I think story wise, it's the best game I've played this generation. I still love Infinite and think it excels in concepts and world building, but Last of Us surpassed it as far as care and detail go.
At first, I felt like the gameplay lacked, but as I progressed, it felt very natural. They did a great job in not really separating stealth play from run and gun. Whereas most games would have different controls schemes for each (ie press square to hide behind cover. Press triangle to move from one cover spot to the next) I appreciated that the controls where as the are and you can choose to employ them however you want. If you're hiding behind an overturned desk and you want to move to behind a garbage can, you just sneak over like you normally would move. It made the game feel less game-y.
I thought it was a good decision not to give the player choice with the story line. Choice seems to be the style du jour and it was nice to see a developer just create an intelligent, nuanced narrative for us to play within. The very end felt a little bitter, but that's just what they wanted to leave us with. After arguably turning into the bad guy (Joel was ruthless in the last stage), the final act of lying to Ellie's face felt like the final turn. Still, I loved Joel's character and don't feel he's the ultimate bad guy in that world, especially when you consider all the cannibalism and senseless killing.
Thought Ellie was awesome. I felt genuinely protective of her. Loved her banter throughout. She definitely gives Elizabeth a run for her money as far as companion characters go.
I also had no idea Nolan North (aka Nathan Drake) played that total creepshow David. Fabulous job.
One thing I really loved about the game was how the hard hitting, poignant moments were followed immediately by a black screen and the passage of time (when whatshisname turned the gun on himself I was like...holy shit). There's something about the mystery of not really knowing how they made it from that point to where we end up that I found compelling.
If I would make any criticisms, I wish they'd have made more enemy character models; Clickers always looked like the same Clickers (fuck Clickers, amirite? fuck *shiver*), runners looked like runners, etc. And sometimes my companion would obviously be spotted by an enemy, yet it didn't register. Probably a good thing when you consider the alternative, but maybe some clever coding where they never look toward my companion while I'm in cover could've sorted that out without taking me out of the experience.
Overall, I'm blown away.
Oh, and giraffes
Oh oh, and if you left it for long enough, that dastardly surgeon grabs a scalpel and comes at you bro
