The Last of Us

Up until this year, I have always been an Xbox guy. I don't know if it was the controller or the games that came out when I was younger, but Playstation never really appealed to me. So for a long time I went with the Xbox 360 or the Xbox One. However, as time has gone by there have been a lot of games I have heard about that have come out on the Playstation that have gotten a lot of hype. It's the reason why I reviewed the first Uncharted game (hopefully more to come) and it's why I'm reviewing The Last of Us right now.

This game in particular was pretty high on my list of games to check out because it was not only a highly praised game but I had a lot of friends who played it and absolutely loved it. Sometimes your friends have more say than actual game reviewers.

And because this game is very cinematic, I want to review the game for both its story and its gameplay. As you will figure out, they do connect.

The Last of Us takes place in a post apocalyptic United States, 20 years after the initial outbreak of a bacterial disease that makes people lose their mind and turn rabid. They're not exactly zombies because they're not dead, but for the sake of this review I'm just going to call them zombies.

The interesting part about this world is, not only is it 20 years later which is quite a good amount of time, but it also seems as though there is still some semblance of government control. While governments have crumbled, they have not been totally dissolved and there is some kind of law and order, even if it very limited. You still have your waring bands of scavengers and like most zombie stories that come out these days the focus of the gameplay is just as much you fighting other people as it is fighting zombies.

The story mainly focuses on two characters, Joel and Ellie. There are other characters that these two run across along the way but these two are the main focus. Each one of them has their own backstory, some of which I will go into but some of which I will not because it definitely goes into spoiler territory. I got lucky enough to play this game four years later and not get anything spoiled for me and it made a great experience, I want the same to be for you all.

These two are great. Something about the last five years have made stories about older men and young women having father-daughter-like stories very popular (Logan, parts of Stranger Things season 2) and while I'm not sure it stems from this game, this game definitely sets the standards for that dynamic because these two are great.

You mainly play as Joel. Even without knowing his backstory, you can tell Joel has been through some shit in this game. He's worked as a smuggler in this post apocalyptic world and he has closed off himself to any kind of relationship that would bring him close to anybody.

As far as gameplay goes, Joel is this drunken brawler type in that he is able to grab his enemies, use them as human shields, beat the living crap out of them. And the great thing about the game is the fact that when he does something like that or he's choking someone out, not only can you sense it from the way he handles as a character but also in the interactions you get from those enemies being choked out. It's a very visceral experience because it feels very real.

Like I said, Joel is a very complicated character and he's also very much an anti-hero. Like any of the zombie stories of today, you don't live through the apocalypse unless you're willing to do some shady things and you definitely do that in this game. That becomes an appeal of the entire game because it feels like you are watching a miniseries or a very long movie, even when you're just playing the game, not in a cutscene. I will talk about the cutscenes but first I want to talk about how the gameplay is almost apart of the story too.

The Last of Us is somehow able to create incredible interactive storytelling in the gameplay. As much as you want to pop in the Last of Us movie and just watch all the cutscenes, the gameplay is almost as much a part of the story as the phenomenal cutscenes. Watching the cutscenes from this game stitched together is possible on YouTube and if you don't have a Playstation and never plan on playing this game all the way through, it wouldn't be a bad substitute. However, I feel like if the gameplay was gone, you'd miss a very immersive and personal touch to the story where you would fail to understand some of the motivations for what happens in the cutscenes. The gameplay is not only very adaptable and easy to control, but it plays a part in the experience while not really feeling like you're solving puzzles or doing combat. Everything feels like it is part of this cinematic experience and boy is it fun. 

But back to characters, then you have Ellie.

I don't know if I have the emotional attachment to Ellie that I think a lot of people developed after playing this game. I think she's a great character and I will delve into that for sure, but I get the feeling people loved this character a lot more than I did.

That being said, Ellie is great. For a lot of the game she serves as someone that Joel, being controlled by the player has to escort through their United States cross country journey. And yeah if you're a gamer, you know that escort missions are never usually fun. But Ellie is a great companion for your journey. Speaking on a gameplay level, I was actually really interested by the level of interaction she has. If I'm in a gunfight and somebody tries to flank me, I actually had Ellie yell, "Joel behind you!". It's stuff like that that I really liked when it came to gameplay.

Later on in the game you actually play as Ellie and her gameplay is a whole lot different from Joel's. It took a little bit to really get used to. Because she's smaller, she can't take people as human shields and her melee attacks aren't as strong. But when you use stealth it actually works better and she's like a spider-monkey when she jumps on people and just shivs them to death with her little knife.

The interesting part about Ellie is the fact that she was born in this post apocalyptic world. As opposed to Joel who lived through the initial outbreak, she only knows this world and yet somehow remains super positive through most of the game.

She's also a really well written kid. She curses, she's loud, and she's still naive to what is going on and how the world works, but man does she figure out. It's very much a coming of age story set in a post apocalyptic future and the truth is, if that's done right, it can be a very interesting story and it is.

And when you get these two together, tied on top with great gameplay interactions and a well written and well shot cinematic like game, get ready to have some tissues nearby because the tears are gonna come.

While I tend to prefer open world games, The Last of Us is a linear experience that is perfect in providing a cinematic experience. Whenever I put the game in, I felt like I was watching a movie or a miniseries and it was great. I actually bought the game earlier this year but only wanted to play it when I knew I had a lot of free time on my hands. I knew that I was gonna want to binge play this game like a series and it was really worth it.

While the gameplay is definitely a part of the experience, the main appeal of this game is the story. Without getting into too many spoilers, The Last of Us is this road trip journey with these two characters and throughout the journey that takes about a year's time, you get a lot of well earned drama, post apocalyptic settings and story points, and some great character interaction.

At no point did the different tasks you're given as a character feel unnecessary or irrelevant to the plot of the story and that's saying something because often times the story can get interrupted in games because there's a side quest you need to complete or something, but everything felt necessary and relevant.

The people you come across in this story are great. Nobody is really good or evil, they all fall into that shade of grey that is so fascinating. Even the characters who turn out to be your friends don't always do it for the right reasons or they may have done something sketchy in the past.

All of this with these two at the center makes for a compelling story that really rivals the storytelling of blockbuster films. I'm not sure why this game has not become a movie yet, but the honest truth is, I almost don't want it to be.

Video game movies are already given the stigma of failure from the get go. As much as I want to see this story portrayed as a movie, it almost undervalues the experience from the game and the movie becomes unnecessary.

Yes that means that not everyone is going to experience this great story which is a shame, but I don't know if a movie can match the perfection that already occurs in this game and the experience of being apart of it.

Of course I would buy the ticket for this movie if it came out, I just don't know how it could compare.

I really don't know any criticisms that I can talk about from this game. The story telling is better than a lot of films these days, the gameplay is easy and almost essential to the entire experience, and the game is visually beautiful.

I don't know if I'm going to do a spoilers review of this game. I think if I was going to it wouldn't be until I play through the game again. Hopefully I can nit pick some things I didn't like with the game but where it stands, any issues I have with it are very minute and not really worth mentioning.

If you have any criticisms of this game, please let me know. I want to hear your thoughts on The Last of Us. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films, TV, and video games I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. So I'm including a link to the Last of Us 2 trailer that came out a while ago. I know there's a new one that came out today but I wasn't really a fan of it besides how good it looks. I'll add a link to both. Apparently Maisie Williams who you might know from Game of Thrones has expressed interest in playing Ellie in a live action movie of this game. Slightly related, there's a new movie coming out in 2018 from the X-men Universe called New Mutants that stars Williams. Enjoy!