The Last of Us Review

Naughty Dog spent the PS3's last stretch proving a blockbuster could be genuinely unpleasant on purpose. The Last of Us is a scarcity game first: two shotgun shells, a brick, a shiv with three uses left, and encounter design that keeps rewriting itself because the Infected hear what the humans see. That friction is doing narrative work, since a Joel who kills efficiently and a Joel who kills desperately are different men, and the combat quietly lets you find out which one you are.

Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson carry a script that trusts silence, and the giraffe sequence earns its calm by making you wait an entire game for it. Technically it is a marvel, wringing lighting and facial animation out of hardware that had nothing left to give. Gameplay sits a step below the rest because the stealth AI can be gamed and the ladder-and-plank puzzles are filler between the good parts. The ending remains the boldest choice anyone made in a game this expensive, and it still refuses to apologize for itself.