The Last of Us, Again

3 months ago, I paved through The Last of Us on both Normal and Hard difficulties. I loved every second of it. Without spoiling too much, I found myself crying and having to put down the controller from shock on at least one occasion by the end of my first playthrough.

I moved onto its engaging Multiplayer mode a few weeks later, when Renegade Sandwich and Brancake had received their copies. We desperately combed battlefields to feed the needs of our crumbling virtual clans. It wouldn't last though. We eventually got too busy, or too frustrated at the Multiplayer load times. Following the untimely demise of Renegade Sandwich's PS3, we basically left The Last of Us for other prospects.

Because The Last of Us is one of my most cherished gaming experiences, I suggested it to many of my friends. One of them was hesitant, so I offered to let him test it out at my place before his (totally inevitable) purchase. Watching him play the game again made me want to jump back in (not at the moment of course; that would make me a terrible host). Despite my attempts to convince him to bring it home, he left it my place.

Playing The Last of Us again obviously became quite tempting. So I'm stepping into Joel's shoes once more, but this time on Survivor difficulty. I tried it once, but the absence of a Listening Mode (Joel's ability to gauge enemy presence in the environment) made it hard for me to imagine how to survive for very long. Now that I'm a little older and a little bolder, maybe I can survive the hordes of Infected and Hunters and beat the game again.

I think I'm ready. Wish me luck!

Bernt Toast is an author at The Ops Centre. He is up to date on The Legend of Korra, and his futile attempts to firebend are amusing to watch.

Editor's Note: Unfortunately, due to the difficult nature of Survivor mode, Bernt Toast was killed in action. As a result, he will no longer be reporting from the field.