Last Of Us Review

Last of Us Review

Summary:
Twenty years after a pandemic radically transformed known civilization, infected humans run amuck and survivors kill one another for sustenance and weapons - literally whatever they can get their hands on. Joel, a salty survivor, is hired to smuggle a fourteen-year-old girl, Ellie, out of a rough military quarantine, but what begins as a simple job quickly turns into a brutal journey across the country.

Cinematography & Special Effects:
Last of us is one of the most beautiful games I have seen in a while. It took almost 2 years to make and you could see why, even each corner of the game had incredible detail. It had chips in walls, moss and other vegetation flowing in the wind, glass reflecting light and even the breathing of the characters fully animated and considered for age and how hard it would be to breath. It was one of the first games to included all of these detailed features so powerfully on console. At the time, It pushed the Ps3 console to the limit. The game is in a third person perspective as you watch Joel and Ellie go through such an amazing triumph, this would have probably been chosen to allow the audience to see more as well as see each character develop. Instead of being the nameless and quiet protagonists we have today. The game is always have this feeling of the day rotating as you play, making it feel even more immersive as well as season changing during story as well. 

Storyline:
Last of us was one of the biggest games to raise the question of "Are Video games art?". This wasn't just because of how beautiful the game was, but also how amazingly well the story was put together. It's filled with so many twists and has a lot of detailed backstory and optional dialogue, meaning you could play it again and discover a whole new side of the story and characters in it.

Theme and Comparison:
One of the main themes of the game, like every apocalyptic text ever, is the human desire to survive and what happens to the world around us when society doesn't exist anymore. Even though it is generic in this genre, they managed to change it and make it their own. In the game, you never know who is your worst enemy. Both humans and zombies are extremely dangerous and make you question "Who is worse?". Another major theme of The Last of Us would be that it challenges the thought of sympathising and empathising. Even though Joel is cold at first, he opens up massively to the people he cares most about, even if it is only a bit. Joel also became so cold because of his past, one of his quotes being "Everyone I have cared for has either died or left me" Ellie is the only thing he has learned to care for in ages and is so scared of losing her.  This compared to any of the main stream games Like Call of duty, Battlefield and such, showed a vast more depth and love in it, like it actually meant something to the developers of the game. Most of the main stream games lost that feeling when they came out every year. 

Acting/Performing:
One of the best things that makes this game one of the best ever made, is the voice actors who played Joel and Ellie, making them seem so much realer. Troy Baker has voiced plenty of characters but this was his biggest role. Joel had a ranch background and came from Texas. He manages to voice him perfectly as well as deliver in the most emotional scenes in the game. Ashley Johnson, Who voiced Ellie, is a very convincing teenager. She had all of her stroppy moments and angry moments just as convincing as any other teenager as well as delivering the story so emotionally.