The Last Of Us is 'greatest story ever told in games', says HBO writer

The Last Of Us has been hailed as "the greatest story ever told in games" by one of the men responsible for turning the acclaimed 2013 title into a live-action series.

Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic masterpiece has certainly received its fair share of praise over the years, and rightly so! The Last Of Us takes players on a gut-wrenching journey that's hard to forget - and not just because Sony keeps re-releasing the damn thing.

Joel and Ellie's lengthy trek across America is masterfully done, aided by some beautiful writing and truly top-notch performances. The upcoming HBO adaptation, which releases in January, certainly has a lot to live up to.

The good news is that writer and director Craig Mazin, who has teamed up with Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann to bring The Last Of Us to HBO, is well aware of the game's legacy.

“It’s an open-and-shut case: this is the greatest story that has ever been told in video games,” Mazin told Empire during a recent interview.

Mazin, who has been a keen gamer for decades, puts much of the game's success down to Joel and Ellie (expertly played by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson in the video games, and portrayed by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in the new series).

“They didn’t shoot anything out of their eyeballs,” he explained. “They were just people. And that, in and of itself, is remarkably rare in games. The fact that they kept it so grounded, and really made you feel – I had never experienced anything like it, and I’ve been playing video games since 1977.”

While not everyone would agree that The Last Of Us is the greatest story ever told in a video game, few could argue that it deserves to be right up there alongside the likes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Red Dead Redemption 2, Portal 2, and What Remains Of Edith Finch.

HBO's The Last Of Us airs in January, and we think it has the potential to be something very special indeed.