The last of us Notes

I chose to play a new game on normal difficulty.

A young girl lies sleeping on a couch. Her father, Joel comes in and talks about jobs on the phone. He looks tired. The girl wakes and gives him a birthday present, a new watch. He takes her to bed when she falls asleep on the couch later. There is no sign of a mother. Later on the same night, the girl is in bed and the phone rings. A man she calls uncle Tommy calls sounding agitated and asks to speak to her Dad. He hangs up suddenly. I take control of the girl, her name is Sarah. The phone is now dead. I find a birthday card that Sarah forgot to give to Joel. I find a newspaper that has the headline concerning a spike in hospital admittance. I move through the house, presumably looking for Joel. I go into Joel's room and find the television on. It shows a reporter talking about increased aggression. An explosion cuts short the report, the screen goes into static. Then, outside the window in the distance the same explosion can be seen. I go downstairs and police cars can be seen racing by in the street outside. I find Joel's mobile, there are 8 missed calls and Tommy has sent a text saying he is on the way. I head into what looks like a study and Joel comes in from outside. He is anxious and tells us to stay away from the windows and doors. He tells us that the neighbors are sick or something. A man bashes into the glass patio doors. He repeats this until he smashes his way inside. Joel is given no option but to shoot him. Joel tells Sarah that they need to get out of the area. They head outside and Tommy arrives in his car. We get in and leave the house. In the car Tommy tells us that this is going on all over town and it appears from the news that it isn't an isolated incident, it may be going on all over the country. We pass buildings on fire and crashed cars. We pass by some people walking, Joel tells Tommy to keep driving. He seems to fear that they might have the sickness, despite them appearing normal. We reach town and stop at a traffic jam. A man in a hospital gown attacks someone right in front of us. We reverse and drive off. We enter a street where people are running from something. There isn't much room to move. Joel is panicking and tells Tommy to drive. He does his best and moves on down the street. Suddenly a car hits the side of ours at speed. Sarah comes around first and tries to get Joel to wake up. He does and I have to press square to bash out the windscreen to get out of the car. The infected are attacking people outside the car. Joel gets out and an infected man tries to attack him. Tommy appears and beats him with a brick. Sarah has hurt her leg in the crash. Joel has to carry her. There are infected appearing in larger numbers. We run down the street along with many others. The infected keep popping up and dragging people down. Joel gives Tommy his gun and tells him to keep them safe. A petrol station is blown up by a crashing car, cars are smashing everywhere. People are on fire in burned out buildings. we run aimlessly, getting less and less options. Tommy tells us to get into an alley. An infected has to be beaten away, Tommy shoots him. I run into a bar with infected hot on our heels. Tommy holds the door closed against them and tells us to keep going. I run outside and into the natural countryside. Infected are right on our heels. I come to a bridge and machine gun fire cuts down the infected behind us. A solider sees us, he talks on his radio. He is obviously being told that nobody is to be allowed to leave the town. Joel begs him not to, but he raises his gun. Joel tries to run but is caught by fire. The soldier looms over him about to kill him and is shot in the head by Tommy. Sarah has been hit, she lies bleeding from a midline abdominal wound. She dies in Joel's arms in what must be one of the most harrowing and emotional scenes ever seen in a video game.

Credits roll with sound bites from the news. The disease has spread worldwide and chaos reigns. A group called the fireflies are mentioned.

20 years later we see Joel wake in a house, someone is knocking on the door. A woman called Tess comes in. She talks about a drop, which went off without a hitch. She was jumped on the way home. She thinks that someone called Robert sent them. It seems Robert is an old acquaintance of Joel and Tess who has betrayed them. He is in hiding, though Tess has learned where. We are to go and find him. The city has a curfew, it seems that this post disaster world has a harsh regime. We see people being herded out of a house and scanned with a handheld device. One is designated as infected and seems to be killed by lethal injection. The next man tries to run and is shot. We head for a checkpoint, as we go through an explosion blows up a jeep on the other side. The gates close and we must turn back. I have to run away and follow Tess to a building, I am shown how to use a med kit. In the building we meet a man who tells us that Marlene is looking for Robert also. We come to a room and move a television unit aside to reveal a hole in the wall. A tunnel leads away behind it. I pick up hidden equipment, a backpack and a gun. I have to boost Tess up to a higher ledge. She then helps me up. We move on a little and come out into the outside world beyond the wall that keeps us safe from the infected. I have to pick up a ladder and move it to a nearby wall so we can climb into a house. I can search the house drawers for items. There is a firefly pendant collectible. I move on and am told that there are spores. Joel and Tess put on gasmasks. We move on and find some corpses with fungus growing out of them. I then find a man trapped under a filing cabinet who is still just alive. His mask broke, he asks that we kill him before he turns. I have to shoot him. We move on and find some of the infected attacking a man. I am told to sneak up on the infected. I grab one and strangle him. There are two more who appear to now be eating the man they grabbed. I try and sneak up on them but they see me. I have to shoot them. I move on and find some supplies and a note. I then jump out onto the street again. Tess moves aside a pallet and we go into another building. I must collect a plank here and give it to Tess like we did with the ladder. She places the plank over a gap so we can move on. I have to climb back up out of the hole. I see a firefly pendant hanging from a tree and shoot it down to collect it. I move on into another building. A young boy opens a door and Tess bribes him to check that the coast is clear for us. It seems to be. We come to what seems to be a little shanty town black market area. Dogs and rats are on sale, presumably for food. A bare knuckle fight can be seen through a fence. Tess speaks to a man who tells her that Robert is at the wharf. I meet a group of three men, they tell us to turn around. Tess shoots one of them. I am now into a firefight. Crouching behind cover is protection, we don't get into cover as in uncharted for example. I move on into another fight box, it seems quite obvious when we are in a fight area. I am encouraged to be stealthy and take out enemies that way to conserve limited ammo. I try this with various degrees of success. I find a shiv, which helps take down enemies in a quieter fashion than simply strangling them. I pass through a garage door into the wharf area. I can see Robert in the distance. There are a lot of enemies in this large area. I clear them out mostly by stealth and then have to go into an office that Robert has barricaded himself into. I chase him in and he tries to shoot us, he doesn't have many bullets and wastes them. we have to chase him down. He ends up in a dead end. Tess hits him with an iron bar, then Joel kicks him in the face. He appears to have sold guns that were Joel and Tess's. He won't tell us who has the guns. Joel breaks his arm. He then tells us that the fireflies have the guns. Tess shoots Robert.

Mission 3
Joel suggests we go and find a firefly, as if by magic one appears. The firefly leader, Marlene. She is also looking for Robert. She isn't pleased that he is dead. She has been shot and does not look well. She tells us that she paid Robert for the guns and isn't really in the mood to just give them back. She tells Tess that she will have to earn them. Soldiers appear and we have to move. It seems that the military at attacking the fireflies, there may not be many of them left. I have to follow Marlene through the city, up onto rooftops and through buildings. I find some soldiers and have to take them out. Marlene sees a few of her friends dead. Marlene leads us into a large building. She knocks on a door with a code and then we have to open it. Inside is a young girl. Marlene wants us to take this girl, called Ellie to the capitol building. She tells us that she will give us double the amount of guns that Robert sold her. Tess does not believe and wants to see the guns first. Marlene agrees to take her to the firefly camp and show her the guns. She does not want Ellie taken to the camp though, it is too dangerous. Joel is to keep Ellie safe and then meet up with Tess afterwards. I must now take Ellie home. I make my way through streets and then have to move a dumpster to reach a higher ledge. I then make my way into an apartment. Joel goes to sleep on the couch, Ellie seems at a loss as to what to do. He falls asleep. Ellie tells him that he talks in his sleep when he wakes hours later. Tess comes back, the guns are real. They want to take the job. We move through a secret passage and then I have to pull the cord to start a generator. This powers a lift, which we take down and then move through a tunnel out into the streets. I move through a canal like area and then up through a wrecked cargo container. As I come out of it a cut scene starts. Joel his hit by a rifle but and more soldiers appear. The begin to scan us and call for us to be taken back to the city as prisoners. Ellie stabs one of them in the leg and in the chaos Joel and Tess kill the soldiers. The scanner shows that Ellie is positive for infection. Joel thinks that Marlene has set them up. Ellie reveals that she was bitten weeks ago and has not become infected, she is immune. There isn't much time to discuss the revelation as the backup appears. we have to run for it. we must sneak through the broken down sewers and canal like area avoiding guards with torches. I them climb up and into some broken down buildings. Out the other side and into a street, there are soldiers looking for us with torches. I can sneak past or wade in guns blazing. I try to sneak but am seen and it ends up in a fist and gun comedy of errors. I get through and drop into a  hole, move through a pipe and enter a new building. I move through the building, finding some items, then go through a pipe into a sewer. I come to a grate and we pause to take stock. Joel is not keen to go any further. Tess appears to believe that Ellie may have some kind of immunity to the fungus. The Fireflies want her at their camp, Tess thinks they should deliver. Joel is having anxiety over Sarah, Tess realized this, she is not very sympathetic. We move on, reluctantly on Joel's part.

Mission 4
We move on into a city street, the skyscrapers are bombed out. Tess tells Ellie that they bombed the areas around the quarantine zones to keep the infected numbers down around them.  I come to an area with a large cliff and have to find my way around the edge. I enter a building. Inside we find some soldiers torn apart. There is a body of one of the infected. Tess calls it a clicker, they become blind and have to use sound to track people, like a bat. I break through a door with Tess and as we push through the other side a clicker attacks Joel. Tess knocks it off with a kick and shoots it in the head twice. Joel in unharmed. I explore some rooms and find some items. I come to an area were Tess boosts up to a higher level. It is clear, Ellie goes next then Joel. In this area a clicker is moving around. Tess throws a bottle and it heads for the noise. This seems to be the way to deal with it without fighting it. I throw bricks and bottles away from where we need to go and move past the area, climbing over some scaffolds. I move an obstacle block out of the way then we move out onto scaffolds on the outside of the building. Back inside we are past the blocked stairs. I move on and horrible noises can be heard up ahead. I find a new gun, a revolver. I find that some soldiers have been attacked by infected and are now in the process of turning if they haven't been outright killed by the clickers. I have to fight them and it is fairly hard to stealth kill them without attacking a mob of them around you. I manage it but the learning curve is steep. We move on through the building. Joel hold an obstacle out of the way, Tess moves another in it's path so Joel can get past. I move on through the broken up maze like interior of the building. I find a dead firefly, he has a Molotov cocktail. I come to an area with more infected enemies. Once they are dealt with I can find a ladder to pull down and we get out of the area. We come out into a street, then find our way blocked by a lorry. I have to go into a building nearby and kill some infected. Then move a movable block back out to the lorry to get over it. I come to a chain lifted grate and open it for the others, as I am doing so lots of infected arrive, I go through a close  the gate sharply behind me. The infected are unable to break in. Inside this room I find a workbench, which I can use to upgrade my guns. I move on and find that I am inside some kind of museum. I move around unmolested until I make my way to small broken down room. Joel holds up a beam for Tess and Ellie to pass under, they get through but he can't. Suddenly clickers can be heard on the other side. Joel can't get through to help. I go the other way and have to take out three clickers. I climb stairs and find an infected man banging down a door. I kill him and go inside, Tess and Ellie are there with many newly infected. I kill them all. We move out of the window onto a fire escape and up onto the museum's roof. I have to place a plank across the gap to the next building. The capitol building can be seen in the distance. Ellie and Joel have a little moment of bonding.

Mission 5
I move down off a rooftop onto some stairs and find another dead firefly. I have to move a bin to get over a locked gate. We come out into the street in front of the Capitol building. I move towards it, wading through chest high water without incident, then up the grand steps and inside. The fireflies are all dead. Tess is searching for clues to where they went and where the lab is. She seems desperate to carry out the mission. Joel on the other hand wants to cut and run. Tess reveals that she was bitten and that this mission is her last. Joel freaks out. Soldiers arrive outside. Tess tells Joel to finish the job for her sake if nothing else. She tells Joel that she will buy them time, she tells him to find Tommy. She prepares to take on the soldiers, knowing full well that she will die in the process. Joel reluctantly agrees and leaves. I move on through the building and come out above Tess's last location, I see her dead on the ground and a group of soldiers in the lobby. They come after us and I kill them all. This makes Tess dying seem a bit of an anti-climax. Though she was infected and would soon be trying to kill us. I jump from a broken down part of the building into another. There are firefly bodies here, one with a hunting rifle that I can take. I meet more soldiers and fight them. The hunting rifle is really slow to reload. I fight on through the capitol building, another ten or so soldiers to deal with before I make my way back out onto the street. We find a subway and head for it. As we go down the stairs the vehicle which brought the soldiers starts firing an emplaced gun down the stairs after us. we have to run for it. There is no going back, we are committed to the subway now. The spores and rampant fungus growth are our first clue that things are not going to be easy down here. Soldiers come in wearing masks looking for us. Ellie is not wearing a mask, though she is immune to the fungus so it doesn't matter. I fight the two soldiers who are looking for us and start exploring the tunnels. There are empty train carriages in the tunnels. I come to a flooded section and Ellie tells us that she can't swim. She stays at the side and I have to swim through this flooded section. I find some submerged goodies. I can dive and surface. We need to get Ellie across the water. I find a pallet floating in the water, I can push it around. I take it to Ellie and she jumps on. I then take it across the water and she gets out on the other side. she then lets a ladder down to me so I can climb out also. I move out of the subway into the streets again. Ellie tries to talk to Joel and it is clear that he is very raw over Tess' death. He  basically tells Ellie to shut up and to do exactly what he says when he says it. The plan is to move on to a small town nearby and ask a man that Joel knows for a car.

Mission 6
We are now out in the country. A sign says that we are coming to a place called Lincoln. Ellie has never seen woods before. I move through an open area of woodland and come to a fence. The gate is locked and there is razor wire on top. I have to find a plank and place it against the wall of a small building. Then climb up on the small building using a box and pick up the plank and place it between the two buildings to allow me to get past the fence. We can now see the town and are looking for Joel's friend. I explore the town and find some clickers and not a lot else. I need to boost Ellie over a gate to open it from the other side. I am now in a long street area. Most of the houses can be entered and there is loot to find. At one corner a clicker comes running out and gets caught in an explosive tripwire trap. Bill, the friend, seems a bit crazy. I move on and find someone shot with arrows. I place a ladder against a truck and climb over out of this area. I cross a plank and climb another ladder. I have to go back and take the plank so I can cross the gap between the next building. I move on, fight a clicker then get back down to the ground. There are more traps, some that can't be passed. I hear a noise coming from behind a door. I shoot the explosive of a trap to see if it works and it does, it blows up. I move on and come to a door. Joel opens it and is caught in a trap, it loops his ankle and drags him up to hang from the ceiling. Ellie tries to get him down, lots of infected attack as well as clickers. I have to shoot them and keep them from attacking Ellie and myself. Eventually the rope is cut and Joel freed. Clickers are arriving in massive amounts. One gets on top of Joel and someone saves him by decapitating it with a machete. Possibly Bill. We have to run, there are too many to fight. This turns into a rampage through the area being chased. We have to take on a few, then move into what seems to be a safe area. Bill handcuffs Ellie and check's Joel for bites. Ellie escapes before he can check her. Joel asks for a car and we don't learn yet what Bill owes him for, but he reluctantly gives in. There isn't a working car, though the parts are available to get one going. They are in another part of the town however. Bill agrees to get them a working car if we help him gather the parts.

Mission 7
I follow bill through some buildings, a bar and some rooms. Then come out onto the street. An infected is caught in one of his traps and he decapitates it. We are attacked by a group of infected in the street. We close a gate behind us and climb the hill towards a church. In the cellar of the church, a cut scene shows Ellie and Joel arguing about giving her a gun. Bill talks about having dependants in this world being a terrible idea. He gives us a shotgun. We also get nail bombs.  Bill tells us that a vehicle crashed nearby recently and all the men were killed by infected. The battery in the car will still be good. We need to get that battery. We move on up into the church and climb out of a window. We now move through a clicker infested cemetery. Then out onto a back street with runners, the more recently infected. I move through some houses and backyards, killing infected all the way. Then Ellie has to go through a dog door to get into another backyard. I move through this next house and then have to climb on an RV. I move through another house and come out into the street where the truck is. There are lots of infected in the way. I have to fight them. Ellie is boosted up on top of a school bus that is jammed into the fence. She drops a ladder down and we can then get past the fence into the school grounds. As we do more infected arrive. We are chased around the corner. Bill opens a window and we can go inside. as I get to the window a cut scene kicks in. Joel narrowly escapes getting bitten as he goes in the window. Bill tries to get the battery from the crashed truck. The infected are trying to break in. Joel and Ellie push a heavy piece of metalwork over the door. The battery has been taken. The group are forced to go further into the school as there is no way to survive against the large group that are battering the doors in. I run into the school and have to make my way through infested classrooms and corridors. We then come to the gym. Here we meet a boss creature called a floater. It is a large fungus covered humanoid that throws bomb like fungus bags. It take a proper pounding and if you are caught by it you die instantly. Joel called them bloaters. I eventually kill it, keeping your distance and hitting it with as much gunfire as you can seems to be the only strategy. Some infected also run interference. I now have to climb up on the bleachers to get out of the gym. As I am about to be hoisted up infected arrive and must be dealt with. I get outside and escape the school grounds, more infected need dealt with on the way. We get inside a house. In cut scene we find a man called Frank dead, he has hung himself seemingly due to being bitten and not wanting to turn. Frank is Bills partner. It seems that Frank got the battery and died for it. A car in the garage has it installed. The car is good though the battery is flat. we need to push start it and the battery will charge when the car is going. We have to push the car out into the street then down the hill. All the time we are interrupted by infected rushing the car. Eventually Ellie gets the car started and we head off in cut scene. We drop Bill off back in his safer part of town. He is grumpy and an asshole as usual. We never did learn why he owes Joel and Tess.

Mission 8
Ellie and Joel are on the road, Ellie stole a comic book from Bill's house and is upset that it has a to be continued ending. She has also stolen some tapes and gay porn. They come to the city and have to negotiate roads that are blocked up with old cars. A man appears in the street, he appears wounded. Ellie wants to stop and help. Joel realizes that it is a trap somehow, maybe he just doesn't trust anyone anymore. The man is faking and pulls a gun, Joel rams him and more men appear. A bus is ran down a hill and hits the car, we veer off the road and crash into a shop. In cut scene Ellie is grabbed and Joel attacked. I then have to mash square to prevent Joel being impaled on broken glass. I kill the man and then have to go and save Ellie. We get our guns from the wrecked car and are into a fight with the rest of the enemies. I kill them and we then look for a way out of the street area. I open a large drop down shutter door and Ellie goes through and props it open. Here we find many dead bodies, presumably people who fell for the trap. I find smoke bombs here. Joel reveals he knew it was an ambush because he has been on both sides. I move on through the building looting and then find the way out. we move onto a motorway type road filled with rotting cars. We fight some more humans and then enter a security checkpoint like area. This appears to be a zone like the one we started in, only now in ruins. I find what used to be a massive bookstore, turned into some kind of processing centre. It appears that the people revolted here against the soldiers, possibly over food rationing. I have to fight many humans in the bookstore. I pass out the back of the bookstore and go through some alleys. I come out onto a street. There are more humans in the distance. I come to a flooded area of the street, I have to get a raft and move it so Ellie can cross the flood and get onto the top of a bus. She moves a plank between that bus and the next. We can enter a flooded coffee shop via a cargo container and then cross the buses to where we need to go next. We now move into a hotel. I have to move a ladder to progress. There is a safe, the combination is found above it by crossing a decrepit stair in a note. I climb up the stairs, out of a window and into another part of the hotel, the rooms section. There are human enemies here. I explore two floors of the hotel fighting many enemies. They start using Molotov’s against me here. I have to open a lift and climb up through it. Then get Ellie boosted up into the next floor. As she goes up the lift plummets down a few floors with Joel on it. He is plunged into water at the bottom. Joel tells Ellie to stay where she is and tries to find a way back up. I have to make my  way through a flooded maze, taking long swims underwater. There is a gate which can be swum under by finding the right way to swim in the corridor under it. Spores appear, so I doubt that infected can be far away. A mass of rats flood down the corridor. I move on through maze like back room corridors. There are masses of fungus now, tension is being built. something is going to attack me soon. The do, they are clickers, but they can see, they hide as well, then rush attack when your back is turned. I come to a door I cannot get past without a keycard. I go looking for the keycard. I find a generator and activate it. This brings the infected out of the woodwork. A bloater and a few of these new harder to hide from infected. The keycard reader needs the power so this has to be done. Getting through the door fast is the best option once the generator is started as once through the door the infected don't come through after you. I move on and find a bench to upgrade at. Then move on and find more enemies. I see two of them attacking and killing an infected. I am now in the hotel restaurant. I kill them and a few more. Then have to place a ladder to reach the next floor. As I climb up an enemy kicks Joel in the face. He falls down and the man grabs him and tries to drown him in water. I have to quick-time struggle, but it looks like Joel is going to drown. Suddenly the man is shot. Ellie has saved Joel. She is freaked out at having killed someone. Joel is angry that she put herself in danger. We move on into conference room,a lobby and ballroom like area. Joel sees a way forward above and we have to push a piano into place to reach the higher level. I come out of the hotel onto a balcony.

Mission 9
There are many men in the street. Joel finds a rifle, he tells Ellie to cover him from the balcony and he will go down to street level to fight. Joel grudgingly thanks Ellie for saving his life in the hotel. I fight the large group of enemies. When it is clear Joel tells Ellie to come down. He gives her a pistol. I search the area and find some loot. We come to a grate and open it. Ellie jams a movable trolley in it. I then have to take the trolley out once I am in and move it so we can climb up and out of this room. In the next room is a workbench. I move on and we see two people being shot by an armored vehicle held by the bad guys. I imagine we will have to face this vehicle soon. I go up some stairs and find more enemies in an office like area. I fight a few men here then move back out into streets. There are some enemies up high in a building here as well as in the street. Some wire bomb traps also. I boost Ellie up to a ladder and she gets it down for us. to progress. We head on through an alley and the armored truck can be heard. The truck sit in the middle of the street. It seems that attacking it is out of the question as a message tells me to avoid it. I sneak through buildings and find some enemies in them to take care of. I make my through and the car sees us at one point. It gives chase though can't fit into small spaces. I run into a building and up the stairs, out onto the fire escape and into a residential building. We move into a room and Joel is grabbed and Attacked. Ellie tries to help and is knocked away. Joel gets the better of the man in the fight and is about to kill him when Ellie shouts out to tell him not to. A young boy is standing with a gun trained on them. There is a tense stand off. It seems that these two are survivors and not the crazy enemies types, yet. They were part of a group of survivors that entered the city looking for supplies. The  hunters ambushed them. They offer to help get us out of the city. Sam and Henry appear to be brothers. They have a hideout. We are to go to it. They lead us through some shops and streets. A toy shop and into an architects office. A cut scene starts in the office. Henry and Joel talk. Henry wants to join up with the fireflies. He plans to get out of the city at nightfall and go to a radio tower outside the city to meet with his group. We are invited to join in this plan. Joel agrees. We wait until nightfall, getting some sleep. We come out into the street near the gate that is an exit to the city. I have to sneak kill or go headlong at the enemies here. I kill them all and open a gate. As we do the armored car appears. we manage to get through the gate before it can start shooting. On the other side is a truck we need to climb up. I boost Henry up and he starts lifting the others up. The truck is trying to smash the gate down.
Ellie and Sam are lifted up, however the ladder breaks with Ellie. Leaving Joel trapped. Henry and Sam leave, leaving Joel for dead. Ellie joins him back on the ground. I go into a shutter door just as the car breaks in. I then have to move through a bar and fight enemies.We come out into the street and have to run from the car down a road. The bridge is finally here and it is out. We are trapped between the car and the water. Ellie makes the choice for Joel, she jumps in, Joel goes after her. He grabs her in the fast flowing water and is knocked out on a rock. Joel comes around on the bank, Ellie, Sam and Henry are there, they are outside the city.

Mission 10
Joel almost shoots Henry for leaving them to die. Henry tells him that he had to protect Sam. Ellie tells Joel that it was Henry that fished them out of the water otherwise they would have both drowned. Joel relents and doesn't shoot Henry. We are now heading for the radio tower. I investigate a boat that is beached and then find a grate which leads us into some sewers. I find a room where the door is barred by a trolley. I remove a grate and Ellie climbs through and opens the door. I then find a large area filled with water. The roof has caved in and it looks like we need to get up over to the other side. I turn a wheel and there is something jamming it. Jumping into the water I can see that there is a pipe in the way. I move it and the wheel can be turned. This opens a gate. I go through and find a pallet above the water on a walkway. I put the pallet in the water and take it back through. Ellie jumps on and I take her across. She turn on a generator that brings the others over on a lift. I am then helped out of the water by Henry. We move on to a door, which someone has been painting on. Inside we find an area that has been turned into some kind of camp. There is a crude alarm that drops bottles which smash to make a noise. It doesn't look like anybody is home. I move through this camp and find evidence of it's demise. There are infected here and I have to fight them. I come to a door and on opening it a trap is set off. A door slams down between us, trapping Joel and Sam and Henry and Ellie on either side of it. Clickers can be heard. Around five of them go after Ellie and Henry. There is nothing we can do to help. I go on and am attacked by many infected. I find  more of the camp, all of it derelict. I boost Sam up and get through a door. We hear Ellie and Henry fighting. I jump down and meet up with them. They have a horde on their tail and are running for it. I have to join them. We get into a room and Ellie and Sam go through a grate above the door. Henry and Joel have to face a horde before the door opens. On the other side we are in a small town. The radio tower can be seen in the distance.

Mission 11
I investigate the houses and find a lot of supplies. I move on through a back garden and enter a long street. A sniper is taking shots from a window at the far end. Joel goes to get him while the others give him something to shoot at. I make my way to the end of the street fighting enemies all the way. I get up to the room and kill the sniper. I then use is rifle to take on the enemies who are now pouring into the street to attack the group. The armored car appears and begins to advance down the street. The driver begins to hurl Molotov's out of the turret. I snip him when he does so and the vehicle crashes on fire. The Molotov dropped inside when he gets hit. Then infected attack we see both Sam and Henry tussle hand to hand with them. We have to regroup at the house and then escape out the back garden. In cut scene Joel and Henry bond over motorbikes. Ellie and Sam talk, Sam has been bitten and is concealing it. The next morning, Ellie wakes, Joel and Henry are making breakfast. Ellie goes through to wake Sam, he has turned in the night and attacks her. Henry is torn, but eventually shoots Sam. He then shoots himself.

Mission 12
Time has passed, it is now fall. Joel and Ellie are in Jackson County. I find a new gun, a large pistol with a scope, called El Diablo. I have climb down a slope to the rivers edge then follow it upstream. I come to hydro electric dam. There is no way across. I turn a wheel and it lifts a bridge up. However, it is only halfway, there is a similar wheel on the other side. I need to work out how to get to it. I enter the water and find a submerged building. A pallet is stuck on it and I can dive down and free it. This means I can ferry Ellie over and she turns the wheel allowing Joel to cross. I move on and we need to go through the hydro plant. I come to the gates and try and open them. A cut scene starts. People appear above the gates inside and aim guns. We are told to drop ours. Someone tells the woman who appears to be in charge that it's alright. Tommy appears, opening the gate. Joel and he have a fond reunion. We are introduced to his wife Maria. We go inside. The group are there trying to get the plant working so that their camp can have electricity. They have horses. Joel and Tommy are sent to help with turbines and Ellie and Maria go off together. Tommy gives Joel a picture he found when he returned to their home. The picture is of Sarah and Joel. Joel doesn't want it, he gives it back to Tommy. Joel asks to have a word in private with Tommy. They go to check on the men first. I follow Tommy and he tells us about their camp, they have twenty families and are self sufficient. If the dam can be made work they will have electricity. We take a walk through the plant and watch as the men winch in a huge metal part and then start up the turbines. Tommy and Joel go to an office to talk. Joel tells him that Ellie is immune. He asks for aid to reach the Fireflies. Tommy isn't very helpful. Joel gets angry. They are almost coming to blows when an alarm goes off. Something is attacking the camp. I have to make my way through the camp we toured fighting all the way. I make it back to Ellie and Maria. Tommy sees the way Joel has worried about Ellie’s welfare. In cut scene we see Maria and Tommy arguing, it seems Tommy has made up his mind to take Joel and Ellie to the Fireflies. Tommy and Joel are talking when they are informed by radio that Ellie has stolen a horse and ridden off. I ride out with Tommy to look for her. We take a road and find it blocked after a while. A track can be seen at the side of the road. I take the track until we come to an ambush. I am now fighting human enemies. I clear this small bandit camp and then we get back on the horses and move on. I come to a ranch and find Ellie's horse tied up there. I search the empty house and find her in a teenagers room reading her diary. She is amazed that all they had to worry about was movies and which skirt to wear with which top. It seems that Joel was actually asking Tommy to take her to the Fireflies alone. Joel planned to ditch Ellie with Tommy. Ellie reveals that she had learned from Maria about Sarah. She tells Joel that she isn't like his daughter. This does not go down well. Joel tells Ellie that Tommy can get her to the Fireflies. She tells him that she knows about loss, that she has been left or has lost everyone she cares about. Joel tells her that she is not his daughter and he is not her father. Their argument is cut short when Tommy arrives and tells them they have company. Bandits are in the house. I clear the house and in cut scene we all ride off.

Mission 13
Joel tells Tommy to go back to his town by himself. He has decided to take Ellie on by himself. He asks for the location of the firefly lab. It is in the science building of the University of Colorado. Tommy tries to tell him that there is a place for him in their town. Joel politely declines. The scene shifts and we see Joel and Ellie arriving at the university. I use the horse to ride in and find the direction of the lab. I need to dismount and enter a building. There are infected. I find a flamethrower. There is a gate, which needs power. I go upstairs and find a room full of infected. The flamethrower works well. I turn on the generator and then open the gate. I get back on the horse with Ellie. There are monkeys loose in the grounds. I come to another gate. There is a generator on the other side, it is disconnected from the  gate. I sneak under a blockage into a building nearby. I move through dorm rooms and drop down into a clicker infested area. There is also a bloater. I kill them all and move on. I find myself on the other side of the gate. I move the generator which is on a trolley to the wall and connect the cable. This allows Ellie and the horse through. I make my way through the grounds and come to the lab building. It is heavily fortified. I make my way around the side and find a gate. It won't open. I see a dumpster nearby that can be moved. I use it to approach the gates, which are down a hill. It runs away from Joel and smashes the gate. I then need to use it to make my way up into a hole in the wall. The lab is depressingly empty and unlived in. Joel and Ellie are beginning to think the Fireflies have left when a noise comes from upstairs. I move through the labs and find a bunch of monkeys. I find a voice recorder which tells of a man who was getting ready to leave. He tries to set the infected monkeys free and is bitten by one. I move on and find his dead body. The next voice recorder reveals that the fireflies were no closer to finding a cure than when they started. They have moved to Salt lake city hospital. As we are talking a light shines on us through the window and someone takes a shot at the pair. I now have to move back through the building fighting. As I come to a balcony a man grabs me in cut scene. Joel and he plummet off and Joel is impaled on a metal spike. I have to shoot at two men who come for Joel. Ellie then appears. She pulls him off the spike. I don't know why they don't teach medical classes for writers. Joel would be dead if he was spiked where it appears he was hit. If not dead in seconds from having major blood vessels torn open it looks like he is hit right square in the lower back. Spinal columns run through there guys. He couldn't walk if his spinal cord was hit. I have to stumble through the building, falling and being helped up. I have to help Ellie fight as best I can. It is obvious that Joel isn't going to make it. Ellie is nearly killed by two men, though she manages to fight them. We go outside and find another guy stealing the horse. Ellie shoots him. The pair get on the horse and leave. Once they are safe, Joel collapses off the horse. He appears dead.

Mission 14
The scene shifts, it is winter. Ellie is out hunting, there is no sign of Joel. I have to hunt a deer. Chasing it through the snow covered forest. I hit it with an arrow twice and it keeps on running away. It is leaving a trail of blood and prints in the snow. I track it to an abandoned looking shack. I move through the shack and find the deer dead from blood loss. Like Joel should be. As Ellie moves towards the deer two men appear. They ask to trade with her for the meat. She is suspicious. They have medicine, penicillin. Ellie wants it, Suggesting that Joel is still alive. One of the men stays and the other goes to get the medicine. Ellie takes his gun and holds him at gunpoint. They go into the shack for shelter. As they talk the sound of a clicker can be heard. One attacks. The man reveals that he has another gun. We have to now defend the room from clickers. I do this for a spell, but they keep on coming. We then go up some stairs further into the building. I have to shoot a clicker that tries to stop the man from blocking the stairwell with a metal box. I move on and enter a large generator like room. A piece of grating collapses and Ellie falls down. She is separated from the man by clickers. I need to make my way through and then rejoin him. We need a ladder that is out of reach. He boosts us up to it. We move on through a bridge corridor into another room. I find some dead bodies. There is some gear here. We are attacked again, another survive in the room horde mode. A bloater ends the fight. In cut scene Ellie and the stranger go back to the room with the deer. The man tells her that she handled herself well and that they made a good team. Ellie tells him that they got lucky. He believes that everything happens for a reason. Which he explains. He was in charge of the men that we fought in the university. He has been looking for us. It seems he doesn't want revenge now, he gives Ellie the medicine and lets her go. She runs back to her horse and back to her hideout in a house. Joel is alive, barely. His wound has been stitched, it is to the left of his umbilicus, likely he would have a perforated bowel, causing peritonitis and maybe even a speared kidney, still penicillin will make it all better. She gives him the drug.

Mission 15
The men have tracked Ellie to the hideout. which was obvious. She goes out to draw them away. I have to ride through the town at speed, being shot at and avoiding men who try and grab onto the horse. Eventually they shoot the horse and Ellie is pitched off into the snow. I am now in a lakeside resort area with many enemies. I kill them all and move onto a nature cliff side walk. I go through a tunnel. I come to a blocked part, I must go outside and pull a box which shifts the blockage in the tunnel. I then come to a hotel like building. There are more enemies here. I kill them and find a window that is open into the hotel. I go inside and find more enemies. The way out is through the front door. I go to it and it is blocked. I have to push square to barge through. A cut scene starts as I do. Charles grabs Ellie from behind and knocks her out. She comes around in a cell of sorts in a kitchen like area. Charles’ friend can be seen cutting up meat, which appears to be dead people rather than animal. Charles appears and gives Ellie food. She asks if it is human meat, he tells her it is deer. She is starving and begins to eat. Charles talks, Ellie tells him that his people didn't give Joel and her a choice. Charles talks a good game, though in reality he simply wants to be intimate with Ellie. She breaks his finger and tries to grab the keys. Charles isn't amused, he leaves, the suggestion is left that Ellie will now be killed.

Mission 16
Joel wakes in his basement, seemingly better now. One dose of penicillin, not even a loading dose mind you is enough to cure rampant peritonitis and a punctured kidney. Yay for antibiotics. I am back in control of Joel. Though he looks pretty ropey. I leave the house and find the street deserted. As I progress a shot rings out. There are some enemies at the far end. I attack and they appear to be making a retreat. Not their normal a.i. behavior. I give chase. I come to an alley end and two of them jump me. Joel knocks them both out. In cut scene we see him torture them to find out what happened to Ellie. Once he finds out he kills the men. The scene shifts to Ellie. She is about to be killed by Charles and his cannibal chum. Ellie is about to die, she tells Charles that she is infected and he is too. This give him pause for thought. Ellie tells him to look at her arm. He does and finds the bite scar. As they debate what this means Ellie grabs a machete and kills Charles' friend. She gets away, Charles giving chase. All she has is the knife. I find myself in control of Ellie in the street, there is a blizzard blowing. I have to try and get away. I enter a building, a pet store. I can see out the window and hear Charles talking, they think she is infected and loose. We can hear them talking about getting the children to safety. I have no weapon other than a small knife. If I am caught I can't seem to kill the enemies before they shoot me. Basically this is a stealth only section and I need to find a way out. I move through this massive town area, avoiding the patrolling enemies. I come to a large bar and steakhouse, it is empty, though it looks like they were getting ready to have a meal there. I find a door and open it. Charles is waiting. This is now a boss battle. A lamp is knocked over and sets the place on fire. Charles has the key to the now locked door and I need to get it off him. He has a gun and I don't. I have to sneak up on him and knife him when he can't see me. I do this twice and then there is a shift in scene. I am now controlling Joel heading towards the town. I meet some enemies at the petrol station outside town, then pass through a wall they have built around the town. There is a cargo container rigged as a door. I move on and come to a building. I find Ellie's backpack in the room. In the next room I find bodies hung up like lumps of meat. I move out of the building into the street. I can see the steakhouse on fire. The scene shifts again. Ellie and Charles lie unconscious on the floor in the steakhouse. Ellie comes around, but Charles is stirring also. Ellie crawls for her knife, Charles appears and kicks her in the gut. I have to keep on crawling. Charles gets on top of Ellie and appears to be about to rape her. She manages to get the knife and stabs him, she doesn't stop until Joel grabs her. Joel and Ellie leave the burning steakhouse.

Spring
Mission 17
Joel and Ellie have arrived at Salt Lake city, the hospital here is where the firefly lab was supposed to have relocated to. I start on a motorway and move down into the city. This is another abandoned quarantine zone. I climb a a car and a bus to get inside. I enter a building, which is the entrance hall for a zoo. Ellie is quiet and withdrawn. I have to get a ladder down to get up to the next level. Ellie is boosted up, however, she sees something and vanishes leaving Joel to climb up. It is a giraffe from the zoo, it is now running around wild. It sticks it head in a broken hole in a building and we get to pet it. There are more of them, a herd. Ellie is running on ahead, amazed by the giraffes. We come out onto a roof and watch the herd or around eight giraffes. Joel gives Ellie a choice here, to go back to Tommy's and just live. Or to carry on and find the fireflies. Ellie suggest that all they have been through can't be for nothing. We go into another part of the building down some stairs. Joel give Ellie the photo of him and Sarah. She stole it from Maria. I head through a quarantine triage zone, then down into a tunnel leading towards the hospital. There are infected here. I fight some infected, clickers and a bloater. There are more further down the tunnel. This time there are two bloaters and some clickers plus runners. I have to boost Ellie up to a crate. I now need to swim under a submerged bus and pass a ladder over to her. I come to a jammed gate. I have to boost Ellie over to get the gate from inside. A clicker has to be shot first. I move on and find a shiv locked room, filled with gear. There is also a workbench here. I move into a room filled with water that needs crossed. There is a pallet up on a balcony. I have to swim under a long submerged corridor to get up there. Once I do I take Ellie across. She then lets down a ladder for me. The ladder breaks as I climb it. I can now pick it up, use it to reach the balcony and pull it up again. I can let it down, then place it over the gap. We now come to some fast flowing water. I move on and find an area where I am blocked by an overturned vehicle. The water stops Ellie from coming forward to help. I eventually realize after about five minutes that you can run and jump onto the vent work. As we cross the bus that was jamming the way it comes loose. Ellie makes it across, Joel is swept away on it. He falls inside and is jammed in by the rushing water. Ellie climbs on top and breaks a window. She tries to reach down to help him out, however the bus moves again. Ellie is pitched into the water and Joel is submerged. He can get free, and we have to move through the torrent to get Ellie and get her out onto land. Joel does CPR, as he does two men appear and tell him to get his hands in the air. Joel ignores them and keeps on doing CPR. One of the men knocks Joel out with the butt of his rifle.

Mission 18
Joel awakes on a hospital bed, the fireflies have them, Ellie is safe. Marlene is there, she has lost an awful lot of men on the same Journey as Joel. Marlene tells Joel that he doesn't have to worry about Ellie anymore. She explains that they need to remove the cordyceps fungus that grew in Ellie, it has somehow mutated and not affected Ellie in any visible way. Unlike any other version of the fungus. The vaccine can only be found by dissecting Ellie's brain. Marlene tells Joel that she cares about Ellie, but there is no other choice. Marlene tells the guards to escort Joel out of the camp. The guard marches Joel out at gunpoint. Joel kills him with extreme brutality. I must now fight my way to Ellie through the hospital. There are many enemies and they have assault rifles. I can claim one from a dead guard. I move on up to the next floor. I find the surgery section. I think I am close. There are a lot of enemies in the way though. I manage to get past and enter the theatre. I shoot the surgeon and assistants and take Ellie out. I am now running through the hospital with her in my arms. I manage to make it to an elevator. At the basement parking garage I meet Marlene. She tells me to do the right thing here. The scene shifts. Joel is in a car. You are supposed to think that he has left Ellie. She is in the back seat and wakes up. Joel lies to Ellie, he tells her that there are more like her, who are immune. That it doesn't help with a cure. Interspersed with this is Joel shooting Marlene to get away.

Mission 19
The scene shifts forward in time, Joel is heading back to Jackson and Tommy. I am playing as Ellie. We walk on a bit through the woods. Ellie talks about her friend Riley who was bitten at the same time as her and died. All the others they lost on they way. She asks Joel if what he said about the fireflies was true. He swears that it was and the credits roll.

17 hours.
5% of trophies.