An incredible story that made me wish I was doing anything but playing it.
The Last of Us is often heralded as one of the greatest games of all time, so needless to say my expectations were quite high upon starting the game. And in some aspects, these expectations were met! The story in The Last of Us is brilliantly written with incredible themes not explored enough in AAA games. However, as beautiful and deep as the story and its underlying themes are everything else surrounding the game is about as shallow as a puddle.
For a game with such a mature and thought-provoking story the puzzles and stealth in The Last of Us boil down to "find a ladder that's five feet in front of you" or "you COULD sneak past these guys it's just incredibly annoying and way less fun plus we'll still shower you with enough ammo anyway". Moments like these frankly felt insulting considering how deep the characters of Joel and Ellie are written and yet I'm never challenged to think when playing as them. It got to the point where the actual game felt like a mindless chore just to get to the cutscenes that would actively challenge my perception, and when these cutscenes ended I would always end at the same conclusion- why am I wasting my time with this game when I could just be watching the TV show?
This game feels as if it's embarrassed to be a videogame with its puzzles that never actively challenge the player or combat that plays out more like a movie. This is such a shame considering it houses such an engrossing story, I just wish everything else surrounding it was treated with that same level of thought.
The Last of Us is often heralded as one of the greatest games of all time, so needless to say my expectations were quite high upon starting the game. And in some aspects, these expectations were met! The story in The Last of Us is brilliantly written with incredible themes not explored enough in AAA games. However, as beautiful and deep as the story and its underlying themes are everything else surrounding the game is about as shallow as a puddle.
For a game with such a mature and thought-provoking story the puzzles and stealth in The Last of Us boil down to "find a ladder that's five feet in front of you" or "you COULD sneak past these guys it's just incredibly annoying and way less fun plus we'll still shower you with enough ammo anyway". Moments like these frankly felt insulting considering how deep the characters of Joel and Ellie are written and yet I'm never challenged to think when playing as them. It got to the point where the actual game felt like a mindless chore just to get to the cutscenes that would actively challenge my perception, and when these cutscenes ended I would always end at the same conclusion- why am I wasting my time with this game when I could just be watching the TV show?
This game feels as if it's embarrassed to be a videogame with its puzzles that never actively challenge the player or combat that plays out more like a movie. This is such a shame considering it houses such an engrossing story, I just wish everything else surrounding it was treated with that same level of thought.