I Never Played The Last of Us – Then I Did

I’ve never been a huge Sony PlayStation fan. If you know me, you’ve known that fact for a long time. I was a Nintendo kid growing up, switched over to the Xbox during my formative teen years, and swung hard back to the Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo Switch after I got married and had kids. So many PlayStation franchises were lost on me, but having the PlayStation 5 in my house has been amazing. Why? I get to experience some of the best single player experiences available on console – one of those titles – The Last of Us – was one I never touched. Until last week.

Prior to the reviews landing, our own Mat Growcott predicted the review scores for the game! See how he did!

If there is something Sony and its development studios are good at, it’s creating compelling single player adventures. As a huge open world fan, I’m actually generally uninterested in most stories. I played Assassin’s Creed Origins to explore Egypt, not for the story. I played Valhalla for the exact same reason. But when I grab a Naughty Dog title like The Last of Us, I’m not only drawn into the world I get to explore, but the game itself. While perhaps not open like an Assassin’s Creed, these games give me enough freedom that I feel like I’m not missing out on anything. And that is huge.

So while I’m only a few hours into my experiences with The Last of Us Part 1, I cannot wait to explore it further. It trully is a game you don’t want to miss. Great world. Great gameplay. Great story. Here is a bit of what to expect, taken from the fabulous Kevin Austin’s review:

The game takes place 20 years into a mutant fungus outbreak that caused humanity to crumble, also creating some humans effected into horrific creatures known as the infected. Without getting into any spoiler territory, he crosses paths with Ellie a 14-year-old girl who is on her own with no one to turn to, except Joel. The game then follows them on a massive trek through what’s left of the world in search of hope, if it even exists anymore.