Originally I was going to make 3-hour the cut-off for what I considered a short game, but honestly, the list ended up being several memorable games, but not ones I’d really felt deserved that Best label, so up to 4 hours it went, and the nominees were:
- Oxenfree
- Bad Dream: Fever
- The Last of Us: DLC
- A Short Hike
And the winner is…
The Last of Us: Left Behind!
Yeah, technically it’s a DLC, but seriously, it took a game that was already freaking awesome and that I love and made it just that much more amazing. The story, the characters, the voice acting, the music, the emotional gut punches. The feels, the anger, the tears, were all well-earned and well-deserved.
Even though you already know going in how it’s going to end, you don’t know the how, and the build-up to it makes you desperately wish you could change the past and “fix it.”
I loved the gameplay, and even though I played it for the first time this year, I stuck to Hard mode just like my replay of the first game and it worked. Challenging, at times mildly rage-inducing, but overall satisfying, fitting the genre, and yeah, it is the chef’s kiss on top of The Last of Us and if you missed played it somehow, but have played TLoU, then seriously, go pick up Left Behind.
I streamed my playthrough after playing The Last of Us Remastered (my second time playing the main game).