To quote the supremely talented and dearly missed George Harrison; “it’s been a long, long, long time…” since I have done a ‘review’ that amounted to more than an afternoon shitpost about various substances getting in my eye (not recommended) or a late night Facebook rant about some godawful reboot movie. (That Hellboy remake was somehow so bad it managed to make me kind of hate the original Guillermo Del Toro adaptation, and the Pet Semetary remake was stripped of all the lovable camp of the original and replaced with enough fog you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for Silent Hill).
I’ve been meaning to get back into the swing of writing reviews but I guess the time just got away from me, and being the chronic procrastinator that I am, I lacked the discipline to force myself to do something I actually enjoy doing that requires some semblance of effort.
Well, with isolation not going anywhere and with nothing but time on my side, people encouraged me, the stars and planets aligned, and I found something that I thought would be a great entry point to get my foot (back) in the door: The Last of Us Part II. From the moment this game was rumoured – then leaked, you couldn’t bring up the topic of video games without having someone start talking about it – people were hyped and ready to be blown away or disappointed. Preliminary thoughts and reviews were polarising to say the least, and I didn’t understand why, as the first game totally passed me by. I was absorbed in Dragon’s Dogma at the time of release, and despite being gifted a copy by a friend in September of 2014, I never got around to playing it as something else always seemed to bump it further down the list, until it fell into the backlog purgatory, joining other “must-play” titles such as EarthBound, Super Mario RPG, Deadly Premonition and Psychonauts.
But with all this speculation and conjecture surrounding the long anticipated sequel, and being no stranger to critique and riling people up with my nonsensical thoughts, I decided to blow through the first game so I could have a review for Part 2 ready quick-smart after release, and well… you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. This is not a game that can be ‘blown thru’ without a guide (which I tend to avoid unless absolutely necessary) and without missing significant plot developments, and seeing as the plot is the main appeal people seem to mention when discussing this game, I thought it was right to give it it’s due course and really let myself sink into the experience. However, the more I played and the further I got into the ‘meat’ of the game, so to speak, I found that there were some things I feel are worth discussing, from my viewpoint of someone who really didn’t give a shit but was willing to give it a chance. So without further preamble, here’s my review.
Picture this. It’s the middle of winter, and snow encapsulates the forest, smothering the trees and obscuring much of the forest floor. You see the many trees and valleys, the snow-capped rocks and towering pines, all is silent but for the blowing winds. Suddenly, a small, tan rabbit pops out of his burrow. With cautious curiosity, he begins to make his way along the forest floor, sniffing for a trace of some sweet , preserved berries or other fauna to snack upon in the harsh, unforgiving winters of an apocalyptic wasteland. He pauses, raising his head and before he can take another breath an arrow splits him sideways through the skull, pinning him to the forest floor. This scene is a perfect allegory for much of the attitude throughout The Last of Us. Every tender moment is usually counteracted by a moment of brutal realism, casual violence or emotional dissonance. The central theme of the game was said by the developers to be “life goes on”, and it really cannot be simplified any more than that. Naughty Dog were unafraid of juxtaposing tenderness with savagery, happiness with sadness and all the grey areas inbetween throughout the narrative, and it’s a gamble that well and truly pays off. To say the survival horror genre has been all but exhausted of it’s creative merits is not so much a matter of conjecture, but rather a statement of fact. However the narrative of The Last of Us uses the genre tropes to it’s advantage and manages to deliver a story that feels fresh and original, mostly thanks to its excellent characterisation.
If you were to ask someone for a reason to play The Last of Us, you’re all but guaranteed they’d say “for the story”. It’s the answer I got every time I asked why there was so much hype and high regard surrounding this game, because at a glance you wouldn’t be remiss in saying that it bears a lot of resemblance to another popular Naughty Dog series – Uncharted. However the over-the-shoulder third person gameplay involving cover mechanics is where the similarities really end between these 2 beloved titles (the theory that The Last of Us takes place within the Uncharted universe not withstanding). Whereas Uncharted is more of an interactive love-letter to the action-adventure genre in the vein of something like Indiana Jones, The Last of Us is more of a cinematic experience about the pain of loss and the lengths people will go to survive. The game opens with an unforgettable 5 minute sequence – in which we see one of the primary characters lose everything they knew and held dear – and it sets the tone perfectly: this is a game unafraid to kill children to tug at your heartstrings. In seriousness, from the moment I witnessed that sequence, I was absolutely hooked, and needed to see where the characters were going to go next and how their plot thread would eventually be resolved. There are a lot of highs and lows – even a few funny moments – littered throughout the game’s relatively decent-lengthed campaign. As mentioned earlier, the narrative really shines in part to the characterisation and development of the relationship between Joel and Ellie. Every line of dialogue peels back another layer of one or both characters, and I made sure to find every optional piece of dialogue I could to learn just a little more about these 2 radically different people and what had happened to them before the journey they had set out on together. It’s also refreshing to see a game wherein the primary characters relationship is one of budding mutual respect and platonic love – another refreshing aspect of the narrative – as I feel that romantic relationships between main characters is trite and uninspired as well as being a cheap way of garnering the player’s interest and investment in the characters’ relationship. However, the narrative did have one minor flaw. The storyline is punctuated by ‘flash-forward’s, at the end of each chapter and at a couple of other crucial moments in the story, and feels like the writers painted themselves into a corner and didn’t know how to resolve the plot thread without it being ridiculous or boring, so they chose to just jump ahead in time instead. It’s not the biggest narrative sin one can commit, but it definitely broke the suspense/emotion right at its peak a few times for me.
You’re probably wondering how I’ve made it this far into a review of a video game without having discussed the gameplay. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “uninspired” but it definitely isn’t anything life-changing. In few words, the game plays like a strange fusion of Resident Evil 4 and something like Uncharted, with slightly stiff controls and cover-based mechanics for when firefights heat up, as well as the option to take many sections stealthily, incapacitating enemies silently or bypassing them altogether. However, what the gameplay lacks in originality it makes up in tension. Due to the relative scarcity of ammo, you really try your hardest to make every shot count, and feel like a right fool when you waste 5 rounds on a Clicker at point-blank range because Joel can’t stop his goddamn arms from swaying about like those inflatible horror-puppets you always see outside of used car dealerships. (For the love of God, make ‘Weapon Sway’ your first purchased upgrade at any cost, the shooting is infuriating without it. For someone who’s been using guns for years, Joel sure does seem to suck at it.) I opted to bypass enemies or trap them in an area and hit them with a molotov cocktail whenever I could, and being out of harms way always brought a welcome (if short-lived) sense of relief, which really added to the atmosphere of dread and unease the game was trying to convey. The player has a few other tools at their disposal, such as ‘Listen Mode’, which is basically the ability to see enemies locations through walls if they’re within a certain radius and the ability to craft/upgrade weapons and items. Pretty much par for the course in a survival horror game.
To summarize, The Last of Us is an incredible cinematic gaming experience, and one I fully recommend to anyone who’s a fan of Naughty Dog’s other titles, survival horror or just ‘cinematic’ games in general. When I started playing this game and writing this review I thought I was going to just take the piss out of it and blow through it in a day or so, however I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I avoided discussing too many of the major spoilers in here because I hope my review gives you the push to finally try this unforgettable title. For the duration of my playthrough and beyond I found myself constantly thinking about details from the story and imagining how I myself would have handled them if I was placed in a similar situation, which is what it feels like the developers set out to do. Not one part of the story feels like ham-fisted commentary and the script absolutely reeks of polish, my interest in the plot was held strong from the beginning to the end. I regret having waited 6 goddamn years to finally give it a try, but you know what they say, better late than never, right?
synthetic speaks 