The Last of Us remastered

Naughty Dog started out making action platformer ‘Crash Bandicoot’ for playstation 1, since these classic games they’ve had a very successful relationship with Sony, making some of their most popular and lucrative games including 4 ‘crash’ games, jak and daxter and the Uncharted series. Now building on Nathan Drakes adventures they have released ‘The Last of Us Remastered’ a survival horror game originally released on ps3 to rave reviews in 2013. They've polished the graphics and released it for a new audience on playstation 4. have they recaptured the magic that won the original over 200 gaming awards or should they have left sleeping zombies lie?

The Story
The story is quite a familiar one. Most of the worlds population has been wiped out by a mysterious virus that causes the victims to display ‘zombie like’ symptoms, it's a premise that has been around along as the zombie game itself so nothing revolutionary here. After a short prologue set in the preset we meet up with main protagonist ‘Joel’ 20 years after the virus has taken hold of the human race, he is now a smuggler charged with smuggling ‘Ellie’ a 14 year old girl into the city of Boston to meet up with a rebel group called ‘the fireflies’. and so begins the task of keeping this girl safe and infection free while you search for the fireflies, allowing you to resume you're smuggling duties. but this is a video game so its never that straight forward.

The gameplay
The gameplay is made up of stealth sections, gunplay, puzzles and melee combat sections against a good variety of infected, soldiers and stranded. As you may have guessed this game is one big escort mission, you primarily control Joel with the AI taking control of Ellie but this isn’t as bad as it sounds. even in the stealth sections the infected tend to ignore the AI characters and focus on Joel, so when you're hiding Ellie and other AI characters can run about doing whatever they like without blowing your cover but to be fair they do tend to follow your lead and stay hidden when you are in cover. The puzzle sections are relatively simple and shouldn’t cause you any problems, they usually consist of boosting Ellie up to a high ledge, helping her through a small gap or finding a ladder to get to unreachable area so nothing thats gonna stump you for too long, The AI handles these sections well. Combat is good with free aim to take out your foes and melee is also handled well with a good range of customisable melee weapons but ill get to those later. To give you an idea of how the game plays think left 4 dead mixed with tomb raider, the ‘levels’ are made up in a very L4D way, moving through an area to get to a safe section, meeting enemies as you move through shops, schools, universities and hospitals. Using tomb raider like puzzles to avoid road blocks and boarded up doorways.

Characters
This is where the last of us really shines, Not only are Joel and Ellie very believable and real characters but their interaction with one another and other AI characters is second to none. the writers have gone the extra mile to make their conversations when in high drama sections of the game and idle chit chat sections very real. its comes as no surprise that a movie is already in production. and with stars like Josh Brolin being lined up to play Joel and Game of thrones star Maisie Williams in talks to play Ellie its sure to be a big box office smash, anyway i digress. So good are these characters that while playing I genuinely felt I needed to keep them safe. And also found myself becoming suspicious when meeting other survivors in the game. This is not something I’ve ever felt while playing a game before.

Inventory and Weapons
Like most games nowadays you can ‘level up’ Joels core skills as you play through the game, enhancing his overall health bar, healing speed, crafting speed and such. Again nothing new here really but Joel does have a very handy listening skill which allows him to focus on sound to pin point where the enemies are hiding, the range of this skill can also be enhanced. Health packs, nail bombs, Molotov cocktails and shivs can all be crafted by using items looted from the various buildings you traverse on your adventure, so be sure to look in all the nooks and crannies you can, these parts are vital to your survival. Melee weapons ranging from wooden planks to machetes and axes can also be modified into more deadly weapons ,very handy against the tougher enemies later in the game. theres a fairly good ranges of guns in the game, starting with a basic pistol and culminating in a high powered assault rifle, again these can be upgraded on ‘work benches’ you find at set points in the game. i never found the weapons to need much upgrading but its handy to upgrade the reload speed for those moments when infected are bearing down on you and you need a new clip.

Graphics and trophies
Graphically they have really used the playstation 4s massive reserve of power well, the game looks beautiful, the infected look suitable deadly and decaying and the sweeping landscapes when outside of the main cities is breathtaking at times. personally i never saw any graphical glitches or abnormalities as i played through the campaign. it's definitely up there with the best looking games i have played so far. now for the question i know you all want to know ‘how easy are the trophies to get?’ in a word they are hard, made of completionist trophies your gonna need to play throughout the game once and then again on new game plus to get most of them. and play it again on the hardest difficulty to get the rest.

Overall
When trying to criticise The last of us I come up short, I would say its the perfect game. Once or twice in a generation a game comes along that just works, a game that just gets everything right. A perfect combination of story telling, graphics and gameplay, maybe it's a bit of a cheat since technically it's a game from the last gen but its brilliance cannot be understated. maybe my only slight foible is the trophies, maybe more of range so that you unlock them as you move throughout the game instead of all at the end, but that in no way takes anything away from this masterpiece of a game. play it on ps3, play it on ps4 finish it and start all over agin just because its that good.

9.9/10

Stop it! I'm really going to have to buy it if you don't stop praising this game!

But seriously, nice review, and a good read.

Good work Gary.

I got this for my birthday in July 2013 on PS3 and only played it for an hour and have never gone back to it!

I better pull my finger out

Sounds like a cracking game. Is is ps3 only?

Belting review mate! You are making me want to spend money!

minkey_monkey wrote:Sounds like a cracking game. Is is ps3 only?

Yes its PS exclusive

KENT HAMMER wrote:

minkey_monkey wrote:Sounds like a cracking game. Is is ps3 only?

Yes its PS exclusive

Meaning PS3 OR PS4, if you missed that bit Minkey.

Gary has reviewed the new PS4 version, the PS3 one has been out for a little while. The "money-aware" people here [read: cheap - and meaning me and Colne ] are talking about buying the PS3 version though.

Waggly Bean wrote:

KENT HAMMER wrote:

minkey_monkey wrote:Sounds like a cracking game. Is is ps3 only?

Yes its PS exclusive

Meaning PS3 OR PS4, if you missed that bit Minkey.

Gary has reviewed the new PS4 version, the PS3 one has been out for a little while. The "money-aware" people here [read: cheap - and meaning me and Colne ] are talking about buying the PS3 version though.

Lol! I decided not to say anything but I guess Minks didn't have her coffee before reading the review!    

nice gary matey

got the day one ps4 edition and its up next on the play cycle

cant wait

Actually might be the game that persuades me to get a PS3. Top review

Great review mate

I've been playing through this and really enjoying it, probably the best game on ps4 at the minute

Nice review. Only played a small amount on the ps3 but really enjoyed what I did play. If only I like the ps3 more I would of completed it.