The last of us guardian review

The Last of Us. The Crown leads in Bafta TV nominations.

In an absolute gut-punch denouement, Joel and Ellie reached their destination — then much blood was shed and they movingly shared their truths. The following episode contains spoilers for the The Last of Us finale. Please do not read unless you have seen episodes one to nine. There were those who shared my view and those who felt it was too obvious, too gory and just not as good as The Walking Dead. Further proof, if it were needed, that Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann knew exactly what they were doing.

The last of us guardian review

Z ombie game pop quiz: You've finally found the exit to the abandoned warehouse you'd been scavenging supplies from, but between you and freedom are four shambling infected monstrosities, all eager for tasty man-shaped snacks. How are you going to make it past without ending up as human tartare? If this was pretty much any other recent survival horror title, the answer would be simple — reach for the trusty military grade shotgun, grenade launcher or plasma cutter as appropriate, paint the walls with rotted brains and waltz across the room, scooping up an assortment of high-powered ammunition along the way. This isn't one of those games though, this is The Last of Us, and your arsenal right now consists of a brick and a length of drainpipe with some scissors taped to the end. Good luck, you're going to need it. Keeping your resources limited is just one of the many things Naughty Dog's latest action adventure gets right — forcing you to think through your approach to every encounter while keeping the tension ratcheted up to 11 generates a level of unease that the genre feels like it's been missing since the early Silent Hill games. It seems an obvious point that a zombie-themed game should be scary, but it's a rare enough occurrence that here it feels fresh. Then again, it's an injustice to call The Last of Us a zombie game anyway. As in 28 Days Later, these creatures are infected rather than undead, and although they remain consistent antagonists throughout, this game is clearly more interested in telling a story of post-apocalyptic survival than smashing rotten heads, and it's all the better for it. That's not to say the story spares us the usual tropes — a virulent infection has decimated the population, degenerating it's victims into mindless ravening lunatics and bringing civilisation to its knees, pretty much exactly as it has a thousand times before across every possible media. Significantly though, the game keeps the details of the outbreak and the disease itself deliberately vague, recognising that any attempt to explain something that's basically pretty ridiculous is doomed to failure Resident Evil and it's ever expanding psuedo-scientific virus nonsense says hi. Instead, The Last of Us makes a conscious effort to focus the story on the surviving human characters and how they go about coping with the aftermath. It's a good call, and coupled with the high-quality production, both visually and from the voice cast, makes for a compelling tale. Starting with a brief prologue which introduces protagonist Joel during the first panicked moments of the outbreak, the game then flashes forward 20 years to a devastated America where the remnants of the population eke out a living in oppressive militarised quarantine zones.

The Last of Us Part II is another story that could only work as a game, the kind of challenging, groundbreaking work that comes along two or three times a decade.

A triumphant tale about humanity, or a zombie-lite ruining of the video game? Even in a bloated field of high quality TV, this stood out as appointment viewing. The central premise, established right from the opening shots of the scientists, is brilliant and terrifying, but the centre of the success of this series was in the casting of Pedro Pascal [Joel] and Bella Ramsay [Ellie]. Episode three barely featured the main cast and yet was perhaps the best single episode of TV any of us will see this year. Just try and avoid ageing gamers like me spoiling it for you through tear-filled eyes as we mumble something about giraffes. Tim, 49, project manager and still occasional gamer , Nottingham. Video games adaptations have a bad reputation for being fragmented and never understanding the core message of the story, but The Last of Us has surely changed that.

Do not read unless you have seen episodes one to four …. All was going swimmingly until they got to Kansas City, where the highways were blocked and they needed to find a detour. Of course, this being The Last of Us , nothing can go to plan. Later, he gave his ward a few pointers on stance and grip for her troubles. Ellie, meanwhile, said she had killed before.

The last of us guardian review

January Pushing Buttons newsletter. Visual and haptical enhancements along with bonus content including new modes, cut stages and audio commentary from designers make this a required experience. Booksmart actor cast in apocalyptic drama as vengeful soldier Abby, as TV series creators eschew close physical likenesses to the video game character. December November

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This isn't one of those games though, this is The Last of Us, and your arsenal right now consists of a brick and a length of drainpipe with some scissors taped to the end. Ellie did eventually smile — the power of the giraffe for you. What you get is a compelling mix of stealth and all-out action, and at the end of each stage, you can upgrade weapons and items. She might be the saviour the world has been looking for. Published: 13 Dec We see how Ellie ended up where she is, in an episode aching with nostalgia, and we see attempts to create utopias in an environment that is dystopian to the bone. How about that? As in most zombie fiction, violence is baked into this world and our interactions with it. Given the plethora of zombie-based games released in recent years, it would have been easy to see this as Naughty Dog just jumping on the bandwagon and making Uncharted: The Walking Dead. There is more to it than Joel and Ellie, though, and it has enough confidence to leave them behind for large stretches of some episodes. Most viewed. Published: 23 Jan They are harrowing, emotional and profound, as well as action-packed. The Last of Us recap episode five — all hell breaks loose.

S et 20 years after a horrific fungal contagion causes the downfall of society, The Last of Us is a gritty survival drama filled with desperate, flawed and — above all — human characters.

You can see every scar, scratch and micro-expression on their faces, read their body language, hear the venom or fear or conflict in their voices — and these characters are, not incidentally, the most diverse set to feature in a game as big as this. After a quiet couple of weeks, something big was inevitably on the horizon … but who knew it would be that big? The government control and splinter groups seem realistic and unsurprising these days. The growing relationship between the two main characters as they travel from one dangerous situation to the next is a pleasure to follow, and the interplay of Joel's tired cynicism against Ellie's naive enthusiasm and determination makes for a solid narrative device. Its smaller storylines might not scale those heights, but they broaden its reach and enrich our understanding. Joel never became the villain, despite carrying out such a bloody, brutal and sadistic act. Reuse this content. This adaptation does not reinvent its source material, but why would it when the source material was so complete? The Last of Us goes back to the heady days of Silent Hill with its gameplay and trouser trembling fright levels. This article is more than 2 months old. Did the series end as you hoped? And then he reached the car park, where Marlene was waiting.