The creators of Uncharted release their last title of the current generation, and what could be the best game ever on the PlayStation 3.
There is an unpleasant bias in the video games world, where any game that devotes a significant amount of its running time to storytelling is automatically assumed to be working on a higher plane of artistic endeavour than other titles. But a good video game does not need a story, and trying to crowbar in old, linear forms of storytelling is often done at the expense of gameplay. The more story you have the less game you have, is the normal equation.
But not in The Last Of Us.
Developer Naughty Dog is already well known for the Uncharted series and for creating Nathan Drake, one of video gaming’s only genuinely likeable protagonists. His easy charm and human foibles stand in direct contrast to the usual psychopathic beefcakes that litter gaming. But Nate is not a complex character and his stories are nothing more than straightforward pulp adventures.
The Last Of Us uses many of the same gameplay and storytelling techniques as Uncharted, but for a much darker tale and to explore two very much less straightforward characters. The background of the tale is a future where a fungal plague has devastated the world’s population, turning the majority into mindless, zombie-like creatures.
The remaining humans live either in harsh government-controlled cities or attempt to survive on their own either as scavengers or in small close-knit communities. As the game begins you take control of Joel, an amoral smuggler who is convinced to take a 14-year-old girl named Ellie across America to meet with a resistance group called the Fireflies.
Ellie’s secret is only revealed partway through the game, but even when it is Joel is reluctant to take on the role of father figure. At this point neither character is especially likeable and they appear as fairly basic tropes: Joel is the terse action man with a troubled past and Ellie is the spunky teenager who swears like a sailor.
Neither attitude seems unreasonable given their situation though, where a horrible death lies in wait around every corner – from either humans or infected. The infected come in only two varieties: deranged humans who look and act very much like traditional, fast-moving zombies and ‘Clickers’. Clickers are humans that have been infected for longer and fungal growth on their head has made them blind, but given them a form of echo location.
Clickers are much more dangerous than infected and can kill you in a single attack, they also have an advanced form called a Bloater – although on the default difficulty you’ll only encounter them four or five times in the whole game.
This means that while infected can be avoided in the traditional manner of running away and hiding, Clickers will react to any but the most subtle movement – but not you standing stock still in the middle of the room. Although it may seem disappointing that there are really only two enemy types the night and day difference between the tactics you use against them is a brilliant piece of gameplay design.
And besides, we don’t really consider the infected to be the primary enemies in the game. They’re the reason the world has gone to pot but the most dangerous enemies are still ordinary humans. We’re not sure if that was always the plan, or if Naughty Dog just realised partway through that it was more interesting fighting intelligent enemies, but scavengers and other humans are your opponents for over half the game.
Given the often shocking levels of violence they’re just as frightening an opponent, if not more so. The presence of the infected may seem to paint the game as a survival horror, but it really isn’t. It’s tense, not frightening, and never more so than when you have half a dozen wild-eyed scavengers bearing down on you and you’re down to your last bullet.
Ellie can occasionally help in a fight by distracting or jumping on an attacker, but although you have a decent range of upgradeable guns the ammo is limited enough that escape and concealment is always the most sensible option – and often the most satisfying. But if you do get into a scrap the melee combat is extremely well handled, and by drawing in the camera manages to feel horrifyingly frantic despite the simple controls.
There’s also a dynamic cover system which works similarly to the new Tomb Raider, in that you don’t have to manually glue yourself to any obstacle to hide behind it – just duck down nearby. None of these individual elements would sell the game on its own, but they’re perfectly solid mechanics and the gunplay is certainly superior to Uncharted 3.
The only video-gamey ability is ‘listen mode’ where you crouch down and can suddenly see through walls in a kind of x-ray vision. The idea is that you’re listening for the noise that enemies make, with the game providing a visual representation, and although the effect is a bit jarring there’s no arguing it’s not useful.
It’s the free form nature of battles that is the most impressive though, with the game perfectly happy to let you run as far away as possible before looping back to tackle the fight from a new angle. The enemy artificial intelligence is also sensible enough to do the same, often disengaging if things go badly or calling for help.
There are also light role-playing elements, where Joel collects tablets to upgrade things like his maximum health and how much his aim wobbles when using a gun. But when not in battle scavenging the ruined landscape is essential and there’s a simple crafting system that allows you to create field bandages and weapons like smoke grenades, Molotov cocktails, and nail bombs. The Molotov’s are the most useful, especially against Clickers, and cleverly they use exactly the same ingredients as the field bandages.
Viewed purely in terms of action The Last Of Us is a clever mix of Uncharted, Resident Evil 4, and Fallout. It lacks the depth and variety of the latter two, and is extremely linear, but it’s the additional factor of the storytelling and visuals that really raises the game.
The Last Of Us looks absolutely stunning at every turn, from the highly detailed landscapes of ruined cities and deceptively tranquil wilderness to the superb character models and facial animation. It’s clearly pushing the PlayStation 3 to its absolute limit though, as the frame rate is often quite low and the cut scenes are all pre-rendered rather than real-time.
These are never real problems though and the only genuine technical fault we can level is that as good as the enemy artificial intelligence is your allies can often be seen bumbling into you or running straight in front of a Clicker without it ever reacting to them.
And yet even with so little to criticise by the halfway point, when most of the game’s systems had become familiar and the story seemed to be heading in a fairly predictable direction, we did feel slightly disappointed. The voice-acting for Joel, Ellie, and the rest of the cast is worth every ounce of praise it gets but the characters still seemed to have little real depth and the game’s story no real narrative weight.
But then around two-thirds in these lowering expectations are suddenly reversed and the story ups its game not just dramatically but thematically. We can’t go into spoilers of course but what seems at first to be a simple story of an emerging father-daughter relationship becomes something much more thought-provoking.
The final minutes are almost purposefully anticlimactic, but the meaning behind them illustrates the human need for companionship and family – surrogate or otherwise – as well as any film or novel we’ve ever experienced.
And all this in a really cool game where you get to shoot zombies in the face with a sawn-off shotgun.
In fact The Last Of Us is a surprisingly generous package, since the story campaign lasts for a good 16 hours even on the default difficulty. But beyond this it also has a separate multiplayer mode of significant quality. Much like Uncharted 3 it uses the basic mechanics from the single-player, which in this case means a more stealth-oriented style of action as you take on a team of up to four rivals at a time.
You also still have to scavenge for items and listen mode is still available – although you can now tag spotted enemies for your allies to see as well. There’s also a range of extra skills, buffs, and items to unlock with your character, in what has now become the online multiplayer norm.
But The Last Of Us goes further by offering up an extra meta-game where you have to manage a set of five characters over a period of 12 weeks. The better you do in the multiplayer the better you’re able to support your fellow survivors and grow the number in your group. Taking on specific multiplayer missions gains them specific skills and items, which is a very clever way of keeping your interest in what could easily have been just another tacked-on multiplayer option.
There are only two separate game modes – one that includes permanent deaths and one that doesn’t – but thanks to the meta-game it still feels purposeful and substantial.
The PlayStation 3, and this current generation in general, could hardly ask for a better send off than The Last Of Us. Everything it attempts it succeeds at almost perfectly, using its advanced technology not just for spectacle but to improve the gameplay and storytelling beyond previously attainable levels.
In essence it’s everything you could hope for from the next generation, let alone the current one.
In Short: A stunning achievement in both storytelling and third person adventure, with unforgettable characters and tense, brilliantly paced action.
Pros: Dynamic, tense, and highly visceral combat against believable human – and inhuman – opponents. Superb storytelling and pitch perfect voice-acting. Meaty and imaginative multiplayer.
Cons: The story and character development goes nowhere for much of the middle third of the game. Some minor frame rate problems and ally AI can do some very silly things.
Score: 9/10
Formats: PlayStation 3
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Naughty Dog
Release Date: 14th June 2013
Age Rating: 18
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