The Last of Us has had inventive and improvisational kits for its playable characters. For example, thanks to Bill and his booby-trapped town in Lincoln, Massachusetts, players are introduced to nail bombs. Meanwhile, players are taught to be mindful of their environments and not trigger tripwires with bricks and bottles strewn about everywhere that they can throw to detonate and clear them. This is hardly the ideal use of a brick or bottle, though. Joel’s revolver and Ellie’s bow are iconic weapons in The Last of Us, but it is debatable that bricks and bottles are far greater staples of the series.
Molotovs are rarely wasteful as long as players can shepherd a pack of infected, but there will always come a time when players lack the required resource ingredients in order to craft one. Likewise, unarmed fist-fighting as Joel or Abby in their respective games is also not easily advised due to how quickly players can become overwhelmed. Of course, no scenario is truly doomed if players have a brick or bottle at the ready. Oddly enough, Part 2 debuted stun bombs (upgraded with supplements to become a variant of Part 1’s smoke bombs), which only further exemplify how inspired bricks and bottles are in The Last of Us.
Why The Last of Us Ending with Part 2 Would Be a Letdown Gameplay-Wise
The Last of Us Complete suggests the series may have its curtains closed, which would be quite unfortunate due to how much its gameplay has evolved.
The Last of Us Part 1’s Bricks are a Clicker’s Worst Nightmare
In The Last of Us Part 1, bricks are a ubiquitous yet indispensable resource, especially on harder difficulties, because a three-hit combo with one can kill a clicker. Thus, unlike the bottle, bricks are powerful melee weapons as well as throwables used to create distractions or temporarily stagger enemies. Bricks are terrific, too, if players wish to preserve as many shivs as possible so that they can access every shiv door in the game, which in turn allows players to preserve the durability of reinforced melee weapons.
This strategy is moot once Ellie becomes playable in The Last of Us’ wintertime and during her Left Behind DLC since she can kill clickers swiftly from stealth with her switchblade.
Part 1 features smoke bombs that are easily forgotten about unless players are throwing the kitchen sink at enemies. And, having been the precursor to stun/smoke bombs, in Part 2, it’s ironic that players truly don’t need to prioritize smoke bombs in their crafting inventory so long as they have spare bricks or bottles around.
The Last of Us Part 2 Juggles Stun Items Redundantly
Sadly, bricks are nerfed in The Last of Us Part 2 as they’re no more effective than a bottle, becoming mere reskins of one another. This is proven by the fact that bricks cannot be swapped for bottles and vice versa like they can in Part 1, meaning there is no longer a distinction between them, and the likely culprit as to why may be to emphasize stun/smoke bombs instead.
Contrary to their lack of memorability in The Last of Us’ story campaigns, stun bombs are incredibly effective and downright vital in Part 2’s roguelike mode, No Return, as bricks and bottles are scarce in any given encounter and craftable stun bombs can be a godsend when cornered in Assault, Holdout, or Hunted, much less boss encounters such as the Seraphite Elite.
Rather, Abby’s arsenal replaces stun/smoke bombs with explosive pipe bombs to complement her offensive capabilities. On the whole, Abby’s playstyle is the closer of the two to how Joel plays in Part 1, complete with craftable shivs that Abby can now use to break free from any grapple if players don’t want to mash square and lose more health in the scramble. So, it might’ve made sense for bricks to at least be as powerful as they were in Part 1, at least while Abby is wielding them.
Instead, stun bombs and smoke bombs join a wide catalog of craftable items, with the latter item creating a smokescreen. It may have ironically made more sense for Abby to have wielded stun/smoke bombs since her association with the WLF militia would’ve been a better excuse as to why she’s armed to the teeth and may not resort to bricks and bottles as much as Ellie may have while out on patrol. Either way, a Last of Us Part 3 should honor and respect bricks and bottles by not feeling obligated to nudge other stun tools into players’ inventories.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 90%
- Released
- January 19, 2024
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Naughty Dog
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Franchise
- The Last of Us
- PC Release Date
- April 3, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- January 19, 2024
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
