Wednesday, February 8, 2012

First Impressions: The Last of Us

Hey guys, Patricia here. Time for another installment of First Impressions. Today, we’re going to do our first video game impression, The Last of Us. 



From the same developers of the classic PS1 series Crash Bandicoot, the amazing PS2 series Jak and Daxter, and the epic PS3 series, Uncharted, Naughty Dog is now working on a brand new game about two people named Joel and Ellie battling through a post apocalyptic world filled with zombie-like humans. It’s a third person shooting game em phasing on survival. When I first saw this cover and heard about the plot, I was a bit skeptical about the concept, story, and game play. Don't get me wrong, I love Naughty Dog. They have always been known for their creative game play, story, and unique concepts. With Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter, you can see the amazing creativity that they had with their platforming game play, intriguing characters, and beautiful story lines, especially Jak and Daxter. In my honest opinion, they kinda lost that when switching to the Uncharted series. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love the Uncharted series with a passion. But I felt like it wasn’t as creative as their previous games.



However, when I went to Game Informer to look at the latest pictures, I have to admit that I did get a little bit more excited. When it comes to post apocalyptic Earth, it usually looks dark and gritty (I’m looking at you Resistance and Prototype). But this one looks a bit more realistic with trees and grass overgrowing the cities, a brighter sky, very few survivors, and overcrowded cars. It kind of reminds me of I Am Legend, The Road, and Life Without People. The zombie-like humans are also kind of creative. Instead of them being actual zombies, which is getting redundant nowadays with video games, they are humans who have been infected with an unusual parasite inspired by the Cordyceps fungus.



If you never seen or heard of the Planet Earth series from BBC, then I’ll explain. The Cordyceps fungus affects only insects. When they get infected, they are completely brainwashed and hurt themselves and others without even knowing about it. Once it’s infected, they sprout out the fungus from out of their bodies and die within three weeks. But that’s not the full extend of it: Afterwards, their bodies explode and any insect near the explosion would get infected and die as well, rinse and repeat. For an ant, this has been known to wipe out huge colonies.



So, the people from Naughty Dog are adding a twist to this fungus for humans and what the outcome would be. Along the way, Joel and Ellie would have to explore for weapons, food, medicine, and other means of survival. Nothing yet on the story, but when the new issue of Game Informer comes out, then I’ll fill you in. Overall, Naughty Dog continues to create video games based on things that have been done before and give it their own unique twist, which is what I like about them. No release date on the game yet, but will most likely come out next year.



That’s it for this installment on First Impressions. Hope to see you around soon.

-Patricia

No comments:

Post a Comment