Earlier today I got my shipment notification that my copy of The Last of Us was on its way to my door, which will cap off what has been a few weeks of reading some truly exceptional reviews for Naughty Dog’s upcoming cinematic action-adventure survival horror title. By all means, all of the reviews are either perfect scores or as close to humanly possible to a perfect score that a game can get. While most of us know by now that you can’t always trust reviews on heavily-hyped games, when literally everyone within the weird world of video games tends to agree on something, it usually means that it’ll be amazing, right?
The Last of Us already had a lot to live up to, as its predecessors from Naughty Dog were some of the crowning achievements of this console generation. The Uncharted games were part of what made the PS3 such a success, as the PS3 was able to offer exclusive titles like Uncharted and provide something that no one else was offering at that time by the way of complete, cinematic experiences. While the Last of Us might be without competition this summer for new titles, as it will be capping off the PS3 for Naughty Dog, it has to compete with all of the weight that comes along with us.
As I said, the reviews that this game is getting right now are just astonishing. The video game community as a whole rarely agrees about anything, even when it comes to games where many suspect that bigger sites were “bought off” to give a good review for a game. Even games like Call of Duty, which bigger sites gush over, tend to get more critical reviews from smaller, independent gaming outlets, which we simply aren’t seeing here. This is across-the-board praise and love for The Last of Us.
I’ve been playing video games for most of my thirty years on this planet and if I’ve learned anything, I’ve learned to be leery about things, especially good things. Anticipation for something, only to be let down by it, can be one of the worst feelings, especially in a summer that won’t see a lot of new AAA titles in it. If somehow The Last of Us isn’t this grand experience that everyone has built it up to be, what will become of the summer?
No matter what I know that I’m looking forward to sliding the disc into my PS3 come Friday and seeing what all of the fuss is about. It will be hard to tune out all of the reviews that are out there, building this up as one of the best games ever, and to just play it, but I feel like just playing it without the expectations might just be the best way to go. If you are reading this you are probably in my shoes where you are going to go into The Last of Us with some of the highest expectations ever for a game. Let’s just hope that it lives up to it.
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