About the game
The Last of Us is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States. It is played from a third-person view. Players use firearms, improvised weapons and stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated fungus.
Combat mixes guns, bows, melee weapons and thrown bottles and bricks. Weapons are upgraded at workbenches, and items such as health kits and Molotov cocktails are crafted from scavenged parts. Listen Mode lets the player see enemy positions through walls, and enemy AI reacts to the fight by taking cover and calling for help. The online mode, called Factions, supports up to eight players. Players choose the Hunters or the Fireflies and keep a clan alive through weeks of matches in Supply Raid, Survivors and Interrogation.
The story starts with an outbreak of a mutant Cordyceps fungus in 2013, then jumps twenty years ahead to a quarantine zone in Boston. Joel and his partner Tess are asked by the Fireflies, a rebel militia, to smuggle Ellie, who is infected but seems to be immune. The journey takes the pair through spring, summer, autumn and winter across the country.
Naughty Dog began development in 2009 after Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. For the first time the studio split into two teams, one making Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and the other making The Last of Us, led by game director Bruce Straley and creative director Neil Druckmann. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson played Joel and Ellie through voice and motion capture. Joel and Ellie's relationship was the focus and everything else was built around it. Gustavo Santaolalla composed and performed the score. The game was announced on 10 December 2011 and moved from 7 May 2013 to 14 June 2013 for more polish.
Extra content followed the launch. The Abandoned Territories Map Pack came on 15 October 2013, the Nightmare Bundle on 5 November 2013 and the single player expansion The Last of Us: Left Behind on 14 February 2014, which later also came as a standalone download. A Game of the Year Edition with all the DLC came out in Europe on 11 November 2014. The PS3 multiplayer servers were shut down on 3 September 2019. A remastered version for PS4 came out in 2014 and a remake for PS5 and Windows in 2022 and 2023.
It was released to critical acclaim for its story, gameplay, visuals, sound design, score and characters. Metacritic lists the PS3 version at 95 out of 100, the fifth highest rated PS3 game there. It sold 1.3 million copies in its first week and over 3.4 million in three weeks, and about 8.4 million on PS3 by 2019. It won Game of the Year awards from many outlets and was added to the World Video Game Hall of Fame in May 2023.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 95 out of 100 from 98 reviews (PS3). Individual reviews: IGN 10/10, Edge 10/10, Eurogamer 10/10, Computer and Video Games 10/10, PlayStation Official Magazine UK 10/10, Joystiq 5/5, Game Informer 9.5/10, Electronic Gaming Monthly 9.5/10.
Extra content
A season pass covered all the DLC. Most of it was multiplayer content, plus the Left Behind story expansion.
- Abandoned Territories Map Pack: Four multiplayer maps based on locations from the story.
- Nightmare Bundle: A collection of ten head items for multiplayer.
- The Last of Us: Left Behind: Single player campaign following Ellie and her friend Riley, in two storylines. Also sold as a standalone expansion from 2015-05-12.
- Bundle of five DLC: Grounded difficulty, Reclaimed Territories Map Pack, Professional Survival Skills Bundle, Situational Survival Skills Bundle and Survivalist Weapon Bundle.
- Grit and Gear Bundle: Headgear items, masks and gestures for multiplayer.
Good to know
- The game slipped from its first date of 7 May 2013 to 14 June 2013.
- The trophy list on a fully patched game includes trophies for Left Behind, the multiplayer map packs and Grounded mode.
- The PS3 multiplayer servers closed on 3 September 2019, so the Factions trophies can no longer be earned on a stock console.
- A Game of the Year Edition with all the DLC came out in Europe on 11 November 2014.
- Left Behind was first DLC (14 February 2014) and later a standalone expansion pack (12 May 2015).
- The season pass included the documentary Grounded: Making The Last of Us, released online in February 2014.
- The opening credits were produced by Sony's San Diego Studio.
Made by
Game director Bruce Straley, Creative director Neil Druckmann, Writer Neil Druckmann, Designer Jacob Minkoff, Programmer Travis McIntosh, Programmer Jason Gregory, Artist Erick Pangilinan, Artist Nate Wells, Composer Gustavo Santaolalla.
