So me and Leslie rented The Last of Us over the weekend and marathonned the whole thing. It was quite an experience. Not exactly the 10/10 I expected, though. 

Honestly, I didn't really enjoy it all too much. I'll try not to spoil much for those that haven't played it yet. It's not a terrible game by any means, but I dunno, I just expected a bit more from it. Every aspect to me, from the gameplay to the story, just seemed really underwhelming. It's like every aspect of it has been done better by another game. Honestly, it feels much more like this is a decent movie trapped in a video game. While the production values for the cutscenes and the environments (oh my god those gorgeous environments) are fucking fantastic, the gameplay really just took me out of the experience more than anything. For such a serious story and setting, it doesn't do a great job of making itself feel less "video game-y". Big battles are often marked by chest-high walls and huge open arena-like areas, the multiple zombie/enemy types with predictable patrol patterns, and even some fairly comical, out-of-place boss fights. Oh god, and the AI. It's REALLY difficult to take the threat of any dangerous situation seriously when my companions are dancing in front of the legally blind enemies. I'm glad your allies don't blow your cover, but god damn, there had to have been a better way to program this than make them invisible to everyone but you. The enemies in the game feel less threatening and more of a nuisance than anything, and it once again falls into the same trappings of Uncharted where they just throw SO many of them at you that it feels like it undermines the whole thing. And the fact that they throw SO many shootouts/stealth sequences at you, even in the middle of character development scenes and sentimental moments. It's okay to have some quiet moments, game, I'm not going to get mad if I don't shoot something every five minutes. The constant repetition of palette crossing and ladder pushing REALLY wore my patience as well.

As for the story...like, shit, for all the praise I was hearing, I was just...I dunno, I expected more, I guess? The gameplay kept taking me out of the immersion, so I guess I really couldn't get too into it. And apparently, I missed a few optional conversations, which sucks. But I was hoping some great story would unfold before my eyes, and we would learn so much about all of these characters, but it just never happened. It was just kind of "go here, here, and here", and some things happened in-between that we won't talk about again. I would love to think that these were just my ridiculously high expectations, but like, how could I NOT have those? It's been rated 10/10 on every publication ever! It's the Citizen Kane of gaming! But I just couldn't get into it. I could TOTALLY get into Telltale's Walking Dead and Spec-Ops: The Line, both of which are pretty similar to this. But not this. 

Ellie's still a great character (better than Joel, who kinda feels super-weak in comparison) and the opening was probably one of the better ones I've seen in gaming period. But it was still pretty underwhelming to me.

OH WELL, TIME TO WAIT FOR DRAGON'S CROWN, THE TRUE GAME OF THE YEAR 2013. See you on Wednesday!