Reviews

The Last of Us Remastered PS4 Review

Posted on: 2015-05-19

The Last of Us is a beautiful and emotional masterpiece that shows video games can be more than mild entertainment to kill time and that can show true emotion. one of the best Playstation exclusives in the past 10 years.

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Sony have given me the chance to review one of the best Playstation exclusives that first dawned on the PS3 back in 2013 and now it is on the PS4, this is in celebration of the release of the standalone version of the expansion Left Behind. This Last of Us Remastered is an emotional roller coaster ride which makes you shed a tear from beginning to end.

Let’s start with the story of the first campaign, the world has been infected with not a virus but a fungal infection similar to a fungus called Cordyceps which is an infection that takes over the mind of the insect, or in The Last of Us’s case humans, turning them into zombies. You play as Joel who has to survive as a smuggler making ends meet with shady practices in order to acquire ration cards etc. He is then tasked to smuggle a young girl called Ellie who may be the saviour of mankind and Joel is hesitant at first, but then warms up to the idea. What I like in the narrative in this game is that Joel first resents Ellie but as they go further and further in this journey the bond grows like Father and Daughter laughing, crying and even venting their anger at each other and it is very heart-warming - you gain an attachment to these characters. Be warned the intro to this game will make you shed a tear! It does with me every time I play it, I won’t spoil it but let’s just say Joel faces a tragic loss.

The second campaign Left Behind shows more about the character Ellie before she meets Joel but it does jump back and forth between the present and the past. You play as her throughout this expansion exploring more of her characteristics along with her very close friend Reilly, it just shows that Ellie is just a normal young girl with aspects of her questioning things, experimenting and having fun.

Now after talking about the narrative let’s talk about the gameplay as at the end of the day it is a video game, well this game plays like a traditional survival horror where ammo and supplies are limited so if you have to shoot something make every shot count. You encounter a wide variety of enemies you’ll face which have various stages of infection, first you have the fresh infected that still look somewhat human and they will hit you with their fists, then you have the clickers that respond to sound so your best choice is to sneak past because they can one hit kill you and then you have the bloaters who have been infected for many years and they throw balls of acid at you and they take a lot of hits to kill.

You’ll scavenge for ammo, supplies, new weapons and upgrades. You get a lot of different weapons such as the standard pistols, shotguns and rifles to the more exotic weapons such as the flamethrower. You pick up parts so you can craft weapons such as Molotov cocktails, nail bombs and you can even upgrade your melee of weapons to have nails or spikes in them so you can have an instant kill. It keeps the game varied from stealth to sometimes all action when the situation turns sour and will keep you invested for the 10-13 hours it took me to finish this.

The game was already a beautiful game when it was first released on the PS3 back in 2013, but although the game doesn’t have a dramatic change in looks, the subtle details is what make it look amazing, such as the touch up on certain textures of skin, hair and the environments. This time the game is more playable because it runs at a buttery smooth frame rate of 60 fps, because on the PS3 version when you get to the more busy sections the game would drop to about 20 fps and it was unplayable, but the PS4 version has sorted that out.

The Last of Us is a beautiful and emotional masterpiece that shows video games can be more than mild entertainment to kill time and that can show true emotion. This game will make you feel happy, angry and even sad which make grab for the tissues. This is one of the best Playstation exclusives in the past 10 years.

5/5

Reviewed by Sam Coles - a.k.a. The Bristolian Gamer for 365Bristol

 

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