The Last of Us Part 1

9 years ago, the Last of Us came out on the Playstation 3. At that time, I didn't have much free time to play video games, so I never got around to trying this game, but I have heard that it is one of the best stories ever written in gaming.

A year later in 2014, they release a PS4 remaster which had some updated graphics in it. A few months ago, I tried the remake and played it for about an hour. Then I heard that they were planning on doing a PS5 exclusive remake of the game that will be releasing later in the year, so I decided to wait so I can experience the story on the PS5 with the most updated graphics that the game offers. Well, that day finally came and I started playing the game this morning and it is pretty awesome so far.

The game starts off somewhere in Texas. You are playing a a character named Joel and in the middle of the night there is an outbreak of some disease that turns people in zombies or something. So you take your daughter and try to escape the city.

The escape doesn't go as planned and pretty quickly, you are in a race against the infected.

As you make your way away from the city lights and the infected, it seems as if you are going to be able to escape, but you run into the military that have set up a perimeter around the city to try and contain the outbreak.

You get stopped by a military guy and as you are trying to explain that you are not infected, he gets the order to shoot.

Joel's daughter ends up getting shot and killed in what is one of the saddest moments in gaming history. The first time I played this game and this happened, it really caught me off guard.

So now, 20 years later, the game actually starts. One thing I love about Naughty Dog is there ability to tell stories and make their games feel like you are taking part in a movie. Their story telling and cinematics really are top notch and the first 20 minutes or so of the game do a great job at sucking you into the story.

I won't give too much of the story away for those people that have never played the game. Instead, I want to talk about how amazing this remake is.

The graphics are insane. They really are some of the best graphics I have ever seen in video games. Everything about this game is beautiful, from the graphics to the sound design. Everything seems to have been painstakingly remastered to ensure the greatest level of gameplay and enjoyment.

The lighting and particle effects are incredible. There is always so much going on onscreen, that I find myself pausing the game a lot and going into the photo mode just so I can look around at all the little details.

Even the random dead people all over the place have so much detail. Like this dude whose body was ravaged by the spores and he is growing mushrooms from the ground where he died.

These things are pretty scary. They can't see, but instead use a clicking sound and echo location like bats to be able to see, so you need to be really careful not to make a sound around them.

It is super easy to get overrun by these ones too. When you fight one, the whole swarm starts to charge towards you, so it is best to try and stay as silent as possible and sneak past them. It is pretty scary though when there is a group of them wandering around in a building and all you hear is their screams and clicking.

So the purpose of the game seems to be that you need to help a girl named Ellie get outside of the quarantine zone to a paramilitary faction that wants to help her. She was bitten by one of the zombies, but seems to be immune to the effects and she is thought to be the key to getting a cure for this disease.

The military doesn't seem to want anyone outside of the quarantine zone though and you have to get past them to meet up with the other group.

I have no idea where the story of this game will go from here, but I am really enjoying it so far. I am glad that I waited until now to play it so I can experience it at the best that the developers could do.

The environment is amazing and the creature design is some of the coolest I have seen in video games. I can't wait to continue playing and see what happens next. I am going to have to get part 2 once I beat this one because I have heard that one is amazing as well. I don't think I will be waiting for a remake of that one though because who knows if it is going to happen.

If you have never played The Last of Us, this remake is the perfect place to start. So far it has been a wild ride.