[Locke]

Another work week is over so I can sit down and enjoy some more Last of Us.

The brief moments of peace where you can just discover the world with Ellie are entertaining. I originally hated the level design where it was basically a linear corridor disguised as an open space but those rooms with "nothing" in them eventually become prompts for dialogue exchanges which show the growth of Joel and Ellie as characters and the growth of their bond also.

World and character building are clearly the games focus. One sequence finds Joel and Ellie witnessing the brutal murder of two civilians, unlike all the toku I watch Joel isn't meant to be a hero and as such he tells Ellie there is "nothing they can do" and they simply watch. Likewise though, the Hunters that murder the civilians simply see the people, and the killing, as really no different than perusing a supermarket.

In another moment I was being chased through alleyways by Hunters and some military grade machine gun. Blasting my way forwards to the next bit of cover, there was a moment where a Hunter pleaded with me to stop shooting, and I didn't even think before I fired my next shot which killed him.

These moments both paint a vivid picture of the Last of Us world, and how different it is from ours, despite existing in the shell of the familiar. All of this was done through play too, there was no need to prerender these or ground them in some paragon system. It is able to make you think about moral choices and care about what you're doing by appealing to you as a human, not by offering shiny incentives. I really dig that.

Even the difficulty didn't seem as bad as I remembered it being. The stealth is still clunky, the odds are still unfairly overwhelming but for some reason the checkpoint system now doesn't make me restart whole conflicts? I wonder if the game adapted to me struggling.