Survive...anyway you can with Naughty Dog's first survival game, The Last of Us. When Naughty Dog show the first trailer for this game, i know that this is gonna be a special game. While not everything is come up as i expect, especially on the gameplay department, everything else is simply amazing.
The Story (10/10)
+ superb, gritty tale of survival
+ amazingly likeable characters, it's just so hard not to care about Joel and Ellie
+ beautiful chemistry between the 2 lead characters, it's the same beautiful relationship like Lee & Clementine (The Walking Dead season 1), Booker & Elizabeth (Bioshock Infinite), and maybe Ico and Yorda (Ico)
+ brilliant script
+ simply awesome ending, no doubt about it
The Gameplay (8/10)
+ fluid control
+ gun handling is so realistic, you can immediately realize that this is not a third person shooter
+ using the character's hearing to spot the enemy location and movement is probably not so realistic but it still a great idea and proved to be very useful to survive.
+ you are not a space marine or a badass spy so you will die easily, you can even get knocked over after taking a bullet
+ encountering and confronting the infected is intense. Runner is a stage one infected that still can see you so stay off its sight is important but you can beat the hell out of them with ease. Clicker is the next stage of infection, they can't see you but it's much,much harder to kill them, you can only use a shiv to stab their brain or shoot them in the head to effectively kill them...and they have a good ear so approach them slowly. Bloater is the final stage, this big ugly infected is the most dangerous infected in town, they can't see you but they can hear you and they can throw spores 'grenade' at you, and they much,much harder to kill so it's a lot better not to mess with them.
+ the infected behavior is unpredictable, they don't have patterns so it's very challenging to navigate around them.
+ crafting items like explosive, med kit, and shiv makes you feel like a real survivor
+ ammo is very rare so the game encourage you to be a survivor, not a badass, but still, you can find various weapon on this game, from traditional bow to badass diablo (handgun with sniper). You can also upgrade your arsenal by collecting parts and upgrade them in workbench.
+ you can upgrade Joel's ability such it's health, his crafting speed, or his hearing by collecting pills. Some upgrades require you to find survival guides so make sure you find them.
+ Ellie can help you during encounter and she will rarely need your help
+ human enemy AI is pretty good, they don't have specific patrol pattern so it's not easy going stealth through them
+ strangling your enemies without making too much noise require some time, it's very realistic and kinda brutal, it's also risky if you doing it in the open because you can't move until your enemy dead
+ best auto cover in video game history
- your friendly AI act sooo stupid while you in stealth mode. They will move with rush from cover to cover, even if that means bumping with the enemies. While it won't break your stealth (which kinda weird in this supposedly realistic game), it still very annoying to see it. Naughty Dog really need to learn from squad based shooter game like Rainbow 6 or Ghost how to handle 2 friendly AI navigating with stealth.
- human enemy rarely doing 'something' when they find their fallen comrade
The Graphics (10/10)
+ it's kinda interesting to see Naughty Dog's colorful engine in realistic world and it works wonderfully
+ steady framerate on mostly all area.
+ superb cinematics, both pre-rendered and using in-game engine
+ great facial animation that really reflect human emotion which is very important in this kind of story
+ superbly detailed ruined environment
+ awesome particle effects, especially when you walk through spores
+ great lightning effect
+ fluid and realistic animation, you can see how Ellie and Joel struggle to climb up or down a ledge
+ awesome gore effect. Shooting enemy with a shotgun on close range and you will see graphic wound covered in bloody mess, you can also shoot limbs off, even explode your enemy head. All in realistic and grotesque manner. Kinda awesome for a company that never make a mature game before.
The Sound (9.5/10)
+ the main theme really set the mood for the dark story of the game, really,really love it
+ awesome scores
+ award winning performance by Troy Baker as Joel and Ashley Johnson as Ellie
VERDICT (9.2/10)
The Last of Us is a very,very great game, one of the best in 2013. It's a highly recommended game for you who love survival game with great story. The Last of Us will always be remembered as one of the greatest (well, probably the best) game available exclusively in PS3.