Why The Last of Us?
When I bought my first-ever console in 2019, the PS4, I tried to play The Last of Us: Remastered. Why do I say “I tried”? Because back then, the game felt too heavy, dark, and terrifying. The desolate buildings, the grim environment, and people fighting desperately for survival—it all made me quit after barely an hour of gameplay. I never thought I would return to it and instead played more “chill” games.

But when I started this blog, my first thoughts weren’t, Will this work or not? or Do I really want to put so much time and effort into something so uncertain? I never worried about that. The first thought that came to mind was, What should I start with? What’s a game I would enjoy playing? I had already earned Platinum trophies in 16 games, mostly major AAA titles. The one game that I knew was beloved but had never given a fair shot was The Last of Us: Part I. Since the new “Remake” version was added to the PS Plus catalog, I decided to finally give it a try.

The Approach
So now that the game was decided, how should I approach it? Should I check the trophy list first, look up any missable ones, and ensure I grab them along the way to save time? Or should I go in completely blind? This was a no-brainer. Knowing Naughty Dog’s flawless history of storytelling, I wanted to experience the game first—without worrying about anything else.

The Journey Begins
I decided to play on Moderate difficulty. I don’t like to make a game harder intentionally, especially on my first playthrough.

The game begins with an entire city in chaos, trying to escape a new disease. This infection takes over the human body, turning people into bloodthirsty cannibals. In all the madness, Joel loses his daughter. At that moment, I knew this game wasn’t for the faint of heart. It holds nothing back and does its absolute best to show that the world is dying.

Twenty years pass, and now we find ourselves in a quarantine zone alongside Joel’s partner, Tess. As we step outside to retrieve our stolen guns, I take in the world outside. The graphics and attention to detail immediately make me feel proud of my decision to get a PS5! Our mission is to track down Robert, who’s desperately trying to evade us. While sneaking through buildings to avoid military patrols, I find my first Firefly pendant—one of the many scattered collectibles in the game. And with that, I acquire my first Bronze trophy.

Reaching Robert isn’t easy. When we finally confront him, he reveals that he sold our weapons to the Fireflies. Then, out of nowhere, the Queen of the Fireflies herself—Marlene—appears. She promises to return our guns in exchange for smuggling something out of the city. Little did we know, that “something” was actually a 14-year-old girl named Ellie. We push ahead to the Outskirts and face our first encounter with the infected.

Here, I learn that crouching doesn’t necessarily mean stealth. While the infected Clickers can’t see, they can still hear you. Pushing the L-stick lightly makes your movements quieter. After two failed attempts, I finally manage to clear this section. Scavenging for resources, I find a note with a combination code to open a safe.

After reaching the Capitol Building, we discover that the Fireflies have been killed. Tess, who was infected earlier during our encounter in the museum, finally comes to accept that Ellie might actually be the key to saving the world. With no other choice, we leave Tess behind to face her fate, while Joel and Ellie are forced to escape as the military closes in. The Capitol Building offers plenty of cover for stealthy navigation, but after finding a new weapon—the rifle—I decide to ditch stealth for this encounter. There’s something satisfying about going all-out in combat every now and then.

Joel and Ellie eventually arrive at Bill’s Town, which, in my opinion, feels like the most visually vibrant area so far. At the same time, it’s overwhelming—the sheer number of shops and houses to explore had me combing every corner, trying to find as many collectibles as possible. So far, I had come across artifacts, Firefly pendants, shiv doors, and safes, all of which made exploration even more rewarding. Bill’s introduction is one of the most memorable in gaming history. Joel gets caught in one of Bill’s traps, leaving him hanging upside down as infected swarm in. Just as things seem dire, Bill shows up, saving us from a horde of infected. What follows is an intense, heart-pounding escape through multiple houses, with the three of us barely making it to safety.

Things quiet down for a bit, and I stumble upon my first training manual—another layer of progression that adds to the growing list of collectibles to keep track of. But there’s no time to rest. In search of a working car, we make our way through a high school, where I encounter something truly terrifying: the first Bloater.

I won’t lie—this thing intimidated me. It’s the largest infected I’ve seen yet, and despite its massive size, it moves surprisingly fast. After several failed attempts, I finally manage to bring it down with a barrage of shotgun shells. With the Bloater out of the way, we secure a vehicle and head toward Pittsburgh, where even more dangers await.

Pittsburgh: The Most Overwhelming Chapter

Arriving in Pittsburgh, I realize this chapter is even more overwhelming than Bill’s Town. There’s so much to explore, so many collectibles to find, and countless encounters with Hunters. Whether I’m sneaking through the streets, buildings, or a museum, danger is everywhere. On the highway, I find a comic book—another trophy unlocked. Later, we meet Henry and Sam, two brothers also trying to find the Fireflies. Henry tells us about a radio tower where they might be stationed. We decide to wait until nightfall to sneak past the Hunters.

Playing blindly for the Platinum means you’re bound to miss trophies. That’s exactly what happened here. This section required me to turn off a generator while remaining in stealth. I did it but didn’t get the trophy. I didn’t even know such a trophy existed, so restarting from the checkpoint never crossed my mind. And just like that, I missed it.

The chapter ends with Ellie and Joel jumping into the river to escape from the hunters. As they struggle in the water, Henry saves them and drags them to the shore. We now enter the sewers.

Shortly after stepping inside, we encounter a small puzzle where I have to help Ellie cross to the other side of the water so she can access the contraption. I ride it along with Henry and Sam and, to my surprise, earn another trophy.

Fighting the stalkers in the sewers was tricky. They came from every direction, leaving little room to run and reposition. This was the most difficult encounter I had faced in the game so far. After escaping the sewers, we reach the suburbs—an area as empty as any other but filled with multiple points of interest where almost everyone has an optional conversation. I try to trigger as many as I can while also hunting for collectibles. This eventually leads me to my first Silver trophy for finding all the safes.

Moving further down, at the far end of the street, a sniper is trying to pin us down. Joel has to work his way around to take him out while Henry is supposed to “distract” him—and by “distract,” I mean staying in one spot behind cover, doing absolutely nothing! Not that I needed his help anyway. Once I got out of the sniper’s field of view, the rest was a piece of cake. Stealth has never been my strong suit; I love to engage in all-out combat, and that’s exactly what I did here. To take out the hunters guarding the sniper, I used up my entire arsenal—especially the nail bombs. After finally eliminating the sniper, Ellie and the others are attacked by both hunters and infected. Joel’s job? Cover them with the sniper rifle—one with UNLIMITED AMMO!

Headshots after headshots—the hunters and infected didn’t stand a chance! But eventually, the infected overwhelm us, and we are forced to escape. Joel and the others find a place to rest for the night.

The next morning, Ellie wakes up and goes to check on Sam—only to find that he has turned. The poor guy was bitten, though I kept wondering how, since I never let any infected get near my crew. Henry, devastated, is forced to shoot his own brother. Overcome with grief, he turns the gun on himself. At this point, I had come to accept that this game would throw tragedy after tragedy my way.

Time passes, and Joel finally reunites with his little brother, Tommy, who is now married to Maria. They, along with a small group, have settled in a dam, hoping to restore its power. The dam played a key role in my trophy progress—I found a training manual, used a workbench to fully upgrade my pistol for another trophy, broke every upgraded melee weapon during the hunters’ attack, and even got a trophy for petting Buckley the dog!

Joel asks Tommy to take Ellie to the Fireflies, which upsets her. She doesn’t want to lose Joel like she has lost everyone else, so she runs away.

When Joel finds her, they have an intense confrontation—a turning point in their relationship. Ellie openly expresses her growing attachment to him, and this makes Joel change his mind. He decides to take Ellie to the Fireflies himself.

Their next destination: a university where the Fireflies were supposedly conducting experiments. As far as trophies go, I didn’t make much progress here, aside from finding a few collectibles. Just as we learn that the Fireflies have relocated to a hospital, a group of hunters attacks. In the fight, Joel is gravely injured. I had accepted that anything could happen in this game, but I did not expect this. Somehow, Ellie manages to save him, dragging him to safety.

Now, it’s fall, and Ellie is out hunting for food in the woods. Just as she’s about to leave, she meets David. He offers her medicine in exchange for the deer she hunted. While they wait for his partner to retrieve the medicine, they are attacked by a massive wave of infected. For me, this was the toughest encounter in the entire game. The room was too small, I had only two guns and some throwables, and we were outnumbered by a large margin. After a solid 4–5 attempts, I finally managed to clear them out. Ellie returns to Joel with the medicine, but David’s crew tracks her down. They want revenge for their fallen men at the university—but also, disturbingly, they have resorted to cannibalism due to their dwindling food supply. David captures Ellie, but she manages to escape. The majority of this chapter focuses on her desperate attempts to flee while Joel, now recovering, sets out to save her.

As the story nears its conclusion, Ellie and Joel finally see the hospital in the distance. They pass through an underground tunnel filled with infected. I find my final workbench here, along with the last workbench tool, earning me two more Silver trophies. Shortly after, I walk a bit further and—boom! Not one, but two Bloaters standing close together, along with a few Clickers and Runners. I take out the Clickers and Runners with stealth, then climb up a truck and use it to my advantage. From there, I throw nail bombs, torch the Bloaters with my flamethrower, and unload my shotgun. What could have been a nightmare of a fight quickly turns into a cakewalk.

After countless struggles and emotional moments, we finally reach the hospital. Fireflies capture Joel and prepare to operate on Ellie—an operation that will kill her. But Joel refuses to let that happen. He fights his way through the building, reaching the operating room just in time to stop the surgery.

The final battle wasn’t as tough as I expected. There was plenty of cover, making it easy to reposition even when caught. Joel rescues Ellie, but Marlene confronts him at the final step. He takes care of her and escapes with Ellie. Just before the story ends, I find the last comic book, earning yet another trophy. The game concludes with Joel telling Ellie a lie—a lie to protect their relationship. A lie born from love and fear of loss. A lie that Ellie chooses to believe out of trust. As the final notes play, I sit in awe, my heart filled with warmth and ecstasy. Naughty Dog once again leaves me speechless with its masterful storytelling.

The Cleanup
With the main story finished, it was time to wrap up the trophies. I used chapter select to collect my missing collectibles, finding as many as I could on my own before resorting to online guides. Some were nearly impossible to spot—especially the hanging Firefly pendants! There was no way I would have found those without help.

After that, only Left Behind remained. This prequel/interquel explores Ellie’s past with Riley and her struggle to keep Joel alive. The trophies here were simple—beating Riley in a brick-throwing contest, playing an arcade game, exhausting all of Ellie’s jokes, winning a water gun fight, and so on. When the final cutscene ended, I received my last trophy, and with that—the Platinum!

Closing Thoughts
Overall, this was a deeply rewarding game to play and Platinum. The trophy list isn’t difficult, doesn’t feel like a grind, and never distracts from the story—the game’s biggest strength.

Thank you for joining me on this hunt! I’d love to hear your thoughts—your personal experiences with The Last of Us, any feedback or suggestions for me, or even recommendations for my next Platinum challenge! I also made a video on this, linked below.

I’m also excited to share that I got into the Elden Ring: Nightreign Network Test, launching later this week. I’ll be covering that both here and on my YouTube channel, so stay tuned—and keep huntin’!