The closer we got to the release date for The Last of Us, the more previews they released, the more sad I became that I Am Alive would be forgotten in comparison. It seemed as if The Last of Us would manage everything that I Am Alive had sought out for and failed to achieve.

Turns out that wasn’t quite the case.

I believe we should officially abandon the genre name “survival horror” and simply divide it between “survival” and “horror”, or at least acknowledge the differences between the two. I’ve seen some label The Last of Us as horror, but this is not quite accurate. The game is tense and suspenseful, but it’s not really horrifying. This was the same case with I Am Alive.

Instead, I think both games really capitalize on the feeling of limited resources, solitude, and an inability to trust anyone else. Each games manage to go about this in different ways.

The world of The Last of Us is carefully designed to force players to consider their equipment carefully and to prepare accordingly. You may have a plethora of weaponry, but your access to those weapons is limited. When you reach an upgrade bench, do you spend precious parts to allow yourself to carry more weapons or do you make the weapons more powerful? Are you going to use what few tools you’ve scavenged to create a health kit or a molotov cocktail? To make a shiv or a homemade flak grenade?

All gameplay is built around being prepared for when shit hits the fan, as you never know when it will happen. Well, sort of. Each level gets into a general rhythm, where you’ll have calm, quiet moments that become interrupted by confrontations with infected or violent humans. I’d say this is perhaps the greatest weakness to the game, the one thing keeping The Last of Us from being much more than the sum of its parts. Every chapter of the game is divided into segments where any other character you interact with is hostile.

That’s not to say you don’t run into friendlies on occasion, but it’s always punctuated with a cut-scene. It would be nice if, on occasion, you were wandering a seemingly abandoned town and found people willing to barter crafting items for ammunition or spare parts for weapon upgrades. Or even simply found folk who, like in I Am Alive, merely pointed a gun at you until you walked away. Give the environment more life and break the divide between “this is the gameplay” and “this is the story”.

Not that there’s any lack of interaction with your A.I. companions. There are plenty of optional dialog moments based on objects in the environment, and some of the characters will even have unique interactions at certain scenes. These allow the characters to develop a bit, to make them feel that much more real than just relying on cut-scenes designed to push the plot along.

Yet these are always in “the calm moments”. Every chapter becomes a sort of pattern, as predictable as any other game might become. You wander a quiet new space to scavenge. You come across infected next. Then you finish up with trying to fight or escape human foes. It becomes rather formulaic, and as well-crafted as the game’s world is, as well-designed as it is, it never breaks the flow of “this is the video game part”.

Which is a real sad shame, because the environments in this game are wonderful. If open world games were designed even half as well as the world of The Last of Us, then they’d be a wonder to explore. There are so many small, personal stories and other touches that keep the world from feeling repetitive. Each house feels like a new house. Each office feels like a different office. Every location is unique and has its own feel to it, even after being covered up by foliage and decay.

That said, even if the formula breaks a bit of immersion, the stealth and combat blend quite well. It’s possible to duck back into hiding after being discovered, so punishment isn’t always too severe. Sometimes it isn’t clear when you’re able to sneak through an environment and when you have to kill everyone, but there are plenty of moments and methods to cut through whole sections with as little confrontation as possible. Combat is similarly hectic, with foes that behave differently based on the upper hand. If they are plentiful and first discover you, they’ll eagerly charge forward together. Take a number of them out or use surprise tactics, and they’ll start hanging back, waiting for you to reveal yourself.

The game hits many of the same notes I discussed with Mark of the Ninja. The player is vulnerable, but they have tools at their disposal which allows them to feel empowered. However, it never reaches the extent of Mark of the Ninja, as you’re never meant to feel like a bad ass here.

In fact, just the opposite. You’re meant to feel desperate. If you kill, it’s because you have no choice. Instead of disturbing the player with over-the-top melee kills at first only to be desensitized over time (such as in Bioshock: Infinite), killing or stabbing someone is quick, painful sounding, and yet brutal. The characters never look as if they enjoy stabbing or strangling someone, and even the sounds they make in such confrontation sound like there’s a level of panic.

Ultimately The Last of Us is a rather intense game that seeks to force the player into a position where they pause and consider their actions, to always plan ahead and be aware of their surroundings. If you play The Last of Us like other video games then you will die, and you will die often.

But if you play it as a survivalist, as someone whose mind isn’t on killing but on living, on making it through to the end, then you will find success.

Which, ultimately, is part of what The Last of Us is about. Survival.