When I first heard of The Last of Us it was through the trailers I'm sure everyone else saw as well. Unknown to many of us the game had been teased in Uncharted 3 before, and when the announcement came we really weren't sure what to think. Was this Uncharted zombies!? Or was it something entirely different? It would be quite some time before we got a definitive answer to what it would be, but it really wasn't until we got to play it for ourselves that we understood what would await us. Although it clearly did have some Uncharted influences, it was still very much it's own game.
I still remember the day I got the game. Despite going to pick it up at GameStop on release day, it was going to be a birthday present to me, so I couldn't play it just yet. So instead I spent the days watching trailers online, and counting down the days to when I could finally start it up. It wasn't an easy wait, and for some strange reason every TV channel I watched liked to rub it in my face. I can't tell you how many times that commercial played, but it felt like I'd see it at least two to three times per TV show episode. But anyway thankfully I didn't have to wait too much longer... And in a way that saved me.
That birthday I spent most of the day with family. From morning till night, I was out of the house doing who knows what. Because of this I wasn't able to start the game, but that was okay. I figured spending time with people I cared about was more important than a game, and I knew I'd have the rest of the summer to play it anyway. I didn't think much of that decision back then, but imagine my surprise when I got home to learn about the faulty PlayStation 3 update that had been released that morning. It was one of the few times Sony actually took blame for what happened as many PS3s were bricked. Of course by the time I started up The Last of Us the update had been pulled, but if I would've turned it on earlier in the day I too would've been facing the same issue as many others. Thankfully Sony did release a fix a few days later to help get people's PS3s up and running again, but I'm just happy I didn't have to go through that period. But anyway, none of this has to do with why I love the game so much. Although, what more can I say about this game that I already haven't?
The Last of Us isn't just a game I've reviewed in the past, but one of my favorite games of all time. I love the story, the characters, and the setting. The gun play was great, and I really enjoyed the different types of stealth systems that were in play. Some enemies you'd sneak past like normal, but others were blind and could find you by sound. This is where throwing objects came in handy, but even that wasn't always possible to pull off. Then when you couldn't get past someone (or something), you could play mind games with them instead. I'll never forget the first time I fired an empty weapon and let the bad guy's hear that dead "click" of my gun. "HEY I KNOW THAT SOUND!" one yelled as he came out of cover. Little did he know my shotgun was at the ready and waiting for him as he walked towards me. It was moments like these that really helped the game stand out for me, and why I continued to come back to it. Both alone, and with friends.
Although I did have my gripes with it as well (mainly having to push objects around), none of these issues dampened my enjoyment, and were pretty easily overlooked. I know others had more issues with the whole thing, but whatever. Naughty Dog learned from the past, and has even made fun of it in their later releases (Uncharted 4). Besides that there's really nothing I didn't like about the game, and because of that I have pretty high hopes for it's sequel as well. So please, don't let me down Naughty Dog.
