Well, as its now September, I figured I would get another post out there and this one will be on a video game I recently completed, which is the PS5 remake of the acclaimed The Last of Us, which has been re-named The Last of Us Part I.
But there has been some controversy over the development of this remake of the original game as many deemed it as being unnecessary given that it was already remastered for the PS4. However, as I haven't played the original before, I thought I would look at the game from a fresher perspective and see how it fairs.
So, I will mention a bit about the plot below, so the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So, the story begins in 2013 where American is ravaged by a fungal virus known as Cordyceps, which mutates humans into zombie like creatures that craved human flesh and are simply known as infected. In Austin, Texas, Joel (voiced by Troy Baker) flees his home with his brother Tommy (Jeffery Pierce) and his 12 year old daughter, Sarah (Hana Hayes) as the chaos breaks out. However as they try and make their escape, a military soldier guns down Sarah, who dies but Tommy saves Joel by killing soldier, leaving Joel grief stricken.
20 years later, the infection has devastated civilization and the survivors live in a totalitarian quarantine zones, independent settlements and nomadic groups. Joel now works as a smuggler with his partner Tess (Annie Wersching) in a quarantine zone in Boston. Joel and Tess while hunting down a black market dealer, who stole a cache of weapons from them. Before killing the dealer however, they learn that he sold the cache to the leader of the Fireflies, who are a militia group who oppose the quarantine zone authorities.
The Fireflies leader, Marlene (Merle Dandridge) soon meets with Joel and Tess and tells them she will double their cache supply if they smuggle something in return, which is revealed to be a 14 year old girl named Ellie (Ashley Johnson). Ellie reveals that she was bitten by an infected but has not turned into one of them as a result and that she is immune and therefore she could lead to a cure, so Joel and Tess both agree to take Ellie to the Fireflies in Massachusetts state house with the hope a vaccine can be produced. However not long after they start out, Tess is soon attacked and bitten by one of the infected and she orders a reluctant Joel to take Ellie to the Fireflies while she stays behind and sacrifices herself as the military close in on them.
And its from here that Joel and Ellie begin dangerous journey together in the hope that a cure can be found to help save humanity...
THOUGHTS
Well, having not played the original Last of Us back on the PS3 or even the remastered edition on the PS4, I can't really compare the remake to either of them, so I will review it based on the merits of the remake but also the game's own merits (I guess!). And I have to say that The Last of Us Part I is an excellent game, which tells a gripping and engrossing story that sees two people in Joel and Ellie form an unlikely bond as they make their treacherous journey together with Joel taking on a father figure for the orphaned Ellie as the story progresses. I also like that the story has a more realistic feel to it as the infected aren't just some mindless undead zombies (well they are pretty mindless I guess!) but they are the product of a dangerous fungus and that when they die they stay dead and don't get up again like some Resident Evil monster.
There is of course some well deserved criticisms aimed at the remake however despite its technical improvements with its much improved graphics and character models and its tighter combat, which is based on The Last of Us Part II, it simply costs way too much at £70 to justify the price of the game itself. And this is especially given its an 9 year old game that has already been remastered, you can definitely argue the remake kind of feels pointless. You could also say the same for the Demon's Souls remake to a lesser extent but that was a game that really benefited from a remake given how dated the original looks in comparison but here, there definitely appears to be less reason for justifying one.
Despite this though, this was my first time playing this game and I still very much enjoyed it and I also had a PS store voucher, which helped reduce the cost by £20 to a more acceptable level, which they should have at least lower the priced to in the first place! And that aside there is still much to enjoy here and in fact playing the game for the first time in its remastered or remade state was what made it worth playing in a way. Regardless of the price, I enjoyed it at any rate!
GAMEPLAY
As for the gameplay, I will do my usual and break it into sub sections as below:
MOVEMENT
So, starting with the movement, TLOU Pt1 (for short!) is in a third perspective format and as you can play as Joel and at times Ellie in the game also, you get the usual movements such as running, jumping, sprinting, climbing, swimming and crouching. Joel and Ellie can also traverse gaps in environments via the use of wooden planks or ladders as well as make use of items such as activating generators to open gates. They can also lift up shutters to access rooms or buildings while the other character finds something to prop the shutter, so they can get through. So, the movement in the game is pretty varied overall and does give a satisfying free open world feel to players.
COMBAT & WEAPONS
As for combat, the game mixes up both melee, firearm and stealth methods of fighting and these are often deployed in equal ways. However out of the three of these melee is probably the least recommended given the strength of the infected enemies as e.g. the Clickers can easily grab and bite Joel or Ellie to death, so you are best to kill them using guns or by stealth. However you can pick up numerous melee weapons such as pieces of wood, pipes, machetes, pick axes and baseball bats although they only have limited durability and break with ease although they can be reinforced later on.
Weapons wise, the game play has plenty to be found throughout such as handguns, shotguns, rifles, bows and even flame throwers. These weapons can also be upgraded by finding bolts that are scattered throughout the world of the game and Joel can upgrade them at different workbenches found in the game and depiction of the upgrades are quite impressive and give a sense of realism as we see Joel go through the actions of upgrading them. There also other makeshift weapons that can be used such as proximity (or nail) bombs that will go off as enemies near them, smoke bombs that will Joel and Ellie to escape the line of sight of enemies as well as Molotov cocktails, which are useful for taking a number of enemies at once. Joel can also construct these weapons by finding different materials throughout the game.
ENEMIES
In the game there is a mix of enemies that are both the infected and normal humans, with the infected coming a few varieties starting with the runners, who are the first stage of infection, where they stagger around constantly and will attack Joel or Ellie on sight but are the weakest of the infected generally speaking. The next step of the infected are Stalkers, who have fungus partly covering their face and have similar strength to the runner, unlike the infected at stage 3.
And the stage 3 infected are the Clickers, who are much stronger and more dangerous to deal with as the fungus has spread over their faces, which makes them effectively blind but they have acute hearing and superior strength. Clickers also emit a loud clicking noise and often shriek out loudly as they move around. Clickers can can also easily kill you if try and take them on in hand to hand combat, so its best to use firearms and kill them using shivs (basically short knives) by sneaking behind them.
And lastly there are the Bloaters, which are heavily mutated and have fungal growths over their entire body and also have superior strength and as such are very hard to kill and require a lot of firepower to take down. Bloaters are infected that have been exposed to the Cordyceps fungus for a long period of time and they also can throw parts from body that emit a toxic gas cloud.
As for the human enemies there are a mix of military soldiers, who can be found in different areas of the game and even some that use tanks to open fire on other NPCs as well as Joel and Ellie. And there are also other enemies such as hunters, who can be found in different parts of the game, who will also kill Joel or Ellie on sight but they can be taken down a bit easier in hand to hand combat than the infected are often armed with guns or melee weapons.
HEALTH AND SKILL UPGRADES
Throughout the game, Joel can also upgrade his health by two levels to boost his HP and take more damage and he can restore his health by finding health kits or mini health kits found in the game. Joel can also use different tools to create health kits (as can Ellie although she cannot upgrade her HP) but only carry a maximum of 3 at any given time. Joel can also reduce the take it takes to heal himself as a separate upgrade.
As for skills upgrades as well as upgrading his health by two levels, he can also increase his listening distance to be aware of enemies from further away, which enables you to see the shadows of enemies through walls. Joel can also use shivs to break free of Clickers and decrease weapon swaying when aiming guns or rifles and he can also increase the speed of crafting items too, which is very useful as you are on the go a lot.
COLLECTABLES
Throughout the game, Joel can also find some interesting little collectables that include notes, letters and maps that will help traverse through the game or give info that can be useful for e.g. opening doors or safes. Joel will also find various tags of fallen of soldiers scattered throughout the game that contains their names and a number.
GRAPHICS
As for the graphics, I will of course be reviewing by the remake version, which are a substantial upgrade over the original game and also an impressive enhancement over the PS4 remaster. So, overall this is a great visual upgrade that features some very impressive character models with Joel and Ellie now looking if not realistic, then they aren't too far off the mark. The environments also look stunning and rich with detail from barren landscapes, to the frozen wastes, to the dingy interiors of broken down buildings. The game also makes great use of enhanced lighting and shadow effects although they don't utilize ray tracing, which is often featured in many modern games today. So, overall this is a very impressive upgrade over the original and remaster versions.
VOICE ACTING
As for the voice acting, its absolutely terrific and features some of the best voice acting you are likely to hear in any video game particularly from the two lead performers.
Starting with Troy Baker, he does a superb job as Joel, who loses his daughter at the start of the Cordyceps outbreak and 20 years later operates as a smuggler and is given the task of smuggling Ellie to the Fireflies. And Baker has numerous highlights in the game and his scenes as Joel with Ellie are both very powerful and emotional as they start off an uneasy alliance and later bond together but they also have some moments of humor in between the drama. Baker also does a great job at showing Joel morally ambiguous nature of a man certainly lives by the maxim of the means justifying the ends.
Ashley Johnson is also terrific in her role as Ellie, the 14 year old girl, who Joel helps smuggle to the Fireflies militia and is immune to the Cordyceps fungus after having been bitten by an infected and could be the answer to finding a cure to the virus. Johnson does a great job at showing Ellie to be a very likeable and engaging character, who does slowly change as she undergoes her harrowing adventure and comes up against hoards of infected as well as hostile human enemies.
Jeffrey Pierce also does a fine job in his role as Tommy, Joel's brother, who helps Joel and Ellie out along the way and would later reappear in Part II. Tommy being the younger brother, is now part of a militia and is in a relationship with his wife, Maria and initially harbours a grudge over Joel but they quickly put their differences aside to help each other.
W. Earl Brown is excellent in his role also as Bill, a cynical smuggler and survivalist who helps out Joel, who he owes a favour to and he also provides some amusing dialogue along the way as he disapproves of Ellie getting in his way.
Nolan North is also excellent in his role as David, who seemingly is a well meaning leader of a group of men but it later on turns out he is far more sinister and dangerous then he initially appears to be as he out to hunt Joel and Ellie.
And last of is all Merle Dandridge who is also very good in her role as Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies who entrusts Joel to deliver Ellie safely to the medical facility where they hope to operate on Ellie and find a cure. However without giving too much away, things don't according to plan as Joel might have hoped with the operation and he is forced to take drastic action against Marlene and her men.
MUSIC
And last of all is the music score by Gustavo Santaolalia which has a very sparse feel with its mix of strings and guitar, it is quite minimal in its sound but it is also pretty effective and works well with the game's tone. Gustavo also produces some emotional moments in the score particularly in the game's climax at the medical facility, which I won't say more about than that for now. Gustavo would later go on to score Last of Us Part II aswell, which was essentially more of the same but its no bad thing.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
As for flaws...yes The Last of Us isn't quite perfect even if it is an excellent game there are still some niggles here and there.
To start with, I felt there were times where the weapon selection was quite annoying as I kept trying to cycle through my weapons by hitting the square button but kept causing Joel to swing with his melee weapon instead. This could often prove to be annoying if you are nearby enemies, which could end up giving your position away.
I also felt with some enemies, particularly Clickers, it was quite difficult to try and sneak up on them from certain angles as they walk and trying to keep behind them was challenging without them turning and grabbing you for a quick bite! So, trying to deal with that could be a real pain at times just when you want shiv them to death before they get a chance!
Another problem was to do with the lack of silenced weapons, which was introduced in Part II but here it would have been more advantageous had they introduced them into the remake but sadly they didn't. This definitely would have been useful in many situations where you don't want to garner unwanted attention of nearby infected or regular enemies although the bows do provide a more silent take down method but I found the bow could be quite annoying to use and to aim accurately.
As the story side of things, I kind of had my struggles with getting behind Joel as a character as he certainly believed in the means justifying the ends but in doing so, he does commit some pretty brutal acts of violence that include torturing soldiers before killing them. And I made me struggle with the reputation of Joel being a much beloved character by fans of the game purely because of his bond with Ellie, which is certainly appealing. However when it comes to Part II and Joel getting his own comeuppance, you can't but help feel that he had it coming even if his actions at the end of this game made some sense.
I also felt the same to a lesser extent about Ellie but for the most part she is a likeable character and a breath of fresh air to the game as bright and friendly kid, who does share a pretty hefty burden with her immunity. However as the game progresses, she becomes an efficient killer, who fends for herself and later on she even brutally murders one of the antagonist characters, David, which is quite shocking when you first see it. Its a brutal act that shapes Ellie's future hardened nature in Part II and I found quite difficult to watch but at the same time, she is a young girl thrown into a harsh and brutal world, so she has no choice but to fend for herself.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, The Last of Us Part I is an excellent remake of the original game and its improved graphics are stunning with great character models and environments that are rich with detail. The game also tells a very compelling story and features some pretty solid action, which is very solid mix of stealth, melee and gun play. The performances of the voice actors are also top notch with outstanding efforts from both Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson as Joel and Ellie.
There are some minor drawbacks with the game but the biggest one is of course to do with the price of the remake at £70, its simply way to expensive to justify paying for at full price, I mean its just NOT a brand new game, its a remake of a game that has already been remastered. So, it would be safe to say that many people felt this remake was pointless and to a certain extent I would agree. However on the other hand, this was my first time playing this game and I did really enjoy the experience regardless of its hefty price tag (which I got a bit off with using a voucher helps!). So, for me TLOU Part 1 is still an excellent game in its own right and its easy to see why it get's the acclaim it does.
So, I will give TLOU Part 1:
9 out of 10
So, that's it for this one and I will be back with another post sometime soon.
Ciao the now!
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