Superlatives
I've been trying in this review to hold off with superlatives. I've been trying, basically, to emulate the dry style of writing that makes The Last of Us so good.
What I want to say is this is the best written game I've ever played, the game with the best central performances I've ever seen. I want to say that, even if you've been playing videogames for your whole life, for 20, 30 or even 40 years, The Last of Us has the most astounding action sequences you'll have ever come across. I want to use the word "ever" a lot.
But in homage to The Last of Us, I'll avoid devolving into clichés. The highest praise I can give, really, is to insist this is something you play. It's not even a case of "a game like The Last of Us only comes round once a generation." Nothing like this has been made, ever. There are dashes of inspiration from Cormac McCarthy, P.D. James and American primetime, but The Last of Us is a real first. As I said in my opening, it's a character drama. It has the sophistication and density of a good novel.
The Naughty Dog staff have proven themselves the most talented developers working in games today. They've taken on this enormous, dense project - an amount of coding, work and systems implementation I can only speculate towards - and created a finished game which feels like the auteured vision of one person. I've never played a game so tight and cohesive, a game which stays so true to its initial ideas. The Last of Us never wastes a breath. To allow myself one big claim, just for the finale, this might be the best game I've ever played.