So I finished the game. I really took my time, exploring the environment as much as I could to gather everything I could find. And to appreciate it too. The level of detail is huge and the landscapes are so beautiful. I clocked over 24 hours to finish it. I'll start my survival playthrough, now.
I guess there's nothing else to say about the story and the characters that everyone else doesn't know. They're all amazing. This game is phenomenal. But they got me with the ending. Nothing I expected happened. It's hard to say if this is a good thing. I wished for a more closed ending. I don't think anything I did in this game really mattered for that world. It was just an year struggling to survive. I felt something similar when Arkham City ended, even though here it is much better. Maybe they didn't want the end to be cliched, with the character walking into the sunset, so I'll give them points for that.
As for the gameplay, I was ready to criticize it, since the aiming was so annoying and using any of the guns was nothing special. But as I upgraded to the steady aim and got to upgrade myself and the guns, it became more interesting to fight. I didn't need to just circle around the danger silently to take it down in a stealthy way anymore, because that was starting to get tiresome. Every section of the game was basically that all over again: survive in a place, while you're trying to reach a specific location, like a school or a hospital, gather the supplies and move on. Since I was always so carefull with my supplies, I never had any trouble with ammo or medicine. It was tense, but never really exciting to me. I was never too eager to put the disc on the PS3 to play it again. I missed some variation, like when we're in a house with a sniper gun and we most protect Elllie and the two brothers. The controls are sharp and I'll probably have more fun now that I'm used to it and have all of my stuff with me. More points to them for New Game +.
That being said, I'm done with this story. I loved the game, it was a great journey and I'm happy that Naughty Dog did such a masterful game, but I have zero interest and revisit this world to do the same thing with the same people or with different characters. While they produce the next Uncharted game, I hope they also focus on another incredible IP with another incredible story. I enjoyed every minute of The Last of Us but I'm ready for the next different and great adventure that they can come up with.
9.5/10
