Game of the Year

If you’re attuned to games at all these days, you’ve heard of  The Last Of Us.  I wasn’t that interested in it to begin with, but the closer release day came, the more hype about how amazing it was started to trickle up.  My wife and daughter have been visiting relatives in Georgia for the past two weeks, so when it came out the Friday before it seemed the perfect game to play in what I lovingly refer to as my “mancation.”

There are two things that will grab you from the beginning sequence of the game.  One, my God is this a lovely game.  The graphical quality of the assets, the lighting, the facial expressions… if you had shown me this with no prior knowledge I might have thought it was a PS4 title for next year.  Two, this will be an extremely heart-wrenching experience unlike anything else you’ve played.

I’m not going to do a full review of the title; that’s not generally what I do.  But I can say that it is full of moments more truly human than in any other game I’ve ever played.  They’re probably even more striking if you’re a parent.  The game elements are fantastic as well- it truly encapsulates survival and forced me to play in a way no other game really has.  I’m traditionally more of a run-out-into-the-middle-of-the-street-and-shoot-everyone-wildly kind of player, but in TLOU, that’s a one way ticket to death… and I died a LOT.   I had to find ways to try to trick the AI into vulnerable positions for me to take my enemies out, or sneak by them entirely.  I ended up for the first time really having fun with the stealth aspects of a game.  The ending is beautiful and bittersweet and it was the perfect way to cap off an amazing experience.

If you have a PS3, you need this game.  If you don’t, and can’t get one, check out some walkthroughs online.  It’s definitely worth it.