I don’t want to play The Last of Us again

destructoid.com:

I’ve played a lot of The Last of Us in my life. The first one was incredibly formative for me, and became the reason I work in games now. My hyperfixation with it took over my life for a good year, and in that time I ended up playing it seven or eight times, starting it over again after I finished it. My love for TLOU is what brought me across the country to live in Los Angeles, and eventually landed me a job at Naughty Dog doing QA for The Last of Us Part II, which I platinumed about a half dozen times while I worked there.

The series has continued to be at the forefront of the games industry nearly a decade after its beginnings, for better and for worse. The first game is one of the best examples of interactive storytelling we have, and certainly my favorite, and I have to assume that its continued relevance has led many new players to experience its story for the first time — that I’m thankful for. Even so, it’s not ideal to have too much of a good thing, which is something the games industry knows well.

If you haven’t heard the news about the newly released The Last of Us Part I (a title I begrudgingly use for the original game only because it’s the official name of this version), you might be living under a rock. In case you’ve decided to go all Patrick Star on us, I’ll quickly break it down — Naughty Dog released a new version of The Last of Us that was “rebuilt from the ground up” for the PS5, which includes enhanced graphics, gameplay, and quality of life changes. It’s also the first time the series is available on PC.

At this point, sharing the fact that I don’t want to play the game again as its rereleased Part I version feels pretty stale. All of our timelines are flooded with takes, both hot and cold, about