Current Events > Why is the last of us considered one of the best game of all time..

(+) Yeah! (+)

..by so many people?

I recently played it for the first time. Decent game with a a great story, but it didn't exactly reinvent the wheel

I think for the same reason Uncharted got a lot of praise: accessible gameplay with writing that was good "for a game" and made the whole thing feel cinematic. I also tend to think that the timing of it helped it a lot. Character driven zombie stuff was huge in the public consciousness.

yeah i'm not there with it either. it's dope for sure but if i had a top 100 list it would probably be in the 50-100 half. when (2 spoilers) joel died i was like daaang that's crazy. then i find out people reacted like their own father was killed and i was surprised that apparently joel is some beloved video character. like okay, i guess lol.

1) Because it really did push graphics at the time it came out, it looked amazing.

2) Because gaming industry higher-ups desperately wish they were making films instead, and so games that focus on dramatic story, actors and voice talent, cinematic direction, etc... get preference when discussing their value.

I loved the story, but absolutely hated the gameplay. It works great as a TV show

Hype and excessive praise makes video games sell. People overrate everything now.
Last year you had people saying 2023 was one of the best years for video games ever.

I think its just about the story.

simple, well done story (it never felt like anything was convoluted or going over your head), and the the character development and interactions felt organic.

as for the gameplay, it was "basic", but also good at the time, with how grounded it felt.

the production values were off the charts.

good graphics

People really sleep on the multiplayer, it was really unique. I also enjoyed the gameplay as well as the well told story with well acted characters.

Zikten posted...

I think its just about the story.

Yeah for sure. The combat was aight, but I remember the scene during the winter where you play as Ellie and Joel had to save her and the whole time you were just begging him to get there faster.

By the end, I would've made Joel's choice too.

remember that it was a ps3 game at first which is astonishing

but also the characters were incredibly well acted, the story was excellent, and the gameplay wasn't slouchy.

For me personally it was both a genuinely great story that hooked me right from the start (or in specific, the exact moment the soldier shot sarah and she died in joel's arms) but at the same time has genuinely fun gameplay. *My first time playing I went straight for hard mode.....it really does feel like a fight for survival using those little bits of bullets and shivs you come across. Also the almighty brick, lol.* Every single voice actor and actress brought their a-game.

And yeah, the factions multiplayer was fun as hell for the bit I played of it on both the PS3 and PS4 remaster port.

I'm coming from the perspective of someone who played in day 1 back on the PS3 in 2013.

I've heard it praised plenty but I don't think I've ever heard anyone call it the best of all time, and in fact most of the praise isn't even for its gameplay

Mad-Dogg posted...

For me personally it was both a genuinely great story that hooked me right from the start (or in specific, the exact moment the soldier shot sarah and she died in joel's arms) but at the same time has genuinely fun gameplay. *My first time playing I went straight for hard mode.....it really does feel like a fight for survival using those little bits of bullets and shivs you come across. Also the almighty brick, lol.* Every single voice actor and actress brought their a-game.

And yeah, the factions multiplayer was fun as hell for the bit I played of it on both the PS3 and PS4 remaster port.

I'm coming from the perspective of someone who played in day 1 back on the PS3 in 2013.

Same, I think people playing on easier difficulties don't get some of the real fun the higher ones can have. I played through on Survivor and without listening mode, and it was a really tense survival horror with minimal equipment. Some sections were legit scary (university basement).

It's great

Kaldrenthebold posted...

Same, I think people playing on easier difficulties don't get some of the real fun the higher ones can have. I played through on Survivor and without listening mode, and it was a really tense survival horror with minimal equipment. Some sections were legit scary (university basement).

This is also why I really enjoyed my time going through last of us 2. That prone n' crawl mechanic with other features like being able to jump on top of people n' whatnot brought that survival feel to it's max. When I first got to that section when you meet the scars for the first time and bastards started whistling that shit was fun, lol.

When I played part 2 for the first time I had a custom mix of like, survival-like damage done, enemy detection, etc., while I put the supplies down to hard mode level. Those dogs added a whole nother element of tense.

While the story for part 2 doesn't quite match one's, man that gameplay was on point for me. That game really did need it's own faction sequel because all those actual good gameplay changes they made is going to waste with just the no return thing.

Mad-Dogg posted...

This is also why I really enjoyed my time going through last of us 2. That prone n' crawl mechanic with other features like being able to jump on top of people n' whatnot brought that survival feel to it's max. When I first got to that section when you meet the scars for the first time and bastards started whistling that shit was fun, lol.

When I played part 2 for the first time I had a custom mix of like, survival-like damage done, enemy detection, etc., while I put the supplies down to hard mode level. Those dogs added a whole nother element of tense.

While the story for part 2 doesn't quite match one's, man that gameplay was on point for me. That game really did need it's own faction sequel because all those actual good gameplay changes they made is going to waste with just the no return thing.

Yeah it's a real shame that factions was dumped. The new rogue lite mode they added last month is quite nice though, since you can focus on the pure gameplay and not the story.

You'd probably have to have played it back when it came out. I mean, if course stuff that does something better already came out, that's why you don't get why people consider it goat

Solo_Wing posted...

You'd probably have to have played it back when it came out. I mean, if course stuff that does something better already came out, that's why you don't get why people consider it goat

Yeah. Like these days last of us 1 would loose out to something like red dead redemption 2 when it comes to sheer voice actor quality across the board, the scale of the story, something like graphics etc., so if you come into last of us 1 now its like yeah its pretty cool, but you can't quite grasp what people was tripping about unless you were there at the time.

A lot of our favorite classics is like that to be honest....final fantasy 6/7, chrono trigger, symphony of the night, super mario 64, ocarina of time, metal gear solid 1, like gran turismo 1, tekken 3 lol, halo 1 (them xbox lan parties) etc. Not saying these games are bad and they def. still hold up, but you know...."had to be there" and whatnot.

I wonder how many peoples complaints about gameplay in games like this would be alleviated by just playing on harder difficulties tbh

especially with horror (-adjacent) games, increasing difficulty really ratchets up the stakes making enemies much more dangerous

Villain_S_Fiend posted...

I think for the same reason Uncharted got a lot of praise: accessible gameplay with writing that was good "for a game" and made the whole thing feel cinematic. I also tend to think that the timing of it helped it a lot. Character driven zombie stuff was huge in the public consciousness.

This, plus the graphics was a cut above from other games at the time. IMO it was a product of its time, but it did play a huge part in popularizing cinematic games. I know some people hate them, but I enjoy them and it does make other people watching my playthrough a great experience because they can get invested in the story as well. My wife gets bored watching me play games like Valorant or DBD, but she loves it when I play games like GoW:R or the Telltale Walking Dead games.

It's a cinematic game.

muh interactive movie

TotallyNotAGirl posted...

muh interactive movie

nah, an interactive movie would be something like Heavy Rain or Until Dawn.

with something like TLoU, they put as much consideration into their mechanics, enemy AI, level design, etc. as they did with their presentation.

It's pretty obvious the gameplay takes a backseat to the story and characters. This isn't a hard pill to swallow.

I don't see why that has to be the case.

you have different people working on different parts of the game, and they're not being told, "hey, don't make the graphics too good, the music too catchy, the gameplay too fun, etc. because we can't have them overshadowing the story".

besides that, even if that were true, it doesn't make the game an interactive movie.

The Wikipedia list of games considered the best is something like a couple hundred games long.

Oh I'm pretty sure they made this game with the idea of making it more cinematic than anything else. I wouldn't call it an interactive movie but calling it a cinematic game fits perfectly.

I agree with cinematic game.

its got the gay

I think its definitely up there no question