There’s a normal life to consider. This is where Drake resides during his time off. Reaching near death in the deserts of Uncharted 3 must have slowed his adventurous sense, forcing him to reconsider what matters. He now dives for treasure as part of a salvage company. A video game protagonist with a playable day job—how odd. The Mario Bros. may be plumbers, but they’ve never unclogged a residential toilet in-game.
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“But, for 12 or so hours, Last of Us needs its rules. For its measured tension as Joel crouches between blind, hearing enhanced ‘Clickers,’ too often the work marginalizes itself with familiarity, reducing thematic coverage. Incapable of swimming, Ellie requires assistance on improvised palette rafts. Of course there’s one at each water-focused juncture. Ladders conveniently poke from unreachable highs. Empty bottles lie strewn for distraction against Clicker encounters.
It’s less survival than it is a windowed peering into functional game design. However, Last of Us is also false. Ammunition for Joel’s increasingly implausible backpack arsenal cannot often be harvested from the dead. The use of a fabrication to harness player stress is damaging rather than effective.”
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“You remember the people and visions they leave behind, not violence. For inherent shock value which graced E3 keynote stages, The Last of Us will thrive on humanistic embellishments. You remember splattering faces onto brick walls because it becomes ingrained, not because it’s incomparable. Anything performed with such gross duplication is bound to stick. Lasting impressions will be of Ellie, staring wide-eyed at a life she will never lead or Joel coming to realize there is more than survival to care for. That is the core of The Last of Us , so it is a shame Naughty Dog rarely takes the time to celebrate being human.”
Read the full review at Hardcore Shooter
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Matt Paprocki 