There are many games that us video game fanatics come across in our lives that we're always going to remember. The game play, story and all around enjoyment of it leaves a lasting impression that we'll always bring up in later conversations as a comparison to new games that want to top them to be the best. Then there's The Last of Us (and the Left Behind DLC), which basically gave a big F.U. to any "great" game in recent memory and set the bar so high for future games that they indeed have their work cut out for them. This is a pretty bold statement, but I'm not sure we'll be seeing any game better than The Last of Us anytime soon.
Why is this game so incredible? It's really simple: The Story. I know, I know... "Video game stories are never that amazing" but Naughty Dog has proven that to be a statement that should be stricken from the record. From the very start of the game to the gut wrenching end, you, as a player, are completely submerged in an emotional tug of war. You actually feel something for every character that you come across and you can't help but sympathize with the fear your main characters have when meeting strangers (and, God forbid, trusting them). Naughty Dog takes an apocalyptic future that has been painted throughout video game and cinema history as horrific for mankind's nature and drags you through the thick of it.
Before getting into this any further, let me just give a small background of the game for those that haven't played it. (You are missing out). Naughty Dog, famous for creating Jak and Daxter // and the Uncharted series, decided to put together a post apocalyptic game that focused on the very gritty and gruesome side of humanity after a biological virus outbreak. In other words, a mother nature zombie outbreak. The first stage is "the Infected": Fast moving zombie types who were recently infected by either diseased spores of the dead at a later stage in the virus's evolution, or bitten by an Infected when they were still human. From this stage, the virus rampages through the body turning mankind into a biological nightmare honed in to kill those not infected... more or less. The story of the game follows a pair of individuals thrown together by fate: Joel, a middle aged man who is hard around the edges and Ellie, a young, teenage girl with the mouth of a trucker.
So what sets this apocalypse aside from all the rest? It's really the fact that Naughty Dog is able to grab a hold of your heart and emotions, drag them through the mud, toss them off a cliff and help drag you back to your feet only to be shoved into a puddle and held beneath the waters surface. Yes, it's that strong of a story telling experience that you get to play through. The majority of video games out there today are simply not up to the task of providing a story that is rich and compelling in philosophical thought. (Though there are few exceptions as of late with games like Telltales: The Walking Dead) It is rare to come across a game that makes you wonder what decision you would've made had you been in your character's shoes. It's also rare to try and grasp the concept of why a character would make the decision that they do while you're playing. You find yourself torn inside not really knowing what you would do. That internal conflict is something masterfully done by Naughty Dog within The Last of Us and Left Behind.
The general timeline of a game is back story - action - climax - walk off into the sunset ending. During the time that you play most games, you're not really absorbed into the details of what is going on in the world around you (or the character that you're playing) but more the how to get from point A to point B to win. Looking around the visual surface of the canvas that the developer painted for you is a hind sight and just a pretty backdrop left for you to run through. In this game, and within the story, you are completely absorbed in the destruction of mankind and have that "whoa..." feeling when seeing things we take for granted missing from the survivors lives.
In conclusion, Naughty Dog has set the bar extremely high and I hope other video game companies are taking notes and will try to improve their new titles. If you haven't been able to play this game... YOU ARE MISSING OUT. Borrow your friend's PS3 and make sure you don't miss out on video game history.
V.Omg (Hah! I think I'll keep that shortened version of Veyl, Old Man Gamer)
Sidenote:
Last of Us is such an amazing story that it has recently been announced that a movie version of the game will be made. (The screenplay will be written by the man who wrote Last of Us, Neil Druckmann, and Sam Raimi is listed as one of the producers.) Like most gamers, I'm both thrilled and horrified about this. Historically speaking, video game movies have been pretty horrible. (Looking at you Double Dragon and Super Mario Bros) Though some movies are decent (Resident Evil, Tomb Raider), Last of Us could possibly be the "great" video game movie that we've all hoped for. It has key elements that could hook any viewer, not just a gamer, and bring out an emotional response to the plot line of this apocalyptic world. I guess only time will tell and how "serious" the movie is taken.
