The Last of Us Speedrunner Sets Impressive World Record in Grounded Difficulty

gamerant.com:

A notableLast of Us speedrunner manages to beat an incredibly challenging world record while playing on Grounded mode, the hardest difficulty in the game. This impressive feat goes to show just how dedicated the speedrunning community truly is, even when it comes to rushing through linear, narrative-driven titles like The Last of Us.

Ever since the first game's release in 2013, fans of The Last of Us franchise have been finding new ways to crack the codes of Naughty Dog's acclaimed titles by completing them as fast as possible. In October 2022, for instance, one highly-skilled gamer showed off an astounding speedrun through The Last of Us 2's «The Seraphites» level, which includes one of the toughest stretches of gameplay in the entire series. To make matters even more impressive, that particular speedrun was completed in Grounded mode. For the uninitiated, this difficulty level essentially turns The Last of Us2 from a decently challenging action-adventure game into a ruthless survival-horror experience by removing helpful gameplay elements, adding more challenging enemies, and reducing vital resources. As impressive as that feat from 2022 may have been, though, a recent The Last of Us speedrun might just take the cake as one of the most remarkable records in gaming history.

The well-known Twitch streamer, Anthony Caliber, just completed the entirety of the original The Last of Us by surviving through Grounded mode in less than 3 hours. He successfully beat the previous world record on this difficulty level by finishing the game in exactly 2:47:55. This speedrun of his took about 3 minutes less than his previous attempt, which emphasizes just how much time Caliber managed to shave off a record that he initially thought was «impossible» to beat. In fact, in a recent post on his Twitter account, the Twitch streamer even went so far as to call his latest effort «one of the best speedruns of [his] career.» Though this may be a bold statement to some, it may very well be