The Last Of Us Games: The Highlight Of My Gaming Life (Spoilers Ahead)
Didn’t enjoy the game? Don’t read this article!
First things first, this is going to be chock-full of spoilers. If you haven’t played the last of us games (parts 1 and 2), I suggest you do before reading.
I’m going to talk about everything I liked and sort of, kind of, maybe didn’t like.
The last of us, part 1, blew me away. It’s addictive and I will never forget how I felt the first time I played it. I felt like I was inside a movie. It differed from anything else I’ve played — and if you’re a gamer, you know full well that the first time you’re playing a good game is like an orgasmic experience. Nothing beats that feeling.
The game looked stunning from start to finish, walking you through a story filled with horrid events, a post-apocalyptic world whereby humans turn against each other to survive. It’s a survival of the fittest kind of plot thrown in the story.
It gave me a walking dead vibe. I’m sure I’m not the first one to say this. In fact, after playing the second part of the game, which I’ll talk about shortly, I got the sense that the game must’ve gotten inspired by the events of the walking dead. The similarities are uncanny.
What are the last of us games about?
It’s a world infested with demons and zombie look-a-likes. You know… the usual plot of post-apocalyptic worlds. Think of the walking dead or World War Z. It’s predictable, maybe unoriginal, but there is something unique about these abominable creatures and the story — something I have seen nowhere else. They’re disgusting, foul beings; malformed and ugly. If you’re bitten, well, you can guess what happens.
Here’s how the game starts: a virus breaks out, killing millions of people and turning them into monsters, or, as referred to in the game, infested, clickers, stalkers, and shamblers. Every monster is different, and so is the way to kill it.
- Infested/Runner: They look like normal people at first sight, except they’re not. If an infested sees you, it’ll run at full speed to get you. They are loud. They scream and make these awful, annoying noises, making them easily discernible from the rest of the monsters. They’re easy to kill. You sneak up on them, then break their necks, or you shoot them in the head, which can blow your cover. The game lets you choose how you want to approach each situation.
- Clickers: These make the game ten times more unique. I’ve seen lots of zombie movies before, and they have a lot in common. When I think of the last of us games, my head goes straight to Joel, Ellie (the main characters), and the clickers. These are the monsters to watch out for. They walk around with distorted heads and bodies. They’re anything but human. They can’t see a thing, but their sense of hearing is powerful. The slightest noise will trigger them to lunge at you. Killing clickers is not always the best strategy, especially when there are lots of them in an indoor, dark area. You can light them on fire with a Molotov or a bomb, sneak up on them and shiv them, or you can shoot them head on but, if they catch you, you’re dead.
- Stalkers: Oh, how much I hate these things. If they’re present in the room, they make themselves known, but they prefer to hide first. So annoying, yet weirdly exciting. They always hide, and it usually happens in dark corners where you have to rely on your light to spot them. They stay hidden and quiet. Then, out of nowhere, they attack. Unlike clickers, they’re easy to fight as their attacks are not deadly. The problem is when there are a lot of them following you around and you have to turn to look in every direction. You just never know where they’ll come from.
- Shamblers: These are probably the hardest to kill. They’re big and strong, and you can’t fight them like you would stalkers and infested. They throw toxic, greenish bombs and destroy everything in their path. After every encounter, you’ll waste plenty of ammunition. What’s worse, they have the infested alongside to help them fight you. It gets pretty ugly and confusing.
- Others: Then you have other enemies, like the Fireflies, Scars, Wolves, and others, just people wishing to capture or kill you. Everything in this game wants to kill you, really. In the last of us, part 2, there is one giant monster I have never encountered before called the Rat King. You play with Abby, who’s the second protagonist in this game. She goes underground to find supplies and faces a giant of a Shambler. What I love about this game is there are always new challenges to overcome. There is absolutely no limit to what you can find and fight. That keeps you on your toes.
(Note: If you’re curious about what these monsters look like, go ahead and Google them.)
How the game starts
In the first part of the game, you play with Joel, the main protagonist. He’s a country guy who loses his daughter, Sarah, at the beginning of the outbreak. Everyone he knows either dies or gets infected. With his brother Tommy, Joel runs away to find safety. They encounter a soldier who has orders to shoot them dead. Tommy saved Joel from certain death, but Sarah was already gunned down. She, unfortunately, dies in Joel’s arms.
Joel later becomes a smuggler in the quarantine zone where he meets people he trusts. One of his missions that led him to meet Ellie, the main protagonist of the last of us part 2, was to get a hold of “the cargo”. To his surprise, Tess, one of Joel’s companions and trusted friends, told him the cargo was Ellie. Joel was to take her to an apartment near the outside wall and wait for Tess to return from verifying the weapons with Marlene, the queen Firefly.
Even though Joel and Ellie had a rocky relationship at first, the two agreed they made a great team. They grew fond of each other. Joel later realizes the reason people are after Ellie is: she is immune to the virus.
The story is incredible, and it gets better, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they’re going to adapt it to a show.
Why is the last of us so successful?
Well, there are so many things about it that click: the build-up of characters, the storyline, the twists, the scenery, the sudden deaths, the fights, the soundtracks (yup, I pay very close attention to these), the unexpected events, the sudden attacks, you name it.
There isn’t just one thing that makes this game great. It’s a combination of things that make it awesome to play. You can tell serious work was put into it. In fact, and this is absolutely insane, the last of us part 2 took 6 years to make and a budget of $100 million.
Shocking? Yes.
Surprising? No.
The game is phenomenal, the graphics outstanding, so it all makes sense to me. It deserves every bit of praise and success, and that it sure got. Here are records the game broke:
- The Last of Us Part 2 took over $4 million within the next three days of its release, making it Sony’s fastest-selling first-party game ever.
- The Last of Us Part 2 is the third highest-grossing game in the US in PlayStation history
- The Last Of Us Part 2 has won the best game of the year at the 2020 Game Awards. If there ever was an Oscar for games, well, this is it and The Last of Us took it.
- This action-adventure horror game also had 7 wins.
- It continues to break records to this day.
So what really makes The Last of Us Part 2 so amazing? I cannot pinpoint one. You’d have to play the game and judge for yourself.
The last of us part 1 vs The last of us part 2
I played the first game twice. Loved every second. When hearing that a second part was coming out, I was ecstatic beyond imagination. I knew it was going to be great. Ever since I played the first game and Uncharted 4, Naughty Dog became giants in the industry in my eyes. Always looking forward to playing their next game.
What’s the difference between the 1st part and 2nd part?
Well, the second part is like the first one, but much, much better. The game exudes the same vibes, but you can definitely spot the improvements. Here are my favorites:
In the first game, you couldn’t crouch to hide in the grass where enemies have a hard time spotting you.
Probably my favorite one. You can make great stealthy missions. Heck, you can play the complete game without ever facing your enemies head-on.
When crafting weapons, you get a visual look at how Ellie or/and Abby upgrade their weapons.
I love it. It was absent in the first game. It’s a small touch, but it makes it somehow realistic.
Ellie has an array of weapons
A shotgun, a revolver, a bow and arrow, a rifle, stun grenades, etc. And you choose to upgrade the ones you want. Abby, another character you play at the beginning and half part of the game, has different weapons. Even though it’s the same game, it gives an entirely unique experience when you play with distinct characters and weapons. Even the way the characters sneak up on enemies and kill them is different.
Joel can’t dodge enemy attacks unless he has a melee weapon of his own
That’s in the first game. In the second game, the fighting is better because you can dodge your enemies and plan when to strike them. There are multiple situations where Ellie or Abby have to fight — sometimes barehanded — their enemies, and the dodge button comes in very useful.
You encounter different enemies in the sequel
You either fight wolves or Seraphites, also known as Scars. These are tribes that fight each other in the game, and they both have different ways of operating. Thus, adapting to them is necessary to face them. For example, Scars communicate by whistling. The moment they hear or see you, they’ll whistle to their friends. They’re usually on high alert and are deadly in groups. Wolves have dogs that follow your scent. In the last half of the game, you confront another group that captures people and infected. Though evil, it is not clear what their intentions are.
The build-up of characters
Warning: lots of spoilers coming up
There are lots of characters in the game. It makes no sense to talk about them all. So, I’m going to choose the ones that impacted me the most, my favorite characters in the game: Ellie and Abby.
I’m choosing these 2 because you’ll hate them for the things they’ll do, but you’ll also find it in your heart to love them, as they are the heroes of the story. They are human beings; they make mistakes. We all do. You can’t help but have empathy for them, especially when you know their backstory. I think the game does a great job of making you understand the characters.
Ellie
She has come a long way from the first game. Like Joel, she becomes a total badass.
I remember her when she was a kid who always needed saving. Now, she is a whole new person.
She is strong-willed and completely independent. She can fight and take on people bigger than her. I’m sure that doesn’t hold up for many people, but I loved it.
When Joel gets killed, you feel Ellie’s rage. Joel and Ellie took us on a journey in the first game. It was a beautiful ride. They were the heroes. How would you feel if Hermione dies in Harry Potter?
Exactly! You would be furious.
You can’t kill an important character and get away with it. When Joel dies, I wanted revenge.
And guess who killed Joel?
Abby
Abby, a character I grew fond of, meets Joel and Tommy by accident. Abby is a muscular woman with arms bigger than mine and the neck of a wrestler. Just look at her.
She meets Joel and Tommy. They save her from a herd of infected, then they meet Abby’s team. When Abby realizes who Joel is, she shoots him in the leg and spares Tommy.
At first, you don’t get why she does that. It’s not yet apparent why she kills him cold-blooded, so you’re left to think she is an evil person.
Well, just know she has a significant reason for doing it.
It takes playing more than half of the game to find out. Prior to that, I hated Abby for killing Joel like that. It was terrible to watch. What’s worse, Ellie watches him die before her eyes.
When Ellie realizes Joel and Tommy are missing, they head out to find them. When they do, Ellie is immediately captured and bound.
Abby tortures Joel and kills him with a crushing blow in the head right in front of Ellie.
In my eyes, just like in Ellie’s, Abby was the “bad guy”. But after playing the game, you realize everyone’s the same.
The Powerful storyline
Hate breeds more hate; revenge creates more revenge; spilling blood only results in spilling even more. In the first game, Joel saves Ellie from certain death but kills many people along the way. That put a target on his back. Joel murders Abby’s father, so her life’s purpose became to find and kill him., but all it does is make things worse. The world they live in forces our protagonists to do atrocious things they would not normally do:
Ellie kills a pregnant woman. Abby murders Joel. Ellie kills Scott, Abby’s shall we call “lover”. Abby kills Jesse, Ellie’s friend. Abby spares Ellie twice. Ellie goes after her but decides at the last minute to spare her life.
It’s an endless and miserable killing spree. Their harsh circumstances bring out the worst in them. It raises a lot of questions. For example:
- Would you do the same if you were them?
- Did Ellie do the right thing by killing Abby’s friends?
- Did Abby do the right thing by killing Ellie’s friends?
They both have good reasons for doing it, but who’s more righteous? The answer is no one. They both do what they think is right on the spur of the moment.
I enjoyed how the game makes you relate to the characters — it’s an emotional rollercoaster ride. It reminds me somewhat of the characters of Game of Thrones. Some are evil and you hate them, others you somehow grow to love and even root for, and that’s exactly how I felt towards Abby.
The part that annoyed me
There is one thing that annoyed me throughout the entire game, and it’s this:
You don’t know where your enemies are when they spot you. Let me explain.
When an enemy spots you, you see a blurry white shape on the screen and you hear this sound that lets you know someone is looking in your direction. It means you have to hide to avoid detection. That’s all good, but the problem is when there are lots of enemies in one area.
Let’s say you’re surrounded by 8 enemies. You stand up and 3 of them spot you. You know they’re looking in your direction, but you don’t know where they are, so you’re forced to crouch, hide, or move somewhere else, only to realize someone else is still looking in your direction. Again, you’re left to figure out their location.
I love being stealthy, so it’s important for me to locate my enemies and move past them while staying hidden. Often, I would sneak up on an enemy, then find another one lurking nearby, and before I know it, they’re all on me.
That’s my only problem with the game. It doesn’t make it less enjoyable, but it gets annoying.
Final Note
The last of us games created a huge controversy in the gaming world. Some people think the sequel is the great greatest game of all time, others believe it just didn’t meet up to their expectations.
I’m going to speak for myself and say The Last of us games is an absolute masterpiece. It is one that will inspire future gaming generations to come. It is, for me, the Shakespeare of video games and will stand the test of time no matter what people say about it.
Naughty dog stepped up its game. I wish I could erase my memory and play it all over again. The first time is always the charm. Loved every second. No doubt. In the meantime, I’ll be waiting for the next installment. Let’s see what else Naughty Dog has up its sleeve.
