Nobody doubted Naughty Dog’s technical expertise – and there’s no question that The Last Of Us pushes the aging PlayStation 3 hardware well beyond what we might expect of it in terms of visual fidelity – it’s in the game’s storytelling and scripting that the real surprises lay. Joel and Ellie’s story is a sprawling, often desperate struggle for survival against insurmountable odds and a series of increasing bad rolls of the dice, and it’s expertly told.
But there are moments of beauty in the tale, both physically and emotionally, between a mismatched duo that end up relying on each other far more than either thought they might. The bright moments are overwhelmingly powerfully so, the innocent ignorance of Ellie’s upbringing slotting perfectly between Joel’s dark, barbed decades of his own private hell, and those they meet on the way.
There’s one fleeting, momentary respite near the end of the tale as Ellie stares out onto a rich green field, Joel at her side. It’s quiet, poignant, delicate and shows an element of nature untouched by the disasters around it. A reminder that not all is bad, not all is lost, and, after everything that’s happened, it’s hard to fight back the tears. These things you can’t help but carry with you long after it’s all over, and few other games can have that kind of hook, that kind of reaction.
The Last Of Us does. Several times. Just be ready.
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