The Last Of Us
Review
I apparently finished this. Only realized when I booted up the PS3 to sync up my trophies and there it was. I beat it on HARD of all things. I think I remember the game being pretty frustrating in sections but overall an amazing story with amazing characters. It really broke my heart at the end when he dies (?). I really can't remember it though. Will play the remastered one.
2022-10-06
Replaying it in Last Of Us Part 1 and god damn what a story. The writing is fantastic. Ellie is such a good character. Wise-ass but also really smart for her age. I loved the section with Henry and Sam the adult and kid brother. And the conversation Sam has with Ellie after he gets bitten and asks her if she's ever scared and if she believes in God and she says "I go back and forth". It's such a realistic way someone would respond to that and the delivery is top notch. There's a high chance I adjust the score on this one to be higher because it really is tremendous.
There might be a little too much shooting but with the new one turning the difficulty down to the lowest has made it a dream to just kind of go through murdering stuff and seeing the story without getting bogged down in frustration.
2022-10-07
Continuing to leave notes as I get through the story. Love the (inevitable) arc where Joel warms to Ellie. And then the part where he gets injured and she has to take care of him. She runs into some two dudes who seem nice enough but a little creepy. And then the scene where the "nice guy" subtly lets her know that he's a part of the group that Joel massacred at the college the other day. Incredibly cool how they make it seem like he's this crazy guy who killed like 20 dudes. Which is true. That's exactly what he is. An insane killing machine with this haunted past (hinted at when he has a conversation with Ellie and says he was on both sides of the holdup...meaning he had a phase where he killed people to survive...also makes sense given the context of his little brother low-key hating him for making him engage in killing.) The cherry on top is you get to go on a rampage as Joel Ellie gets captured. How brutally he tortures the men is cool but what is really cool is the men seem to run away from you as you're fighting you. Like they know you are some sort of unstoppable revenant that will only bring ruin to them.
It is incredibly grimdark. The fact that all these Hunters just kill people like animals for supplies to survive. And the ones that capture Ellie are in fact cannibals cutting up people in front of her.
2022-10-08
I can't believe I remembered the ending as Joel dying lol. I think when he almost dies by falling on that piece of rebar and you have to start playing as Ellie I almost quit. I just didn't want to see him die. And what a mistake that would have been.
The rampage they both on go on afterwards is absolutely wonderful. I mean the two of them must kill 100 people at the end of the game. I mean I guess you have to suspend your disbelief because how in the hell did they have a community of cannibals (all of whom seem to be men?) with 100 people?
I've moved the rating of this game way up because it seriously is one of the absolute best stories in a game I've ever experience. This and Red Dead Redemption 2 are two of the most gorgeous games with the best stories out there. The full character arc of Joel warming up from this hardass, dead-inside killer to a lovable father..and killer is fantastic.