Hello,

I'm a former Xbox owner who bought a PS4 and a PS3 this Holiday. I was super excited about TLOU as it was the first game I picked up on the PS3. I think we can all agree that the story, the characters, and the overall atmosphere/level design is superb! However, the only problem with TLOU is that's just not that fun to play at times. 

Like a mad genius, it osciliates from crazy good to crazy frusterating. It's a schizophrenic experience that is marred by a broken stealth system and combat that is generally unfun in some places while absolutely thrilling and fluid in others. 

Early on the game, unless you are flawless at stealth you will find yourself repeatedly replaying some clicker encounters. If you don't have a shiv, and if you get flanked (which happens easily) you are dead in one hit. This happens repeatedly throughout the game as well when you are basically unarmed and forced into stealth. 

Also, as a former Xbox owner I found it absurd that the shooting controllers weren't mapped to what I believe is the equivalent of L2&R2. The controls for combat were also lackluster as the game was almost impossible to finish without turning on aim assist. I finished the game on easy to enjoy the story but I've heard that the difficulty is significantly vamped up on normal and beyond. It's a shame really because I found it plenty challenging on easy alone.

Lastly, there is the issue of navigation. Though the game is fairly linnear with some optional exploration, I found it difficult at times to figure out where to go. Some kind of waypoint system other than the insulting "hint" system would have been preferable. I felt like an idiot everytime I had to wait for the hint system to point me in the right direction. A more progressive waypoint system would also make exploration less frusterating since it was hard at times to figure out which way led to the main story and which led to optional areas. 

Overall, it's a great game just not the high 90's, perfect 100's as seen abundantly on metacritic. 

I'd rate it 9.2/10

A game that never frustrates never gives a true sense of reward to the player.

Also not being able to find your way in the last of us reflects more on your lack of ability than the game's failing to dumb down to your level.

Game had well developed characters. But everything else was so predictable it was sickening

Easy? wow, you suck at gaming.

It was a good honest review.

I think maybe our playstyles differ because I played it on Hard and found the difficulty to be 'just right' but I went into it hoping for a tense Resident Evil 1/2 type experience with matching difficulty, which it pretty much nailed on hard mode.
I can see a lot of people going into it thinking it will be more shooter centric, which is understandable giving it's from the guys who made Uncharted 1-3 and being a bit taken aback by how much stealth you are forced to do because ammo is scarce and some enemies really just need to be avoided. Lucky for me I went into to primarily for the whole 'ammo is scarce' resident evil/silent hill vibe.

It's difficulty is a good point to bring up, it didn't seem equivalent to Uncharted's difficulty levels. I've completely Uncharted 1 and TLOU on hard and TLOU was far far more challenging. Personally I would say that any difficulty on TLOU is the equivalent of the next difficulty level up in Uncharted. So easy on TLOU would be normal on Uncharted, and Normal on TLOU would be Hard on Uncharted and so on.

Anyway, good to hear your opinion, glad you enjoyed the game. I'd definitely recommend the Uncharted series to you. It's a much more traditional third person shooter game, though it does still have that hint system thing you dislike.

I have no clue how good the game is but I can tell you this much, there are two types of frustrating. There is one that is fair, and one that is unfair. A great example of what I would call unfair is all Sierra games (the old point and click games), where if you missed one event the game would essentialy broken unless you started over from last save. A great example where frustration is caused by "fair" events is VVVVV.

In certain cases I wouldn't say the unfair frustration is a bad thing, sometimes it is the charm of the game, but ofentimes it's not. Once again, I can't say what it is in this game. 

I played the intro and I was floored. Game of the year.
I got a little further and the effect kinda wore off. I'll save my opinion for when I beat it (can't seem to have a day off from work and when I do, I'm sooooo busy).

I thought it was like all the Uncharted games, amazing presentation, subpar gameplay.

It does have amazing MP though, kind of like a Gears of War mixed with the point system from Call of Duty.

This is one of those that games that requires someone to play on the hardest difficulty. Only then will you feel like you're part of a zombie apocalypse. Playing the game through on Survivor mode was incredible and easily made it my GOTY.

I completely disagree, especially with the difficulty issues, I really didn't find it too bad on normal and I really really suck at stealth

I also have to say that I found the lack of objective markers refreshing. I wish more games would do things like that with the more natural hint system if you get stuck

It is the game of the year, even if I probably had more fun in GTA