Ahaa, there it is. You're talking about being "emotionally involved," but if I'm 100% honest, it's incredibly rare for a game to get me to get me to that point, much less during gameplay. The part of TLOU you're talking about was definitely a rush, but only the first time. After that, I can appreciate the moment for its execution, but the attachment I felt the first time is gone. On the contrary, the lasting dramatic moments in that game, for me, all occur during traditional cutscenes. The only other game that ever really pulled me in on some other level in gameplay was Journey, and that's cheating because it was 4AM and I'm a sucker for synchronized music that gives power to the visuals.......and I lost my co-op traveler who was with me all the way until the end :'(
My point is that if I'm replaying a game, it's because I want to play around with the systems. I've never gotten "that feeling" again from subsequent playthroughs of a game. From that perspective, slow "cinematic" scripted moments pretty much waste my time after I've seen them once (some waste my time during the initial playthrough), and I'm left with the mechanics to give me the rush I want. That's why they're important to me despite Uncharted, as a series, being more than just one portion of its gameplay loop. That's why I mentally check out when a game abuses "Hold up to _______" moments. Games haven't matured enough for the drama in-gameplay to easily grab me yet. The titles that have, I can count on one hand.
Another part of it is I just enjoy the mechanical aspects of games a lot, and those shine in free form gameplay. There's only one way for you to walk through the desert with Drake, but I can restart shootout checkpoints and try all sorts of shenanigans.
To quote John Hammond, "There it is."
For me it really is a question of emotional attachment, something the medium has gotten certainly better at in the last few years, ND in particular. Cutscenes don't really do it for me anymore, sure the whole
"Your not my daughter" moment.
TLoU also invoked a lot of emotion in gameplay from me.
Those damn giraffes...
"carry and run"
two daughters in TLoU
especially the way the music swells over the over noise, etc.
I still want to see it go further but I am pretty happy with how the medium has evolved and matured in regards to actually bringing the emotion into the interactive portions(gameplay). We are different in regards to "those moments," when I put in Uncharted 3 I play Chapters 17-20. When I play TLoU, I play Fall and Spring
(and I kill every single one of those fucking doctors too, every time.)
Most recently it was Brothers. Sure, from a story perspective there were moments that were supposed to be sad but I didn't really get emotional until you had to
swim as the younger brother using the older brothers interact button.
Oh, and Net, I feel you when it comes to Journey. Bring it in, bro.
My co-op buddy came back for me at the end. I lost it at that point.