The Last of Us

During the Development of Uncharted 2, “Neil Druckmann” Naughty Dog’s Creative Director was watching the attack of the killer fungi. The planet earth docu was showing a parasitic fungus snibbing onto an Ant, infecting them and taking control of their brains. These ants lost control over their tiny bodies and shoved off somewhere to die, their bodies ended up becoming the carrier of these horrific fungal sprouts.

When matured they send off spores to infect other creatures close by, with thousands of types of these fungi each specialized in one species he wondered, what would happen if it would be able to infect us?

Both “Druckmann” and his game Director “Bruce Straley” agreed that a game based on truth would make

a more compelling game and so the Idea for The Last of Us was Born.

GRAPHIC DESIGN:

They didn’t just want to create the usual survival horror game, they wanted to add more color and natural beauty to the mixture. The Clickers are a good example of that, these transformed humans ended up being infected by cordyceps for such a long time that their heads are nothing more than heaps of colorful fungal. These details show throughout the entirety of the game. The Last of Us was already a fantastic piece of art on the PlayStation 3, but the extra power of the PlayStation 4, allowed them to use the models from the game’s cutscenes and use them directly in the Gameplay segments.

I'm personally not a stickler for things like graphics alone, looking back, this title clearly proves exactly that! I really believe that it was not just about the pixels but also about the story and sound direction, and attention to detail as a whole. I agree, looking at the graphics, that some parts may look better than others, but, it suffers less from the muddy textures, pop-ins, and jaggies it had in its original PlayStation 3 release.

With that, I genuinely think that the foliage and surrounding buildings, interiors, and character designs for this released remastered version do not only look and feel fantastic but, the production also offered a believable world where both protagonists Ellie and Joel aka the ''player'' needed to move through.

SOUND DESIGN:

I think that “Naughty Dog” nailed their sound design in such a way that it accommodates all the other three pillars of the game which makes it a lot stronger. Some may even argue that the sound outshines the Gameplay but I beg to differ. If any, it has complemented the Gameplay as a whole and without all these facets the Game wouldn’t have become what it is now.

This title doesn't only shine through its graphics and the game sound design but also through its mini-malistic game scores created by Gustavo Santaolalla who composed the music for the game early in its development stage. With only a few directions given by the production house on the tone intended, they aimed for an emotional direction as they were clearly opposed to creepy.

The game music was nominated for a few rewards, several tracks even became so popular that they were covered by YouTube artists all over the world who were inspired by Santaolalla’s work and brought their personal interpretations of the scores that were used into the end product of the last of us.

NARRATIVE:

The Games opening scene starts with “Joel” coming home, his daughter “Sarah” lying on the couch sleeping and waiting for him to come home to give him his birthday present. This scenery felt natural to me, a father and a daughter jokingly interacting with each other.

This is something that I can relate to since me and my daughter are in many ways the same. Looking at the entire story I do feel that this game is in touch with a lot of real live highs and lows. Joel is a middle-aged man whose family was stripped away from him by the virus outbreak which puts him far away from “Ellie” who is a teenager born and grown used in the world she lives in. You are set on a pad to keep this girl that you barely know safe, you try to survive and tackle obstacles in this post-apocalyptical world where the narrative strength lies within its cut scenes.

I think what made their relationship very relatable was how real it was, they didn’t like each other and they had to build a relationship from the ground up, they struggled through their journey and they only had each other to rely on!

You will live into the moments of a heartbroken father who tries to keep his distance to protect his emotional state and a girl who is considerably foul-mouthed and impulsive by nature. She's not easily scared, uses profanity to express herself, and mentions several times that she won't need a babysitter!

NARRATIVE:

The relationship between Joel and Ellie starts off a bit hostile, neither of the two seems to like each other, but you feel that they grow more attached the more you progress through the entirety of the game and the story.

By the end of the trip “when Joel needs to make a choice” those that are intimately immersed with these two well-developed characters will realize that when you look back on your journey, you eventually would've done the same.

The voice acting delivered by the actors is from the highest level. From Tess “Annie Wersching” who is a hardened survivor of the outbreak to David a wicked hebephile “Nolan North” who is the same actor that voiced Mr. Drake in the Uncharted series. They all performed first-class acting to the point that it felt like the real thing. Looking back to the making-off, I understand why!

The tip of the spear, however, is the connection that grows between the two main protagonists, Joel “Troy Baker” and Ellie “Ashley Johnson“. you surely can not ignore the mistrust and the initial annoyance that Ellie feels for Joel’s surliness towards her at the beginning of the game. The production made sure that the way they portrayed their characteristics through voice and visuals is unique which is rarely seen in games these days. The chemistry and bond you feel between the two of them can in my opinion only be adored and appreciated if you let yourself grow with these two phenomenal characters.

GAMEPLAY:

The Game makes use of a third-person perspective with gunplay, melee, and a cover system similar to “The Uncharted” series, however, they have a different feel to them. Mechanically they lean close to one and another, but, the pace, atmosphere, and tone make both IPs stand out from each other. With better anti-aliasing and 60 frames per second released on the remastered version of the Game, the overall Game feels a lot more responsive, detailed, and more to the point than before.

While The Last of Us is admittingly linear, the level designs are done so cleverly that the world feels open with multiple options to pick from to complete the levels in the game. This opens somewhat the possibility for some mild replicability for this title if you desire!

You can approach certain levels of the game with blazing guns and melee if you mess up, but, you are most encouraged to use stealth. Especially on higher difficulties, it is advised not to break stealth at all! In some situations creating noise will end up in you being swarmed. Sound is therefore purposely designed to halt a player’s motion, to route them to act a lot more cautiously.

That feeling of safety is often short-lived when you hear the sound of the infected roaming around. The developers brought the silence in this Game to a new height, and whenever you think that you are safe a “Clicker” can be heard in the distance waiting to tear your party apart. While Clickers have a huge handicap “lost eyesight” they are one of the most dangerous enemies roaming around in the Game. These enemies are based on a prime-time story where a 14-year-old blind boy learned to use echolocation.

The use of the more natural cover system implemented in this game may help you to move around these types of enemies more freely, Scattered debris lying around like stones and bottles can be used to create a slight advantage. The game also offers an intuitive crafting system to create all kinds of items, you will need ingredients to craft them which you will scavenge on the way.

Supplies are often scarce, especially on Survivor difficulty you will need to micro-manage your limited resources for when they are really necessary. The Last of Us has been in my personal experience not too complex nor too super hard even on the highest difficulty. However, I think they did a very, very good job at Naughty Dog to keep me on my guard, with a few surprises here and there!

by kevanh79 | January 21, 2015 - Reading time: 8:24 minutes

To prepare for the development of The Last of Us they spend time doing some homework on the Cordyceps fungus and other real living parasites. Their study found that the Cordyceps is not the only creepy parasitic predator out there!

GRAPHIC DESIGN:

This leads me to the sound design which really compliments and strengthens all those visuals by a mile’s length. In its purest form, the lack of sound in any given situation will create a strong feeling of paranoia that cannot be matched!

SOUND DESIGN:

The production delivered strong believable characters from start to finish, and even those that do not stick around or are written out of the storyline are memorable in some way.

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GAMEPLAY:

WRITERS NOTES

by kevanh79 | January 21, 2015 - Reading time: 8:24 minutes

To prepare for the development of The Last of Us they spend time doing some homework on the Cordyceps fungus and other real living parasites. Their study found that the Cordyceps is not the only creepy parasitic predator out there!

GRAPHIC DESIGN:

This leads me to the sound design which really compliments and strengthens all those visuals by a mile’s length. In its purest form, the lack of sound in any given situation will create a strong feeling of paranoia that cannot be matched!

SOUND DESIGN:

The production delivered strong believable characters from start to finish, and even those that do not stick around or are written out of the storyline are memorable in some way.

NARRATIVE:

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GAMEPLAY:

WRITERS NOTES

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