VGU had the opportunity to attend an event held for The Last of Us. Bradley and Trishul had the chance to dive into the game, their thoughts are represented in the two previews below.

Trishul

It was a great pleasure to be able to go and play Naughty Dog’s latest game, The Last of Us. I didn’t really know what to expect when I initially went into the game as I hadn’t read up much on it, but from what I had seen so far, it looked quite promising. However, the scenes shown off at E3 2012 didn’t really do it too much justice as it all seemed like scripted sequences throughout. Having played two demos of the game, one of which was an extended demo, I now have some first-hand impressions to go off in for the release on June 17th.

When I initially stepped into the game world in the first demo, it all looked top notch. The sounds were great, the environment and characters, all vibrant, rich and absorbing. With a great setting, getting into the game was fairly easy. Controls flowed fairly well except for the slight awkwardness that came from having a character always looking into the screen with the left and right movement used for strafing. However, this is quickly overcome and you’re able to roam around freely in the game.

You play as Joel, and your companion is Ellie, the relationship between the two seemed to remind me of two specific games; The Walking Dead and more recently, Bioshock Infinite. I just hope The Last of Us doesn’t provide us with a similar kind of tale that The Walking Dead did. However, that’s the kind of vibe that I was getting from playing the game more and more, as if something may end up happening to one of the two characters in an attempt to toy with the player’s emotions. We will find out in just a few short weeks where it will all lead.

With both demos, the environments were large enough to give room for exploration and ensured that linearity wasn’t openly presented. At first I tried to rush in on a group of enemies and take them out by force. In another run I used the well-designed levels to sneak around and pick off the enemies silently, one at a time. No matter the choice you make, the game will provide you a great challenge, as you might expect from a ‘survival action’ game, as Naughty Dog have labelled the game as. I must have died a good 6-8 times before I realised that I won’t just be able to bash my head into everything, it’ll require a bit of thought.

I wonder how many puzzling sections may feature in the game, as having a certain plank in specific ways was a neat touch of excellence. The same is true also about the crafting system in the game. Use supplies to create items, but which items you make may end up being a difficult choice for you. Whether it’s a health item, or a Molotov, choose wisely.

As far as first impressions go, The Last of Us packs quite a punch, almost as much as Joel himself. You’ll be sucked into a neat world, with what seems like a great cast of characters. Through the excellent blend of storytelling and gameplay that the Naughty Dog team have perfected over the years, The Last of Us really looks like it could be a winner this year.

 

Bradley

Do not be fooled by this game. It is NOT a shooter; it is NOT something you should play if you want a nice relaxing evening, no no. The Last of Us is a Survival Action game and the world SURVIVAL should be in capital letters because it is challenging, difficult and will make you rage… and I love it.

Right from the start I was impressed with the look of the game, the world looked amazing and as Joel walked into to a more built up area, the world was still looking pretty awesome. That is until an infected literally ripped my throat out. This taught me NEVER to let my guard down with these zom- ahem, I mean infected things. These creature actually provide a decent challenge in a fight, they take around 1-2 headshots to actually kill with your pistol and fist fighting them is really out of the question. This means you have to think about how to conserve ammo and pick and choose your battles, running and gunning will not get you anywhere.

After traversing through the demo more I found myself actually afraid to explore. I was running low on ammo and weapons and realised if I was attacked, I was going to die. This is something The Last of Us does well; it sets up a really nice atmosphere very quickly. This is furthered by Ellie and Joel’s musing and conversations which are rather interesting and detailed. At no point will you want to be not listening to these characters; however I would suggest putting the subtitles on, they can be hard to hear sometimes.

I can only think of one real problem with the game; its jarring difficulty could be a big turn off to certain gamer types. You really cannot just run and gun through this game at all, trust me, I tried and failed. You have to play this game smart and read each different scenario the game presents you with. You will have to play out these situations in the most efficient and appropriate way you can in order to proceed.

The Last of Us is definitely something a bit different, it is exciting but actually challenging which is rare in games these days and really compels you to keep playing. After playing both demos through I really wanted to keep going, I wanted to see how Joel and Ellie evolved as characters, I wanted to continue sneaking around and finding resources and learning about the fall of humanity. Needless to say, I will be getting this game on release and, from what I have seen and played; I will be enjoying it all the way.

Are you looking forward to the upcoming release of The Last of Us? Let us know what you think with a comment below.