The world often goes to shit in video games; if it's not alien invasions, its epidemic outbreaks of one kind or another. But if anyone can muddle through a crisis it's us gamers.

The latest game from Naughty Dog, the makers of the truly marvellous Uncharted series, finds you trundling through a USA, roughly twenty years in the future, that has been ravaged by an infection that has turned the majority of the population into zombies. As it does.

You play Joel, a man with a past laced with sadness, whose path crosses that of teenager Ellie. Ellie looks and sounds your typical teenager, but she could hold the key to returning life to as it was to our world. The pair have to endure a long and arduous journey, full of threat and danger, in order to reach a group known as the Fireflies who may have some of the answers.

In truth, not exactly the most original of plots. But it shouldn't be readily dismissed, as it's not so much the story, but the way it's told.

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The Last of Us is one of those games that has a more filmic quality to it. Joel, the character you play, is exactly that, a fully formed character. He has a past, he has his reasons for helping out Ellie and he has limitations. To that end, the game is far more driven by character than story.

At times, the game has an almost poetic quality to it, as we witness the development of this unique relationship over some time within frail and bleak environments. It's eerily similar to the relationship forged between Booker and Elizabeth in the sublime Bioshock Infinite. But look past the cinematic veneer and the game under the hood is less attractive.

For all the emotive qualities on show, The Last of Us is disappointingly linear, and offers very little in terms of originality. The majority of the game finds you entering a physically restricted area, with an exit point you have to reach. Within the area are two types of enemy: human or infected. You then have to make your way through them, by either using stealth or violence, a measured combination of both, to get you to the exit point. And that is that. This is repeated ad nausea.

And unlike Naughty Dog's Uncharted series, there are no real set pieces to break up the game's basic structure. The only memorable scene resembling anything like a set piece was recently used in the excellent Tomb Raider reboot, so not exactly original.

For the rest of the time, you'll find yourself scurrying around, rooting through drawers, looking for spare ammo, medical supplies etc. Again, all done many times before. And although the environments look visual good, it's very difficult to get excited about crawling through a sewer system, or traipsing through yet another mid-western home, opening cupboards. It's all just far too generic for our liking.

It's great that games are now focusing on the development of characters, but it shouldn't be at the expense of generic game play. However strong the relationship is between Joel and Ellie, there's no disguising the fact that the majority of the game will either have you sneaking up on enemies for a stealth kill, or hiding behind a conveniently placed box for a shoot out.

The game's two central characters may well be interesting, but Ellie is nowhere near as advanced as Bioshock's Elizabeth is. Ellie is essentially just an AI character who you have to babysit for a length of time; she won't help you heal if you're hurt, nor will she give you ammo when you're running low. She is nothing more than a device for furthering the story.

The nicest surprise about the whole game is actually to be found in its multiplayer, as it's far less generic. It's unusual to find a story element in a multiplayer game, and this one uses one to great effect.

The Last of Us has been widely heralded as the second coming of gaming for this current gen of machines, and yet this is far from the case. Its story is undeniably absorbing, but ultimately it offers a gaming experience, with its stealth- duck-shoot mechanics, that we've all seen and played before. Despite all the hype of offering something genuinely different, it sadly offers anything but.