To sum up simply, there's the Last of Us, and then there's every other game. Period
The game starts in the present day, with Joel celebrating his birthday with a watch that his daughter Sarah gave him. How nice of her to remember. And everything seems great, no problems. Until later that night, all hell literally breaks loose. Joel and Sarah meet up with Joel's brother Tommy and try to leave the area, but can't because, well, everyone else had the same idea. It becomes a mad dash through a town trying to find a way to get away from all the chaos and Infected. Eventually, Joel and Sarah seem like they've escaped the madness... until an armed commando opens fire on them, killing Sarah (I certainly wouldn't have minded getting the opportunity to stealth kill that commando, but I digress). Fast forward 20 years later, civilization has fallen apart, the Infected roam about, survivors employ a "us against the world" mentality, and Joel is teamed up with a woman named Tess in Boston. Eventually, you team up with a 14 year old girl named Ellie, who will become integral to your adventure. What I like about the game is that mentality: EVERYONE is an enemy, Infected or otherwise. Sure, there will be times where you'll team up with other survivors, but for the most part survivors are just as dangerous as Infected. Oh, and did I mention Clickers can kill you in one bite? Adds more challenge to a fairly challenging game for those who are used to run-and-gun zombie games. This is not a game to do that. Resources are few, and you'll constantly find times where you're outnumbered, outgunned and overpowered, and you have to figure out how to survive. Stealth becomes a big part of combat, saving resources and health, among other things. To be honest, its all brilliant and very well designed. You'll always have a slight advantage, so long as you figure out how to manage resources to craft items; for example, a med kit and molotov cocktail use the same resources; do you design a molotov at the expense of an extra medkit? Do you use the supplemants you find to upgrade your hearing range to aid you in setting up ambushes, or save them to raise your maximum health? Those decisions add an extra layer to the combat, and keep it more about strategy than just straight up gunplay. I love it.
As for the technical aspects, the game looks great (doesn't every game look great with today's technology?), dialogue is very gritty and convincing for the circumstances at hand, especially Ellie's dialogue. It really sells you, and really adds to the emotion of the story, and makes you actually care about Joel and Ellie's plight for survival. Even the other survivors you come across just add to the emotion and realism of the circumstances, and its so cohesive and convincing. This isn't so much a game about combat as it is about story, and what you get is a perfect balance of story and combat, that other games don't even come close to achieving. The Last of Us knocks it out of the park.
There's also incentive for replayability, such as collecting all the artifacts and firefly pendants in the single player, and the multiplayer also will add hours to your playing times, and of course, to just replay what is an absolutely terrific game, with greatness across the board. Sure, there are some minor glitches and blemishes, but those dont take away from this game. Game of the Year? How about game of an era. To sum up simply, there's the Last of Us, and then there's every other game. Period.