I’ve just completed The Last Of Us, and clocking in at around 15 hours 33 minutes, it’s by no means a short game, and definitely worth your money.
Time wise, as I said it’s not short, and while my completion time could be shortened, it could also be extended a fair amount playing on one of the higher difficulties (I was playing on Normal, but there is two levels above that). I did skip a few, okay maybe more than a few, of the Collectibles, so it could further be extended if you want to truly explore everything and find all the Collectibles. It also have some replay incentive offering New Game+ which allows you to start a new game on either the same or a lower difficulty (but not higher) with the weapons, upgrades, and skills you had at the end of your previous play through, with the intent of allowing you to finishing upgrading anything you missed the first time round to get truly 100% completion and the associated Trophies or Achievements.
Graphics, are relatively good, with the environment looking stunning in most cases, with a few render glitches from time to time but nothing to really worry about and most of the time will go by unnoticed. The lead characters look amazingly good in-game, with some nice touches, such as the water level on clothing when you come out. The enemies are mostly well rendered, although some finer detail on the infected would have been nicer, and a greater variety, (not in type but in look) would have been good, but it’s a minor complaint. The last real in-game graphically complaint was the blood splatter, which was amazing while shooting or meleeing, however once dead every enemy left an almost perfect circle of blood pool which was often a bit too reflective, again although minor gave a feeling of being a bit rushed. Where I felt let down was in the cut scenes. They felt a little tired and flat, and overall, while good, not great, and not even close to Tomb Raider, which was just outstanding.
Gameplay, was flawless and where this game really earns it high rating score. The stealth aspects are wonderful, but at the same time are rarely forced with full-on action be available if you chose, (although it will makes things a lot harder). The battle system is superb, with each weapon responding realistically, although sometimes not dealing as much damage as I would of thought.
Story, was a time-old one, which I won’t go into details on to avoid spoiling anything, but still worked and was, in true Naughty Dog style, was very well told. Imagine it a bit like a old story being retold by your favourite author. This has the added bonus of not ruining much if you do by chance read a spoiler. The characters were well rounded, and easy to either dislike or get attached to accordingly. Overall, although I saw the ending coming well before it did, it was still enjoyable.
Audio, was the best kind. Almost unnoticeable, that is it felt perfectly suited and blended into the game excellently. Although that’s almost to be expected with some great voice actors such as Troy Baker (name a game and he’s probably had something to do with it). There is almost some great atmospheric touches, which while playing late at night, in the dark, can cause your heart-rate to increase a few dozen beats.
Overall I would give it 9/10, well worth the money, with replay value or at least once or twice. I disagree however the multitude or reviews the gave it 10/10 and think a lot of people have been jumping on the bandwagon, possible largely due to it being made by Naughty Dog. It definitely sent the Playstation 3/Xbox 360 out with a bang instead of a whimper (most likely being the last major release for PS3, and Xbox 360 before the next-gen consoles), but I still hold that Tomb Raider was the pinnacle of this generation of consoles, but Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix better watch out as Naughty Dog is close on their tail.
Recommendation: Buy It Now.
