TLOU risks putting story before gameplay. If you can overlook the gameplay flaws, you'll fall in love.

User Rating: 9.5 | The Last of Us PS3
It's very unconventional for games to put story before gameplay. In most cases, game developers design the gameplay first and only then try to piece together some BS story to go with it.

Take a look at Far Cry 3 (which I really liked btw). They knew it will be an open world shooter before a single line of story was even written.

The fresh approach of TLOU is doing it the other way around. It feels like ND had a story to tell and characters to go with it. Only after the entire tale was written, they tried to piece together some gameplay to get the experience across.

Make no mistake.. if you're looking for a shooter - there are much better ones out there. If you're looking for stealth mechanics, it is mediocre at best.

But, if you're willing to overlook the flaws in how it handles.. I promise you.. you'll fall in love.