What made this game a so called "Masterpiece" in many peoples eyes?

[Hugobossman]

Firstly don't kill me this is just my opinion. After finishing the game yesterday I honestly couldn't find what made people give this game such a title. I didn't feel a deep sadness that the adventure was over either like I have with many great games that tell great stories.

I thought it was a good game with probably the most jaw dropping graphics I've ever seen, a good story but nothing like TellTale Walking Dead Season 1 or Red Dead Redemption 2 imo.

I feel like I should have more of an attachment with Joel and Ellie but I just don't and I don't know why because they're well written. The game is very linear and basic so game-play wise it doesn't do anything stellar necessarily. (Not that this is a bad thing)

I'm wondering if the time I played it may have a factor too as I didn't get to appreciate what it did for it's time. Kinda like if you went back to play Half Life 2 it would look like a pretty basic game and you'd be wondering what made it such a masterpiece.

Thanks for reading my waffle. Just to summarise I really liked the game but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece or hold it in the regard many would.

[episoder]

i dunno what other people see. i can't tell.

i like the graphics and feel of the environment. there are a couple of sections that are kinda old style of level design, but totally fine. the story is good. the cutscenes are great. i watched the series first and i know part 2, but never played either of it. game play is nice and challenging, depending how you play and what difficulty you play on. all good to me.

[Captain_Cole]

I enjoyed the game when I played it BUT for me it just felt like another Naughty dogs games and more of an evolution in story telling over their Uncharted series than anything overly special. I will play it again though as it's enjoyable, but then so is Callisto Protocal lol.

[mhmtkfz]

There are many elements that make this game great. One of them is the gameplay animations. From Joel's movement animations to attack and interaction animations, everything is amazing. You feel like you are watching an interactive movie instead of controlling a game character. There are very few games with such realistic, natural gameplay animations(tlou2,rdr2).

[a.]

I think people who call it a masterpiece are referring to the Last of Us series as a whole, not just the first game. It's a good creative story which is not something you find often in videogames so it naturally stands out in the field, especially among people who are usually more into other forms of creative expression (such as movies) than videogames.

I agree with you that this is great game but I woudn't call it a masterpiece - the 2nd game however is a different story. It's like a much more polished version of this one in terms of gameplay with a much more powerful and emotional story not seen in videogames before. It completely pushes the envelope for single player story driven games. For me, the 2nd game is a true masterpiece and the best videogame I ever experienced (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ soul crushing though). This is my opinion though, which is of course based on my general tastes in games and art in general, I know a lot of people will disagree since it was such a contentious game.

[If It Ain't Woke, Don't Fix It]

Google made this game a masterpiece. When I asked why TLOU is a masterpiece, everyone blindly stated bc Google says so.

Fools.

[Unmotivated]

I'd argue it's a masterpiece simply because it's one of the few story based games i've played that both have decent gameplay length and engagement with a story focus. You'll be surprised how few games actually offer a good balance of gameplay and story these days. Most either focus entirely on gameplay, like the Souls series, or beat you over the head hard with long story beats nearly every step you take.

And the rest are just more crappy open world RPG garbage you can't find any substance in.

[Sonic]

As you would have guessed, a "Masterpiece" is always a subjective classification by the human that consumes the pruduct.
So you will always get a personalized response to it, that can vary from very bad to very good, depended how said person received it.
If we go into the realm of statistics the picture becomes more clear, as we can see overlapping qualities that many players agree and apprichiate on, which are:

- Deep characters and their progession within
- Relatable banter and Actions that could be real life and not from Holywood
- oustanding attention to details
- Quality of animations and graphics
- Good Pacing and decent AI

I could go into details of every aspect i just listed and what they exactly mean but that would take way too long of my time so i will keep it short.
You can inform yourself how the general playerbase receive the product by reading reviews that do not involve technical port issues, as that will give you no information on the base game. So i advice you to read recent reviews, as the game now pretty much got away with those issues.

[Mobfighter's gaming station]

I don't call it a masterpiece but Joel and Ellie relationship really helps the game's journey out. It's a combination for you being Ellie's protector, Joel and Ellie cutscenes, and Ellie helping you in combat and commenting on the world and Joel that makes the relationship feel better than it would on the surface to me. These work in collaboration with each other. I would bet if their cutscenes or their optional conversations were cut out it wouldn't be nearly as impactful. It helps that the other characters in the game while simple, are intriguing and really bounce off our two main characters well too. It's just a pretty good story overall I guess, and this is coming from someone who questions some of the storytelling too.

[Pac]

you have to go back in time to understand what this game ment at its time....

back then we didnt have many games with this theme nor as many with a lesbian 16year old character or that touched on political and social matters on its own world and also made fun and jokes about alot of them lol

and the grapichs for the ps3 where amazing back then the world and all to explore, game mechanics was fun and the characters was relatable atleast in one way or another you sorta get atteched to them towards the end game

besides all that it had a story like non other

this was one of those games you would sit back and take it really slot with the exploration, if you miss a very specific point or something when ellie or joel is around you miss and intere dialogo sequence or could even have an inpact on the story in very specific things

and there are also some other things that you could miss a funny thing or a joke completly

[Retro_Ronni3]

Originally posted by Paul Allen's Business Card:

Firstly don't kill me this is just my opinion. After finishing the game yesterday I honestly couldn't find what made people give this game such a title. I didn't feel a deep sadness that the adventure was over either like I have with many great games that tell great stories.

I thought it was a good game with probably the most jaw dropping graphics I've ever seen, a good story but nothing like TellTale Walking Dead Season 1 or Red Dead Redemption 2 imo.

I feel like I should have more of an attachment with Joel and Ellie but I just don't and I don't know why because they're well written. The game is very linear and basic so game-play wise it doesn't do anything stellar necessarily. (Not that this is a bad thing)

I'm wondering if the time I played it may have a factor too as I didn't get to appreciate what it did for it's time. Kinda like if you went back to play Half Life 2 it would look like a pretty basic game and you'd be wondering what made it such a masterpiece.

Thanks for reading my waffle. Just to summarise I really liked the game but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece or hold it in the regard many would.

Story and Characters! cause It sure in hell wasnt because of gameplay

[Luppie]

Thinks wen Joel end Elly wen on the way like jokes or seeing garden gnome's and talk about it. The music and watching the stores and haring the leefs in the wind. It make this game for me a little emotial.

[Jeff the Geek]

Originally posted by BRU-C:

I'm wondering if the time I played it may have a factor too as I didn't get to appreciate what it did for it's time. Kinda like if you went back to play Half Life 2 it would look like a pretty basic game and you'd be wondering what made it such a masterpiece.

How DARE you besmirch HL2. ;-) But more seriously this is probably the reason. I don't have this game yet (waiting for a good price) for the very reason that even though it is new to the PC it's an older game.

I will say that on deeper levels, I can often see the reason a game is known as a genre-defining classic. Just knowing the history going in can help. As I hinted Iove HL2, and the graphics aren't great now (but have aged a lot better than most 2004 games, even considering the updates since). What made HL2 great was level design, plot, and gameplay mechanics. Level design and plot are still there, but you can see that games have mimicked the dedication to those things since. Gameplay mechanics were revolutionary, but a lot of things since them have implemented similar mechanics, so it's not so obvious now.

I expect that the Last of Us will really stand out int he character and plot department, but less so even with updated graphics..

It's always tough with re-releases and remasters to get into the mindset of the time if you didnt' play them before, so i totally appreciate your take.