Story in games: Is talk cheap?

[Twilord]

torok said:
I think you are reaching too much in your search for complexity. It's a more kids-oriented games and those will always have weaker stories (Lego games, LittleBigPlanet, etc).

This kind of subtle narrative you add here isn't very uncommon in story-driven games. The final hospital sequence on TLOU and the earlier Ellie sequences are good examples of non-dialogue gameplay mechanics and plot decisions made to create a better relation between player and user.

 

I am not denying it can be done alongside dialogue driven play. I'm raising the topic of that happening WITHOUT dialogue. Obviously Captain Toad isn't trying to win an award for being movie like, no one is saying The Last of Us isn't a great story-game, nor is anyone arguing that Captain Toad doesn't remain a gameplay driven puzzler. 

My question to you is, since you seem to dislike the example I picked because of the overly impressionist style (which is fine, to each their own), do you feel The Last of Us could have achieved the same story highs if designed from the ground up WITHOUT ANY DIALOGUE.