Mike Francis

The Masterpiece continues! The people who’re hating on this incredible experience simply aren’t mature enough to understand the purpose of it all. It has past them by, probably because they're too busy throwing themselves on the floor like children, demanding something different. This game is much more than just a game or shoot the zombie and live happily everafter....it is deep-dive into the truly awful experience of living in a post apocalyptic world. It’s cruel and unfair, savage...where displays of humanity and beauty are the exception. What Naughty Dog have so skillfully done is get us to invest so heavily in the characters and this world, that we are totally laid open to it’s horror. You should feel awful, you should feel drained and you should feel an emptiness...because that is what it would feel like in that world. Yes, Joel dying made my heart ache so badly. That whole scene made me boil over with hatred and terrible thoughts of revenge. Yes I hated playing Abby, I hated having to keep her alive and I resisted empathising with her. I even kept allowing Ellie to kill her in the theatre (literally) because it felt like the right thing to do. Yes all those conflicted emotions felt so terrible and were certainly not what any of us would choose to feel, but they were necessary to whole point of this franchise...to put us there, in those god-awful circumstances. I think The Last of Us, both I & II are not just masterclasses in gaming or even in story telling (including the voice acting - which is phenomenal)...they are Masterpieces. I have been playing video games since the Commodore 64 and I can say with my hand on my heart, of all the incredible games and I’ve enjoyed over these many years, TLOU is head and shoulders above them all. Naughty Dog transported me into the heart of an interactive cinematic experience so real, that it is taking me some time to comedown off of it. It isn’t supposed to be a nice feeling, it’s supposed to make an impression. And that’s why for me it is the GOAT.