Back to the food chain: The Last of Us beheads the zombie genre

An analysis of why the industry needs to cool it on zombies - or take a page out of Naughty Dog's book.

[ArchangelMike]

Very good article. I completely agree with the author. TLoU is excellent because the infected are not the focus of the story. It's all about the sub plot and the relationships between the characters. Joel and Tess, Joel and Tommy, Joel and Ellie. But also Ellie and Tess, Ellie and Bill, Ellie and David. Excellent characterisation throughout. This helped to ground the characters more than in any other game. I don't know anyone who did not feel a pang of guilt the first time Ellie got bitten by a clicker.

And then there was what went down with Joel and Marlene!!!

[Ezz2013]

this game put alot of so called "Survival games" and "Action games" to shame

but i think we are going to see alot of 3rd party studios trying to copy it from now on and fail at it

[Keregan]

TLOU is already a copy of post apocalyptic game/movie brand and doesn't really bring anythings new to this style. Every game mechanic can be found in many other games of the same style and the story, while good, as also been told many times before.

Also the game doesn't offer much replayability unless, like you said, if you enjoy unlocking new skin for your character and going through the same cutscene and enemy patterns over and over again. Even if the AI doesn't react the same each time, most game are at that standard level now and it doesn't change the fact that the enemy are always set to appears at a same time storywise so there is no surprise whatsoever when you do the game the second time.

[Ezz2013]

@keregan

copy and taking inspiration are very different from eah other
you are talking about movies which indeed the last of us took inspiration from movies like the road,I am a legend ,28 day later
but it form it own story to make it different and not just another post apocalyptic game
but no post apocalyptic game out there TLOU took any thing from it
the gameplay style is very different from pretty much all the suvival games out there
TLOU put Survival style and action and steath in one game and they add to it an incredible AI to make the game much more tense wwhen the enemy react to you different every time
and from now on most 3rd party studios will try to copy that new style with their games

yes the story remain the same ...but that's not the point
the replay value IS in the gameplay it self
gameplay offer you options to play the way you like
and the way AI react
and ofc the skins and mods are plus but like i said The gameplay is what keep bring me back
i'm on my 4th playthrough and every time it play different

BTW i didn't give you disagrees by the way ...don't like that disagree/disagree system at all

[HammadTheBeast]

For the last time....

THEY'RE NOT ZOMBIES!!!

[Ducky]

That was addressed in the article.

It's just a silly game of semantics.
They behave like zombies, have infectious bites, etc. Just call 'em for what they really are instead of trying to weasel around.

Besides, the distinction makes no difference on the game.

[Vigor]

Mark from ClassicGameRoom said an interesting thing about the influx of zombies/infecteds " publisher can't afford alienating specific group(ethnic) of people nowadays" and He's right. People nowadays are over-sensitive dimwit, see RE5 for example.

[SynestheticRoar]

LMAO. the copying of the TLOU is going to happen anyway it's a naughty dog game. Didn't you see that with uncharted.

[jb227]

great article....before i played the last of us, if i saw a game like dead rising 3, i would be fairly excited to play it, after the last of us, i just can't muster any reason to play it or any other zombie action type games....it's just been perfected already, any other games after it will simply pale in comparison....i'm still down with the walking dead because it fills a different niche, but until nd make the last of us 2, i'm totally satisfied w.o another zombie game for awhile