Naughty Dog has some greats through their run, giving us Crash Bandicoot in their early days, giving us a new platforming experience. Then it was Uncharted giving us a new story to ponder and a character love even more than the game itself. Then, the only game of the cinematic franchise they've been treading on, Last of Us came with a new understanding of a broken man and a girl he cares for. The Zombie trope has already been tread upon so many times, but they seemed to find a realistic way of creating them. And a new way of fearing the possibility. The game was praised for its deeply cinematic story and heartfelt characters; the gameplay, although mildly scarce, was fun and praised for the toughness of the AI. As a person who loves a good story and Zombies, I went into the game 4 years after its original release. Hello and welcome to this Abstract Review. Beware for spoilers as well.
A lot of people like to compare this game to Naughty's other franchise, Uncharted, saying it has a similar story arc and cast of characters. I disagree mostly due to how heavily shown these characters are given to you. Tess, being a strong, Tom Boy-like woman, she was give a lot of character, showing that she is more than just a woman with strength. As seen in a scene of the prologue, you pass by some ghetto areas, where there are fights being bet on and people asking for ration cards in tattered clothing. As soon as you go in this area with a man guarding an entrance, the guard gives some slack to Joel, but soon backs away as soon as Tess shows up on screen, telling the guard he's with her. That little moment, even though small, shows she is either friends with someone big or she once killed a man with her bare hands; she was well developed within those two seconds and is even brought more to the table as you went on with the game. Uncharted, did a different approach, giving the player/viewer a scene of the character, showing them in their peaceful state. Like as they did in the movies Die Hard and Red. You love those characters because they are fun when they're calm, and becomes more and more interesting when they're in action. Last of Us doesn't try to approach that matter of character, they show every side of this person, having you be able to guess what they might do, which can be turned on it's head very easily, which leads up to my next point.
What they do with their characters adds this sense of poetry to it, Tess seems to be tough nut to crack, showing everything else, but the weak side of her character, making her death so much of a hard hit. The fear in her eyes, seeing that bite on her wrist, was a new unveiling of the character she has. She shows a sign of weakness and has to tough it out and die before she turns. This impact on the main character was also a good show of Tess's character, Joel being shocked and appalled by this new show of weakness of her character. This shines in the game, having each character, even though some are hardly shown or never given a proper character reveal, have this personality and be able to feel every piece of emotion of these characters. To Elley, Joel, even the military has this put into them, making it feel like, as almost everyone watch you play the game say, a movie.
As for the game itself, the gameplay has a strong mixture of stealth killing with hard action gunslinging in it. Although those two should never touch each other, the developers seemed to be able to alter each side to fit the game's overall feel. You can sneak up to someone and choke them out, but that can take a while and risk everyone seeing you. This should be the fear in most modern stealth games, having the fear being seen. That feeling adds to the fun of the game's stealth gameplay, which I personally love, and being seen makes the fight so much harder. Once you're seen, everyone takes cover and tries to fire at you. The AI in these situation are just marvelous to me, having them be able to flank you by utilizing cover. This can give the enemy AI this kind of sentience to them, having it feel as if they planned this attack. Having one put you under fire and one quietly flank you and having you meet with a 2X4 to the back of the noggin. I truly love that of the AI, making them feel like people are playing as them, or they know they're fighting. Uncharted's Combat was more of downgrade compared to this game, having each AI just shoot endlessly at you, not taking a care about staying alive. And what I love is that the game doesn't hold your hand about this. If you get hit, you have to suck it up and throw a punch back.
Speaking of which, the game has the player get a feeling of a survivalist, giving the player a short amount of ammo and little supply to build anything, even on easy difficulty. If you run out, utilize the surroundings provided and flank the guy shooting at you. And can I say that each punch is just so relaxing when it lands? It's so fun when you enter a fist fight.
The one thing I wish the developers did was utilize the infected AI in a human environment, having players fear more about getting noticed. A gunshot can lure nearby infected and have them chase the enemy down and swarm the player for how clumsy he was. I guess that's a bit unfair, but I think they could have made the AI adapt to that by having them only use their guns when they find you up close or something of that nature. I guess that's just my idea for a feared infected AI. Speaking of which, The infected AI is so magnificent, they are feared to the player for their tendency of being in packs. The AI know who's the player and what's the AI, having them target the player or whatever is more aggressive. I like that, but I think they should have the AI get the hands of anything they could, having the player be more protective of Elley, when the moment arises. I think that would have utilized more of the gadgets in the game since I tend to never want to use them.
As for the specially infected, the Clickers and Bloaters being the most unique of any Zombie genre , they had some great mechanics around them: 1) they both can't see, 2) they are both aggressive and 3) they're instant death on touch. That adds a lot to fear about them, but the mechanics given to the player to avoid death is very fun to use. When you are found by them, you can always divert their attention somewhere else by through a bottle or brick at them and run the opposite direction. It's kind of like how Dead Rising was, you could grab A Chunk of Meat and throw it and watch the Zombies run towards this delicious Chunk of Meat you threw. That kind of mechanic adds this kind of animalistic feel to them, showing the player that they are less than human and are more of a monster.
I know this is mostly praise and all, but there is one thing I don't think I like about the game's story. As we all know, the "Terrorist" group, Fireflies, have found a way of a cure and the only way of creating one is through this little girl with a strong immunity of this fungal infection. You fight your way to get to these doctors working for this "Terrorist" group, just to deliver this girl safely to the Fireflies, the "Terrorist" group. Of all things I have learned, the military has identified this group as Terrorist against the American government, which is already corrupt. With this said, the group is now known as a threat to the people and everyone sees them as such. And now they want to find a cure. When they ever do find a cure to this awful, fungal disease, I don't think anyone would ever want that cure since everyone sees them as an enemy to society. The military, being corrupt, would identify this cure as a toxin, being a poison and will give you aids. You know, like what the government will always do. So this attempt of finding a cure would be a complete failure, so seeing that Joel killed the leader of the fireflies wasn't much of a bad thing, she was going to sacrifice Elley for basically nothing and break her mother's promise for nothing, making the Fireflies a worse group than bandits. "But the government is small and fragile! They can easily take them down." If you remember much of the prologue, they were killing anyone that they wanted, either infected or not. They might appear small, but they have more power than most in the game's world.
Well, I hope you liked this. I had fun writing it and all, but truly hope you enjoyed this little bit of criticism. If I were to rate this game, it would be a 9/10 with gameplay and full 10 for its story. I love this game a lot and seeing that they're making a sequel, I hope they surpass this game, because they have a lot to lead up to. Again, I hope you enjoyed this and 'til next time...
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