The Last of Us

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic future in the former United States of America, twenty years after a global pandemic caused by a dangerously mutated cordyceps fungus. The plot is dedicated to the journey of the main characters - the smuggler Joel and the teenage girl Ellie, played by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson using motion capture technology. Neil Druckmann was the creative director and writer. The game's music was composed by composer Gustavo Santaolalla.

The Last of Us was critically acclaimed for its storytelling, the development of the main characters' relationships, and its visual and sound design. The game received many awards, including in the nomination "Game of the Year". The Last of Us became a commercial success, selling over 1.3 million copies of the game in its first week, and by April 2018, the combined sales of all editions of the game exceeded 17 million copies.

Naughty Dog has released a number of DLCs, including the story-driven The Last of Us: Left Behind. In December 2016, a sequel titled The Last of Us Part II was announced and released on June 19, 2020.

Game process

The Last of Us is a third-person action-adventure game. For most of the game, the player controls one character, Joel, while Ellie and the other companions are controlled by the game. The Last of Us is broken up into vast levels - such as a city block or an abandoned subway line - each of which the player is tasked with getting to a certain point, overcoming obstacles and destroying opponents encountered on the level or bypassing them unnoticed. In the Winter chapter, Ellie becomes a playable character.

In collisions with opponents - victims of Cordyceps or other survivors - the game character can use firearms like a pistol or shotgun, a bow with arrows; as well as improvised edged weapons - for example, pipe cuttings or baseball bats. Ammunition for firearms is rare, forcing the player to use it sparingly. The game also allows the player to throw small objects like bricks and bottles to stun the enemy or distract them. Special workbenches allow you to improve weapons if you have a certain number of parts. The player can also create a consumable item from materials collected along the way - a Molotov cocktail, knives, or a first-aid kit. Pills and medicinal plants allow you to increase the characteristics of the character, for example, increase the number of health points or the speed of item creation.

The player uses "hearing mode" to find out the location of hostile characters

Although the player can engage in combat with opponents, in many cases it is advantageous to remain undetected in order to sneak up on the enemy or bypass them without a fight. "Hearing Mode" allows the player character to determine the location of opponents using sensitive hearing and spatial orientation skills - in this mode, the game displays the faint outlines of enemies, visible to the player even through walls and obstacles. The dynamic cover system allows the player to move the character through the levels from one cover to another without being seen by opponents. The Last of Us also contains peaceful episodes in which there are no opponents - in them the characters explore the world or talk to each other. From time to time, the game presents the player with simple puzzles - for example, transport Ellie, who cannot swim, on a raft across a body of water; or use ladders and movable trash cans to find a way to get to an elevated place. During the game, the player can collect a variety of items - notes, cards and comics; already collected items can be viewed at any time through a special menu.

The artificial intelligence that controls the opponents behaves depending on the situation: having found the game characters, the enemies can call their comrades for help or take cover; opponents can take advantage of the player's vulnerable position and attack when the character runs out of ammo or if they are distracted. Ellie and other companions of Joel can help him in battle - throw bricks and bottles at the enemy, report hidden enemies, use a knife and firearms to fight.

Multiplayer

The game has a multiplayer mode, which is not mandatory for passing. In it, the player is given the choice of the Hunters or Cicadas faction, after which his clan is automatically created. The player's task is to live 12 weeks (84 days or battles) feeding his clan by playing multiplayer. There are three modes in total: "Raid", "Survival" and "Interrogation". In Raid and Survival, eight players are divided into two teams whose task is to destroy the opposing team. The Raid game will end if one of the teams resets the score. Survival differs from other modes in that there is no respawn, so the match will end if one of the teams kills all the members of the other team in 4 rounds. In "Interrogation", the team tries to find the opponent's safe by interrogating captured enemies. The team that opens the safe the fastest in 15 minutes wins. As the game progresses, tasks will periodically appear (for example, "Kill 15 opponents" or "Execution of 10 opponents"), with which you can increase the clan's size. But there are also tasks in which members of the player's clan can be killed. If all members die, the player must re-select a team.