History YMMV / TheLastOfUs

* BrokenBase: Opinions on the [[spoiler:Firefly Hospital vary over whether it's an equally exciting level to the rest of the game, epitomizing what you need in stealth and combat skills, or a DisappointingLastLevel, switching the entire game from a tense, resource based survival game to another generic third-person shooter.]]
* CantUnHearIt: Many fans will attest to not being able to hear Creator/AshleyJohnson's voice in any other form of media now without hearing Ellie talking. While this is his most iconic role, Creator/TroyBaker averts this thanks to his famously large workload and altering his voice to enough so that it's different from his other parts.

* SequelDifficultySpike: Or rather, "Remake Difficulty Spike", but the [=PS5=] remake features the more advanced enemy AI from ''Part II'', making it significantly more difficult than the original.

** The flamethrower is comically overpowered. Fire is guaranteed to kill everything except for bloaters, so you just have spray enemies long enough to light them on fire and they are dead. It's only initial shortcoming is that the range is rather small, but that can be upgraded, along with the damage. At max damage, even Bloaters will melt rather fast. It's telling that it's the final weapon that you get in the game. And with Joel [[spoiler:being out of commission for most of the Winter chapter]], you don't have that much time to really use it. But for the encounters you DO have it for, it trivializes them, even on Grounded difficulty (Despite limited ammo, as long as the player taps the trigger instead of holding it down, you can burn dozens enemies to death without depleting the fuel too much, especially if you have the Range upgrade).

** The humble bow and arrow is a godsend in stealth sections for allowing you to silently pick off foes from a distance. One shot is enough to kill basic infected or humans if they aren’t aware of you, so if you’re careful you can clear entire encounters without blowing your cover once. Even better is that you can almost always retrieve the arrows from corpses so a meager supply of arrows can last a long time if you’re good enough with the bow.

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: Much of the backlash against the [=PS5=] remake is that it's basically just the original game but with enhanced graphics and subtle gameplay changes, essentially making it another remaster rather than an outright remake.

* MagnificentBitch: [[ActionGirl Tess]] is an [[TheDreaded infamous]] smuggler in Boston acting as the brains to Joel's muscle in their operations. After Robert's attempt on her life, Tess uses her contacts to corner and kill him for selling their guns to the Fireflies. Tasked to deliver the immune Ellie to them, Tess shows kindness towards her and grows to see this mission as a chance for redemption. Infected along the way, Tess persuades Joel to carry on without her and performs a LastStand against the military [[HeroicSacrifice to allow him and Ellie to escape]].

* NauseaFuel: The Infected, especially if you don't like fungus, are pretty tough to look at. Hell, even if you ''aren't'' bothered by fungus they're still pretty disgusting to look at.

** The [=PS5=] remake has the same plus remade graphics that are more in-line with ''Part II'' and the last 2 ''Uncharted'' games, redone A.I. for the enemies and allies, and additional accessibility options.

** The flamethrower is comically overpowered. Fire is guaranteed to kill everything except for bloaters, so you just have spray enemies long enough to light them on fire and they are dead. It's only initial shortcoming is that the range is rather small, but that can be upgraded, along with the damage. At max damage, even Bloaters will melt rather fast. It's telling that it's the final weapon that you get in the game. And with Joel [[spoiler:being out of commission for most of the Winter chapter]], you don't have that much time to really use it. But for the encounters you DO have it for, it trivializes them, even on Grounded difficulty (Despite limited ammo, as long as the player taps the trigger instead of holding it down, you can burn multiple enemies without depleting the fuel too much, especially if you have the Range upgrade).

* RetroactiveRecognition: Pay attention to the end credits and you'll see Nadji Jeter is the one who played Sam 5 years before he'd become known as Miles Morales in Insomniac Games' ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' and its sequel, ''VideoGame/SpiderManMilesMorales.''

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Aside from a few character interractions (particularly Joel and Ellie's budding relationship), this game is damn depressing even for a standard ZombieApocalypse game. Nearly every character is either a CompleteMonster or a {{Jerkass}} (including the protagonist, despite his HiddenHeartOfGold), the few who aren't (besides maybe Tommy and his group) [[spoiler:end up being infected, killed or losing everyone and everything they have]], there's a lot of talk about HumansAreBastards and HumansAreTheRealMonsters, and the game has one heck of a BittersweetEnding that leans more towards bitter than sweet. Yet it is one of the most acclaimed video games of all time.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The footage of fungi growing during the opening credits is actual real life fungi the creators filmed growing over several weeks.

* CompleteMonster: The seemingly kindhearted [[FauxAffablyEvil David]] is really a sinister cult leader in the [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]], zombie-infested world. He orders his men to raid a university, having them steal--and later kill--the horse Callus and leaves Joel in excruciating pain. He later reveals himself to be a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal]], feeding human meat to his unsuspecting followers and with many previous victims. [[{{Ephebophile}} Becoming obsessed with the teenaged Ellie]], David states his intent to use her to repopulate the world, and when she escapes from his clutches, he sends waves of his men to track her down, apathetic to their ensuing deaths. In his final confrontation with Ellie, David shows his full depravity, thanking her for killing his men and making his group stronger, in his own words, and trying to rape and kill her personally. Even among a cast of [[BlackAndGrayMorality morally gray characters]], David's actions and personality show him to be utterly irredeemable and the most heinous of all the enemies faced by Joel and Ellie.

* PolishedPort: Aside from having all the [=DLC=] on the disc, the remastered [=PS4=] version has improved framrates that go up to 60fps, and improved graphics.

** [[spoiler: Joel himself crosses it when he kills the fireflies to stop them from killing Ellie to make a cure and then lies to her about it. Not to save Ellie, and not because the cure was doomed to fail, but so he wouldn’t lose Ellie. It was the moment that proved that Joel would be willing to commit any atrocity for the sake of himself and ultimately leads to his KarmicDeath in the [[VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPart2 sequel]].]]

** The flamethrower is comically overpowered. Fire is guaranteed to kill everything except for bloaters, so you just have spray enemies long enough to light them on fire and they are dead. It's only initial shortcoming is that the range is rather small, but that can be upgraded, along with the damage. At max damage, even Bloaters will melt rather fast. It's telling that it's the final weapon that you get in the game. And with Joel [[spoiler:being out of commission for most of the Winter chapter]], you don't have that much time to really use it. But for the encounters you DO have it for, it trivializes them, even on Grounded difficulty.

** The flamethrower is comically overpowered. Fire is guaranteed to kill everything except for bloaters, so you just have spray enemies long enough to light them on fire and they are dead. It's only initial shortcoming is that the range is rather small, but that can be upgraded, along with the damage. At max damage, even Bloaters will melt rather fast. It's telling that it's the final weapon that you get in the game. And with Joel [[spoiler:being out of commission for most of the Winter chapter]], you don't have that much time to really use it. But for the encounters you DO have it for, it trivializes them, even on Grounded mode.

** The flamethrower is comically overpowered. Fire is guaranteed to kill everything except for bloaters, so you just have spray enemies long enough to light them on fire and they are dead. It's only initial shortcoming is that the range is rather small, but that can be upgraded, along with the damage. At max damage, even Bloaters will melt rather fast. It's telling that it's the final weapon that you get in the game. And with Joel [[spoiler:being out of commission for most of the Winter chapter]], you don't have that much time to really use it. But for the encounters you DO have it for, it trivializes them.

** Did HBO add dragons?[[labelnote:Explanation]]The show's first teaser was released as part of a longer trailer for 2023 HBO programming. Many fans who tried to trim it down to just the ''[=TLoU=]'' section accidentally left in a clip of a dragon from ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'', confusing viewers who didn't know about HBO advertising both shows in the same video.[[/labelnote]]

** Did HBO add dragons?[[labelnote:Explanation]]The show's first teaser was released as part of a longer trailer for 2023 HBO programming. Many fans who tried to trim it down to just the ''[=TLoU=]'' section accidentally left in a clip of a dragon from ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'', confusing viewers who didn't know about the full trailer's existence.[[/labelnote]]

%%* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: Joel's voice, described by one HBO employee as "Series/TheMandalorian but with a subtle Southern accent."

* RelationshipWritingFumble: [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools A positive example.]] [[DeathOfTheAuthor Despite]] the WordOfGod claim, the nature of Joel and Tess's relationship is delightfully ambiguous, with only her statement that "there's enough here [between us]" to give any implications that it goes beyond platonic convenience. It really can come down to personal interpretation if it's romantic, intimate, or just close friendship.

* UncannyValley:
** Oddly enough, the horses that show up in the middle of the game. Their legs and neck are far too thin and spindly to look like real horses. Horses like this were also present in ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'' so it seems to be a thing with Naughty Dog.
** They didn't do too good a job on the eyes of unimportant characters.
** Rather oddly, this example occurs only in the CG pre-rendered cutscenes but the facial features of any character, even important ones, look sunken and hollow. Sarah's face, for instance, is a lot more gaunt in the opening cutscene than throughout the rest of the [[spoiler: very brief time she is in the]] game.
** Tess can look very off-putting in cutscenes. Her head is disproportionately small and her face looks more like that of a mannequin than a human.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: While the story, characters, and presentation are agreed to be top notch, the actual gameplay mechanics are more divisive with many finding the game to be a generic stealth shooter broken up with repetitive “find a ladder or pallet” puzzles and sections where characters walk slowly and exchange dialogue.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
** Ellie. The first thing we see is her trying to stab Joel to protect Marlene. She is also reluctant to leave Marlene, someone she trusts as opposed to Joel who she just met half a minute ago. In other words, she's a feisty but not ruthless, and also scared to be alone.
** Marlene. We learn practically everything about her in a single scene. She is first seen as a wounded leader who has lost her Firefly team. Resorting to unsavory characters such as Robert to get by, refuses ration cards, and barters goods for a bigger cause (e.g Ellie). A broken, pragmatic rebel leader, who's tough but fair, but with noble cause.

%%* BaseBreakingCharacter:
%%** Joel, mainly after his decision to [[spoiler:save Ellie from being operated on at the end of the game, killing anyone who tried to stop him]] at the end of the game. One camp strongly disapproves of his selfish actions, claiming that he doomed humanity and [[spoiler:deserved to die]] in the sequel. Another camp acknowledges that his actions were selfish, but [[spoiler:since the chances of the Fireflies creating a usable vaccine from Ellie were rather slim, and the chances of that vaccine making a difference were even lower due to factors that were largely the Fireflies' fault, Joel's actions were understandable, and saved Ellie from becoming a SenselessSacrifice]].
%%** Some people like how completely frank Bill is about survival while others think he's too much of a hardass.

** Ellie. The first thing we see is her trying to Joel to protect Marlene. She is also reluctant to leave Marlene, someone she trusts as opposed to Joel who she just met half a minute ago. In other words, she's a feisty but not ruthless, and also scared to be alone.

* CharacterEstablishingMoment:
** Ellie. The first thing we see is her trying to Joel to protect Marlene. She is also reluctant to leave Marlene, someone she trusts as opposed to Joel who she just met half a minute ago. In other words, she's a feisty but not ruthless, and also scared to be alone.
** Marlene. We learn practically everything about her in a single scene. She is first seen as a wounded leader who has lost her Firefly team. Resorting to unsavory characters such as Robert to get by, refuses ration cards, and barters goods for a bigger cause (e.g Ellie). A broken, pragmatic rebel leader, who's tough but fair, but with noble cause.

* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Joel, mainly after his decision to [[spoiler:save Ellie from being operated on at the end of the game, killing anyone who tried to stop him]] at the end of the game. One camp strongly disapproves of his selfish actions, claiming that he doomed humanity and [[spoiler:deserved to die]] in the sequel. Another camp acknowledges that his actions were selfish, but [[spoiler:since the chances of the Fireflies creating a usable vaccine from Ellie were rather slim, and the chances of that vaccine making a difference were even lower due to factors that were largely the Fireflies' fault, Joel's actions were understandable, and saved Ellie from becoming a SenselessSacrifice]].
** Some people like how completely frank Bill is about survival while others think he's too much of a hardass.

* FanNickname: "Pixel Pascal" for Creator/PedroPascal's portrayal of Joel, back when fans had to consult blurry leaked set pictures and videos to see his face (the first official publicity still focused on his back).

* HypeBacklash: Given that the game received literally hundreds of “Game of the Year” awards and unanimous acclaim from critics and audiences alike, reactions like this were inevitable, mainly from people who believe the gameplay is much weaker than everything else.