The Last of Us Remastered
There are often times when I can't, for the life of me, understand
why everyone in the western part of our world drools over a particular
game. I believe there's no better example for this than The Last of Us, a
title that got tens all around and was praised for its supposedly
incredible storyline. Even though I had experienced several sections of
the game on a friend's PS3, the PS4 was my first chance to try it for
real, and I walked away sorely unimpressed.
First
of all, I admit to getting kind of worried whenever a title gets
praised more for its story than its actual gameplay. It's the latter
that will always matter the most in a game for me, and in this regard
The Last of Us is passable at best, extremely forgettable at worst. It
consists of a series of linear, quick-time-event-heavy, cover-based
shooting stages that get repetitive really fast, with only mild
incentives for any kind of exploration.
Even
though the game does feature a lot of actual cutscenes, its gameplay
sections are made in such a way that main character Joel is always
talking and interacting with other people somehow. I admit I can see how
some people would enjoy this playable-movie vibe, but it's definitely
not my thing. Often I would just get annoyed when a cutscene would end,
just because I knew it meant I'd have to start actually playing. This
made me start holding the opinion that The Last of Us would be better
suited as, you know, an actual movie rather than a game.
Speaking
of which: yeah, there's a cool story here, with some well-written
emotional gut-punches. But unlike what I've read around the web, it's
absolutely nowhere near the level of the true storytelling masterpieces
of our time, from A Song of Ice and Fire to Breaking Bad to The Sopranos
(and yes, I've seen comparisons to all of those). Maybe that's because
the script just feels like a known quantity in the time we live in: it
has a post-apocalyptic setting (check), a hardened man getting to terms
with his own emotions (check), zombie-thingies (check), dialogue
sections filled with wise cracks that aren't all that fresh (check). It
was just too 'been there, done that' for me, even with the emotional
turns, and as a result I never really felt the father-daughter
relationship between the main characters as apparently most people have.
It
may be one of those cases in which a game is just not for me,
especially because I fully admit I've never been that interested in
post-apocalyptic settings and its tropes. Still, just trying to analyse
The Last of Us from a detached standpoint, I fail to see why it's had
such an extremely enthusiastic reception. I wouldn't say it's a flat-out
bad game, but there are numerous realistic-style titles with more fluid
and satisfying gameplay, there are numerous non-games with better
stories, and it is my honest opinion that this is not one of those cases
in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
I
think this is the kind of game that everyone should at least try, if
only just to see what the fuss is all about. If your gaming tastes are
anywhere close to mine, however, you'll probably get entertained for a
while, then start seriously considering just searching for a cutscene
compilation on Youtube instead.
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