Is The Last of Us Part I A Weak Game?

[Winter]

Well, this was an interesting week. I mean, this a very interesting week.

So, to help take anyone's mind off it here's a silly question for you all, is The Last of Us Part 1 a week game? To clarify I'm not asking or say that TLOU1 is bad as it's obviously a classic with a great story loaded with memorable characters, iconic scenes and a tragic ending. But I replayed it this week and I couldn't help but notice something that kinda bugs me. The game isn't super fun to play through.

The gameplay is good, the combat is fun, the stealth is intense, it makes good use of gathering resources without feeling tedious and the PS5 Remaster fixes a lot of the smaller issues I had with the original game. However, most of the gameplay is mostly just a walking simulator and it makes replaying the game a little dull.

To give an example, the first half hour of the game consists of you just walking or running from point A to point B. And that's not an isolated incident most of your time with this game is just walking around listening to characters talk and not really doing anything. Now the dialogue between the characters is good if not great but you don't get to really DO, well, anything.

While you can skip a lot of the dialogue to just get onto the action you're not going to get there anytime soon because you're often moving very slowly.

Compare TLOU1 to Tomb Raider: A Survivor is Born which came out the same year as TLOU1, while there are several moments in the game that is just you walking those are VERY few and far between and most of the time you're doing something of note. In the first half out of A Survivor is Born you learn how puzzles work, combat, stealth and while there are moments where the game slows you down those moments are few and far between and last, at most, a minute.

And while there is a lot of optional content like optional tombs and collectables you can just stick to the main story and speed run the entire game in about 2 and half hours.

I've replayed ASIB a lot more then TLOU1 even though, objectively speaking, TLOU1 has a stronger story with more engaging characters and a much more clever plot. And it all comes down to the gameplay being more fun.

With ASIB I'm almost always doing something whereas TLOU1 I'm often doing nothing and I think this hurts the game's replay value.

Again, TLOU1 has a great story, no one is arguing that. But looking at it solely as a game you play it's not a title I find myself coming back to as often as other games, even ones that have a weaker story I often find myself returning to time and again.

Thoughts?

[hammerofglass]

I could never force myself to finish TLOU, don't think I got even a quarter if the way through. I enjoyed what I saw of the story but the actual gameplay was just so tedious to me that it wasn't worth it.