'The Last Of Us' Reviews Round-Up: The Beginning Of The Start?

'The Last Of Us' Reviews Round-Up: The Beginning Of The Start?

In less than a week the gaming world will be focused on the E3 conference and the next-generation consoles Xbox One and PS4 which will compete for your money at Christmas.

But this week it's focused on something else - a survival horror game which has drawn almost universally stunning reviews.

The Last Of Us is a post-apocalypse action adventure for PS3 in which a father and daughter have to escape from danger, and try to build a new life amidst the wreckage of the old.

With beautiful, but haunting, visuals and an innovative gameplay mix which prioritises avoiding danger rather than seeking out bloodshed, it's a compelling and potentially landmark game.

Here's what the gaming press has made of it so far.

Empire (5/5)

"The Last Of Us is not just the finest game that Naughty Dog has yet crafted and an easy contender for the best game of this console generation, it may also prove to be gaming's Citizen Kane moment - a masterpiece that will be looked back upon favourably for decades."

IGN: 10/10

"The beauty of stealth in The Last of Us is the incredible, uncomfortable realism you're forced to witness each and every time you execute a silent kill. Watching a survivor fruitlessly swat at Joel's arms as he strangles him to death is disturbing, as is quickly shiving a man in his neck and listening to him gurgle some parting breaths as he collapses to the ground. "

Polygon: 7.5/10

"There are hints of a nuanced message in The Last of Us, but convention wins out too often to easily find them. Naughty Dog commits to a somber tone that affects every piece of the game for better and worse. It achieves incredible emotional high points about as often as it bumps up against tired scenario design that doesn't fit its world. Survival in the post-apocalypse requires compromise, but The Last of Us has given up something vital."

Eurogamer 10/10

"At a time when blockbuster action games are sinking into a mire of desperate overproduction, shallow gameplay and broken narrative logic, The Last of Us is a deeply impressive demonstration of how it can and should be done. It starts out safe but ends brave; it has heart and grit, and it hangs together beautifully. And it's a real video game, too. An elegy for a dying world, The Last of Us is also a beacon of hope for its genre."

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