LO1 Game Analysis of The Last of Us - 10/10

The Last of Us - Tested on the PlayStation 3 Platform

The Last of Us is an action-adventure, survival horror game. It shows stylistic conventions of the genre by being a generic scary game, with weapons and the idea to search for survival gear and to generally to survive. It also shows stylistic conventions of the genre by having a group of enemies, searching the area, also the beautiful settings in contrast to the distorted and diseased infected being hostile towards you. It sits in very well, it is definitely one of the best games of this genre, and reinvented the genre and has shown that the story is essential to creating a great game.

You are the protagonist, the story is set 20 years into the future in a post pandemic world, overrun by infected. There are safe zones scattered around, heavily guarded and the people inside are treated like prisoners, the resistance fights these safe zones for freedom, they are called the “Fireflies.” Your goal is to deliver the cure known as Ellie, to the hospital at the other side of the country and reunite with the fireflies to create a vaccine. You are the protagonist known as Joel and you travel across the country with Ellie, meeting friends and foes across the way. The story makes you approach characters carefully as you are seen to think that they are hostile. The storyline heavily impacts the gameplay, it informs how you play, why you play and how you search for supplies and conserve ammo. The story thoroughly connects with the target audience, as the storyline is compelling and the characters are easily connected with, making the audience connect easily to the game.

The game was published by Sony Computer Entertainment, followed by a 3 year development led by Naughty Dog. The enemies in the game were programmed to make decisions based on scanning the environment and making decisions based on that, leading with successful outcomes, whereas Ellie was programmed to present her personality and attitude. The game was created in mind that the player would generally be low on supplies, to make it realistic, this also links to the characters being programmed for weightlessness which links to the combat being quick and clean. They used the game engine from the Uncharted series, but changed a lot of aspects to suit the current game more.

Characters in this game are arguably the most important aspect when trying to engage with the audience, they are very easy to sympathise and connect with. Ellie and Joel, the two main characters and all the NPC’s are essential to the games progression and audience interaction. Based on the personalities of the protagonists, this will appeal to specific target audiences, mainly being teenagers and people interested in this specific genre of gaming. The characterisation matches the conventions of the genre by focusing on the character and story development like any games in this genre would. I feel like the characters are very strong in this game, they feel like real people with real emotions and the story progression allows you to get to know them and sympathise with their circumstances and decisions they have to make.

The challenge in the gameplay is searching for supplies and trying to conserve ammunition, but at the same time surviving with a decent amount of health. Another challenge in the gameplay is the act of stealth, it is generally a mastered talent being stealthy, in this game it is essential to conserving ammo, and it’s a challenge because if you get caught at close range you are bound to die. There are different difficulties for the different types of players, there is new game plus to add to that already hardened difficulty carrying on with your upgraded perks and weapons. Some specific elements that are key to the games success are the; weapon variety, the variety of styles you can choose to play, the game mechanics etc. The gameplay and narrative coincide very well, they are essential to each other and the success of the game. The gameplay is constantly evolving to keep the players attention by releasing DLC’s to further the story line progression and expanding your arsenal of weapons so you can play in different styles.

The target audience are teenagers and generally people interested in action, adventure games as well as survival horror; it entices people that like storylines and character progression. The main indicator that the game is directed towards teenagers is that one of the protagonists of the game is a teenager; it allows the audience to sympathise and really connect with the story progression and the character. Where as an indicator that it is suited towards people that are a fan of the genre, is that the game indicates stylistic conventions of the genre very well to entice that specific audience. It compares to other games quite similarly when targeting the same audience, as they are all targeted to the same audience they have to implement features and aspects that would appeal to that specific genre, stylistic conventions of the genre; with teenagers is gore and action, and with people interested in this genre is the story telling aspect and character progression.

The Last of Us is available on PlayStation 3 and was later remastered for PlayStation 4 with better graphics. It’s suited to PlayStation 4 more because the better processor on the console allows the game to be played at a higher frame rate with better graphics. It is suited very much to this platform rather than Xbox, with the light up controllers changing colours to symbolise your characters health for example.