The Last Of Us: 3 Reasons Why It’s Mediocre

WC writes: The Last of Us is one of, if not THE biggest release of 2013 so far and has brought upon itself a lot of positive feedback from the gaming community as a whole. People have praised Naughty Dog for their ingenuity and dedication to the game left right and centre, yet after two successful play-throughs I still find that the game is lacking something key. The Last Of Us wasn’t necessarily bad, by no means; I mean I actually ended up completing it twice in the space of a few days. My first play-through involved sitting down for a good 12 hours non-stop near the end, but this was purely so that I could complete the game rather than see how the story ended. The beginning did draw me in at first, but after escaping the city with Ellie and losing Tess I found I was just going through the motions rather than actually enjoying the game.

[eyeDEVOUR]

Thanks for the "SPOILER" warning!!!... D***head

[OC_MurphysLaw]

It's utter BS that the author doesn't warn people he plans to spoil the game.

***WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD***

Was that so tough to do?

[HammadTheBeast]

Garbage Article, if you can call it that, do not give him hits.

His first 2 complaints are about the enemies and how easy it is to beat them lol, and it honestly just seems like he's played it on Easy mode, he says ammo is to easy to find, and complains of enemies with no armor when there clearly are these enemies halfway through the game.

Next he complains about the story: SPOILERS

He complains that Joel's daughter was shown and then killed off too quick, says its bad story writing. He says its "dull, repetitive, and lame". OK then.

He also says that David hiding that he knew Ellie until the clickers were dead was "cheap and lame" which is complete bull****.

Obvious hit-seeker is obvious.

[DeadSpaced]

Agreed. Spoilers warning are a must.

Off-Topic: I realized his complaints are more relative to Dead Space 3 than The Last of Us.
DS3 problems:
-Zombies were easy, repetitive.
-Humans had way too much ammo (infinite grenades)
-The story was very cheap

The Last of Us isn't guilty of any of those things.

[sdozzo]

I stopped reading after first paragraph. Can't trust these rats.

[Conzul]

Right.
A game that he played through twice in a row is "mediocre".

Hitseeker.

[Action GO FIGURE]

Downvoted the site.

[WarThunder]

Done!

[morganfell]

Done. Ridiculous.

[fenome]

How do you downvote the site? This is bullshit, sick of these garbage articles.

[zpoc]

how do you downvote a site?

[HammockGames]

^

Downvote by clicking the title below "Read full story" (in this case click on whatculture.com)

Then click WTF and No.

Never sad to see crap sites like this disappear.

[ThatCanadianGuy514]

Not to be "that guy" but..why are you guys even reading things post-game launch?

I wouldn't even be on N4G right now if i haven't played the game yet.You'll run into spoilers eventually.

[VileAndVicious]

Agreed. Before I beat the game you wouldn't even catch me here in the comments. Especially after an incident with Heavy Rain I learned my lesson.

[ThatCanadianGuy514]

Yep same boat as me.Heavy Rain got completely spoiled for me and ever since then i've been vigilant as hell.

Now, if only i could learn to apply this kind of effort in areas of my life that matter, i'd be set. lol

[wastedcells]

Is this article serious lol, they shouldn't be writing about games because any real gamer despite there feelings towards Sony or this game can see that the last of us is the furthest thing from mediocre.... If they played through it. Just because you personally don't like a game doesn't mean it's bad or mediocre. I don't like sports games but I wouldn't say FIFA is mediocre.

[GribbleGrunger]

DO NOT HIT LINK. SPOILERS.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

I am sorry...no, mediocre just isn't a description I would ever think to put on this game. You may think there are other "better" games but this isn't mediocre. At minimum its good...but I personally feel its a great game.

[Knushwood Butt]

The 3 reasons he lists are can all be experienced in the first play through the game, yet this guy went on to play through a second time.

So I have to ask the question, if the game is so mediocre, then why play through it a second time?

[Hydralysk]

Furthermore most of the issues he brings up in his first 2 points (too much ammo drops, stealth on infected is too easy) can be fixed by upping the difficulty...

TLOU isn't perfect by any means, but most of the criticisms he brought up in this article don't hold weight.

[cleft5]

Just a click bate article anyways guys and it's heavily full of spoilers.

[SniperControl]

Fishing for hits.

[ShwankyShpanky]

The author's comments regarding Joel's daughter illustrate that he missed the point of the story entirely.

[mxrider2199]

ya pretty sure those are the worst 3 reasons for the game to be mediocre half the time his explanations explained why the game was good lmao

[buynit]

I still haven't beat the game yet but I've gotten far enough to understand what he means with the guns, ai, ammo.. But I don't agree with Joel's daughter dying, I felt that... Maybe it's because I have 2 kids but the interactive parts of it felt good, in a bad way. They should have done more with it rather then skip 20 yrs but I guess that's what sequels are for...

I wouldn't call the game mediocre though.. I think it's a great start to a new ip..

10/10

[Knushwood Butt]

no

[GenericNameHere]

Never mind, folks! Just another one of those guys who thinks its cool to hate on a really popular game weeks after it's been released! Same thing happened with Bioshock Infinite and every popular game ever since, and will continue to do so because they get traffic this way!

DOWNVOTE THE SITE!!

[Hydralysk]

Whoa there, lets not assume that because someone didn't like the game it's being hipster.

I didn't think Infinite was good outside of the Booker/Elizabeth relationship, and in fact the 10/10s I saw for that game made me REAL skeptical going into The Last of Us after seeing some of the prerelease scores.

The review industry is run on hype, when I read an critical opinion piece or review I decide whether it's a critique or someone being contrarian based on what's written. Not on whether he liked it like I did.

This guy's article doesn't hold up, as I said above, but that doesn't mean I think every reviewer who doesn't think this is a masterpiece is simply saying it for the hits.

[TronEOL]

Wow. Don't read this bullcrap. He actually compares I Am Alive to Last of Us. That game wasn't bad, but it never touched the overall quality of LoU.

This is honestly what everyone should expect though. A game as near perfect and as critically acclaimed as LoU is damn well going to get random haters. There are folks out there who openly say it isn't their cup of tea, but at least acknowledge the effort put forward by Naughty Dog, and the quality of the game.

Even people who don't play video games are watching it in some form and claim it as one of their most liked pieces of media.

Last of Us may SEEM like most other games, but when you're playing it, and fully enjoying it, it really is unique. I can almost guarantee you won't find another game you can safely say feels exactly like LoU.

[Hicken]

So, an article full of spoilers with no warning, claiming mediocrity for one of the most exceptional games of this generation?

Given whatculture's track record of subpar articles, though, it's not unsurprising. Still disappointing, though.

[VileAndVicious]

So after beating this game twice now then reading this article, I'd actually have to say that this particular guy does make some valid points on some things (I don't care what ANYONE says, Last of Us is a really good game but not perfect). However last of us is not "mediocre" it actually plays very well IMO and at times gets your heart racing quite a bit. I also felt that the story was probably one of the strongest aspects in the game.

[greenlantern2814]

No such thing as perfect

[GenericNameHere]

Yeah, definitely nothing is perfect. If it was, it wouldn't have been created by us imperfect Earthlings, and it definitely wouldn't be found here on Earth. However, that's why reviewers describe their 10s as "near-perfect". These are the top games, the ones with the accolades and heart and soul put into, the ones that deserve the praise. They are so good, that to deduct a point off would be like a disgrace to that game.

[greenlantern2814]

I just wondered has anybody else ever played a gAme 2 times in a row thAt was mediocre, or played it for 12 straight hours. I don't think so. And if this game is mediocre wtf makes a good game in his opinion.
TLOU= GOTY

[r21]

Ugh, whatculture is still alive? I hate that site with its BS item per page 'stories' :L

[FunkMacNasty]

Didn't read the article, but c'mon.. this is click bait. TLoU is easily one of the best story telling experiences in video gaming within the last decade. Nothing really groundbreaking about the gameplay, but it's definitley fun as hell and hard to put down.

[purpleblau]

stupid article, just diss a masterpiece for causing attention. cheap trick.

[ufo8mycat]

Dear Author and writer of the article. Your dads mistake was he didn't pull out in time.

[csreynolds]

I was about to read this. Then I realised it was a What Culture 'article'. Attention whores...

[Blacklash93]

^ Exactly. I'm all for criticism, but WhatCulture just exaggerates and nitpicks things to high heaven. They do nothing but that, like it's the only thing they're good at. Then there's especially idiotic articles like the "Most overhyped games coming in 2013" article they did.

The article has some fair points other critics have stated, like the dumb partner AI with the Stealth, but it doesn't present an obstacle in the gameplay. Nothing of what he mentions are massive flaws like the writer chalks them out to be. In the story part he's completely missing the point of certain scenes and glossing over important details. Just strawman attention-mongering.

I was honestly wondering if the guy was trolling when he said he thought that certain bit at the end of the intro of the game was stupid. That was, even by consensus, one of its best moments.