This guy sounds like someone who hates games and his job (Gaming)

by Kahzgul, Tuesday, September 29, 2015, 16:47 (3343 days ago) @ cheapLEY

His argument seems to be that the Last of Us is flawed because it contains game elements? I'll be honest: If the gameplay in The Last of Us wasn't compelling, that game would have been a painful experience. But they got the combat down to be fun and interesting. Sure the game is linear, but the lines are broad, so you can advance down the street, or through a building, or by jumping a fence and taking a side alley. And there are often large, square areas where you have to get from one corner to the opposite one with a host of enemies in the way and loads of cover to hide behind. The choice of stealth vs. assault is also nearly always available, which means any "linear" area can actually be traversed via two wholly different gameplay experiences, or a combination of them.

A linear map is not the same as a linear game, and the author seems not to get that.

Then, at the end, he extolls on the virtues of Gears of War which is (seriously) almost identical to The Last of Us in terms of combat gameplay. This guy is getting distracted by the non game elements and holding the better story up to a higher standard than the more pulp action game, even though they both play in similar fashions.

The end result is, at least from this excerpt, the author comes off as someone who hates video games and was assigned to write this by his editor. It's not a critical examination of gaming as art, so much as it's a critical examination of games with the expectation that compelling stories are better told via a different medium.

I wholly disagree with what appears to be the premise of this excerpt, and i think that author does himself a disservice by speaking in absolutes rather than acknowledging that his own opinions are not facts, his findings are not scientific, and his concept of game mechanics is inconstant.