Reviews// The Last of Us

The post-collapse world we're given is reminiscent of The Walking Dead and the narrative recalls the likes of The Road, Children of Men or Lone Wolf and Cub. At times the game world is dark, claustrophobic and stifling. At other moments it breathes and has an eerie, torn-down beauty.

The whole game is incredibly, dare I say it, cinematic.

When the words 'TV' or 'movies' come up in conjunction with games there's often an understandable groan from some quarters. Certainly games should be judged on their own strengths, without chasing validation by dint of association with other media.

That said, there's something less snivelling that can underlie developers' aims to be more 'cinematic', too. Namely, the removal of those game-ish mechanisms and features that keep us distanced from the game world, unable to really feel like we're inhabiting it.

Unnecessary HUD clutter, bizarre AI behaviour, repeated dialogue, invisible walls – we've all been kept out of narrative-driven games by this stuff. It's this stuff that Naughty Dog has attempted to push out. The result is one of the most engaging, gripping and immersive games I've ever played.

A good starting point for this is how well realised the game's visuals are. However, many of the design decisions Naughty Dog has made to get out of our way are smaller things you might not notice if you weren't looking for them.

There's very little use of a HUD, for example. There are no random lines of dialogue periodically spewed out in quiet moments. Movement is very organic, so you won't see unnatural behaviour like a character running against a wall. The result of all this fine attention to detail is a game that achieves that holy grail of game development, an incredibly immersive experience. Naughty Dog capitalises on its rich narrative, smart design and involving mechanics by getting the hell out of your way and allowing you to really sink into it.

There's also a multiplayer mode – Factions. Honestly, I'd be recommending The Last of Us based on the single-player alone, but what I've seen of the multiplayer is serviceable enough. It differentiates itself from its rivals somewhat by having a meta-game built around its too modes.

You get your very own clan of survivors that you need to keep alive. Before you imagine yourself wandering among them, benevolently handing out supplies – they're more like Tamagotchi than simple NPCs. Between matches you see them represented by dots and text updates tell you what they're up to. You have to earn supplies by winning them in matches as you perform kills, assists, crafting and the like. Supplies = clan survival.

It's certainly a novel way to create interest in the multiplayer, but ultimately it's built around what amounts to deathmatch and team deathmatch. There's a sense in multiplayer of the resource scarcity and strategy seen in the story, but it naturally tends more towards the action-y elements of the game.

From what I've seen the multiplayer's worth a look, though it's eclipsed by the superb single-player mode.

All in all, multiplayer or no, The Last of Us is one of the stand-out games of this generation. (It's nice, here at the end of the cycle, to be able to say that with conviction). It's excellently conceived, excellently designed and excellently executed. It has a depth born not from complexity but from the way it drags you in until you're up to your neck.

Pros:
+ Smart, strategic gameplay
+ Rich, involving narrative
+ Surprisingly human characters

Cons:
- Occasionally awkward controls
- Death could be more punishing

SPOnG Score: 9.75/10