@foxillusion: What makes games like Arkham (and to some degree AC) better at melee combat is that they are all about timing, mashing will get you nowhere. They also have a much larger variety of moves (not just buttons, but actually functionally different) and they have enemies that needs to be handled in different ways. The tension you're talking about comes from the stealth portion of the game, which is actually interesting, however when you're in a situation where you have zombies just coming at you and all you can do is dispose of them it's pretty bland.

These are extremely lofty claims to make, especially considering A) you probably haven't played every single survival horror game in existence B) you would be comparing apples to oranges in most cases. Why do we have to use hyperbole and say 'best'? Can't we just say 'this game was well made' and 'I had a lot of fun playing it, and here's why'?

I thought the gameplay was fine. It's certainly got that floaty bullshit that Naughty Dog is known for. Good thing the real drawn of The Last of Us is the story.

You know, with a title like "The Last of Us" I was expecting something akin to The Road. A game that will emotionally drain you and beat the ever loving shit out of your psyche. A game that will rub your nose in the bleak futility of life in a world that's dead. That's not what The Last of Us is. I think they could have messaged better what kind of story it is, because it's not the bleak "end of everything" I thought Naughty Dog was going for. It can almost be as dark as that with some of the themes present in the game. As an example I've not seen a game deal so eloquently with Loss. Capital L. Loss as an abstract. The game deserves some props for that.

The characters are by and large well rounded and three dimensional. They feel like people. Warts and all. That makes it easy to invest in their struggle on the cross-country pilgrimage. Each season of the year deals with a certain theme, usually correlating to traditional symbolism tied with the season. It's pretty smart, all told.

But maybe yeah. You could call it overrated if you've read/seen The Road or films/novels of its ilk. For people who haven't seen or felt the kind of hollow nihilism present in that kind of doomsday fiction, however, I'm sure The Last of Us will provide a quality kick in the dick.

Still, The Last of Us is a name wasted on a story about a broken man trying to regain his innocence and a young girl desperate to lose hers.

Fanboys think that an exclusive game on their platform is perfect? That's unheard of!

@truthtellah: I actually do feel it's about a 7

Or maybe people really just like the game? I know crazy right. But that can't be true so let's just narrow it down to fanboys and paid reviews. I guess that includes GB too since they gave it a perfect 5/5.

What a bunch of fucking fanboys! Fuck them GB guys!

You can punch dudes in the throat to kill them.

yeah I loved this game, and I have all the consoles. Gameplay is really fun, story was really well done as was the characterization of Ellie. Can't help but think that gaming has finally done companion characters right- first Elizabeth in Infinite and now Ellie in Last of Us.

This is going to be a great gaming year, already those 2 games came out and would have been my GOTY last year, and GTAV, Watch_Dogs, and new console stuff has yet to come out.

@you_died: For the first 2 as I've already said they're not too hard to get. For best Survival Horror game; well almost every survival horror game has terrible gameplay so having one that doesn't is a huge step up; additionally the story is just plain better than every other story aside from possibly Silent Hill 2. I'm not counting Resident Evil 4 as explicitly Survival Horror though I do think the Last of Us is a better game; that said I think RE4 is a top 5 game all time; so where does that put Last of Us?

Okay? If you feel strongly about it, you could make a good review and post it right here on Giant Bomb! :D

wait how can something be 5/5 but not 10/10 - am I somehow forgetting how to math in my old age?

I'm just going to put this out there. I had liked playing State of Decay more than The Last of Us.

Just finished it. Definitely overrated, but also an extremely good game overall. It is not "game of the generation" by any means (as lots have said), and I don't even think it edges Bioshock Infinite for the best game so far this year, but it's definitely a close second.

This game clearly is in the argument of best this gen and arguably best survival horror game ever (RE4 being my personal best). I can only name a hand full at best this gen that compete with this game that being MassEffect2(I tend to put the series as a whole),Fallout3, GodoW3, GTA4, and Uncharted 2.

Subjective statements laid out as facts make me laugh.

Unless they are about how bad Linkin Park is.

I don't ever see anybody mention this, but the friendly AI during stealth sections keep getting in the damn way! I'm trying to sneak to a corner to get a drop on a clicker, and ellie moves into spot and i get stuck then the damn thing see's us and warns the entire group and we get merked.

Is this only happening to me?? I want to like this game, but whenever i start playing it i just get pissed off lol.

They're smugglers, they were running said guns in order to sell them for profit. Not hard to figure out the motivation when you pay attention :P

Your companion is almost invisible to other AI. Unless she's stuck in the open for several seconds, they will not react to her.

yeah i know that, i mean she got ME STUCK, i was walking against the wall and she just gets in my way as i'm trying to catch a guy off guard. It's happened a few times and it's quite frustrating.