of the world in the sequel? In the trailer that was just premiered at the Playstation Experience, I absolutely loved seeing Ellie play the guitar while singing along. I won’t lie, it gave me serious warm and fuzzy feelings knowing that he was able to teach her. He did sing for her. In a time of tragic endings being the norm more and more, I was so thrilled to see them both survive. I cannot wait for more of these two. The writing for The Last of Us was truly top-notch. Much needed laughs were peppered in through the story, and it was largely due to these characters that kept the game interesting. Without them being such great people to follow and root for, and the fantastic voice acting, the game wouldn’t have turned out nearly as good.

Not to be overlooked, even the greatest story in a video game needs to be backed by good mechanics and controls. For the most part I was happy with the crafting system. The components I needed were found fairly often, and just when I ran out of health packs, I would find the ingredients to make more. The enemies were smarter than I expected, and it was both surprising and frustrating at times. If I got caught and killed by enemy guards, I would then try a different route around the area, but no matter what I did it seemed like they searched wherever I went. These days almost every game that allows stealth has enemies move in a pattern that you can memorize and take advantage of. But these guys would go in different paths depending on where I was so I was forced to try over and over until I decided to make a run for it. This only happened a few times, so it wasn’t a big problem, but it was frustrating when it did.

All in all, The Last of Us was as good as I was hoping it would be. The character development and relationship between Joel and Ellie was stronger than I had expected it would be, and the ending left me satisfied, but wanting more.

Stay scared,
Dark Princess