It often feels unfair and you will no doubt howl at the moon like it’s the Dawn of the Wolf on more than one occasion. Every violent encounter is gladiatorial it’s either you or them. Thanks to having roughly the same amount of health as a regular human enemy, his end comes abruptly and often – it only takes a couple of bullets or an attack from an infected to down the Dad of Death. Joel, who is typically the most grizzled grizzler in all of gaming, is more like an anaemic puppy in Grounded than the anti-hero we know and love. But that’s something you’re going to have to get used to very quickly – Grounded will fray your nerves, solder them together again, and then slap you in the face for being such a Robert. When there are only three bullets in your peashooter and five infected to deal with, you could be forgiven for twitching with stress and firing off a round in desperation only to hit thin air. Supplies are so scarce that every single bullet found or piece of cloth collected will feel like equipping the Master Sword for the first time. There’s no HUD, which means that you’re going to have be aware of your ammunition in the middle of a firefight, but when you do have ammo, it almost hurts to be separated from it. Grounded strips the experience down to its barest bones. Within a few hours of black screen after black screen, you’ll find yourself becoming fonder of the humble brick more than you could ever imagine. Grounded, which was added to the game post-launch as an excuse to inflict more misery on TLOU fans, revels in being an absolute bastard to anyone who plays it. In anticipation of The Last of Us: Part II, I recently decided to take it upon myself to play through my favourite game of all-time on its hardest difficulty. My face throughout my Grounded playthrough. Welcome to The Last of Us’ Grounded Mode. I’ve got this, this could be the one.Īnd then an infected grabs me from behind and it’s the same gruesome death scene I’ve been watching for the last hour. The enraged clicker thrashing blindly around the room is an inch away from his prey before the round is chambered and then quickly in his skull. Shit, forgot to chamber the second bullet. One hits its target the infected barely had a second to lunge towards me before he collapsed in a heap. The two clickers spasmodically walking into the room creates a moment of breathless tension before they’re dispatched with the same reliable routine: brick, knife. But David’s in trouble (probably because he’s been dawdling around the room oblivious to the danger we’re in), so the knife comes out again and another one hits the floor. Two more run through with one soon to have a brick in his face followed up by a knife in the eye. David decides he’s going to have responsive AI -for once- and slugs him three times. The first infected screams through the door no problem. That’s all I have to take on twenty of the infected with, but those last two need to be saved for when a Bloater jumps from the roof and becomes laser-focused on ruining my day. Two rifle rounds, a single arrow, a molotov, and a nail bomb.