Was The Last of Us Really a Masterpiece? - An in Depth Critique on a Generation Defining Game

The Last of Us launched in 2013 and was praised as being one of the greatest games ever made gaining copious amounts of Game of the Year Awards praising the game for its incredible story and brutal gameplay before I get into this critique commentary I do want to say that this game means a lot to me this game is the sole reason I wanted to go to college and learn how to write create and produce deep stories that take on harsh realities and develop amazing characters so yes this review will be biased I'm being honest with you I don't want the comment saying I'm a PlayStation chill or that I'm extremely biased because well I I know I'm biased and since doing these kind of videos this was the game I was most excited to play and it seemed only fitting to wait until the Remake was released but with that being said I am not reviewing the game to the ones of the Remake because well you you can't the Remake only elevates graphics and gives the game even more weighty combat as well as adding dual sense support in 3D audio if the Remake is not going to change the narrative or combat only elevating the things I mentioned why wouldn't I play this version it's not significantly changing anything the game is essentially the same as its PS4 the rear ps4 version but with that out of the way let's get on with the video please like subscribe comment and let's get started [Music] we start out with a calm moment we see a young girl Sarah resting on a couch then suddenly we see someone walk into the house we get introduced to Joel the main character of the game Sarah then wakes up her dad's sitting down next to her a little conversation ensues but Sarah pulls out a present for Joel apparently it's his birthday she gives the present to him and he opens it up so watch out of my experience if you have no idea what to get for your dad as a present a trusty watch is always a good go-to but afterwards Joel jokes around seeing that the watch is stuck and of course Sarah falls for the joke I love this part of the intro it gives you an Insight on how the relationship between the two is not to mention it there's a little foreshadowing in this scene the watch ends up getting stuck later in the story and stays that way throughout not only is it stuck but cracked and broken it's not at least foreshouting but also shows how Joel is feeling it during the game I will elaborate on this further later on but it's my favorite part Sarah says that she got the money from selling hardcore drugs I don't know it was such an out of left field statement from what she just said I can't help but chuckle every time I hear it afterwards a beautiful scene plays out where Joel takes his daughter to bed and Tucks her in with a beautiful soundtrack playing in the background before the scene cuts to Black Joel says a couple words good night baby girl soon after we hear the phone ringing and awakes Sarah up and I guess it's Tommy who is Sarah's Uncle states that she needs to get Joel on the phone something bad is happening and afterwards the phone shuts off I love this setup within the opening act of the game it gives you Beauty with the love of Parenthood but also quickly transitioned into mystery and horror that is about to ensue the writing in this game is off to a great start and you can't help but want to know more about Joel's relationship with Sarah and about what exactly is happening I got Tommy worried regardless you get to explore Sarah's room he could find Jules birthday card that Sarah forgot to give him you can find Sarah's personality all in here and it's enough to give you a solid foundation on who exactly Sarah is her likes and wishes essentially I will say in the remake the amount of detail in this room is amazing it's so amazing in fact that I really can't put it all into words this is a piece of art within itself I've never seen a more beautiful game and I wholeheartedly mean that but regardless once you make her way out of Sarah's room you can go into multiple areas of the house to explore I went to the bathroom and you can interact with a newspaper that says that there's a mysterious infection going around and it's causing Hospital minutes to spike yikes sounds familiar doesn't it anyways once you explore the house a little more you get to see one of the coolest interactions I've seen in a video game you come across a news reporter outside of some burning building with commotion going on around her soon after an explosion happens on the TV screen but once you look to the left you will actively see the explosion happen I'll let the scene play out so you know what I'm talking about where the heck are you we are nearby there seems to be some commotion coming from what was that dad afterwards Sarah of course gets scared she doesn't know what is going on so of course you go downstairs trying to look for Joel her dad considering he's nowhere to be seen I'd be freaked out I absolutely love this setup so much suspense and anticipation for what is yet to come you're downstairs and go through the doors Joel comes barreling in seemingly rattled about something he then asks us if we are okay Tara says yes of course but with the hesitation she wants to know more about what's going on Joel warns her not to go near the doors which freaks out Sarah understandably I love how they're making us play as Sarah to be honest I don't want to say it makes us feel helpless but it helps us see the fear of someone that is close with drool and that carries on later in the story which you will see soon Joel warns us that their neighbors are sick and soon after [ __ ] hits the fan the neighbor breaks into the home and now infected in charge's Jewel shoots him of course but you see the disbelief in his eyes he didn't want to kill that man which is important to point now until later in the game isn't this innocent quite the opposite actually and I love this change in character over the story you don't see this very often the only time you do really is in PlayStation exclusives and I'm not a shill but you can't tell me I'm wrong the characters make their way outside where they will meet Tommy Joel's brother and Sarah's uncle they get into the car and discuss the matter at hand what exactly is going on Tommy goes on about how a family essentially died but Joel stops them because of Sarah overhearing he cares for his daughter not to mention this will be important later when I talk about Ellie in the story soon we drive up to see what seems like a farm this is entirely Ablaze now I have no idea how this house caught on fire but [ __ ] Christ to the graphics look good I know I said it before but wow I guarantee you that I will mention this a ton through this video once we get to the end of the line we see an asset of cars that are backed up Tommy comments on this and says everyone and their mother had the same idea not even a couple seconds after he says this an infected person comes running out of the hospital and takes someone out of their car and mangles them as Sarah you see the horror of the infection for some reason seeing this through Sarah's eyes may seem a lot more horrifying maybe because she's a kid an innocent child seeing all of this is just [ __ ] dude but regardless after the trio sees this the get out of their backup and drive off into the other direction eventually ran into a mob of people running from something and after we go through them we get run into by a [ __ ] [ __ ] so now we're in the car trapped with Sarah's leg hurt probably the worst situation they could have been in but once drill breaks his way out of the car and picks up Sarah we run for the nearest way out of the city we get to what seems like a little bar with infected on our Trail Tommy closes the door and tells us to run for it and not worry about him that he can outrun them so of course we make our way out of the city hoping that Tommy is close behind and once we make it to a certain spot a cutscene plays now this scene mean yeah I'm gonna let it play out one of the most heartbreaking scenes I've ever experienced in the game and after this scene plays out we're introduced to the Last of Us we're safe we're safe hey we need help stop please it's my dog I think her leg is broken stop right there we're not sick we've got a couple of civilians on the Outer Perimeter please advise Daddy what about Uncle Tommy your background okay sir there's a little girl but yes sir somebody we've just been through hell okay we just need [ __ ] oh no foreign come on baby please I know baby I know [Music] Sarah [Music] baby [Music] I don't know [Music] beginning credits start to roll giving you time to process with the actual [ __ ] just happened initially during the process of making this game these opening credits weren't here which is kind of cool to hear it was supposed to go directly into the game 20 years later when Joel wakes up the reason they put this here was for the sole purpose of the player being able to breathe to understand and process what happens so that you won't still be thinking about the scene down the line during important moments I thought this decision was a good one the break that I was given was just enough to put that scene in the back of my mind for later actually a cool fact about this opening scene is that the fungus that is being shown was actually grown in Sony San Diego Studio bathroom I don't know why but I find this awesome and hilarious at the same time it's like they said [ __ ] it and you don't have anywhere else to grow and why don't just use the bathroom it's also an introduction to the fireflies but we'll get into that later so you're not for the credits we see drill wake up from what seems like a nightmare we also see that 20 years had passed leaving much of his life a mystery up until this point most people probably didn't like this huge jump in time but I don't mind it Joel you're so knocking on this door and so of course he goes and opens it a gal walks in named Tess Tess pours a glass for herself indicating to me at least she had a hard day especially since she has Cuts all over her face Joel then pops the question of where she was she explains essentially that they had to drop to make but she didn't want to wake up Joel so she went by herself the deal she was talking about went well and she pulled out some ration cards saying that those will last them a while yet she mentions that she got jumped by some [ __ ] specifically at Robert's men now Robert isn't important like at all in the story so you don't have to remember him he's only a pre-text to the journey that her characters are about to go on but regardless Joel and Tess want to get revenge on robber and find out where exactly the guns that he stole now before anything I just want to say that the ambience in this game is amazing the amount of stuff happening at once is crazy especially the little dialogue interactions with NPCs it makes the whole world feel lived in there was this one instance where the guards were testing the civilians to see if they were infected or not and at the very end of this altercation one woman was infected and they just [ __ ] put her to sleep not long after they just pull out the blicky and shot a dude trying to run away the detail is just crazy we get to the checkpoint to enter the city and give the guard our IDs not long after an explosion goes off sending the quarantine Zone into a frenzy leaving Joel and test to run away and find another route for Robert a couple minutes pass as we enter the building and some NPCs tells us that we aren't the only one looking for walk for Robert a woman named Marlene is looking for him as well Marlene is also the head of the fireflies which means this isn't good news if they get in their way what I really like about this game is the fact that a lot of Q in important moments don't happen during cutscenes I mean yes of course the cutscenes are important but to me the little things are what sets this game apart from the competition feel immersed and engage when you're in control of your character during important dialogue sequences yes I know some people think the complete opposite and that's totally fine but I found them part of naughty dog's charm regardless soon after we make it to our little underground Armory thing I don't know what else to call it this gives us our backpack gun and flashlight the essentials minutes go past with casual conversations with Tess some even optional with the triangle button hovering over top of their head these certain moments are what I also love about this game if you're invested enough with these characters you'll want to press this button after playing this game for a period of time you'll find yourself just staring at certain characters waiting for the prompt to come up because you care about them so much these conversations reveal that Tess is hardened by the world that she's living in she thinks of herself not a lady which I find quite interesting in a very good way I love it when game Street female characters as people who can handle things on their own and then some usually when games give a damsel in distress I [ __ ] roll my eyes because it usually means escort missions in a [ __ ] hate escort missions soon after we get introduced to the infected the ones we meet are called Runners they're the recently infected enemies your traditional standard enemy when it comes to the infected I will say the infected in the remake version are scary I don't know if it's the updated Graphics or the 3D audio in my headphones but God I got spooked so much in this game we also get a tutorial on how to stealth and stealth kill enemies this is traditional nothing special about the tutorial but I will say the death animations for NPCs and even the characters you control are amazing and gruesome you can see the enemy's reaction to what's going on you could see their struggle of getting out of a Chokehold or seeing them Flinch when you sock them in the [ __ ] face now to take a quick pause for a minute in the middle of writing the script I kind of realized that if I kept going into detail on every little thing in the game the video would be like five hours so now going forward I'm going to focus on main story details cut scenes usually but when important dialogue options come up or moments in gameplay I'll go over it briefly and lastly I'll talk about gameplay as a whole during the last part of the video hopefully doing this will limit the run time to about an hour to an hour and a half if it goes over that I I tried but going back to the story we meet a guy that was guarding the entryway which leads to Robert's Hideout we bribe him with some ration cards to tell us where he is the man is a snitch so of course he tells us and points us the direction we're supposed to go this place is called The Wharf crazy how just one dude has a hideout as big as what we will see on the way to the wharf we just take out a lot of his men no biggie my question is though wouldn't someone have told Robert that we were looking for him by now or did anyone hear the number of gunshots that were fired it's just beyond me but regardless we make your way to Robert after a long Chase sequence I want to let this cutscene play out because it's gruesome and it shows what little moral lines Joel has left across oh hello Robert yes Joe no hard feelings right none at all right we missed you look whatever it is you heard it ain't true okay I just want to say guns you want to tell us where the guns are yeah sure but it's complicated look all right just hear me out on this I got it [ __ ] stop stop quit your squirming you were saying sold them excuse me I didn't have much of a choice I owed someone you owed us I'd say you bet on the wrong horse I just need more time give me a week no I might have done that if you hadn't tried to [ __ ] kill me who has our guns I can't just give me a couple times who has our guns foreign what they're basically all dead we can just just go in there finish them off we get the guns what do you say come on and [ __ ] those fireflies let's go get them that is a stupid idea well now what we go get our merchandise back how I don't know we explain it to them look let's let's go find a firefly you won't have to look very far there you go Queen Firefly why are you here business you're all looking so hot Where's Robert I needed him alive the guns he gave you they weren't his to sell I want them back doesn't work like that test the hell it doesn't I paid for those guns you want them back you're gonna have to earn them how many cards are we talking about I don't give a damn about ration cards I need something smuggled out of the city you do that I'll give you your guns back then some how do I know you got them the way I hear the military's been wiping you guys out you're right about that I'll show you the weapons I gotta move What's it gonna be I want to see those guns follow me soon after we get done beating the living [ __ ] [ __ ] out of Robert and killing him Marlene ahead of the fireflies shows up Marlene looks like she's in pretty bad shape and she asked where Robert is Tess is badass just like moves out of the way and shows his dead body and Marlene voices her displeasure and says that she needed him alive but test fires back by saying that the guns that she gave him weren't his to sell or he gave her sorry now I have to admit the whole selling gun this thing is kind of cliche I mean yeah sure it seems realistic given the circumstances of the world but something just a tad bit more complicated would have suited this perfectly I'm not saying that this McGuffin doesn't work I'm just simply saying it wasn't the best choice the writers could have made but regardless it's only a small nitpick just thought I'd throw the idea in there Marlene then gives us a task Tess and Joel need to smuggle something important out of the city if they do this task they will get their guns back and things on top of that seems legit guns and more [ __ ] who wouldn't want that but Joel asked the important questions of where the [ __ ] guns are this is probably the most logical question to ever ask in a situation like this a lot of games would mostly like gloss over the detail and just have the main character believe whatever has been said and this is why I like Joel so much he's pessimistic he's grounded he's realistic you never see these types of main characters in video games see what I did there when I said grounded you know because it's a difficulty setting but whatever and I'll just move on regardless we fight through some more enemies specifically the military that was in the quarantine Zone it is unknown why the fireflies are fighting the military at this point but I don't think it's too important but we finally get to our destination where Marlene shows us what we're smuggling Marlene falls down in pain so Joel Ben's up or heads up Ben's down to try and help her up and as soon as he does this a little girl by the name of Ellie comes to try and stop him Ellie then comes to try and help Marlene up but Marlene dismisses her and while Marlene and Nelly talk you can clearly tell that Ellie is the thing that you will be smuggling Joel even catches on to this and totally disregards this task and says that he won't do it Marlene says that they only need to bring her to the Capitol Building outside of the quarantine Zone test challenges Marlene and says that the trip isn't a close one and I gotta say I love this back and forth between the characters you could see the chemistry they have with one another and it's something I've never seen in a video game before really only seen this kind of chemistry in like Blockbuster films gotta hand it to the actors but we're regardless Marlene tells Tess that she is more than capable to make the trip Tess says that she won't smuggle anything unless she is shown where the weapons are once again a logical Marlene then confirms that she will show test the guns but Ellie has to stay with Joe because she doesn't want Ellie in that part of town I guess there's a lot of violence there they never really elaborate on this nor I don't think they need to but I I admit I'm a little curious after Marlene says this both Joel and Ellie disagree stating that they don't want to do that Ellie then pops the question of how Marlene even knows Joel and she says that she knew Tommy it's the first time we hear about Tommy since the opening sequence confirming that he's potentially still alive after the conversation ends between everyone Elaine Joel both go outside to find their way back to the safe house of some sort I'm not sure the characters even mention where they're going I only think they said that Joel should watch over her and that's it but regardless it's not important at all I just thought it was odd that you had no idea where your objective is in the game but once Ellie and Joel make it to their destination because seen plays and it's so beautiful I'm going to let this thing play out and go over it afterwards I'm going to be doing this a lot through the critique so brace yourself is it what are you doing killing time well what am I supposed to do I'm sure you will figure that out your watch is broken [Music] [Music] you mumble in your sleep I hate bad dreams yeah me too you know I've never been this close to the outside look how dark it is can't be any worse out there can it on Earth do the fireflies want with you hey sorry it took so long soldiers [ __ ] everywhere how's Marlene she'll make it I saw the merchandise it's a lot undo this yeah let's go the most important interaction that I saw on the scene was when Joel's sort of fake laughed when Ellie pointed out his broken watch it was that laugh of ignoring what she just said while at the same time suppressing emotions to add on to this right after Joel wakes up Joel's sort of interrogates Ellie asking what exactly the fireflies want with her now this was an interesting interaction Joel puts on a front right away with Ellie trying to block her presence in order not to get hurt again yet he tries to get to know her by asking these questions it's like he can't help himself it's almost like Ellie reminds him of Sarah it's almost second in nature for him to try and be this Dad figure maybe I'm too I'm reading too much into this but let me know after the cutscene Joel Ellie and Tesco outside the quarantine Zone beginning the Journey of the game eventually they get caught by the military and the three characters all put their hands behind their head and get on their knees for people that have never played the game before this is an oh [ __ ] moment I mean they got caught what the [ __ ] do they do now the military whips out their devices that show whether someone is infected and starts testing the three the same device if you remember at the beginning of the game where that one chick just got put to sleep that I mentioned yeah once that test hits Ellie she takes out her knife and stabs the soldier Joel and Tess take out the rest of the soldiers as well after the whole Fiasco Joel looks at the device which reads positive indicating that Ellie is infected we Joel read this and of course he starts questioning Marlene's motives he now distrusts Ellie or at least is putting up a front about it Tess isn't a fan of what happened either but regardless they don't have time to talk about it they see a military vehicle coming towards them so they dip you'll notice throughout the game that they find something that will interrupt these heavily emotional moments I will say that this is a fantastic tactic to use it keeps you engaged in the game it always has you on your toes something's always happening and when there are the moments to breathe you cherish those moments because there's so few of them yeah sure by the end of the game you're gonna have you're gonna be immensely [ __ ] checked out and tired from all of the depressing stuff happening but this is doubled down in the sequel but in my personal opinion those are the types of stories that I love maybe I'm just a sad piece of [ __ ] but who knows afterwards there's a huge shooting gallery stealth sequence that you have to go through I personally like these a lot where you have a choice on whether you want to go guns blazing or if you want to be a ninja and not be seen you can go stealth now always do try to do the stealth approach But ultimately fail every single time during this section you're also going to go through creepy run down buildings that will have you on the edge of your seat and I'm not gonna lie I turned down my headset volume during this moments I don't do well with horror we finally get to the moment where there are no enemies around Ellie takes a seat and tries to calm herself down while Joel and Tess make sure that they're safe Tess then goes up to Ellie and asks what exactly the plan was after they delivered her to the fireflies Ellie explains that they have their own quarantine Zone base where they have doctors that are still trying to find a cure my question is how the [ __ ] did they find these doctors in science did they just find them on the street and ask them to join the fireflies although I think that this is incredibly unrealistic I guess it makes sense also I mean everyone wants the infection to end so of course there's going to be a group of people actively trying to achieve the goal it was said before that the fireflies are literally getting wiped the [ __ ] out how would you even be remotely optimistic about the goal you're trying to reach you have the infected on your ass the military Bandits not to mention people will be incredibly selfish given the circumstances of the world people will most likely run off if it helps them in the grand scheme of things creating a cure would be impossible but I guess the whole motto of the fireflies is to never give up so to summarize my tangent it makes little sense as to why people are trying to make a cure but in the end you know for damn sure that's going to fail this will tie into the ending of the game so try to keep this fresh in your mind anyways Ellie says that whatever happened towards the key to finding a cure Joel fires back by saying that he and Tess have heard this before but but it never turns out to be anything he even voices his distrust of Marlene but Ellie stands up for herself saying that she didn't ask for any of these things to happen you've got to admit you feel bad for her she's a little girl trying to deal with all of the depression in the world and through the midst of it all she is of course the key to solving everything you already know that she has been through hell and back the writers did an amazing job at giving the players a reason to care after everything Tess then pops the question of what if what if the girl is immune this is a great question to ask at this point in the game and at this point you might as well say [ __ ] it let's see what happens Tess says that they have gone this far already might as well finish the job great Point honestly but after she says this Joel reminds her of the [ __ ] that are out there the infected other humans then the most important thing happens during this cutscene I get it the body language in this scene is so important you can see that Ellie doesn't trust Joel because of the way he has treated her but the most important thing that was shown here was when Tess looked back to Ellie and said I get it she understands why he doesn't want to go through any of it she understands that Joel doesn't want to see Ellie get hurt all because of what happened with Sarah this scene was so beautiful I can't explain it after there's a whole section stealth in shooting gallery that involves infected especially the introduction of clickers and clickers are like these weird grotesque mutated infected that had fungus grow all over them they're one of the older versions uh longer infected I should say and they make weird clicking noises because they echolocate they can't actually see anything they're blind which kind of ties into the gameplay and all of that it's it's cool and terrifying but to reiterate what I said previously will go into these kind of gameplay enemies sections toward the end of the video so you're gonna find me repeating myself later on that way it's just way more organized and blah blah blah but regardless after meeting loads of enemies and progressing further we get to an old Museum Joel gets separated from Alien Tess because when they were trying to navigate the building some of the structures collapsed leaving Joel alone and when Joel finally gets back to the two you could see that Tess was struggling and Ellie needed saving and of course both of the problems were solved shortly after Joel finds a wooden plank that can cross a gap from roof to roof and of course Ellie and Joel have a little moment between each other again I'll let this cutscene play and I'll talk afterwards all right now watch your step as you're going though because it's going to be a little so is that everything you hoped for jury's still out you can't deny that view come on this way hey let's pick it up we're almost done stay focused yes ma'am this scene is so beautiful this is one of the first moments where Joel just lets go and tries to connect with Ellie it's so perfectly timed I don't know how to explain it I don't know how to explain most of these cutscenes to be honest because they're so good but after the moment that they have Joel then looks down at the broken watch Ellie very much reminds Joel of Sarah at this moment he remembers again to not get close to put up that barrier the hidden meaning behind these scenes is just perfectly told this game is off to a great start to break up the moment and put you back into the goal of hand Tess comes up from behind and tells us to hurry that we're close her tone of voice immediately tells me that something is off that she's clearly thinking about something something not good we finally got to the Capitol Building and there was no good news you see that the fireflies that were supposed to meet us there are all done for when when Tess sees this she freaks out not being her normal self in Joel tries to confront her and comfort her but it doesn't work he asks how far they're going to take this after all it was just for some guns and maybe some ration cards it's not like they can make that back Tess doesn't have any of it though she tells them that they will take it as far as it needs to go afterwards Joel's blow Joel blows up on her explaining that everything needs to stop he says that they need to go back home that they tried and they did what they could then the bad news comes Tess says that this is her last stop and Joel questions her on what this means Ellie pitches in and says a heartbreaking line holy [ __ ] she's infected and at this moment when I first played the game and even to this day my heart shatters Tess is such a great character the chemistry between her and Joel is just amazing but the world is harsh in this game it doesn't apologize for anything it literally says [ __ ] you carry on I know that sounds harsh but it's it's a compliment to this game too many games nowadays will take the easy way out and say oh by the way this character is still alive there's no consequences in there we're just [ __ ] with you but in this game they go full swing and put you on your back regardless Joel is shocked and tells Tess to show him the bite of course she does and it's horrifying I swear these remastered Graphics are just ridiculous Tess eventually tells us to leave that she'll fight off the soldiers to give Ellie and Joel time Bill of course takes time to contemplate this but she intervenes and says that there's enough between them for him to feel an obligation to make it easy for her after she says this Ellie apologizes for causing all this but Joel says to get a move on after the scene you go through another Shooting Gallery fighting different Soldiers the heartbreaking part about all of this is that you can hear Tessa's death once the soldiers break into the Capitol Building I'll let it play it's good attention to detail upstairs just keep pushing forward once you make it out of the Capitol building you run towards the underground train when Joe and Ellie make it to the entrance they see a car drive at them with a machine gun shooting at them and after this you go through another Shooting Gallery navigating the Spore ridden subway station mostly through stealth there's a part within this that solidifies Ellie's immunity towards the fungus he's breathing in spores without a gas mask Joel comments on this with Ellie replying with I wasn't lying to you once the pair get out Joel and ALDI finally talk after seeing Tess's death leaving the pair Alone Together Ellie tries to talk to Joel about Tessa's death but Joel interrupts her he says that she shouldn't bring up tests at all and that she needs to do what she's told when she is told to do so Joel also mentions that Ellie should never under any circumstances tell anyone about her condition the scene really shows how much of an [ __ ] Joel can be but it's understandable Joel lost his daughter he doesn't want to get attached again just to get hurt so he closes himself off it's quite sad to be honest and after the conversation between them ends in a forced agreement Joel says that he knows someone in a town not too far from where they are Bill when they finally get to the outskirts of Bill's Town Ellie comments on your surroundings I found this very important to point out because it shows little innocence she has left in this [ __ ] up World let me play a little clip I've never seen anything like this that's all I mean you mean Woods yeah never walked in the woods it's kind of cool anyways we go through the abandoned city trying to find Bill and along the way there are some important bonding moments between Joel and Ellie he talked about the quarantine zones that had been going on around the world that they talk about Tommy used to be a firefly which is why they need a car from Bill hence why they're there in the first place and one of my favorite scenes in this section of the game is when Ellie comes across an old arcade machine let me play it out oh look at that would you play this before no a friend that knew everything about this game apparently there's this character called Angel knives who'd what was it she'd punch a hole through your stomach before kicking your head off I'm never a big fan of these things I wish I could play it yes I know this was such a non-important moment in the game but that is what makes it special in the grand scheme of things it's not that important but it reveals so much about Ellie's personality it makes you realize that she is still a kid she grew up in a [ __ ] up world but still finds a way to get joy out of things I could learn a lesson or two from Ellie to be honest going along further in the story our first introduction of Bill isn't bill it's one of his traps Joel opens the door and steps in a rope Loop and gets swept upside down Ellie tries to help free Joel by cutting the rope from the counterweight with her little [ __ ] pocket knife and my God didn't take a lifetime Jesus Christ regardless after killing a bunch of infected coming at us Ellie cuts down the Rope finally and we get pushed down by an infected our goal friend Bill comes out of nowhere to help us literally cuts off ahead of an infected but regardless we run away from the infected the best we could and get somewhere safe then a cutscene plays Bill makes his way to Ellie who is trying to greet him keep in mind while we were trying to find Bill Joel explains that bill isn't a people person in fact Bill's the only living Q human in this city he's the most introverted of introverts this means he doesn't take kindly into strangers he's very paranoid Bill walks up to Ellie and cuffs her to a pipe on the wall Joel tries to stop him but Bill points a gun at him and puts him on his knees pause Bill asked Joel if he is bitten Joel insists that he's good but after he says that Ellie breaks free and tries to hit bill with a metal pipe the reason she does this is because she has a bite mark on her arm she doesn't want Bill to find out bill then asks why the hell they're in his town Joel tells bill that he needs a car that bill owes him favors Bill's sarcastic ass pretty much mocks Joel throughout the entire conversation and Ellie does the same [ __ ] because she's a smart ass and I love it eventually Bill agrees to find a car battery to put in a car given that there is a car that still works he says that there's a truck that had plowed into a school gym that would be the best chance they have at fixing a car up and they finally go on their way after sneaking their way past loads of infected they get to one of Bill's safe houses that acts as an Armory of sorts an important cutscene plays I'll let it play out touch anything can you close the door Gear Up uh what I need a gun no you don't Joel I can handle myself no just stay here it's fine just wait around for you two to get me killed well this goes on record is the worst [ __ ] job you've ever taken is up there how in the hell is Tess okay with this suicide mission actually her idea really well in the broad's not as smart as I thought she was what [ __ ] seriously you got to take that kid back to where you found her I can't just take her back and send her packing let her find her own way but let me tell you a story Once Upon a Time I had somebody that I cared about the partner somebody I had to look after and in this world that sort of shit's good for one thing getting you killed so you know what it did wasn't the [ __ ] up and I realized it's got to be just me building it it ain't like that it's [ __ ] it is just like that hey when I say to you we walk down the steps what'd I say I'm just fixing your stupid pile don't touch God damn it you keep babysitting long eventually it's going to blow up your face can we please just get on with it here get on with it the reason I love this cutscene so much was because of the vulnerability with Bill you can clearly tell in his eyes that he didn't mean what he said he was only saying that to convince himself that he would be okay alone he truly misses his partner not to mention the little moments he mentions Tess Joel kind of dismisses those to put all this together Joel and Bill have essentially the same personality closing off convincing themselves that not being attached to people is what keeps you alive but forgetting the fact that those are the things that make us human the parallels that this game makes are just so [ __ ] good the same scene also connects the sequel as well we'll get to that in another video of course other things I love about this scene is the conversations between Ellie and Bill Ellie's such a brat and I love it flipping off Bill and [ __ ] It just fits Ellie perfectly her extreme Independence and her overall personality was a great choice in her character Direction but later on you'll find out that there is more than what meets the eye with her we will elaborate on that later after fighting and sneaking out our way through of hordes of infected we finally got to the school along the way we blow our stealth and a metric [ __ ] ton of infected come after us we run towards a window and make our way in Ellie pulls Joel in and closes the window and barricades a door but lets us know that it isn't going to hold Bill opens up the hood to the truck and gives us some bad news the battery isn't in the [ __ ] truck great the infected then breaks through now it's time to get the [ __ ] out of Dodge and find somewhere safe after fighting away from infected and escaping into a house a cutscene Place bill and Joel start fighting about tests since Bill brought her up and of course you'd expect Joel to get heated about this suddenly Bill stops arguing Joel notices this and looks behind him a man is hanging from the ceiling the acid Bill knows this guy or something but Bill responds by saying that it was his partner it was sad when Bill starts talking he chokes up trying to hold back tears you could tell that this person meant a lot to Bill even though there was hostility between the two according to Bill his partner had bite marks all over him and the reason that he offed himself was because he would rather take the easy way out over becoming one of the monsters fair I probably would have done the same afterwards Bill turns cold trying to convince himself that it doesn't matter that his partner was an [ __ ] anyway Bill's always thinking very sadly he thinks that if he doesn't care about anything but himself he has a chance to live in this world but when he does he sacrifices what makes him human like I mentioned previously it's heartbreaking Ellie then interrupts the conversation you can hear trying to turn the ignition trying to start a car bill and Joel both ran to her I guess Frank Bill's partner stole the battery from the truck at the school and had the same idea that Bill had and Bill pops the idea of pushing the car down a hill and trying to start the ignition in order to get it running before we go any further there is a part in the section where you can find a note that Frank left for Bill granted the note isn't exactly kind but you can find this note or give this note I mean to Bill if you do give it to him he will read it and talk to himself like he always does he'll then crunch up the note into a ball and throw it on the ground where he can pick it up back up again and read it and you can see it's all crumbled and stuff stuff this is such a little thing in the story but adds so much it shows Bill's feelings towards Frank and of course Bill loves him but since bill is so prideful he lets his barriers take over making him still hostile towards Frank once Joel Bill and Ellie get the car running while infected chased them they finally get to a safe spot bill says that Ellie almost got them killed surprising that Joel stood up for Ellie out of all things saying that she held her own and I love this it shows the character growth the bond between them is getting closer and it feels so natural the pacing can't help but to applaud regardless Bill gives us a gas siphon he says that we would be surprised at how much gas is still in these broken down cars Joel says that he is sorry for Bill's partner Bill kind of dismisses this and asks Joel they are square meaning if Bill's debt to Joel is paid off Joel says yes which prompts Bill to tell Joel to get the [ __ ] out of his town and Joel does So eventually cutscene plays out with Ellie and Joel driving in a car it's such a wholesome scene so I'm gonna let it play out I'm gonna do this a lot with a whole bunch of cut scenes what happened to sleeping okay I know it doesn't look like it but this here is not a bad read only one problem right there to be continued hey Cliffhangers where did you get that uh Becky bills I mean all this stuff was just lying there what else did you get well here just make you all nostalgic that is actually before my time that is a winner though well better than nothing oh I'm sure your friend will be missing this tonight on the reading but it's got some interesting photos that Ellie that ain't for kids whoa [Music] rid of that your horses I want to see what all the fuss is about oh why are these all stuck together um I'm just [ __ ] with you bye-bye dude [Music] you know what this isn't that bad [Music] let me try to get some sleep all right I'm not even tired [Music] well perfect oh screw it starting to die easy are we gonna help him put your seatbelt on Ellie what about the guy he ain't even hurt s [Music] [Applause] the reason I love this cutscene so much is because of the growth of relationship between Ellie and Joel they joke around and although Joel doesn't explicitly say he cares about Ellie you could tell he does by the choice of words he uses he wants her to get some sleep he wants to listen to music with Ellie those sorts of things it was a great growth moment for the both of them and it was executed perfectly and soon after we get rid of all the bandits in the area we open a garage door and come across a stack of bodies Ellie comments on this but Joel calms her down saying that this could have been them if Joel didn't do what he did Ellie says this is a lot of bodies no [ __ ] but regardless we keep moving later on we find another stack of bodies but instead they were stacked on top of each other and burned Joel dismisses Elian tells her to keep moving and I like these little interactions you get to see how much of the world spiraled downward people just killing other people for the simple fact that they can it's [ __ ] up like I said before these people are sick but this is what happens when the world comes to an end Anarchy ensues only for the name of survival now before we go on to the next cut scene I just want to make a couple things clear a lot of [ __ ] happens before this such as little dialogue sequences that let you get closer to Ellie among other things when it comes to these instances I'll cover them after the story section is over with this is the same with combat and other things I've said this before but I'm just trying to reiterate it so you guys know let's just move on regardless before the cutscene you really only go through a huge ass Shooting Gallery stealth section thing Joe and Ellie finally get to an elevator in order to get out of the hotel we've been stuck in for the past hour of the game and I want why this section is probably the slowest it gets within the last of us I'm not saying this is a bad thing but it's not as exciting as the rest of the game but once we shim your way to the top of the elevator we end up falling because our fat ass is too heavy and at this point it's probably the most suspenseful and scariest part of the game everything ramps up you have to walk around in the dark find a key in order to open a door start a generator so you can even access that door and once you start the generator loud noises will play so it affected her to come out including stalkers clickers bloaters whatever you can think of just stands in your way and I'll elaborate more on those enemies later when we [ __ ] put the [ __ ] out of that basement and piss our pants along the way we make it top side we fight a bandit who Bandits I mean who are patrolling find a ladder climb up it when we do so abandon rocks our [ __ ] and Joel falls down he lands in a deep puddle he struggles to try and get up but he gets rocked again the man on top of him tries to drown him when he tries to fight for a gun not too far from him someone shoots the Bandit on top of him and I'll let the rest of the cutscene play foreign I feel sick and you just hang back like I told you to well you're glad I didn't right I'm glad I didn't get my head blown off by a goddamn kid you know what no how about hey Ellie I I know it wasn't easy but it was either him or me thanks for saving my ass you got anything like that for me Joel we gotta get going lead the way the main takeaway from this cutscene is Joel is a [ __ ] [ __ ] I'm only joking kind of the reason is because he's a [ __ ] ass he's trying his hardest to distance himself from Ellie he's scared that of that attachment of Ellie ending up like Sarah which is understandable like I've always said but I can't help but feel sorry for Ellie what the [ __ ] Joel like that's all I think of in my head she just saved your life it was literally either him or you be thankful that you didn't die after the fact when you try to converse with Ellie or watch your actions while exploring you could see that she is distant reflecting on what just happened this is an incredible attention to detail the immersion by implementing this is so [ __ ] good like if my ass got yelled at like this of course I'm going to be salty and distant why would I want anything to do with someone when they aren't grateful that has saved their [ __ ] life anyways Joel and Ellie gonna move on when we get top side Ellie and Joel pause for a moment overlooking a large shooting area filled with enemies I'm also going to let this cutscene play out considering its importance to the overall story and the gain trust between Ellie and Joel right now I'm going to jump down there and I'm going to clear us a path what about me stay here so sweet we'd have more of a [ __ ] chance if you let me help I am seem to know your way around a gun you reckon you can handle that well I sort of shot a rifle before it was that rats rats with BBs it's the same basic concept lift it up all right now you're going to lean right into that stock because it was going to kick a hell of a lot more than any baby rifle yeah going blow the boat back grab it right there just hug it here you go as soon as you fire you're going to want to get another round in there quick listen to me if I get in trouble down there you make every shot count yeah I got this all right and just so we're clear about back there it was either him or me you're welcome in a nutshell Joe recognizes his mistake of getting angry at Ellie he admits that it was either himself or the other dude character growth going on in this section is just great it is one step closer breaking down that barrier that Joel puts up he's actively trying to be a better person to her which is commendable also giving Ellie our rifles probably the best thing he's ever done considering Ellie domes people acting like she bought the new Call of Duty and trying to Upper KD she's a goat on the sticks I swear afterwards Ellie literally ends every dude in existence in the area Joe goes down to a down Bandit picks up his pistol and gives it to Ellie signaling the gain trust he has for her he then tells her it's for emergencies only this connects with gameplay as well having Ellie equipped with the pistol is a lifesaver if you're on higher difficulties she'll save your ass so many times I can't even count I love it when games make female characters badasses that don't need hand-holding one because of diversity inclusion but also gameplay wise I hate trying to escort the Damsel in Distress and failing the mission over and over again because they can't defend themselves not only does having Ellie be able to defend herself make the game more enjoyable that also makes it more realistic like who wouldn't have a gun in the apocalypse afterwards there's a whole ass section where you try to avoid a Humvee with a machine gun on it my question is how in the hell did they even find that kind of ammo in the apocalypse like they go through it like nothing I understand that this is a game and you shouldn't take this stuff seriously but still you can't help but Wonder Joel and Ellie continue to hide from this [ __ ] tank car by shimming along and building a couple stories up when they get inside they get greeted by a dude Bree is a nicer word for what actually transpired essentially the dude attack show but since Joel has plot armor he punches the dude over and over again beating the ever living [ __ ] out of the dude oh my God Joel gets stopped by La telling him to look Joel looks in front of him to find a kid holding a blicky aiming right at him at that moment Joel knew that he wasn't dealing with Bandits these were just people trying to survive after some talking we find out that the people are Henry the older dude and Sam the younger one they're both brothers they hit it off and make their way to the safe house that Henry and Sam mentioned along the way we find out that Sam and Ellie hit it off right away which is very cute to say the least in this world where everything is chaos you need to find something calm to get everything back to normal so when Ellie and Sam connect it just makes you happy to see these two kids happy for once they're acting like kids finally one of the sadder moments though was when Henry told Sammy couldn't keep a toy in his backpack I let the interaction play out because I think it's important what is it we only take what we have to that's right come on how far is this place we're close real close immediately after you see the two be kids again they're reminded that you can't afford to be a kid anymore you have to be prepared after the interaction takes place if you look back to see what Ellie is doing she stands over the drop toy if you look away for just a second and then look back she will pick up the toy for Sam and stash it in her backpack as sweet and appreciative level of detail that adds to the game greatly you'll see why later you finally get to the safe house after battling some bannons and sneaking around Sam tells Ellie that they have been held up in the house for about a couple days Sam invites Ellie to eat some food with him blueberries to be precise I don't know about any of you guys but blueberries are [ __ ] tank Joel then talks to Henry Henry tells Joel that he's waiting on an opportunity to escape the city he goes over the plan explaining that there's a skeleton crew guarding the bridge at night it will go at the right opportunity having the best chance of success and since Joel's with them why not now Henry also says that he's looking for the Firefly same as El Angel meaning you have a common interest indicating that they can stick together for the rest of the way and it's nice we have some new friends go in and get some rest for the plan that has been set Ellie wakes him up saying that's time to go and of course he does so along the way we come across some enemies and we of course take them out before we get to the checkpoint but my ass sucks it stealth so it was more like a shootout when we finally get past the checkpoint Banner starts shooting at the gang which prompts us to start running towards the end of the bridge as soon as we got there we hurried to try to get Sam and Henry on top of some storage container and once we do so we see that same [ __ ] car with the machine gun that has been hounding us this entire section seeing this prompts Henry to take Sam and leave us for dead and at this point I was saying [ __ ] Henry on my TV I was so pissed the fact that he didn't even try to help us I mean I guess he did help Ellie up when it came to us though he said hell nah and dipped Ellie jumps down and says that she will always stick with us no matter what now this got me emotional for some reason for one because throughout this game Joel and Ellie have butted heads but we still stick to each other which is heartwarming and second it's solidifies the bond that they have the growth that these characters have gone through chef's kiss after Joel and Ellie battles some more Bandits to run away from the armored car they get to a dead end at the bridge the bridge is literally destroyed and the only way to escape the cars to jump into the water keep in mind Ellie can't swim she takes a leap of faith and just Yeats herself off the bridge Joel goes after her and they both Escape but along the way of the rapid water they hit a rock and they both get knocked out afterwards Joel wakes up on some sort of beach he wakes up to Ellie looking over top of him and right beside her is Sam Ellie helps us up but Joel isn't happy I mean neither would I [ __ ] Henry left us for dead Henry comes out of nowhere laughing and tells us that he told us that we would make it Jill has none of it though he shoves Henry to the ground and points a gun at him almost ready to pull the trigger Henry then goes on to say that we were only pissed and that we wouldn't kill him in all honesty I believe Henry if Joel were in this position would he have done the same later on in the cut scene Henry asked this exact same thing which Joel contemplates Joel eventually lowers his gun in agreeance to what Henry said and the game just takes different paths to try and find a way out of where they currently are along the way Ellie angel will have some bonding moments talking about how this was Ellie's first time ever on a boat which Joe responds by saying it's a little different than actually being on a boat in the water just some wholesome moments between the two eventually the gang finds her way into the sewer system through a drain pipe during this whole section I was honestly a little scared this was because this whole time it's like dark as [ __ ] and you have to put your flashlight on at all times and not to mention there's infected literally everywhere clickers stalkers and Runners alike throughout this whole sewer sequence nothing really crazy happens Until the End there's a point where the group gets separated where Joel and Sam are together along with Henry and Ellie together but you really only fight infected and eventually everyone is reunited the interesting part happens at the end like I mentioned a [ __ ] load of infectives start chasing after the group they make it to this weird office area where there's a shitload of ammo and supplies which means that you will need to hold your ground until aliens am can open up the door on the other side of course the group makes it out alive and the cutscene plays there's a message on the wall beside the door that reads do not enter infected inside [ __ ] great could have warned us on the other side off in the distance Joe and Henry see the tower that they're trying to get it to in order to meet up with the fireflies so they go on their way when we explore for some supplies this is a cute mom between Ellie and Sam that I would like to show so let me play it it's pretty intense back there huh oh yeah totally how did you two end up together oh a friend of mine you seem to get along well yeah well no I just boss him around isn't that Rachel this moment was so cute and I don't know why at this moment you can really see how much Ellie cares for Joel they have gone all this way together she relies on him it's almost like a father-daughter bond that they have formed though I do wish Joel would have responded in some sort of way whether that just be a grunt or full-blown sentence nonetheless we're gonna move on we get to this large open area with houses all around and once we jump and hit the ground a sniper starts shooting at us this brings us to another Shooting Gallery in stealth segment pretty much all we do is take down some Bandits move around to the outside so the sniper doesn't hit us and eventually we get to the sniper and take him down after we do so we actually man the sniper to overlook the crew and when we do this a little sequence ensues where Bandits literally come out of nowhere so you have to cover the homies with said sniper rifle and I won't lie the section was pretty fun just beaming kids with this thing was satisfying and afterwards the Humvee with the machine gun comes out and I guess they followed you all the way outside the city this part I don't understand why on Earth would they follow you and second how how do they even know where you are maybe the people you killed previously radioed in and told everyone maybe you left a trail so they followed you I have no idea this doesn't seem very realistic to me and was the only part of the game where I was tilting my head in confusion after you take out said Humvee the infectives start coming out since so much noise was made and when the infected do come out they get on top of Sam of course you shoot the infected off of them and everything is fine so we think after everything is done with the cutscene plays the scene is super important not only for the mental of Joel and Ellie but also because it's extremely heartbreaking and it shows the nature of the world and how harsh it is shut the hell up that serious it's Tommy's birthday that's all he wanted to do is just playing two Harleys and drive cross country oh man I could die happy if I could just ride one around the block what was it like it's good it's real good can you believe this guy come on man give me details describe it you know what you two deserve a little privacy Mama Ellie Ellie this isn't just any regular motorcycle okay you get on that bad boy you feel that engine nothing like it oh yeah how would you know seen it in my dreams okay [Music] [Laughter] I don't think anyone from my group is going to show up yeah worst part about it all explaining it's a Sam well I it's safe to say those two have officially bonded what are you doing taking stock of all the food we found today I see and how are we doing on canned peaches did Henry send you no what'd Henry send me to make sure I'm not [ __ ] up somehow I'd say we all did pretty good back there especially you is everything all right everything's fine okay well have a good night how's it that you're never scared who says that I'm not you scared up oh let's see scorpions are pretty creepy uh being by myself I'm scared of ending up alone what about you those things out there one of the people are still inside what if they're trapped in there without any control of their body scared of that happening to me okay first of all we're Team now okay we're gonna help each other out and second they might still look like people but that person is not in there anymore he says that they've moved on that they're with their families like in heaven do you think that's true I go back and forth I mean I'd like to believe it but you don't I guess not yeah me neither oh a serious talk I almost forgot there if he doesn't know but he can't take it away all right I'm pooped I'll see you tomorrow [Music] damn that smells good morning where's Sam I let him sleep in for once oh well if you wanted to join us you can go wake his ass up okay [ __ ] he's turning that's my [ __ ] brother screw it laughs oh [ __ ] really gotta be sure right oh my God oh no see Henry hello stay there Henry what did he do I'm gonna get that gun from you okay oh okay okay easy is this your foot this is nobody's fault him it's all your fault Henry Henry no the tragedy of salmon Henry was a dark one when I first saw this scene I really had no way to understand what just happened it just shows how unforgiving this world is something as little as getting tackled by an infected can result in catastrophic events to unfold loved Sam and Henry but this game has consequences which is a good thing in terms of story I'm also glad that the game lets you dwell in the previous scene for a moment taking in the scenery of the Midwest trying to cope with the loss of someone you got close to it's heartbreaking now to just take a little break I will say that Mel gotta decided to say [ __ ] you want to start recording half are you through my session without me knowing so from now on until the end of the story section we're really gonna Breeze by this focusing on cutscenes mostly I wish it were different but this is what I get for buying an Elgato instead of an average media so you're gonna see bits of my gameplay in someone else's gameplay on YouTube and of course I'm gonna credit them so just keep an eye out to move forward we found our way to Tommy's Place well I guess it is it isn't exactly his place we're at a dam that powers his place with electricity Joel tries to open the door to go inside but is stopped by a woman is pointing a rifle at him this causes Ellie and Joel to step back and lay down their arms and as soon as they do this though we hear good old Tommy's voice he steps out grease your drill with a hug and he introduces us to the woman that was pointing a gun at him Tommy's wife Maria Tommy invites us inside of Maria offers Ellie some food and of course she accepts and we make our way in after exploring the compound for a bit we make our way inside Marie gets a call to help fix some stuff but she doesn't want to so Tommy does it anyway Ellie stays with Maria while Joe and Tommy go on their way a little farther into the section Tommy tells us he has something for us since he stopped by Austin which was where the first part of the game took place we see a picture of Sarah and Joel Joel says he's good and doesn't want the picture instead he wants to talk one-on-one with Tommy heartbreaking he's closing himself off again he doesn't even want to think about his daughter that passed after when they meet Joel explains to Tommy why he's on the adventure of his of course Joel explains the whole situation Tommy bites on this hesitantly though Joel explains that he wants Tommy to do the work essentially he asked this because Tommy used to be a firefly they get into a brief argument because Tommy explains he has a family and he can't risk his life for Joel's doing they eventually get interrupted because some banners take over the damn I guess I'm not sure why they would try to take this over but nonetheless we take them on after we take them all out Joel and Tommy meet up with Ellie and Maria Ellie comes to Joel and explains the whole situation Tommy looks over and sees the conversation that they're having and you can obviously see the connection that Joe and Ellie has cares for her which is exactly why he wants Tommy to take her to the rest of the way Tommy recognizes this which is why he changes his mind and agrees to take Ellie of course you can imagine that Maria wasn't happy by this which you could see in the next cut scene Ali goes up to Joel and asks what all the fuss is about Joel dismisses her and Ellie has none of this she walks away can't help but to agree with Ellie here y'all went across the country together and you just want to pawn her off to someone else Joe is literally the only person she trusts in the world Joe all doing this hurt her even though she doesn't show it really after the argument that Maria had with Tommy she goes up to Joel and pretty much warns him that if he doesn't come back that all of this will be on Joel agreed tell me you think it's a call saying that Ellie had run off and won their horses and now they have to go find her after going through a ton of enemies on the way to find Ellie which makes little sense why would they all just be chilling there and let Ellie run through them without you know shooting it's a little nitpick but nonetheless one of the most important heartbreaking scenes plays is this really all they had to worry about boys movies deciding which shirt goes with which skirt it's bizarre get up we're leaving and if I say no do you even realize what your life means huh running off like that putting yourself at risk it's pretty goddamn stupid well I guess we're both disappointed with each other then what do you want from me admit that you wanted to get rid of me the whole time Tommy knows this area well I'm sorry I trust him better than I trust myself stop with the [ __ ] what are you so afraid of that I'm gonna end up like Sam I can't get infected I can take care of myself how many close calls have we had well we seem to be doing all right so far and now you'll be doing even better with Tommy not her you know what Maria told me about Sarah Ellie you are treading awesome Mighty thin eyes here I'm sorry about your daughter Joel I have lost people too you have no idea what loss is everyone I have cared for has either died or left me everyone [ __ ] except for you don't tell me that I would be safer with someone else because the truth is I would just be more scared foreign you're not my daughter then I sure as hell ain't your dad and we are going our separate ways get it together we're not alone I got two Buckingham there's more inside already just a Joel saying you sure as hell ain't my daughter broke me after everything that they have been through and that's what he says Joel's prideful nature just shocks me after this long adventure even though I totally understand why it really is something that you can't explain I applaud the writers on this one it's just gut wrenching and I've never experienced a cut scene like this from a video game in my life the acting phenomenal after playing this game for the critique I seriously have nothing bad to say so far once they get on their horses and make their way back to Jackson you see the Gate of the town the set pieces wow in the remake they really blew this out of the park straight up Joel contemplates things for a couple seconds and asks Ellie to give her horse back to Tommy he tells Tommy that he changes his mind that his wife scares him that he will do the journey instead this made me feel so warm inside Ellie gets on Joel's horse Jordan asks what the lab is where the fireplace resided he explains that it's in a university in Colorado a building that you can't miss after the conversation Tommy says that he will always have a place in Jackson Joel nods his head it says goodbye and the two make their way we finally make it to Goodwill Colorado making our way towards the building that Tommy told us about and along the way we explore talk to Ellie about the fireflies and overall just bond with each other along the way we come to realize that this place is way too quiet for supposedly having fireflies occupying it which makes us think are they really here after taking out some Infected as usual we come across some wild monkeys that are just running free everything is odd around here and I like it the game lets you think to yourself about what actually happened here before giving you the answer suspense is something you for sure need to nail in this game and they did it we get to a cutscene that is important Joel and Ellie find a dead Firefly just sitting in a chair Joel picks up a recorder and the Firefly tells us that the fireflies that were occupying the place are all dead or they scattered after hearing this Joel fast forwards the recording to find out where the fireflies are now he tells us that they're at a hospital in Salt Lake City not exactly close to where they are but shortly after Joel gets interrupted after he sees a lone stranger with a flashlight shoot at him indicating that there aren't alone and there may be more this brings us to another Shooting Gallery stealth section nothing too special happens here besides using some badass weapons we picked up along the way the important stuff happens when we get to a scripted sequence some dude comes barreling out and knocks Joe back against the glass railing and after fighting Joel punches the dude which breaks the glass because of the way they moved I guess curling Joel and the other dude off the railing Joel gets impaled by a metal beam [ __ ] ow and he bleeds out this is bad and at this moment I was so worried that Joel was going to die we have spent so much time together and to have him die here would have been a worrisome for the game since I don't think this would have been a good time for him to die but La comes to the rescue and gets him off the mental beam and Carries him towards our horse kallus has been waiting for us I'll let this cutscene play out because it shows the care that Ellie has for Joel oh [ __ ] oh [ __ ] come on just get the horse all right can you get on come on I think we're safe [Music] you want to tell me what to do you gotta get off [Music] foreign this won't last very long you'll just startle it I feel so bad here Ellie's [ __ ] scared about what will happen next she doesn't want Joel to leave her for one of course she cares about him but second she's afraid of being alone she will have no idea where to go or what to do next it even had me worried like I said before regardless it's winter we find that Ellie trying to hunt for a deer food she finally takes it down after a way too long of a goose chase in my opinion when she finds the down D or another cutscene plays Ellie Hears A ruffling Sound and yells for somebody to come out while at the same time drawing your bow a couple of average ass creepy dudes come out come out and say that they're friendlies but Ellie has none of it she tells him that if they were to make any sudden moves that she'll put one right between their eyes [ __ ] yes take yo [ __ ] Ellie use that ancient blicky to your advantage [ __ ] I won't even be able to talk my [ __ ] if I only had a bow regardless the long hair dude introduces himself as David in the beanie boys James my gut feeling for these guys already is that they're trouble they look creepy as hell the character design on these guys is insane David tells us that he's from a larger group that are very hungry men women and children Ellie lies and says the same thing trying to cover her tracks David then asks if they can trade since they need the meat badly Ellie blurts out that she needs medicine indicating that Joel is still alive but also giving David the info that someone is injured not a good move Ellie the suspense this building Ellie tells David that his friend can go get the medicine while Ellie and David will stand watch over the deer so nobody takes it and if anybody from his Camp shows up other than James Ellie will take them out I swear Ellie acts like she's a demon from a war zone lobby but Ellie then Jacks David's rifle in the cutscene ends but eventually Ellie and David get into a fight with some Infected that comes out of nowhere I don't know if there was sound that the two were making but legit an army of infected come at them initiating a shooting gallery after dying a shitload of times another cutscene plays once again I'll let this one play out listen now infected no infected what'd I tell you all right let's head on back check on that buck of ours well you handled yourself pretty nice back there that's Siri like a pretty good team we got lucky lucky no no no such thing as luck you see I believe that everything happens for sure I do and I can prove it to you now this winner has been especially cruel a few weeks back I am sent a group of men out nearby town to look for food and if you came back he said that the others had been slaughtered crazy man and get this crazy man traveling a little girl everything happens for a reason don't get upset it's not your fault kid James lower the gun no way David I'm not gonna let it lower a gun now give her the medicine the others won't be happy about this oh well that's not your concern walk out of the way won't survive long out there [Music] let's get out of here oh God come on eventually Ellie makes it back to her Hideout along with leaving all of her tracks behind for the others to find come on Ellie you know better although since it is snowing you can't really do anything about it you're going to leave tracks everywhere regardless Ellie makes it back to Joel takes out the medicine that David gave her and injects the needle directly into Joel's wound which miraculously works I'm not sure that this is how it works but it is a video game you must go along with it in order to enjoy it to its full extent Ellie then does something cute She lays down puts her hand on Joel and falls asleep right here is how you know Ellie cares greatly about Joel the one gesture of her putting her hand on Jill seals it they have grown so much throughout this game it's so heartwarming in the morning Ella wakes up to the sound of men talking meaning that she was tracked by David's men [ __ ] told you Ellie regardless she tries to escape with kallus but the horse gets lasered and they both fall Ellie then runs away into the snow-covered land after going through an intense shooting stealth Gallery Ellie gets to a door when she tries to open it day David comes out of [ __ ] nowhere and chokes us out leaving Ellie unconscious and leading us to another cut scene the scene is so creepy I don't even know how to explain it we found out that David and his crew were cannibals the one fact puts Ellie an extreme amount of danger not to mention the fact that Ellie ego challenged David and broke his finger making David thinking that this wasn't worth keeping her around then all of a sudden Joel miraculously wakes up a completely fine which is questioning to say the least when it comes to realism but nonetheless we move on after going through more enemies and massacring them Joel takes a couple of David's men and puts them in a dark room initiating a torture sequence now this one is brutal as [ __ ] Joel puts a knife right in the dude's thigh takes it out puts the knife in the dude's mouth and makes him mark on the map where Ellie is [ __ ] this is badass and terrifying solidifying the moral line Jules willing across in order to save Ellie love tramples all and Joel is willing to do whatever it takes to hold on to said love for Ellie Joel then breaks the dude neck goes to the next dude and just beats the [ __ ] out of him with a metal pipe oh my God afterwards we go to Ellie's point of view David drags Ellie into a table ready to chop her up alive Jesus this whole section is [ __ ] up not pulling any punches and right before David's about to cut her up Ellie says that she's infected revealing her bite David lifts her upper sleeve and sees the bite David freaks out and while this happens Ellie uses this to her Advantage but taking the cleave taking out David's friend and running away I love Ellie smarts in the scene although she revealed her secret of being immune if it meant helping your Escape by all means do so it was perfect after going through another Shooting Gallery which was quite fun at least tries to open the door again and David somehow tracks her and puts her to sleep then the scene cuts to Joel's point of view looking for Ellie going through the same Shooting Gallery but then he sees the building on fire the building that Ellie is in then we switch to Ellie's point of view oh my God there's a lot of perspective switches switches in the sequence you then see Ellie try to crawl away from David trying to get his machete that he had before David then wakes up taunting Ellie by kicking her down but not trying to stop her basically stroking his ego then a cutscene plays I'm going to let this one play out because it's super important to Ellie's overall health but also showing the love that Joel and Ellie have for each other [ __ ] you you think you know me huh let me tell you something no idea it's me it's me look it's me oh baby girl oh man [Music] this brings us to spring now to go back and dwell on that scene before you know for a moment I loved it so much to see Ellie just beat the living [ __ ] out of David will Joel to come out and stop her it's just chef's kiss Joel holds Ellie in his arms to try to calm her down with the audio drowning out only playing little I thought this decision to not have the dialogue play was perfect we didn't need it he only needed to see the love that they have for each other it shows Joel letting go of his pride and embracing the love he has for Ellie calling her baby girl which is the same thing he called it Sarah I ain't gonna lie I teared up during this scene but like I said love is powerful Joel will do anything for Ellie and vice versa regardless the spring session is very emotional you see Ellie's still dwelling on winter staring at the Stag while walking through the streets of Salt Lake City there are so many little dialogue sequences that are perfect Ellie's still thinking about what happened previously she has PTSD from what happened you can't blame her eventually Joel and Ellie come across one of the most beautiful scenes in the game and I think you know what I'm talking about giraffe scene a lot to play what are you doing it's all right come here come here hurry up cool hey there so [ __ ] cool where's it off to here come on let's go slow down kiddo come on oh man wow so is everything you were hoping for it's got its ups and downs I can't deny the view though foreign we don't have to do this you know that right it's the other option go back to Tommy's just be done with this whole damn thing after all we've been through everything that I've done foreign while looking at the giraffes you can literally stand there as long as you want I stood there for so long just reminiscing about the journey that Joel and Ellie had gone on became such a long way and bonded so much it is a sight to behold and an indication that the writers did an amazing job I've never been this invested in a game ever afterwards Joel talks to Ellie telling her that we can leave all of this behind and just go home Ellie pushes back and says that they've gone on this journey for so long it can't be for nothing they have to keep pushing forward they could do whatever they want after this when it's over with then Joel says an important line I am leaving without you kiddo Jesus this game is going to make a grown ass man cry but later on Ellie then tries to talk to you with an optional dialogue pop-up she says that she stole something from Jackson after talking with Maria she pulls out the picture that Tommy tried to give to you before Joel takes it of course and says that no matter how hard you try you can't escape your past very true this whole last section of the game just brings you to your feelings I love it so much I can't explain it eventually we get to another combat section with the infected and of course we take them out with ease nothing too special about it we then get to a section where we must cross a bunch of janky ass cars that are in the way of flowing water what a completely safe way to navigate of course things go wrong Joel Falls almost drowns and then Ellie tries to save you she gets messed up and goes unconscious underwater and when you try to savor a cutscene plays I'm gonna let it play out in its entirety considering it's a long ass one and an important one come on hands in the air not right hands in the [ __ ] air that welcome to the fireflies sorry about that they didn't know who you were and Ellie she's all right they brought her back you came all this way how'd you do it it was her foreign like hell to get here maybe it was meant to be I lost most of my crew cross in the country I pretty much lost everything and then you show up and somehow we find you just in time to save her take me to her you don't have to worry about her anymore we'll take care I worry just let me see her please you can't she's being prepped for surgery no you mean surgery the doctors tell me the cordyceps the growth inside her has somehow mutated it's why she's immune once they remove it they'll be able to reverse engineer a vaccine but it grows all over the brain it does find someone else there is no one else listen you were gonna show me stop yeah I get it but whatever it is you think you're going through right now is nothing to what I have been through I knew her since she was born I promised your mother I would look after her then why letting this happen because this isn't about me or even her there is no how yeah you keep telling yourself that [ __ ] March I'm out of here he tries anything shoot him don't waste this gift get up I said get up oh move I said move give me an excuse which way the [ __ ] you doing keep walking I said keep walking where is the operating room where top floor the far end we see that Marlene is there she lets us know that the only way for them to get the vaccines to kill Ellie [ __ ] no no no no no I ain't letting that happen and neither is Joel the build up in this Final Act is insane being an almost graduated film student this is the [ __ ] they teach us when you have a climax you have to make it the most engaging part of the story and this is what they did here I also love the fact that Joel puts a gun to the dude's nuts and blows the sack off like oh my God after this we go through a whole section of taking out fireflies the section was fun you get an assault rifle which is a weapon he didn't get throughout the whole game having here was a much needed thing with it being fully automatic that helps so much with the combat sequence regardless we finally get to Ellie we take out the doctors that are doing the surgery on her because we're angry as [ __ ] a cool detail is in the remake the model for the main doctor connects with the sequel Abby's dad and I found this pretty cool I thought it'd be cool mentioning too now I'm going to let this whole section play out including gameplay this is a part where I shouldn't talk I need to let the emotion and where did the scene take place it'll explain more than I ever could it has to do with Joel taking Ellie out of the hospital [Music] [Music] thank you thank you can't save her even if you get her out of here then what how long before she's Torn to Pieces by a pack of Clickers that is that she hasn't been raped and murdered first for you to decide and you know it look you can still do the right thing here she won't feel anything [Music] ah what the hell am I wearing let's take it easy drugs are still wearing off what happened we found the fireflies turns out there's a whole lot more like you really people that are immune dozens actually I'm a damn bit of good neither they've actually stopped looking for a cure and taking us home I'm sorry ah wait let me go you just come after her we're finally at the end after everything we have been through everything we have sacrificed we're here Ellie looks at her bite mark and thinks about what it just happened thinking about if what Joel had said was true I have no words truly announce Ellie and Joel have some small talk along the way talking about Sarah and how she and Ellie are alike in many ways but eventually we get to the most important scene in the game the end I'm gonna let the cutscene play for the final time because you need to hear this all right come on hey wait ah back in Boston back when I Was Bitten I wasn't alone my best friend was there and she got bit too we didn't know what to do so she says let's just wait it out you know we can be all poetic and just lose our minds together I'm still waiting for my turn oh her name was Riley and she was the first to die and then it was tests and then Sam none of that is on you you don't understand I struggled for a long time with surviving and you no matter what you keep finding something to fight for now I know that's not what you want to hear right now swear to me swear to me that everything that you've said about the fireflies is true I swear [Music] okay and that's the end the way Joe just [ __ ] lie to her is heartbreaking but she accepted she accepts that Joel either lied to protect her or lied in the Name of Love she accepts that what happened had happened she can't do anything about it of course we find out what actually happened in the sequel but nonetheless in this game you must accept that Joel lied and Ali only replied with okay it was a perfect ending and although it was a cliffhanger it was a good ass [ __ ] Cliffhanger I couldn't help but stand up after this and clap giving the credits what did I just play came out of my mouth after playing this for the first time in 2013 and I'm pretty sure it was the same for other people that have played the game wow easier for me I'm gonna go off script here and not use a script uh considering I wrote 24 pages for the story right now I'm just gonna I have a list in front of me and I'm gonna kind of wing it I guess when it comes to the variety of enemies there are the infected so for the infected your regular enemies are your Runners then you have stalkers which kind of hide in the shadows don't make any sound at all and they come at you scaring you shitless you have the clickers which kind of when they hit you once you die so you either have to use a shiv to protect yourself and you know when they come out you use it or you kill them from a distance using stealth or guns and then there is the bloater the bloater is pretty much your tank enemy you have to hit him with a whole bunch of molotovs because that's pretty much their weakness is fire or you can use your flamethrower to kill him um and then after you do that you kind of just shoot them with weapons and you pretty much kill them but that variety right there for infected is really good getting gameplay I'm really glad they kind of use these different classes of infected in the game say like if you only did runners throughout this whole game it would kind of make it Bland and boring you need that Variety in here when it comes to Bandits you have the regular Bandits which are kind of in the Pittsburgh sequence as well as David's men and they kind of act the same they pretty much swarm you I guess they're also in the beginning of the game with Robert's men but from what I've found they kind of swarm you or hit you tactically with just weapons kind of normal human behavior the kind of same thing happens with the military except the military has more modern Weaponry in the beginning they had kind of just pistols and stuff like that but the military also has assault rifles and stuff like that and that carries over to the fireflies as well at the end the fireflies have assault rifles pistols whatever you can think of and that's pretty much the hardest enemy in the game at the very end but it kind of balances out because at the end of the game you also have an assault rifle to kill him so and they're not too hard but they're a nice variety when it comes to enemies and I'm glad they had all of these factions in here like say if they only had one like say Bandits it would have been Bland like I said with the infected so that variety here really really really helped and I'm glad they kind of included everything here when it comes to the perk system you have to pick up pills and they come in varieties of like what like 10 15 20 25 something like that and there's a cost of certain pills when it comes to perks so if you like a look in your backpack something will be 50 some things will be I think even a hundred so you have to stockpile that and determine which perk is better than most like there's a couple perks that include longer listening distance uh and that sort of thing so you really need to kind of pay attention to that what I focused on mostly was health because if you're on harder difficulties you're gonna find it really tough to go through sections with low Health especially the last section I can't tell you how many times I died so pills are very much a must and you need to look everywhere to find them if you're on harder difficulties and things are harder to come by it is even more important to kind of prioritize where your pills are allocated there's also books that add to your perks that aren't really necessarily viable like for one it's like you pick up a book you have faster reload you have a more stockpile of shivs you have a bigger stockpile of molotovs bombs stuff like that and those are pretty much hidden throughout the game so you need to kind of look in hard reach places out of the box places there's one section when you were with Sam and Henry and I had to like look in this attic some sort of thing and it's not necessarily something I knew going into the Remake I actually never picked up this book before so seeing it here after so many years was pretty cool so out of everything I haven't even picked up all of them I've only picked up some but you really need to look for these and I thought that was a good addition I don't want to say they're necessarily puzzles to kind of look for them you just need to think outside the box when it comes to crafting there's different weapons You Can Craft on the workbench in the remake that kind of revamped everything kind of what the last of us two did where you can kind of see the changes in your weapon and that sort of thing you can get a reduced recoil faster reload more ammo capacity and even upgrade that you need to find cogs around the world in these levels in order to upgrade that so on harder difficulties you really need to pay attention to how much you pick up and look everywhere because kind of getting those cogs and upgrading your guns becomes more important within those difficulties to even stand a chance against against infected and other people so do that also when it comes to crafting as well there's stuff in your backpack that you can craft you can crack craft shifts you can craft bombs molotovs whatever it is I will say the most important thing in crafting is shivs the reason is because they can get you into places that have a stockpile of like supplies so say there's a door you try to open it it's locked you'll need to open it with a shiv and you really need to be careful because sometimes you'll need that shift to when there's clickers around because clickers when they hit you you will need to press the triangle button quickly if you have a shift to not die so yeah you really need to pay attention to shifts uh but with bombs molotovs and stuff like that there should be plentiful supplies around if you're kind of in the regular easy difficulties so yeah and bombs are really fun to use you can place them wherever around the world strategically or you can just throw them at enemies which I did it'll blow up anything in the vicinity molotovs are used as kind of distractions or they can be placed as a kind of like a weapon if you hit someone and everything around them is going to catch on fire and then when they bump into other enemies then those enemies will catch on fire as well they may not die but at least the ones that are impacted with the molotov itself will die I found this crafting uh kind of whole sequence really really good it's a better crafting system than most games out there when it comes stealth and gameplay I really want to talk about about how guns work uh there's like the El Diablo the rifle the different pistols the revolver there's the shotguns the shoddy the bow and arrow flamethrower assault rifle whatever you could think of you use them in different circumstances but the assault raffle use it mostly toward the end so you can't really upgrade it I believe you can in New Game Plus but I haven't tried that yet but when it comes to like one of my favorite weapons is definitely the El Diablo because it's a it's a sniper revolver it's really cool to use but when it terms of like running gun in this game you really need to be careful about that because this game prioritizes stealth mostly and when you kind of just run everywhere and shoot everything you're more prone to die especially on harder difficulties especially grounded I played ungrounded before [ __ ] no and if you're on like a speed run mode with you can't die uh permadeath it becomes even more of a situation of yeah you need a stealth you can not run a gun at all and when it comes to stealth there's pretty much like a vision a cone usually in video games this one kind of does the same so you really need to not let people see you flashlight is a huge thing if they see you have your flashlight on it's more of an indication that they can you know see you more obviously with infected it's more lenient so for runners they can they can still see so you can use your flat you can't use your flashlight in any of those things you still need to be quiet they're kind of harder to get around but when it comes to like clickers bloaters and stalkers stalkers are a little bit kind of like Runners but you need to be a lot more careful and they can be around any corner but when it comes to clickers you need to be quiet it's kind of easier to navigate with clickers it's a trade-off they can kill you quickly but they can't like get you as quickly as well if that makes sense you have to really try hard for them not to see you or you actually have to like shoot them so I found it easy to get around clickers for bloaters it's kind of the same thing but most of the time when you kind of go against bloaters it's more of a gun situation because they already see you when they get introduced like the the bus sequence for character interactions I'm kind of gotta go over this quickly because I kind of went over it mostly within the story section I know I said I'd dabble more into afterwards but overlooking everything I really did cover it in my story section but triangles over the head for dialogue sequences and when you press that like optional dialogue will play kind of getting closer to Ellie test Bill whoever it is and I really prioritize you like pressing that triangle button because when you press that you get more in depth of their background of stuff like that like for one in the spring section we need to press triangle there's like a sequence where you talk about how Ellie had a dream with a plane and that stuff is like very minor in the story purposes but it adds greatly when it comes to getting closer to characters this game is very much prioritizing character over like set pieces and that sort of thing so I you really need to press those triangle buttons and get to know more about characters and I loved it here I love the optional dialogue sequences when you when you implement that into a game like I've said previously you want to keep pressing and pressing it or you want to look and see if it's even there because you get attached to these characters so frequently and uh so often that you just want to keep doing it there's also character awareness with those interactions as well like again I'm gonna use the spring section as a kind of Base point of this when you see Ellie is sad and you try to get a ladder to kind of go up places you will see that she is kind of dozing off and you kind of have to get her attention because you've been like so used to getting the ladder uh you have to lift Ellie up to even get the ladder push it down something like that you're so used to that but when you see Ellie not do it and she is so focused on what happened in the winter section That's What I Call character awareness like these characters are hurting they're thinking about something for her she has PTSD so of course they're not going to do what they're they've been doing for the rest of the game because they have emotion and they're gonna show that and in this game they just do it so well and I've never seen a game ever do this and I just love it so much [Music] so now we're at the end of the video The Last of Us is a brilliant game with brilliant characters Joel Ellie Tess Sam Henry literally every character in this game has depth and Care given towards them this game was very much a journey game meaning this game doesn't necessarily focus on the plot itself but the journey that takes place in order to get to the climax of the plot playing this game in 2013 I was appalled by how much depth and Care was given to this game and I still think that now no other game that I've played is like this even when playing the Remake was built from the ground up visuals I still feel the same only a handful of games made me feel this way and let me tell you I'm extremely hard on games when it comes to narrative this game actually gave me a new outlook on life love is above all other emotions you won't do literally everything in the Name of Love the father-daughter bond that Joel and Ellie had changed me and I don't even have a child I still cried to this game when it first came out even now I'm just so happy that this game even came out it is no coincidence that this game has won tons of Game of the Year Awards so without further Ado let's get to the ranking the goal over everything the lowest of the totem pole is not even close this means that the game was nowhere near a masterpiece and there's a lot more work to be done next is it has potential meaning this game has a chance to be good with some updates and maybe build off of it to make a sequel the next highest is amazing this means that the game is great but because of some bugs or some story hiccups it isn't quite a masterpiece lastly Masterpiece this means the game is Generation defining solidifying itself as one of the greatest games of all time sealing itself into the gaming Hall of Fame so what do I rank this game What's even a question it's a masterpiece this game is one of the greatest ever made maybe even the greatest game of all time I know what I mean it is it's one of my favorites it is my favorite once again thank you to everyone who has been watching these critiques it means so much to me and I can't wait to do more I will say the next video will be about the new God of War coming out so keep a lookout anyways thank you so much for watching like subscribe comment whatever you need to do and I'll see you in the next one bye guys

Channel: ImGardenGnome

Views: 434,347

Keywords: the last of us, the last of us is a masterpiece, the last of us 2, the last of us part 2, the last of us 2 gameplay, best games of the generation, masterpiece, the last of us 2 review, the last of us 2 frame rate, last of us 2, the last of us remastered, best current generation games, the evil within in depth analysis, top current generation video games, best current generation video games, critique, death stranding, ImGardenGnome, ImGardenGnome critique, The Last of us critique

Id: xv6cqrcHlFM

Length: 119min 56sec (7196 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 04 2022