The Last of Us - Boxed - PS3

The Last of Us is a survival horror action game. The story centres on the two characters Joel and Ellie. The game begins in a present-day yet post-apocalyptic version of Boston, twenty years after the outbreak of the Cordyceps Brain Infection (CBI), a fungus-borne infection that turns anyone infected into zombie-like creatures within two days. The opening sequence takes place during the outbreak and shows Joel escaping the overrun city with the help of his brother Tommy. Twenty years later, civilisation has almost completely collapsed. Independent groups of survivors have organised themselves into military factions that set up quarantine zones, impose curfews and distribute rations. Others belong to the resistance group known as the Fireflies, while Joel is a member of an independent group. Together with his partner Tess, he survives by smuggling goods into and out of the city. During one job, they come into contact with a member of the Fireflies, who agrees to return their stolen weapons if they smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of the city. After a series of events and revelations about Ellie's significance, Joel and Ellie eventually come together, and their journey is documented over the course of a year and a few months, spread across five seasons.

The player controls Joel from a third-person perspective. In later chapters, Ellie can also be controlled directly for a few longer sections. Similar to the developer's previous Uncharted games, the gameplay combines action elements, exploration and puzzle-solving. Joel, however, is not as strong or acrobatic and often has to use ladders, planks and other objects to climb and get around. The survival-horror theme, with its limited ammunition and health, also makes him very vulnerable to attacks, and a stealthy approach is often more effective. Enemies include five different types of Infected (Runners, Stalkers, Clickers, Bloaters and spore-carrying corpses), each with their own traits, as well as humans from military factions and other survivors. There's a selection of melee and ranged weapons, along with modifiable melee weapons, basic fistfights, and items such as Molotov cocktails, smoke bombs and nail bombs. Ammunition is very limited, and reload speed and rate of fire start out slow. Melee weapons can only be used a few times before breaking.

More can be achieved through stealth. Joel can crouch and sneak around at various speeds, and he can activate a listening sense that lets him vaguely see and hear silhouettes through walls based on sound. When he sneaks up on an enemy, he can take them out by strangling them, a quick knife kill, or another type of takedown. Certain enemies are blind and only react to noise. Once Joel is spotted, other enemies are alerted and the player has to decide whether to confront them or break line of sight by hiding for a while. During attacks or grapples, there are often short quick-time events to break free, but for some enemies a single hit is instantly fatal. Other options include sprinting, using a torch in dark areas, and swimming. Joel can pick up bottles or bricks and throw them to distract enemies. Certain enemies can be stunned by throwing something directly at them. Cover is based on line of sight and isn't triggered by a separate action. Joel isn't locked into his cover position, since both sound and line of sight fully determine how effective the cover is.

Progress through the story and environment is fully linear, though there is a certain focus on exploration alongside small optional areas. The city is almost completely destroyed, and the characters move through rubble and abandoned houses, but there are also parts where nature has reclaimed the surroundings, along with lush landscapes outside the city. Besides Boston and its surroundings, the characters eventually also visit Pittsburgh, Colorado and Salt Lake City. A large part of exploration is necessary to collect items. Various tools and materials can be gathered to craft items such as health kits, knives, Molotov cocktails, (smoke) bombs, modified melee weapons and more. Supplies are limited, so the player has to choose between offensive and defensive resources. At workbenches, gears, bolts and other metals are used to improve weapon attributes such as fire rate, reload speed, weapon sway and ammo capacity. The full range of upgrades only becomes available once up to five levels of tool skill have been unlocked. Supplement pills found along the way are used to improve general abilities, affecting maximum health, listening range, crafting speed and more. Abilities can also be improved by finding training manuals. Ellie and other AI companions are controlled automatically and can never be spotted or hurt by enemies, except in a few specific sequences. The focus is on the conversations along the way and the relationship between the characters, which is also reinforced through various cutscenes, both rendered and in-engine.

The multiplayer mode is called Factions, supporting up to eight players at once. At the start, the player creates a custom character and chooses between the factions “Firefly Hunters”. The initial faction choice cannot be changed until the clan is defeated or the multiplayer story is completed. The story consists of a light narrative framing the various encounters, since the goal is to help a clan grow and survive. Players are organised into clans, which can also be filled with friends' names via a Facebook connection. During play, various status updates about members sent out to fight, gather supplies, and so on are displayed. The multiplayer mode progresses day by day by playing matches in one of two game modes: Supply Raid and Survivors. Both are team-deathmatch variants, with the first mode reviving players from a finite pool of 20 per team, and the second giving one life per round. Just as in single-player, the focus is on stealth and gathering supplies for crafting. Ammunition is likewise limited, and the single-player Listen Mode is available, though only for a short time and as a special ability. Crafted items can be used in-game or saved to improve the clan's overall standing, since supplies act as a currency. Sometimes there are specific objectives, such as a certain number of kills, to help the clan grow. Characters can be customised, there's a perk system with survival skills and a general experience system, and clans can be populated with AI-controlled characters. Character classes consist of Assault, Sniper, Support and Stealth, and a custom class can also be created.