The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 on June 14, 2013; an updated version, The Last of Us Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 4 on July 29, 2014.[a] Players control Joel, a man tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States.
The Last of Us is played from a third-person perspective; players use firearms, improvised weapons and stealth to defend against hostile humans and zombie-like creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus. "Listen mode" lets players locate enemies through a heightened sense of hearing and spatial awareness. Players can also upgrade weapons and items using items scavenged from the environment. In the game's online multiplayer, up to eight players engage in co-operative and competitive gameplay in recreations of single-player settings.
Development of The Last of Us began in 2009, soon after the release of Naughty Dog's previous game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The relationship between Joel and Ellie was the central focus of the game, with all other elements developed around it. The team chose Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson to portray Joel and Ellie respectively, who provided voice and motion capture for the roles. Both actors assisted creative director Neil Druckmann with the development of the characters and story. The original score was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla.
Following its announcement in December 2011, The Last of Us was widely anticipated. It was acclaimed by many reviewers, with praise particularly directed at its characterization, subtext, exploration of the human condition, and depiction of female characters. The Last of Us became one of the best-selling PlayStation 3 games, selling over 1.3 million units in its first week, and over eight million units within fourteen months. Considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time, it won year-end accolades, including over 240 Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications, making it one of the most awarded games in history. After the game's release, Naughty Dog released several downloadable content additions; The Last of Us: Left Behind added a new single-player campaign, taking place both before and during the main story, featuring Ellie and her friend Riley.
Gameplay[edit]
The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror game that uses a third-person perspective. Players traverse post-apocalyptic environments, moving through locations to advance through the game's story. Players use firearms,improvised weapons and stealth, defending against hostile humans and zombie-like creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus. For most of the game, players control Joel—a man tasked with escorting the young Ellie across the United States; Ellie and other companions are controlled by the artificial intelligence. Players also control Ellie and Sarah throughout the game's winter segment and prologue, respectively.[2]
In combat, players can use long-ranged weapons such as rifles, shotguns and bows, and short-barreled guns such as pistols and revolvers; players can also scavenge limited-use melee weapons such as pipes and baseball bats. Bottles and bricks can be thrown to distract, stun or attack enemies.[5] The game features a crafting system, allowing players to upgrade weapons at workbenches, using collected items. Players' physical abilities, such as the health bar and crafting speed, can also be upgraded by collecting pills and medical plants. Should players take damage, they can recharge their health meter through the use of health kits. Equipment such as health kits and Molotov cocktails can be found or crafted using collected items.[6]
Though players can attack enemies directly, they also have the option to use stealth tactics to pass undetected. Stealth combat utilizes a gameplay mechanic called "Listen Mode", which allows players to effectively locate enemies through a heightened sense of hearing and spatial awareness. When using Listen Mode, an outline of the enemies becomes visible to players, allowing them to view enemies in different locations.[3] A dynamic cover system is also present, in which players crouch behind obstacles to gain a tactical advantage during combat.[7] The game features periods without combat, often involving conversation between the characters.[8] Players solve simple puzzles, by using floating pallets to move Ellie, who is unable to swim, across bodies of water, and using ladders or dumpsters to reach higher areas. Story collectibles, such as notes, maps and comics, can be scavenged and viewed in the backpack menu.[9]
The game features an artificial intelligence system that makes hostile human enemies react to any combat situation they are placed in. If enemies discover the player, they may take cover or call for assistance, and can take advantage of players when they are distracted, out of ammunition, or in the midst of a fight. Players' companions, such as Ellie or Tess, can also assist in combat by throwing objects at threats to stun them, announcing the location of unseen enemies, or using a knife and pistol to attack enemies.[4]
The game's online multiplayer allows up to eight players to engage in competitive gameplay in recreations of multiple single-player settings. The game features three multiplayer game types: Supply Raid and Survivors are both team deathmatches, with the latter excluding the ability to respawn;[10] Interrogation features teams investigating the location of the enemy team's lockbox, and the first to capture such lockbox wins.[11] In every mode, players select a Faction—Hunters or Fireflies—and keep their clan alive by collecting supplies during matches. Each match is equal to one day; by surviving twelve "weeks", players have completed a journey and can re-select their Faction.[12] Killing enemies, reviving allies and crafting items earn the player parts that can be converted to supplies; parts can also be scavenged from enemies' bodies. Players are able to carry more equipment by earning points as their clan's supplies grow. Players can connect the game to their Facebook account, which alters clan members' names and faces to match the players' Facebook friends.[13] Players also have the ability to customize their characters with hats, helmets, masks and emblems.[14]
Plot[edit]
See also: List of The Last of Us characters
In 2013, Joel (Troy Baker) is a single father living near Austin, Texas, with his twelve-year-old daughter Sarah (Hana Hayes). On the night of his birthday, an outbreak of a mutant Cordyceps fungus ravages the United States, transforming its human hosts into cannibalistic monsters. As Joel, his brother Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce), and Sarah flee the chaos, Sarah is shot by a soldier and dies in Joel's arms.
In the twenty years that follow, most of civilization is destroyed by the infection. Survivors live in heavily policed quarantine zones, independent settlements and nomadic groups. Joel works as a smuggler with his partner Tess (Annie Wersching) in the Boston quarantine zone. They hunt down Robert (Robin Atkin Downes), a black market dealer, to recover a stolen weapons cache. Before Tess kills him, Robert reveals that he traded the goods to the Fireflies, a rebel group opposing the quarantine zone authorities. The leader of the Fireflies, Marlene (Merle Dandridge), promises to double their stolen cache in return for smuggling a teenage girl,Ellie (Ashley Johnson), to Fireflies hiding outside of the quarantine. Joel, Tess, and Ellie sneak out in the night, but after an encounter with a patrol, they discover Ellie is infected. Full infection normally occurs in under two days, but Ellie claims she was infected three weeks ago and that her immunity may lead to a cure. The trio make their way to their destination through hordes of infected, but find that the Fireflies there have been killed. Tess reveals she has been bitten by an infected; believing in Ellie's importance, Tess sacrifices herself against pursuing soldiers so Joel and Ellie can escape.
Joel decides to find Tommy, a former Firefly, in the hope that he can locate the remaining Fireflies. With the help of Bill (W. Earl Brown), a smuggler who owes Joel a favor, they acquire a working vehicle. Driving into Pittsburgh, they are ambushed by bandits and their car is wrecked. They ally with two brothers, Henry (Brandon Scott) and Sam (Nadji Jeter); after they escape the city, Sam is bitten by an infected but hides it from the group. As his infection takes hold, Sam attacks Ellie, but Henry shoots him and then commits suicide out of grief.
In the fall, Joel and Ellie finally find Tommy in Wyoming, where he has assembled a fortified settlement near a hydroelectric dam with his wife Maria (Ashley Scott). Joel contemplates leaving Ellie with Tommy, but after she confronts him about Sarah, he decides to stay with her. Tommy directs them to a Fireflies enclave at the University of Eastern Colorado. There, they find the university abandoned, but learn that the Fireflies have moved to a hospital in Salt Lake City. As they leave, they are attacked by bandits and Joel is severely wounded.
During the winter, Ellie and Joel shelter in the mountains. Joel is on the brink of death and relies on Ellie to care for him. Hunting for food, Ellie encounters David (Nolan North) and James (Reuben Langdon), scavengers willing to trade medicine for food; David reveals that the university bandits Ellie and Joel killed were part of his group. Ellie manages to lead David's group away from Joel, but is eventually captured; David intends to recruit her into his cannibal group. She escapes after killing James but David corners her in a burning restaurant. Meanwhile, Joel recovers from his wounds and sets out to find Ellie. He reaches Ellie as she kills David; Joel consoles her before they flee.
In the spring, Joel and Ellie arrive in Salt Lake City and are captured by a Firefly patrol. In the hospital, Marlene tells Joel that Ellie is being prepared for surgery: in hope of producing a vaccine for the infection, the Fireflies must remove the infected portion of Ellie's brain, which will kill her. Joel battles his way to the operating room and carries the unconscious Ellie to the parking garage. There he confronts and kills Marlene to prevent the Fireflies from pursuing them. On the drive out of the city, Joel lies to Ellie about what happened, telling her that the Fireflies had found many other people who are immune, but were unable to create a cure and have stopped trying. The pair arrive on the outskirts of Tommy's settlement. Ellie expresses her survivor guilt and asks Joel to swear that his story is true; he does.[15]
Development[edit]
Main article: Development of The Last of Us
Naughty Dog began developing The Last of Us in 2009, following the release of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. For the first time in the company's history, Naughty Dog split into two teams; while one team developedUncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011), the other began work on The Last of Us.[16] Director Bruce Straley and creative director Neil Druckmann led the team responsible for developing The Last of Us.[17]
The relationship between Joel and Ellie was the central focus of the game; all other elements were developed around it. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson were cast as Joel and Ellie respectively and provided voice andmotion capture performances.[18] Baker and Johnson contributed to the development of the characters;[19] for example, Baker convinced Druckmann that Joel would care for Tess due to his loneliness,[20] and Johnson convinced Druckmann that Ellie should be stronger and more defensive.[19] Ellie's physical appearance was also redesigned throughout development, to make her look more similar to Johnson.[21] The game's other characters also underwent changes. The character Tess, portrayed by Annie Wersching, was originally intended to be the main antagonist of The Last of Us, but the team found it difficult to believe her motives.[22]The sexuality of the character Bill, portrayed by W. Earl Brown, was originally left vague in the script, but later altered to further reflect his homosexuality.[20]
The Last of Us features an original score composed primarily by Gustavo Santaolalla, along with additional compositions by Andrew Buresh, Anthony Caruso, and Jonathan Mayer.[23] Known for his minimalist compositions, Santaolalla was contacted early in development. He used various instruments to compose the score, including some that he was unfamiliar with, giving a sense of danger and innocence.[24] This minimalist approach was also taken with the game's sound design and art design. The sound department began working early on the sound of the Infected, in order to achieve the best work possible. To achieve the sound of the Clicker, they hired voice actress Misty Lee, who provided a sound that audio lead Phillip Kovats described as originating in the "back of the throat".[25] The art department took various pieces of work as inspiration, such as Robert Polidori's photographs following Hurricane Katrina, used as a reference point when designing the flooded areas of Pittsburgh.[23] The art department were forced to fight for things that they wished to include, due to the high demand during development. Ultimately, the team settled on a balance between simplicity and detail; while Straley and Druckmann preferred the former, the art team preferred the latter.[26] The game's opening credits were produced by Sony San Diego.[27]
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The team created new engines to satisfy their needs for the game. The artificial intelligence (AI) was created to coordinate with players;[29] the addition of Ellie as AI was a major contributor to the engine.[30] The lighting engine was also re-created to incorporate soft light, in which the sunlight weeps in through spaces and reflects off surfaces.[29] The gameplay introduced difficulty to the team, as they felt that every mechanic required thorough analysis.[20] The game's user interface design also underwent various iterations throughout development.[31]
The Last of Us was officially announced on December 10, 2011, at the Spike Video Game Awards,[32] alongside its debut trailer[33] and an official press release acknowledging some of the game's features.[2] Journalists noted that the announcement ignited widespread anticipation within the gaming industry, which they owed to Naughty Dog's reputation.[34][35][36] The game missed its original projected release date of May 7, 2013, pushed back to June 14, 2013 to allow for further polishing.[37] To spur pre-order game sales, Naughty Dog collaborated with several retail outlets to provide special edition versions of the game, with extra features and content.[38]
Additional content[edit]
Downloadable content (DLC) for the game was released for the game following its launch. The game's Season Pass includes access to all DLC, as well as some additional abilities, and the documentary Grounded: Making The Last of Us;[39] the documentary was released online in February 2014.[40] Two DLC packs were included with some of the game's special editions and were available upon release: the Sights and Sounds Pack included the soundtrack, a dynamic theme and two avatars; the Survival Pack featured bonus skins for the player following the completion of the campaign, and in-game money, as well as bonus experience points, early access to customizable items and brawler skill for the game's multiplayer.[41] Abandoned Territories Map Pack, released on October 15, 2013, added four new multiplayer maps, based on locations in the game's story.[42]Nightmare Bundle, released on November 5, 2013, added a collection of ten head items, nine of which are available to purchase individually.[43]
The Last of Us: Left Behind added a new single-player campaign which serves as a prequel to the main storyline, featuring Ellie and her friend Riley; it was released on February 14, 2014 as DLC[44] and on May 12, 2015 as a standalone expansion pack.[45] A third bundle was released on May 6, 2014, featuring five separate DLC: Grounded added a new difficulty to the main game and Left Behind; Reclaimed Territories Map Pack added new multiplayer maps; Professional Survival Skills Bundle and Situational Survival Skills Bundle added eight new multiplayer skills; Survivalist Weapon Bundle added four new weapons.[46] The Grit and Gear Bundle, which added new headgear items, masks and gestures, was released on August 5, 2014.[47] A Game of the Year Edition containing all downloadable content was released in Europe on November 11, 2014.[48]
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