Game review: The Last of Us: Left Behind

Chris Schulz reviews a new DLC pack for last year's epic zombie-adventure The Last of Us.

It's in the dimly lit basement with flickering lights and creaking pipes. Or the way your torchlight bounces off a wall greasy with oil, slime and something that's a dark, mutant red.

Of course, it's also in the moaning zombie-demon - a Clicker - doing drunken aerobics nearby as you cower behind a container, clutching a home-made shiv in terror.

Yes, the creators of The Last of Us have a firm grip on generating an unnerving atmosphere and terrific scares - the kind that make you want to stay up all night with the lights off and your hair standing on end.

Naughty Dog proved as much with last year's epic survival adventure that TimeOut named game of the year, a terrifying zombie-romp that came with unrivalled storytelling, characters that came alive and a catastrophic, controversial ending.

They're doing it again with Left Behind, a downloadable add-on pack that you'll need the original game to play.

It'll cost you just under $30 and it's only a few hours long, but if you're a fan of the original, fire up your Playstation 3 and do it now because The Last of Us is a world that deserves to be explored and expanded upon - and that's exactly what Left Behind does.

Just like the original, it takes some risks along the way. Instead of choosing the easy route and focusing on the original game's main protagonist, psychotic hardman Joel, Left Behind picks things up with two compact stories involving Ellie, his 14-year-old sidekick who may hold the key to a cure for the infection that's wiped out most of the world's population.

Remember when Joel fell off a balcony and impaled himself on a metal bar? That's where the first story picks things up: Ellie's main mission is to find medical supplies, sneak around behind the backs of a bunch of Clickers, explore a crashed helicopter and evade a gang of thieves.

But there's also a clever flashback interwoven into Ellie's story, involving her friend Riley and their adventures in an amusement arcade, pre-The Last of Us but post-apocalypse. Without giving too much away, it involves creepy clown masks, dodgy carnival rides, plenty of those pesky Clickers and a few answers to some of the questions the original game raised.

Within minutes, you'll realise just how much you've missed The Last of Us. The creepy tension, spooky settings, gigantic scares and overpowering sense of dread are all there - and they're as thrilling as they were in the original.

You'll be creeping around abandoned malls, stealing keys off zombie bodies and crafting shivs like a pro in no time, just like you did in The Last of Us.

The only downer is that Left Behind ends all too soon. With around two-and-half hours of game time - a little more if you're too busy freaking out about those Clickers to dispatch them properly - it's an exhilaratingly short experience.

But for anyone who fell in love with the original game, this is an essential add-on that will stay with you long after you've played it.

Let's hope Naughty Dog is using this to test the waters for a full Last of Us sequel - otherwise we'll have to set some Clickers on to them.

Platform:

PS3

Rating:

R18

Click here to buy The Last of Us.

- TimeOut