A solid game overall with a few major short-comings. The combat is solid, but your bullets are made of rubber until a good 3/4 into the game when you get actual weapons that do damage. Because of this, you're forced to use stealth a lot of the time, which is already not my favorite thing, and there are way too many enemies to realistically choke all of them. What ends up happening is that you just end up punching everyone to death and praying to God you find enough materials to make more medkits. That being said, once you get to the winter chapter the gameplay actually becomes really interesting, giving a really solid mix of the aforementioned punching people to death, shooting and stealth. But the combat is just one half of the gameplay. The other half is "puzzles" which basically just boil down to "find the right spot to press triangle." These are completely uninteresting, but also relatively unintrusive so they don't really warrant much discussion.

The main event here is definitely the story, which like the gameplay, takes a bit to get going but is overall very solid. I did feel like a genuinely cared about Ellie, Joel and pretty much everyone else in this game, with the only major issue being the excessive amount of time skips. The story really helps the game give off a thick atmosphere that I've really only seen in games like Danganronpa and Resident Evil (not even remotely similar games, just go for a similar vibe). The ending however, blows extremely hard. Actually, ending isn't really the right word. The game just stops. There is no logical reason why it should stop in the place that it does and I don't know how anyone managed to wait 7 years for a sequel. Yeah, I know Part 2 is divisive, I haven't played it yet, I'm just saying this ending is a crime against good story-telling. I don't usually play multiple games in a series in a row, but I feel like I need to play Part 2 as soon as possible because of how unsatisfying this games ending is.

The soundtrack also really doesn't do it for me. Generic trumpet tunes make up most of this game's OST and it brings the game down honestly, which is the exact opposite of what a game's soundtrack should do. This game also started the modern trend of muted soundtracks in games like this which is one of the worst things to come out of modern gaming. If you don't believe me, go compare the OST's of Resident Evil 2 and its 2019 remake and I think you'll turn around real quick.

The muted soundtrack isn't the only crappy trend this game started. I really want to stress that THIS IS NOT THE GAME'S FAULT but a lot of the annoying things about the modern video game industry started with The Last of Us. The gritty realistic artstyle, the muted soundtrack, the overly cinematic cutscenes and gameplay, the basic white UI and the God damn tight hallway shtick every modern game does where they think it's a clever way to hide a load screen. These are all things that work decently enough in the context of this game specifically but got really annoying when games that aren't equipped to give of the sad tone and thick atmosphere that The Last of Us gives off use these tactics as if this is the way video games naturally needed to go.

The Last of Us is absolutely a game that is worth you're time and money (it's like $10 on eBay, there's no excuse). The story and characters are compelling, the gameplay is enjoyable enough and it's an important part of gaming's history. That being said, it's not without its flaws and I might recommend staying away from it if you're the kind of person that doesn't like RPGs that take too long to get going.