NG4's Demo Impressions.
We finally got our chance to have an early look at Naughty Dog’s highly anticipated “The Last of Us” ahead of the game’s release next month. If you’re looking for a quick answer then yes, the game is good so go pre-order it and don’t bother reading the rest of this post if that’s how you roll.
To those of you still here I should let you know that these demo impressions come from an event Sony held for The Last of Us. The demo featured two playable locations, Pittsburgh and Lincoln sectable from the main menu. No word yet on whether the upcoming public demo featured in God of War Ascension will be the same as what I played but I assume it will be.
What Did You Think Of The Demo?
Going into The Last of Us I didn’t know much about the game, I’ve been trying to stay away from seeing too many trailers in order to avoid potential spoilers. It’s a new IP developed by Naughty Dog, it’s set in a post apocalyptic type world and features two protagonists, Joel and Ellie. That’s pretty much all I knew going in, oh and it’s definitely NOT Uncharted so stop drawing that comparison.
The portion of the game I played started me off inside a jungle environment with a sunset off in the distance casting light rays whenever a tree wasn’t blocking the way. Right there and then I laughably got stuck, you see unlike the Uncharted series this jungle actually allowed for some exploration, it wasn’t your typical closed off environment which leads me directly into what I really want to tell everyone about The Last of Us.
If you’re going into this game expecting a third person shooter then you’re an idiot, The Last of Us is what Naughty Dog is calling “Survival Action”. There will be elements of action and there will be elements of survival horror (mainly the surviving part) so it’s neither Uncharted nor is it a zombie game, it instead carves out it’s own space somewhere between the two.
Little over 15 minutes into the demo and I’m already seeing other players who attended the event leave their demo booths. They’ve pretty much finished the one portion of the demo and have instead ran off to get some free drinks whilst I’m there sitting with my headphones on engrossed in the world of The Last of Us. I’d love to see what those morons wrote in their previews because the world featured in The Last of Us is dripping with detail. From the various signs scattered around the environment to the subtle conversations Joel has with Ellie, this is a game you might actually stop and look around for a bit.
I decided to give The Last of Us a little test, instead of following what I assumed was the main path, I branched off into another area to see if I would be rewarded for my exploration and I’m happy to report that I was. I found myself inside an abandoned home with an arcade cabinet tucked away in the corner, Ellie walked up to it and made a comment regarding one of her friends always being a fan of those games.
I could have easily continued avoided this part of the game altogether but instead my willingness to take in all these environments had to offer resulted me in learning a little more about Ellie. In addition I was always able to find some extra items which could be used as part of the game’s crafting system. It’s not exactly a Bioshock type looting system because ammo and health is so scarce in The Last of Us, you’ll be constantly exploring the world in order to find useful resources which ties nicely into the actual survival part of the game. This segways nicely into the next section I want to talk about.
Good news everyone, Joel isn’t a mass murder like Nathan Drake and he isn’t a one man arm either. The aim of the game in The Last of Us is to survive and every enemy you encounter in the game poses a very real threat, everyone of them are capable of killing you and aren’t just “walking ammo” for the player to pick up. I found myself underpowered going into each “battle” and the game made it very clear that Joel is a middle aged man running around with a little girl, of course he’ll get his ass handed to him if he decides to go Rambo on everyone.
Something that The Last of Us encouraged me to do was THINK before I took on an enemy or better yet, avoid them altogether I navigated through the environments via the stealth approach and only resorted to violence when I spotted as a last means of self defence. Even better, I probably wouldn’t of even survived had it not been for Ellie’s superb brick throwing skills to stun the enemy.
The melee system in The Last of Us is very visceral and very brutal, Joel isn’t swinging swords, he’s hitting people with rusted poles in a very wild manner fueled by rage. There’s guns in the game too but as far as the demo went, I didn’t bother with them unless a scripted event forced me to use them. Joel isn’t very good with his aim, headshots are easier said than done thanks to a constantly swinging reticle. Again, it’s all part of the survival aspect of the game, you’re not supposed to walk away from every scene looking like Agent 47.
Visually the game was a disaster on the setup Sony had at the event, imagine being sat down a mere 30 cm in front of a 40 plus inch TV. I would’ve loved to have sat further away but the headphones provided featured a ridiculously short cable length and I didn’t want to miss out on any of the audio. Nether the less it was still possible to see that The Last of Us is a pretty game featuring a “destroyed beauty” look to it’s environments, it’s like each area tells it’s own story simply by viewing it.
One area that I found disappointing was the jungle area I started in, grass was made up of flat textures which I initially dismissed as looking like PlayStation 2 standards but then I remembered Metal Gear Solid 3 had each individual blade of grass rendered in 3D, it would even move as you got near it. The jungle in The Last of Us by comparison looked very flat but no need to worry, that’s one a small portion and once I found myself in the deserted cities then the game really started to shine visually.
Long story short, I’m sure the final game will look great on your TV provided you’re not sat as close to it as we were at the event. If there’s one little cause for concern it’s that I wish the game’s anti-aliasing was better but it’s hardly a deal breaker and most people don’t even know how to configure their TV’s properly, if your TV sharpness is more than 20% then you’re doing it wrong.
That’s pretty much it for my impressions regarding the game, I’d love to tell you more but I don’t want to spoil anything for those of you looking forward to the game or even the upcoming demo. I slightly touched up the game’s crafting system but I honestly couldn’t tell you much more based on my 30 minute playthrough of what will ultimately be a 10 plus hour experience although I’ll do in my upcoming review.
The Last of Us is looking extremely promising but there is something that I would like to emphasise it’s this.
Please do not rush through the game, just play it slowly at your own pace and you’ll find an extremely engaging experience. Naughty Dog is onto a winner with The Last of Us.
Did Sony Try To “Bribe” You?
YES, with a little soft brick toy from the game…
Not at all actually, they were kind enough to invite us to check out The Last of Us and made no attempt to try to “win us over”. They had free drinks and food on offer, even the vending machines were left open which is mega exciting for someone like me who worked in a supermarket prior to joining Masonic Gamer. There’s just something very naughty about seeing an opened vending machine out in the wild.
All in all it was a great event, they even had a DJ on hand for whatever reason. The only impression I got as I walked away was that Sony are kind hosts and the game is looking awesome.
Be Honest, Will It Suck?
The game is developed by Naughty Dog, in particular the Uncharted 2 team so we’re expecting a quality product and that seems to be the case with The Last of Us. There’s a lot of hype going into it which I feel may end up working against it, expectations for the game are unfortunately already too high at this point and I can imagine some reviewers being “disappointed” because it wasn’t “the best game ever made”.
The impression I got from The Last of Us is that the game will win us over with it’s story. Yes it looks pretty and it plays well enough but years from now we’ll likely look back at The Last of Us and remember the relationship between Ellie and Joel most fondly.
There’s still a few weeks left until the game launches, if I were you I’d re-adjust my expectations and place them on the story. I’m pretty confident that Ellie is going to become one of the most likeable characters around.
When Is It out?
The Last of Us is a PlayStation 3 exclusive and has a worldwide release of June 14th. There are two special editions featuring Ellie and Joel to those of you interested. Personally I recommend getting the Ellie edition just to give the marketing team the middle finger for being against the idea of having a female character on the cover of the game.
But I am a PS4 so I have over 70 million kids and 125million grandkids
Imagine if your DAD was that 
his kids needs to use the computer to do their homework before the library wi-fi gets turned off but nooooooooooo he's stealing their time to write nonsense.
You stealing some bandwidth from anyone who had to read that extremely unfunny post. You coincidentally is the result of angry mods. Real posters like myself are muted while championship posting is then relegated to the likes of this fool. That's really the point of this thread, just needed appearances like this to help convey the message :shake:
but now I'm off point. The way we will move forward into FULL DIGITAL DOWNLOADS is this
How fukking idiotic does that sound now tho?
" and if you really like the game. You'll buy it and if you can let your friend borrow the game would be the LAST THING you'd be thinking. Would have no bearing on if you buy it or not. Most popular games on the planet are free to play games on PC, mobile/etc. Then COD
