The Last of Us is a 2013 game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony, just like Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Players control Joel, a smuggler who has to escort a teenage girl named Ellie, across the post-apocalyptic United States. Players use firearms and weapons to defend against hostile humans and creatures infected by a mutated fungus. The game has an online multiplayer mode with up to eight players in cooperative and competitive gameplay.

Gameplay: The controls of the game are easy to control, but if you do not like a certain button you can change it in the in-game settings. The mission of the game is to take Ellie (one of the main characters) across the United States while defending yourself from people infected by a mutated fungus that turns them into monsters. You can fight and kill the monsters by using your melee or primary and secondary weapon, once the monster or monsters have been killed you can get the loot around their body.

Compare and Contrast: Compared to The Walking Dead the Last of Us has more adventure and more action to it, you can actually move around a lot more than TWD. TWD has mostly cinematic animation and most of your controls are just the buttons on your controller, but unlike the last of us, TWD is available on Xbox and PlayStation. The Walking Dead is more movie-like while The Last of Us is more story-based, but has objectives at the same time.  I like The Last of Us better because of its action and adventure field to it.

Review: WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS. I got a review from a WMS student Sophia Oloriz said, “The storyline was really good, if we are talking about the game it really projected stuff like really good graphics especially since it was made at a very late time.” She also said, “Something I would change about the game I think would be to get more screen time with Joel and his daughter but I know that would be more heartbreaking because of spoilers, the daughter dies, but my favorite part of the game was when Joel got Ellie out from the Fireflies when she was going to get a ‘cure’ that just showed how much she meant to him.,” 

8 years since its release, it is still one of the best-looking games ever, and one of the most intriguing stories ever told. The Last of Us is a game that if you haven’t played, is a big must-play. The story is great, and the characters are compelling, from the main ones like Ellie & Joel to the side characters like Tess, Bill, Marlene, David, and others. They’re memorable as heck, and each leaves an impression on the player with their emotional impact and plot significance, with Joel and Ellie being at the forefront of this. 

The story centers around the two of them, their interactions, and the presentation of the hardships that they’ve gone through together throughout the game. Their relationship developed and grew into familial love, more specifically a Father-Daughter connection. The gameplay was really good and is one of the highlights of the game. It had very nice gunplay, with several weapons to choose from, but the variety of weaponry isn’t a lot, which isn’t a criticism by the way, because I know for a fact that stealth is by far my favorite thing about the gameplay.

 Stealth is my go-to mechanic in video games (if it offers any) because it feels so satisfying when executed perfectly and it’s nice doing executions against enemies with the sheer thought of not even a single soul would know you’re the perpetrator of the act. Collecting stuff for better character stats and weapon upgrades has always been a treat.

Sales: A week after its release, the game sold over 1.3 million units, and the game became the biggest in 2013. The game made 3 million dollars within 48 hours of its release. The game was one of the best games that Naughty Dog released over 37 million people still play the game to this day. In the united kingdom, the game stayed on top of the charts for 6 weeks matching up records it was one of the fastest-selling digital games in 2013. Once the PlayStation 4 was released over one million people bought the game on it.

In 2018 the game sold 18 million copies on both consoles and 20 million in 2019. the series came out on January 15, 2023.