Las puntuaciones de The Last of US - GOTYs everywhere

At a time when blockbuster action games are sinking into a mire of desperate overproduction, shallow gameplay and broken narrative logic, The Last of Us is a deeply impressive demonstration of how it can and should be done. It starts out safe but ends brave; it has heart and grit, and it hangs together beautifully. And it's a real video game, too. An elegy for a dying world, The Last of Us is also a beacon of hope for its genre.

PlayStation 3 isn’t only well-known for its number of exclusive games, but for the sheer number of quality exclusives. That’s what makes The Last of Us even more impressive, because not only does it join the ranks of Uncharted, Killzone, God of War, Infamous and more, but it bests them all. In short, Naughty Dog has crafted a game that impresses in virtually every way. The Last of Us is a true feat.

Its unrivaled presentation in particular sets the bar even higher than the Uncharted trilogy already did, and its writing, voice acting and layered gameplay combine to create what is very easily the game to beat for Game of the Year 2013.

The Last Of Us strips away the geek-centric fan service so commonplace in contemporary games. For every highbrow idea explored, developers seem compelled to throw in a lowbrow one to counterbalance it. The Last Of Us resists such compromises, and does so without disappearing up its own backside. Naughty Dog has delivered the most riveting, emotionally resonant story-driven epic of this console generation. At times it’s easy to feel like big-budget development has too much on the line to allow stubbornly artful ideas to flourish, but then a game like The Last Of Us emerges through the crumbled blacktop like a climbing vine, green as a burnished emerald.

There is more to The Last of Us than just combat and "emotional" story tropes. To touch on its setpiece moments, to detail its beautiful changes in pace, would be to spoil too much. It cannot be said enough, however, that Naughty Dog's new best creation is complete, and when I say complete, I mean it to pay the highest of compliments. I do not want more from The Last of Us: I do not need more. As the last line was uttered and the credits ushered in the close, I was done. The Last of Us had achieved everything it needed to achieve in order to provide me with everything I wanted.

And it ended perfectly.

The Last of Us is the definitive statement on what the genre has achieved thus far. Made of wildly eclectic gameplay mechanics polished to a sheen, bound intelligently and movingly to one of the most affecting narratives in games, The Last of Us succeeds where so many pretenders have failed.

It combines DNA strands from across the genre, yet reworks and recontextualises them to become far more than the sum of its parts. Its storytelling is peerless, as affecting and multi-layered as it is grounded, underplayed and real. In terms of everything the modern action game has strived to be, The Last of Us is the full-stop at the end of the sentence, leaving no more to be said. Until next-gen. If this is our starting point for that, then the next five to ten years could be truly amazing.

"A work of art in which amazing sights and sounds fuel an emotionally draining, constantly compelling end of days adventure. This is Naughty Dog pushing the PS3 to its limit. Over to you PS4"

An assured, touching, and engrossing adventure, The Last of Us represents a watershed moment for the medium. The unlikely bond that blossoms between the title’s two lead characters is both heartrending and poignantly paced – but the release delivers much more than captivating cinematics. This is a meaty slice of survival action that masterfully depicts the horrors of life in a post-pandemic setting. The conclusion may feel a little hurried, and the multiplayer somewhat surplus to requirements, but this is still an essential tale of survival that will consume you quicker than a cloud of contaminated spores.

"The Last of Us is not just the finest game that Naughty Dog has yet crafted and an easy contender for the best game of this console generation, it may also prove to be gaming’s Citizen Kane moment," "a masterpiece that will be looked back upon favourably for decades."

Thrust in a lawless world, you feel the ache of a society gone to seed. The Last of Us stretches on for hours, forcing you to endure the suffocating atmosphere and unrelenting despair that citizens of this world have become accustomed to. And that time spent navigating the desolate wasteland draws you deeper inside. You read letters from people who have long since disappeared, meet groups who have created a rickety social structure to help them survive life's many threats. Most important of all, you watch Ellie grow. From feisty warmth to beleaguered exhaustion, her many moods are always twinged with a grounded levity. Her uplifting nature stands in sharp contrast to the people and events surrounding her, compelling you to protect her, shepherd her, and cherish her. The Last of Us is a singular adventure that looks the downfall of humanity in the eyes and doesn't blink.

There are hints of a nuanced message in The Last of Us, but convention wins out too often to easily find them. Naughty Dog commits to a somber tone that affects every piece of the game for better and worse. It achieves incredible emotional high points about as often as it bumps up against tired scenario design that doesn't fit its world. Survival in the post-apocalypse requires compromise, but The Last of Us has given up something vital.

The Last of Us is a deeply felt, shockingly violent game that questions what we're willing to sacrifice and, more disturbingly, what we're willing to do so save the ones we love. The conclusion offers no easy answers. You won't forget it.

El jugador tradicional con PS3 no puede perderse The Last of Us, ya marcado como uno de los juegos de la generación y toda una apuesta por todo lo alto por hacer algo diferente, fresco y que al mismo tiempo respete las bases de los géneros de donde bebe, entre los que se encuentra el tan echado de menos survival horror. Supervivencia y astucia ante todo, matar para vivir, robar para aguantar, buscar para mejorar... La Humanidad da sus últimos coletazos y Naughty Dog ha sido capaz de poner perfectamente en situación al jugador, trasladarlo hasta esta escena catastrófica para ver cómo la afrontaría. Pausado, difícil, largo y muy distinto a otros third person shooters o stealth games, esta visceral y exigente experiencia no es para todos los públicos y puede llegar a hacerse insoportable para quienes no sepan entrar en su dinámica, supongo que muy pocos. Los valores vuelven a ser de carísima superproducción, con todo el aspecto audiovisual completamente cuidado, ausencia absoluta de bugs, acabado artístico con identidad y ningún tropiezo jugable. Solo la esporádica repetición fatigada de algunas situaciones y los altibajos de contados capítulos, no siempre de pleno interés argumental, empañan una obra irrepetible y que quedará en el recuerdo por la disposición y ritmo que introduce. El multijugador es otro apartado que arriesga y gana manteniendo con solidez la mecánica del singleplayer, pero no termina de creer en sí mismo y no es todo lo generoso que debería con los modos y los mapas. Más allá de este par de minúsculos resbalones conceptuales, The Last of Us es una aventura con mayúsculas perfectamente acabada en cada uno de los terrenos que conjuga, que no son pocos, y desde luego demuestra que los grandes estudios como éste también pueden innovar y buscar vías desconocidas en la creación y puesta en marcha de videojuegos. Un nuevo argumento para los californianos, una nueva alegría para las exclusivas de Sony.

Quizá no sea lo primero que haya que preguntarse con un lanzamiento tan esperado como éste, pero es inevitable hacerlo. ¿Cumple The Last of Us con las expectativas? Sobradamente en su campaña, y definitivamente logra también buenos resultados en su multijugador. En definitiva podemos decir que lo nuevo de Naughty Dog es un videojuego emocionante, intenso y cargado de emociones fuertes a partes iguales. Uno con un fuerte componente rejugable y que además nos tiene en vilo con su historia y sus salvajes escenas de acción.

Cuando el último juego de Naughty Dog esté a la venta el 14 de junio habrá jugadores que lo encasillen en el género del sigilo y otros lo harán como survival horror. The Last of Us se mueve en esa línea borrosa de los juegos de supervivencia que mezcla un poco de ambos estilos -más de acción que de terror- y que se definen por hacer sentir al usuario que siempre está en inferioridad, al límite de sus posibilidades, en alerta y tensión constante. Esa es la mejor descripción de The Last of Us.