The Last of Us is very hyped, and in my opinion, it's overrated.
The gameplay I found to be a mix of satisfying and frustrating. It's better and sometimes necessary to play stealthy, but a mistake forces you to redo minutes of gameplay. An old-style quicksave would have really helped here. Some say the crafting and RPG mechanics felt tacked on, but I didn't think so. It's tight on resources to the point to force you to think but it doesn't make the game impossible. On the other hand, encounters just aren't as gratifying as some other games, and puzzles are often contrived and tedious. With that being said, I normally stick to other genres, so I'm hesitant to pass judgement too harshly here.
The much lauded story I found somewhat underwhelming. It's not bad, but it's not great, either. It's a fascinating world, the characters are good and play off each other well, and the plot is... well, the plot is actually kind of mediocre. It's frequently cliched and predictable. It does try to be deep, and it's about a fifty/fifty split between times where it works and times where it comes across as pretentious.
The story matters, but so does how it's told. Some segments are weaker than others, but overall storytelling ranges from good to excellent. The problem is that it's hardly the only game in recent history to tell an interesting story and to tell it well.
I should also bring up that it's an entirely linear, entirely railroaded game with no player choice. I know it's not trying to be that type of game, but at times it really felt like I was being railroaded. This doesn't make it a bad game, but in this day and age it feels... uninspired I guess is a way of putting it.
I'll mention graphics in passing only. They're good for a PS3 game, not good to my eyes, and graphics don't make a game. I should mention that smooth animations and excellent faces do contribute to the storytelling.
Long story short, The Last Of Us is a good game. It's visually impressive, it has great storytelling, it's a mostly satisfying experience overall. But it's not the exceptional game many make it out to be. If you're interested, play it, but if you decide against it, you're not missing out on as much as you think.
A good game, but not an exceptional one
The Last of Us is very hyped, and in my opinion, it's overrated.
The gameplay I found to be a mix of satisfying and frustrating. It's better and sometimes necessary to play stealthy, but a mistake forces you to redo minutes of gameplay. An old-style quicksave would have really helped here. Some say the crafting and RPG mechanics felt tacked on, but I didn't think so. It's tight on resources to the point to force you to think but it doesn't make the game impossible. On the other hand, encounters just aren't as gratifying as some other games, and puzzles are often contrived and tedious. With that being said, I normally stick to other genres, so I'm hesitant to pass judgement too harshly here.
The much lauded story I found somewhat underwhelming. It's not bad, but it's not great, either. It's a fascinating world, the characters are good and play off each other well, and the plot is... well, the plot is actually kind of mediocre. It's frequently cliched and predictable. It does try to be deep, and it's about a fifty/fifty split between times where it works and times where it comes across as pretentious.
The story matters, but so does how it's told. Some segments are weaker than others, but overall storytelling ranges from good to excellent. The problem is that it's hardly the only game in recent history to tell an interesting story and to tell it well.
I should also bring up that it's an entirely linear, entirely railroaded game with no player choice. I know it's not trying to be that type of game, but at times it really felt like I was being railroaded. This doesn't make it a bad game, but in this day and age it feels... uninspired I guess is a way of putting it.
I'll mention graphics in passing only. They're good for a PS3 game, not good to my eyes, and graphics don't make a game. I should mention that smooth animations and excellent faces do contribute to the storytelling.
Long story short, The Last Of Us is a good game. It's visually impressive, it has great storytelling, it's a mostly satisfying experience overall. But it's not the exceptional game many make it out to be. If you're interested, play it, but if you decide against it, you're not missing out on as much as you think.