Finally finished TLOU. Long post with my impressions incoming:
Okay, so first off- what a game. What an amazing, incredible game. I am so glad I finally played this game. In an age of bloated marketing campaigns and hype driven reviews, The Last of Us is that rare game that actually comes close to meeting its own hype. Playing The Last of Us demonstrates just how good of a developer Naughty Dog really is, and makes Uncharted 2 look positively pedestrian in comparison.
It is also a great work of atmosphere building and storytelling- I really got engaged in the game world, and the game managed to elicit real world responses from me as I played it- I was so thoroughly engrossed in the world that it was building for me. I was terrified of the threats that it raised (though ironically, I would rather have faced the Infected enemies than the human enemies). Ellie was absolutely delightful, and is probably the best realized character in a western developed game yet. She and Joel were so well developed, and the cross talk and banter between all the characters, or just Ellie whistling or humming as her and Joel walked, livened the proceedings up so much. Ellie was the heart and soul of this story, it would have been substantially poorer without her.
All of this said, I did have a fair few issues with the game as well- specifically, the game's pacing was off (Summer, in particular, drags out for way too long, and everything from first entry into Pittsburgh all the way through after the hydroelectric dam drags on so much, I just got tired of the game at that point); the friendly AI is awful, and is responsible for having screwed me over multiple times (pro tip, Bill, when we are in a high school full of the infected, and you tell us not to shoot or make noise and draw attention to ourselves, don't fucking shoot a shotgun and have swarms of clickers descend on us, you fucking idiot); the level design for the game is at best serviceable and inoffensive, and at worst banal, always boiling down a circular arena with blocks for cover (the one exception to this is the university). In fact, I would go so far as to argue that the level design is so repetitious and monotonous, it can actually drag down the variety of the enemy encounters (which are otherwise so dynamic and varied enough).
Absolutely none of this is to detract from the game or its quality, however. As I mentioned above, I really, really enjoyed my time with this game (I will put it to you this way, just today, I played from the entry into Pittsburgh through to the end of the game- all in one day. Would I do that if I was not enjoying the game?), and I will definitely play the sequel when it comes out.
Final note, and this must be addressed. The question of hype. I started off this post saying that this is a game that mostly meets its hype. Mostly. Almost all of the so called reasonable hype that this game got? It well and truly deserved it, it was fantastic. That said, the greatest game ever made? Personally, I would disagree, but hey, one could do worse picking their all time favorite game. Best game of last generation? I can see a case being made for that, definitely. The Citizen Kane of gaming? Lord no, not even close. That comparison is asinine to begin with, completely misses the point, and is untrue to boot.
Stop doing the game a disservice by overhyping it so much. Otherwise, it'll all have been for nothing.
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