The Last Guy – PS3 – Review

You know the story, purple ray
hits the Earth, massive zombies, giant bugs and all sorts of shenanigans ensue
and you, as the only man, er, guy capable of doing anything, join forces with
the United Rescue Force to safely evacuate as many people from largest cities
on Earth before they become lunch. You have incredible speed, a natural
leadership ability, and a cape. If this description doesn’t do it for you then
this is probably not the game for you. But if you enjoy games that are a
little goofy, incredibly addictive and feature creatures that eat people, then
you may have just found your favorite game on the PlayStation Network.

A first glance, you may think that
The Last Guy is nothing you want anything to do with. And I don’t blame you,
when I read the description, I had conjured up all sorts of other visuals in
my head. Instead, the game is viewed from the top down, only the view is that
of a hot air balloon somewhere around 4,000 feet in the air. You stare down on
the city and can see the roofs of all sorts of buildings and cars and well, a
city. From here, you control your colorfully attired character by moving him
around the city and standing next to structures. As you do that, people come
rushing out as if you were the last bus out of the city, and in a way you
are. As you run, your line of people gets longer and longer. Good thing too,
the only way to complete a level is to evacuate a set amount of survivors to
the "Escape Zone." Usually a large parking lot or park or other big area where
thousands of people can safely huddle until the massive ship from
the Thunderbirds shows up and wisks everyone away.

Now, this may sound easy, but it
ain’t. The more people you collect the longer the line becomes. And this is
the kind of game where the people, no matter how long the line gets, will
follow the person in front of them. That means if you run west, loop around a
car and run east, you will literally run past the 400 people trailing you and
they will keep going until they loop around that car too. Now before you say,
"just drop em off at the escape zone" you will quickly realize that because of
the time crunch you are under (each level has a finite amount of time) and the
barriers that can only be broken with XXX amount of people providing extra
ramming speed, you will quickly discover that this is a game of monsters
and strategy.

Interestingly enough, even though
the backstory is that the world is now plagued by zombies, your preconceived
notion of what a zombie is, might as well be tossed out the window. Zombies
are big shambling things and then there are the zombie bugs, giant bugs
ripping up the roads in premade paths, learn the path and you may be golden.
But they all have the same rule, don’t let them see you, otherwise, people
will be killed.

Of course the game throws some
surprises at you, such as the four VIP citizens which are hidden around each
city, the ultra secret bonus rounds each level has if you can actually rescue
all those VIPs, leveling up by our hero and all sorts of other really
wonderful wackiness that has to be seen to be believed; heck, the game even
has a strange sense of humor to it that just resonates with me.

TLG is not going to win any awards
for graphics, in fact, the game really is simplistic in its visuals, and the
PS3 could probably run it using 17% of its power. But the game still gets a
pass, because it doesn’t need fancy graphics. And understand, the visuals are
kind of cool. The rooftops, the fast-moving giant insects, the first time you
loop a building with a line of people so long you can touch the end. There is
some fun, little visuals that help move things along, but just don’t go in
expecting much and all will be bliss.

The odd music that the game
features is almost as much fun as the game is. The screams of people when they
see a zombie, the rescue vehicle flying in and flying out … the game just
has a really good vibe about it, clever sound effects included.

Now the game does have some slight
(and I mean slight) RPG things going for it, our hero begins leveling up and
gets more stamina for when he needs to sprint. Also, he features the cool
ability to turn on a thermo-vision style camera, which shows where crucial
items are around the level, including warps back to the rescue zone, the
ability to freeze time, invisibility, etc. Our man … I mean guy also has
this nifty whistle that makes the line of people quickly huddle in the event
that a zombie or other baddie sees them, cause when they do, they will start
killing off your rescuees.

Gameplay: 8.0
Easy to control, challenging
levels, hidden items, lots of strategy is needed if you plan on being the
savior of mankind.

Graphics: 7.0
Less is more in this highly
addictive game.

Sound: 7.0
Your controller shakes as the
people scream when a giant cricket looking thing starts gobbling up people,
this game is fun.

Difficulty: Medium
You can beat the game in a weekend, but to get all the VIPs and beat
those bonus levels, you really need to be a superhero.

Concept: 8.0
The game is actually a really cool idea. It borrows heavily from all
sorts of B movies and features just all sorts of wackiness, it’s great.

Overall: 7.7
It’s a fun game that takes what
you know about zombie games, bends it on its ear, kicks it in the shin and
then pours malt-o-meal on its head as it laying there on the ground, good
times.