10 best PlayStation exclusive games ranked
3. The Last of Us Part 1
It's hard to choose the best game out of The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Part 2. They are both highly acclaimed titles regarded as some of the best video games ever created, even if the latter featured a story that did not sit well with some long-time fans of the saga. However, there's no denying that the former had a greater impact on the gaming industry as a whole when it was originally released in 2013. Besides, to truly feel everything Part 2 intends you to, you need to experience its predecessor first, unlike with other sequels (like Horizon: Forbidden West) where you could simply catch up to speed about previous events with a YouTube video.
After their work on Uncharted 3, Naughty Dog pivoted away from the style-over-substance philosophy that characterized Nathan Drake's adventures and decided to focus on creating a complex story worthy of being in a blockbuster movie. The Last of Us features a very impactful narrative that keeps players on the edge of their seats all the way through. Just when you experience a little sense of comfort, tragedy strikes in multiple different ways. The game makes you spend just enough time with non-playable characters so that you grow fond of them, and yet it always takes them out of the picture sooner rather than later.
But even with all of the tragic events that plague the story of The Last of Us, there's a lot of humanity in it. The game truly makes you care about its protagonists, its world, and the people you meet along the way. It makes you fight for all of that until the very end. So when the time comes and Joel condemns the whole world to keep living with the Cordyceps infection just to save Ellie, players are able to sympathize with him. The ending's conflicting nature still makes it one of the best closures in any video game to this very date, more than 10 years later.
Perhaps The Last of Us wasn't ground-breaking in its gameplay mechanics or its level design. But the story it told still lives rent-free in our hearts and minds. Besides, thanks to the updated graphics and little gameplay tweaks present in The Last of Us Part 1 remake, this experience feels even more timeless now.