Finished The Last Of Us Part I. Played on PS5.The Last Of Us Part I is a masterpiece. Mainly you play Joel 20 Years into a zombie apocalypse. Joel lost his daughter at the beginning of the cataclysm and struggled to survive ever since. After 20 years he is a grumpy old man living from smuggle jobs. The government, or what is left of it, is acting totalitarian and fighting civil unrest. The situation is very grim. Adding to this is a group of rebels calling themselves Fireflies.
In the midst of all this, Joel and his partner are tricked. To regain their stuff they are urgent to “deliver a package” to some other Fireflies. The delivery turns out to be a 14-year-old girl Elli. The Fireflies desperately need her, since she is the only human in existence – at least to the player – which is immune to the virus infecting fungus turning all people into zombies.
Grumpy old Joel does not want to have anything to do with her and even talks to his friend to turn back and leave Elli, but as his partner dies, he makes this delivery is tasks and wants to bring Elli to some place from where she can go on finding the Fireflies.
What ensues is a journey throughout a devasted landscape. Gradually Joel and Elli befriend each other and finally, Joel feels responsible for her as a father. Which has dramatic consequences in the end.
How the story unfolds is compelling and very well exercised. Even though I could not get any sympathies for Joel, how this storyline is presented and turned is excellent.
The gameplay focuses on stealth and scavenging missions. You get levels with a set of opponents (humans and/or zombies) and a growing array of weapons and skills to beat them. Most time you play Joel, but sometimes you get some missions as Elli too.
The visuals are stunning and insanely detailed. Even though the gameplay gets repetitive the presentation of the story and the world setting is great.
Sadly, you do not have any chances to alter the track the of the story in any way. As a player you have no agency or dialog options or anything. The whole story is pretty railroaded without any possiblities to take turns.
Still, the visual presentation and the narrative are excelling: 9/10
