A video game review by: Lee Sonogan

(2013) Action, adventure, drama

The story is about 20 twenty years after the united states was destroyed by a pandemic. Joel is tasked on an important mission with Ellie that can unveil a secret that can save humanity. The Last of Us was originally released for the PlayStation 3 on June 14th, 2013, and was later released for the PlayStation 4 on July 29th, 2014. Titled The Last of Us: Remastered, this version features a resolution bump to 1080p, some improved and new textures, a photo mode, audio setup customization, all of the DLC released at the time including the Left Behind story DLC, and allows the user to either play the game at 60 frames per second or 30 frames per second with higher quality shadows.

One of the reasons for the game’s development was that creative director, Neil Druckmann, had believed that story telling as a whole had become lazy in the game industry and set out to create a rich narrative in The Last of Us. Some inspirations for the game were the films True Grit, 28 Days Later, and the comic and T.V. series of The Walking Dead.

‘The infected’ were inspired by an episode of the BBC Documentary Planet Earth which featured Cordyceps – killer fungi that invades the body of an insect to grow and diminish the insect population. It was featured in the episode titled, “Jungles” (Planet Earth: Jungles). Also took inspiration from real life events, one of which was The 1918 Spanish Influenza. Druckmann also considered the lengths he’d go to protect his family drawing inspiration from his newly found fatherhood.

In an interview, he stated “All of a sudden I realized just how far I’d go to protect my kid, things I’ve never ever thought about before. It’s become a huge inspiration,”.

Ellie uses the F-word more than any other character in the game. Excluding optional/random dialog, she uses the F-word 53 times. Then on an unrelated note the game’s scenery setting was influenced by Alan Weisman’s book ‘The World Without Us’.

As of April 2017 this is the highest rated video game on IMDB along with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. For good reason as well. This video game is that feels like you are in a movie. It’s a linear game with interesting stuff around every corner. The action scenes are realistic and epic to play. The puzzles are pretty fun to do. Characters and story are done to near perfection. The ending is fitting and brutal, that is all. I recommend the game to people who want to feel like there in a movie and live in a dystopian world with interesting characters and gameplay.

8.7/10