The last of us guardian review

In an absolute gut-punch denouement, Joel and Ellie reached their destination — then much blood was shed and they movingly shared their truths.

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.

The last of us guardian review

Spoiler free. It is difficult to explain how exactly it does this without robbing players of the chance to experience it for themselves, but I will say this: no video game has ever gone to these lengths to humanise the enemy, or to interrogate the violence that it asks the player to perform. Since the events of The Last of Us , she has been living in a stable community of survivors, making friends, learning the guitar, kissing girls at dances. But a traumatic event drives her to leave the relative safety of Jackson on a revenge mission that takes her to the remains of Seattle. The city has been ravaged first by the military, then by the infected, and finally by nature. Vegetation grows through the cars rooted to the highway and rusting skyscrapers preside over ominously empty streets. Before long, she comes into contact with the remaining human residents of the city: the remnants of a well-equipped militia and the unsettling followers of a brutal cult, whistling creepily to each other as they hunt Ellie down. There is shooting and molotov cocktails, and even a flamethrower at one point, but there is also an awful lot of hiding, running away, and creeping through long grass, desperately hoping not to be found. Ellie can take care of herself, but I spent much of this game feeling horribly imperilled. It is usually difficult but possible to sneak past undetected or run away from fights, but good luck finding the best paths through knots of soldiers or navigating a subway station full of zombies on your first try. More often, I was forced into desperate, scrabbling combat, trying not to get overwhelmed, wasting bullets in a panic. Very occasionally this felt slightly farcical; once I was stuck hiding on top of a shipping container, having exhausted all my ammo for every weapon, waiting for an opening to dash to the door I needed to get through to end the scene. But more often it feels intense and dramatic; immense relief descended on me every time I made it through a scene unscathed. The violence is extreme, sometimes uncomfortable, and consequential. In video games we are accustomed to an action-movie suspension of disbelief in relation to body counts, and to a straightforward moral assumption that the player characters whose perspective we inhabit are the goodies, and that the people on the other side of the aiming reticle are the baddies.

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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.

The following article is for people who have seen the first two episodes of The Last of Us. Please do not read unless you have. Prof Ibu Ratna Christine Hakim , a mycologist from the University of Indonesia, was picked up by the military while having her lunch and taken to a laboratory to help shed some light on the corpse lying on the slab. The body looked quite normal from the outside, save for a bullet hole in the forehead and a weird mark on the foot. As Ratna delved deeper, she found a strange sort of webbing beneath the skin and a see-through scorpion-looking thing in its throat. That was enough for Ratna — I agreed with her, to be honest — who disconnected her breathing supply and got the hell out of there. After getting the lowdown from the general, realising that cordyceps can now survive in humans and restating that there is no vaccine for such terror, she suggested bombing the city to stem the outbreak. Quite a leap to come out and say it, but with hindsight, probably the right call.

The last of us guardian review

The Last of Us. The Crown leads in Bafta TV nominations. Published: 20 Mar Team Kieran or Team Pedro: who are you backing in the battle of the leading men? In one corner, we have Kieran Culkin, the actor who rose from Succession B-lister to steal the show. Who deserves more awards? Published: 28 Feb

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Fair, but it did raise a few questions. The only people who can betray us are the ones we trust. The Last of Us is visually arresting, mechanically solid, maturely written and by turns heart-rending, tense, unnerving and brutal. A triumphant tale about humanity, or a zombie-lite ruining of the video game? The Last of Us carries over the super-high production values established in Nathan Drake's adventures — the environments are varied and lushly rendered, with large portions of the game taking place in open countryside and forests — a nice change from the usual sewers and abandoned labs though they're in here too , while character models are equally highly detailed and excellently animated. It gave me nightmares, honestly. Perhaps killing medical staff seems particularly taboo. This excellent episode upped the ante with flames, explosions and tragedy. Moments for which we are absent in the games are seen in detail here. More often, I was forced into desperate, scrabbling combat, trying not to get overwhelmed, wasting bullets in a panic. Just as he was sharing, Ellie decided to open up, too, finally telling Joel about Riley. After a quiet couple of weeks, something big was inevitably on the horizon … but who knew it would be that big? The Guide newsletter. Reuse this content.

January

In an absolute gut-punch denouement, Joel and Ellie reached their destination — then much blood was shed and they movingly shared their truths. 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. Well, Covid never went away, and neither did the Last of Us — in , a free upgrade allowed new PS5 owners to play a tweaked version of the PS4 original, then came the critically acclaimed TV drama series, which brought a new audience to the desperate tale of Ellie and Joel. Perfection … Pedro Pascal as Joel. Photograph: Sky. Melanie Lynskey appears as a rebel leader in Kansas City, where we also meet a young man on the run with his kid brother. Also, some stages are against the infected, while others feature human soldiers, so the tactics shift accordingly. There are plenty of times when you'll wonder why you had to open this door and not the other identical one you just passed, or when an area opens out into a large room full of conveniently cover height crates that instantly telegraphs the upcoming fight. Most viewed. 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. The third episode is essentially a short film about a character named Bill who appears only briefly in the game, and it is powerfully good. The Last of Us recap episode one — welcome to the mushroom apocalypse! Sony, PS5 Visual and haptical enhancements along with bonus content including new modes, cut stages and audio commentary from designers make this a required experience. She told Marlene Merle Dandridge that the bite happened after Ellie was born and the umbilical cord had been cut.