The Last of Us Part I

Steam Reviews

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• Recommended Posted September 5, 2025 on Steam The saddest part about this game isn't the cutscenes. It's finishing the game and knowing you'll never play it for the first time ever again. One of the best games ever made!! A masterpiece 10/10
• Recommended Posted May 17, 2026 on Steam An action-adventure game that tells a story of survival in a post-apocalyptic world I’ll start by saying that in my review I won’t be comparing the game to its pre-remastered version; I’ll focus solely on the part I’ve played! ✅For me, the biggest strength of this game and the reason I simply love games like this is the relationship between the main characters, Joel and Ellie. As the story unfolds, they gradually build their bond through conversations, shared experiences and small everyday moments during their journey they talk to each other constantly and comment on the game’s events as they happen ✅Interactive cinematic experience. There’s a strong focus on emotions, the characters’ relationships and tension <3 ✅The graphics in this game are brilliant. Very realistic faces and facial expressions, the game’s lighting, and the detailed environments overgrown cities, ruined buildings ✅Great atmosphere Ruined, abandoned cities, buildings overgrown with vegetation and quiet, melancholic music, which creates an atmosphere where something interesting could happen at any moment. ✅Every shot can attract the enemy’s attention, which may result in them attacking us in a group ✅Safes in the game serve as hidden rewards for players, allowing us to find really great items for upgrades, etc. (of course, they require a code, which we can find thanks to clues in notes) ✅The game’s sound design is excellent, building tension during exploration and combat. The music is perfect whether you’re sneaking up on an enemy, engaging in fast-paced action, or calmly exploring the map; ambient sounds and enemy noises are also a definite plus ✅Simple yet extensive crafting system: we can make Molotov cocktails, first-aid kits and blades, with new skills unlocking as we progress through the game. BUT BEWARE: we must keep a sharp eye out for training manuals, as these allow us to further develop our skills, and so on, whilst searching for special supplements ✅Monster types (not enough variety, but I’ll mention that in the cons) what I mean is that each of these monster types behaves differently, e.g. the Clickers are blind but see thanks to echolocation (sound) and can kill with a single blow the suspended attack suddenly from hiding or from the side Runners are very fast and aggressive, etc. ✅ Well-balanced gameplay where you can also choose whether to kill silently or kill loudly (by shooting) ✅The gameplay is based on exploration, stealth and fighting for survival. There is very little ammunition if you play on a high difficulty level, so you need to plan each encounter carefully. The game rewards caution and cunning rather than reckless fighting. ✅The game’s pace shifts from very calm to moments where a lot is happening on screen for several minutes, with plenty of action ✅ Very realistic shooting. At the start of the game, aiming is slow and ‘shaky’. The crosshair often wobbles, especially with handguns and without upgrades ✅Realistic character behaviour during combat and healing Joel reacts to being hit in a natural way, e.g. he clutches the wounded area, limps or loses his balance, which gives the impression that he is genuinely feeling the injury. Similarly, during healing, the animations are believable, as we see him applying dressings and bandages in real time. ✅6 difficulty levels: Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Survival and Brutal Reality (The higher the difficulty level, the fewer resources you have, and enemies are harder to kill and deal more damage) ✅You can upgrade weapons by finding bolts, and with these you can upgrade all weapons to improve various aspects such as rate of fire, spread, increased ammunition capacity, etc. ✅Brilliant voice actors (Im talking about the Polish dubbing here) ✅Interesting feature is the ‘Listen Mode’ system, which, when activated, sharpens Joel’s hearing and reveals the silhouettes of enemies through walls (if they are within earshot). ✅The game features a variety of weapons, from pistols to shotguns, a flamethrower, and melee weapons like a baton, machete, axe, and plank ✅Behind-the-scenes featurette is available, where the developers explain how the game was made ✅In my opinion, the price is absolutely fair ✅The “Left Behind” story DLC ✅❌As always with linear games, everyone has to decide for themselves whether they like linear games ❌Minor bugs (When I dived into the water, I fell off the edge of the map XD) ❌The game could have had a greater variety of characters, as we only have clicking monsters, runners, bloaters, suspended creatures, as well as soldiers and bandits. In my opinion, the game had more potential in this regard ❌Sometimes I hadn’t been to all the locations after most cutscenes and transitions to a new location, you cant go back to previous areas, which annoyed me a bit because I’d unwittingly opened a door where I thought I’d find something, only to find a passage to a new place with no way back ❌ In my opinion, extras such as skins shouldn’t be unlocked only after finishing the game, because many people just wanted to experience the adventure once and finish it, or perhaps collect points during the story to unlock concept art or model galleries XD ✅✅ Verdict: [strike] Terrible [/strike] , [strike] Bad [/strike] , [strike] Mediocre [/strike] , [strike] Decent [/strike], [strike] Good [/strike] , [strike] Very Good [/strike] , [strike] Excellent [/strike] , [b] Masterpiece [/b] [quote] If you'd like to see more of my reviews, you can find them on my curator page: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45994324/admin/reviews_manage/]CuratorKingViking[/url] and on my group: [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/CuratorKingViking]GroupKingViking[/url] If you have any questions about my reviews, feel free to ask. I’m happy to answer them. All reviews are my own!! Best regards, King Viking Bezimienny, Polish Game Reviewer. [/quote]
• Recommended Posted March 23, 2026 on Steam Real people. Not video game characters. Had me in tears more times that I would like to admit. A master piece.
• Recommended Posted December 31, 2025 on Steam I honestly can’t believe how they managed to make a game with such limited gameplay, yet do everything else so perfectly that it went down in history. This is my fifth completion on PC after playing it first on PlayStation. Truly one of the greatest games of all time. 10/10.
• Recommended Posted December 27, 2025 on Steam I started The Last of Us thinking this was a zombie game. It isn’t. It’s a game about loss, guilt, and pretending you’re fine while the world quietly collapses. I opened a door, picked up some supplies, and somehow ended up questioning my morals. Clickers aren’t the real threat — attachment is. Joel doesn’t save the world. He barely saves himself. And Ellie? She turns sarcasm into armor and hope into a dangerous habit. Combat is slow, heavy, uncomfortable. Every bullet feels expensive. Every fight feels like you should’ve avoided it — but didn’t. • I explored → found nothing but silence. • I protected Ellie → failed emotionally. • I made a choice → the game never forgave me. This isn’t about zombies. It’s about what you’re willing to become when love survives longer than humanity. By the end, I wasn’t relieved. I was quiet. 10/10 – The world ends, people remain, and that’s somehow worse.
• Recommended Posted January 14, 2026 on Steam I saw nothing technical to complain about, so let's cut to the chase. I'd play it for the contemplative music and apocalyptic set pieces alone, so naturalistic yet with a pinch of stylisation. Naughty Dog used technological advancements to breathe life into both characters and action. They couldn't have conveyed their vision fully without such an intricate facial animation and nuances. Hell, spit flies out Bill's mouth when he angrily reprimands Joel! Now, that's a great fusion of tech and lore. Swapping weapons, looting, going down the stairs, how Joel puts his hands on a wall when near a cover - the animations cannily flow into one another, pleasing the eye on a primordial level. Some inconsistencies apply, but none are immersion-breaking. Good! Because here immersive storytelling is instrumental in every aspect of design. [h3]Just Cargo[/h3] Long story short, disgusting parasitic mushrooms started infecting people with mind-controlling spores, turning them into repugnant monstrosities and redecorating the world in their image. I believe that some fungus could undo our whole civilization since I used to live in an place where the black mould's reign just couldn't be stopped. In the cold open, you play as Joel, a daughter's dad who wears nothing but flannel and jeans. After a brief introduction, the outbreak begins and a tragedy strikes during our little family's evacuation attempt. Then we leap into the post-apocalyptic present where a still grieving husk of Joel reluctantly gets an Uber job of delivering Ellie, a young girl immune to the spores, to a hospital on the other end of America. She is humanity's last hope for a vaccine. It's basically one atypically great escort quest during which you'll bond with Joel and Ellie whom he initially perceives as nothing but cargo. Joel is a private, abrasive man, perfectly playing off Ellie's chill. She sticks to him like glue and doesn't get herself killed for no reason. She's independent, but not in a spoiled way. Not being just a cute object to protect, Ellie can handle herself and her comebacks could make me cry if I ever crossed her path. Joel doesn't want her around the same way I hesitate to adopt a cat. What if I screw up? But it's not all doom and gloom, eventually you'll see cute moments like when Ellie reads a book full of awful puns and they both just stand there cringing. She kept reading and I kept listening. Cringe is addictive, which is why I still have followers. [h3]Chokehold[/h3] There's no hivemind overlord in whose heart you could plunge a sword to make things right. The real enemy are human vices and traumas, personified and scattered to avoid becoming grotesque. This whole story is about taking responsibility and letting go of the cynicism that stems from our fear of pain. There's a steep price to pay no matter how you feel. You either go down in crust or man up and allow yourself be vulnerable in a world which doesn't forgive vulnerability. Cynicism is the way of a coward, although, it's difficult to draw the line where compassion becomes indulgence. "Things happen and we move on" is a more convenient option in the world of TLOU. It's alien to our sensibilities, so is its morality. Just do the right thing, they say. Except that thing swings with the weather vane of perception. Here, character interactions portray it genuinely. You'll mostly meet mad creeps, and even kind people among them are lunatics from our point of view. "It's the normal people who scare me". The ones who find the predicament adequate are the real psychos. People's charm doesn't feel forced, everyone is given development via laconic banter before they either die or betray you. So abruptly, lifelike, with no fanfare. Human interaction in TLOU is fleeting, so you get attached to the main cast. That's why I rooted for Joel until end credits, irrationally so. I thought I knew better, but this game made me doubt myself. Can I possibly tell what's right from across the abyss prostrating between souls? No amount of baggage could ever fill it, but this game's song crosses the gap. There were points when I was close to crying without the sad piano to manipulate my emotions. It kept me in a chokehold. [h3]Nuts & Bolts[/h3] It's a hard game to put down. I almost cried from the other end a few times. Sure, it's cinematic and slow-paced, but it's still a gamey survival horror that doesn't lag behind its peers. Then again, I'm a simple man! Gimme naturalistic brick vs skull violence and I'm sold. Have you seen that weighty ragdoll? Pure art. It's a game of quick death, yet quicker kills. I replayed half of the encounters just to see if I could kick ass harder. There were few games that pushed me to celebrate virtual violence like that: Manhunt, Max Payne, and The Punisher. Similarly to Frank, Joel is bestial in his chimp-like brutality. His adversaries justly call him crazy, for he would tear off your genitals and eat your face if needs be. Brick by brick, I made my way through the hordes of mutants and humans, playing the game as a beat 'em up until encounters become too massive to go loud comfortably. Turns out, sneaking is also fun! Helpful sound cues and predictable behavioural patterns alleviate frustration while leaving the room for risk. Armed humans are able to kill Joel in a couple of shots and newly-infected zombies are fast. A Clicker represents the next, sturdier phase of the infection. It can't be killed with bare arms. They don't see or hear you if you move quietly, but sometimes they let out a scanning scream that blows your cover if you get caught in its range. You never feel completely safe. Then goes a bulky Bloater who act as mini-bosses. They charge for an instakill, throw spore grenades... real party poopers. Humans also have aces up their sleeves. They react to noises and sights in a lively manner, then smoke you out of cover and partake in coordinated flanking or try to bargain when things get heated. Expect being ambushed, trapped, chased. But even during serene moments of looting the world blind bodies and booby traps always remind you where you at. Sadly, I just listed the whole roster, but sometimes less components only solidify a structure. You get your plot going in-between encounters, then get thrown in a semi-open area to fight for your constitutional right to dumpster-dive in peace. In TLOU, rags are the riches used in an emergent crafting system. Got a bat, some tape, and shivs? A makeshift macuahuitl would last you a couple of kills. Found a manual on bombs? Get better ones. Sometimes you find tools for higher-tier gear upgrades: additional quick slots, ammo capacity, reload speed, etc. The guns are fab! Crafting materials needed for certain stuff intersect, introducing tough choices to make on the fly. A constant stream of loot provides your hands with something to do and your mind - with dopamine. It's scientifically precise and realistic in a sense. Easy to reach places don't have much to offer, a damp cellar ridden with infectious spores is where it's at. [h3]Closure[/h3] It's precious - to forget the melting glaciers of our old world for a few hours, leaving behind our grief for a demented dream that melts with them as we enter someone else's nightmare, so close yet far-out. If the world we build is a mandala at its core, then what is a post-apocalyptic game if not a meditation on its impermanence? There were plenty of extinction events in the history of Earth when 99% of all life perished, but the one portrayed in The Last of Us is humanity's personal apocalypse. The nature thrives, sprawling across the ruins, while humans skitter around like rats in a maze built by their ancestors. This is the world of hurt where you either can handle the pain or sink in despair. Or become some cannibal's sex pig, whichever fate prefers. But it's not your turn yet and it feels good. My curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35305390-Big-Bad-Mutuh/?appid=262060]Big Bad Mutuh[/url]