As a game, The Last of Us will occasionally falter. Imperfect underwater mechanics and careless friendly AI that insists on blocking your path or causing unnecessary firefights can irk, but they are very minor niggles and should be treated as such. Because as an experience, The Last of Us is powerful, emotionally draining and absolutely one of the finest games of this generation. [August 2013, p70]
Its unrivaled presentation in particular sets the bar even higher than the Uncharted trilogy already did, and its writing, voice acting and layered gameplay combine to create what is very easily the game to beat for Game of the Year 2013.
The Last of Us is a really different game, mixing traditional adventure, survival, action, stealth and constant exploration. The resources are most important. The best graphics on PlayStation 3 are back in the hands of Naughty Dog, also the atmosphere, and two unrepeatable and unforgettable characters. Overwhelming.
With The Last of Us, Naughty Dog provides us with a hell of a masterpiece, which will continue to occupy the thoughts of gamers in the coming years, simply because it redefines the standards of survival Horror games. Instead of using and abusing horrific scenes as is the case with the competitors, the game provides a chronic stress that chews on your brains bit by bit punctuated by great epic scenes. The infected people are relentless and unforgiving, though a bit like the Clickers who will rip your head at the slightest sound. The listening system does not impact the challenge and finds itself an invaluable asset when things get really dirty. As one needs to seduce casual gamers, The Last of Us also has its own action scenes, hence the criticism from the purists of this kind of game. But can we really be skeptical when facing the nicest game of this generation of consoles ? No, we cant...
There is no risk of failure in a game like this. There is only the risk of having the play the same section yet again. In a survival game, that’s anathema. A survival game without meaningful death isn’t a survival game. It’s just a game.
The Last of Us for PS3 has often been hailed as a masterpiece, but after attwmpts at playing through this game, I found it to be a largely overrated experience. What should have been an engaging post-apocalyptic journey felt like a predictable slog, with little to keep me invested beyond the surface-level plot.
One of the major problems is how the game leans into standard apocalyptic tropes without bringing anything fresh to the table. The world is overrun by infected, civilization has collapsed, and survivors have turned into ruthless scavengers. It's the same setup we've seen countless times before, and The Last of Us doesn't do much to elevate it beyond that.
Additionally, the AI in the game is frustratingly predictable and, frankly, dumb. Enemies and allies alike often act in absurd ways. Whether it’s companions loudly running around without consequence or enemies getting stuck in basic patterns, the AI lacks the intelligence needed to make encounters feel tense or challenging. This predictability makes stealth and combat feel more like a chore than a thrilling survival experience.
As for the gameplay itself, it’s a slow burn that borders on boring, so much so that it took me 6 attempts to complete this game as I would give up due to boredom (I fell asleep during gameplay during one attempt). The pacing drags, especially during long stretches of exploration where there’s little to do but walk around dilapidated environments. The moments of action are often too spread out, leaving a lot of downtime that feels padded just to stretch out the playtime.
Overall, while The Last of Us does feature decent visuals and a solid emotional narrative, the actual experience was underwhelming. The predictable story, repetitive combat, and uninspired AI make it hard to justify the high praise.
SummaryTwenty years after a pandemic radically transformed known civilization, infected humans run amuck and survivors kill one another for sustenance and weapons - literally whatever they can get their hands on. Joel, a salty survivor, is hired to smuggle a fourteen-year-old girl, Ellie, out of a rough military quarantine, but what begins as a...