Great story, voice acting and visuals. Gameplay becomes rather repetitive after a while. No variety in puzzles.

User Rating: 8 | The Last of Us PS3
Allow me to preface this review with a confession: This was one of the games that had me on the hype bandwagon. I pre-ordered it, and waited for the download to become available at 3 AM. I had very high hopes for this game, based on early reviews, gameplay trailers, and Naughty Dog's overall track record of making great games.

Now don't get me wrong, The Last of Us is a good game, maybe even a great game, but it certainly has a lot of shortcomings in the gameplay department.

My biggest gripe with the game has to be the extremely repetitive environmental puzzles. Joel picks up ladder/plank. Joel pushes Ellie across water on pallet. Joel boosts Ellie above wall. This wouldn't be such a problem if these moments were few and far between, but these "puzzles" come up after just about every enemy encounter or cutscene. It becomes dull very quickly.

My next complaint is the combat. It follows a typical third person shooter format albeit with less ammunition. Joel takes cover behind desk, wall, car, etc. Shoots some people, runs forward, rinse and repeat. Now I understand that this game was not designed to be a shooter outright, but I was hoping for a bit more variety, such as dropping a large object on a group of enemies, or setting up traps for the enemy with propane tanks and other items lying around.

Which brings me to what I really liked in the gameplay: The stealth. It simply works. The scarcity of ammunition in this post-apocalyptic world forces the player to find other means of eliminating the enemy. Sneaking up and strangling or stabbing an enemy, throwing a brick or bottle to distract, throwing a molotov cocktail to attract Clickers, the infected that uses sound to kill. It was challenging, but at the same time intuitive. Very enjoyable.

Overall, this game is definitely worth picking up if you enjoy a good story and character interaction more so than diverse gameplay. Where the game has its shortcomings, it more than makes up for it with its characters, atmosphere, and story. I have to give this game an 8.0/10.