I finally finished the last of us the other day. Don't get me wrong,it was a great game,but there were some things that slightly annoyned me. The parts were you had to guide ellie on the wooden plank were slightly annoying. I thought they used that so called puzzle one 2 many times. They also used the you have to give ellie a boost,so she can bring down the ladder way 2 much. I don't why it annoyed me,but I got tired of doing it. There were parts of the game,that barely had any enemies at all. Such as the part were you had to go to the university. I felt the game kind of dragged in places,but made up for it in other parts. I thought the infected and clicker enemies were great,but they could have used a bit more variety,when it came to the enemies. It may sound like I hate the game,but I actually loved the game. The biggest plus in the game was the story and the characters. I was actually feeling for the main characters and some of the supporting characters,which almost never happens to me in a videogame. They did a real good job with that. Just like the last of us,this was the last game I had to beat,before GTAV comes out and I actually plan on keeping the game for awhile longer. I give this game an 8 out of 10. A great game,with some minor things that annoyed me. 

I didn't really mind the ladder and plank puzzles. They were a bit of a break from the zombie and human slaying. There's definitely a need for pacing in these sorts of games, but I agree with you that some of the slower segments really do drag on a bit.

In addition to that, the AI really isn't as spectacular as it looked pre-release and the whole "Ellie running around in circles in front of a guard without his noticing at all" thing is ridiculous and immersion-breaking.

Other than those gripes, it's an excellent game. It's 7th in the gen for me, and my favourite PS3 exclusive. As you say, the real strength is in the characters and story, but the restricted supplies lend a great deal of urgency to the game, which you tend not to feel in action games that aren't Demon's Souls.

Perhaps, like Demon's Souls, it could have done more to discourage death (to echo Yahtzee's sentiment), but with the amount I died in that game I would probably have got frustrated rather quickly.