Why I loved “The Last Of Us”

So admittedly, I’m late to the game on The Last Of Us, considering it is was a last-gen game. It was one of those games I always meant to get to, but after the Red Dead 2 update fiasco, and coming off the Witcher, which was a huge, sprawling game, and God of War, which was heavy on button mashing, I figured it would be a nice change of pace. One of the more interesting aspects of The Last Of US is the element of scarcity.  In most games, you hardly ever run out of ammo (think Borderlands, CoD and such).  If you think about it, the amount of ammo you carry around in a CoD duty game must weigh 50 pounds (don’t quote me on that).  Over the course of The Last Of Us, if you ever have more than pocketful of revolver bullets or shotgun shells, you are in good shape. This scarcity affects every aspect of the game.  You explore every nook and cranny to try and find more alcohol for healing kits, or broken scissors, or sugar or whatever would be left in a post-apocalyptic, zombie infested world. You hesitate to fire your gun because you don’t want to waste bullets (or attract clickers). And of course, like any good post-apocalyptic game, the people who are left over are often worse than the zombies. 

The relationship between Joel and Ellie is also thoroughly developed over the course of the game.  I found myself mentally yelling at the screen a few times for Joel to just say something nice to Ellie or give her some words of encouragement, rather than always yelling at her like a jerk.  But by the end, the connection between them is so strong, that…I will leave the spoilers for you to search out on YouTube.  There is an emotional connection that develops between the player and the characters, as you are immersed in this disturbing world, with your pocketful of bullets and no health kits, as you make your way literally across the country over the course of a year. 

Update: HBO is making a series of The Last of Us, from the creator of “Chernobyl”, which is a must watch if you haven’t seen yet. Both of these will give you nightmares.