I think it's important to understand the differences between Gears of War and ND. They are vastly different games from a design perspective, even though they do similar things. Firstly, Gears, like Halo, Doom, Destiny, and COD are all shooters. The primary gameplay loop is to aim and shoot, layered into that is positioning and movement. Then item management, consumables, and abilities are all additional layered designs. If you don't like aiming and shooting, then that category of game is not for you. But to say that Gears is poor design or poor encounter design because you can choose to play the encounter repetitively is not a criticism I think is fair. You are playing precisely to aim and shoot the way you want to aim and shoot and you have gameplay loops that support various methods of that, but to proceed you must ultimately aim and shoot. You don't have to walk, cover, and shoot. That's the most _basic_ and fundamental way to play and the better you get at gears the less of it you need to do.
Where TLOU gameplay, I have found severely limits what you can do by comparison. The primary gameplay loop is actually positioning and movement, managing your consumables and figuring out problems. Aiming and shooting is an optional gameplay loop that you can largely go without. You can probably finish the whole game putting less than 10% of your kills shooting. Whereas with gears it will be about 98% of your kills. But 98% of your kills in TLOU and your survivability will depend on movement and positioning, and sometimes in certain situations that process can be wholly slow and monotonous waiting for the opportunity to make my move. Whereas if I get beastly good at gears, and the better you get at the primary loops and secondary loops, you can blaze through a level. Cover and shooting the whole encounter is really just a survival mechanism because you have no other way to beat the encounter faster.
So that's sort of where I stand right now with TLOU. The fact that it forces me to slow down increases the immersion and makes the tension higher, sure, it's certainly more environmentally engaging in that sense, and gives a better feel of the story. But there are encounters I just want to blaze through because I feel like I'm past this, and it's so hard to, the option is rarely available. And if the tension and immersion mean little to you, then it starts to fall flat. Alien Isolation is a game where you cannot do anything but hide. Some people love it and some people don't. And I'm pretty certain it's not for me. I want to play games to be aggressive, I want to make aggressive moves in games because that's a liberating reversal from real-life. I appreciate precisely what they accomplished in this game, but I think, likely if I play TLOU2 - I think I would enjoy the additional options in combat situations there to be more flamboyant, to define combat with my own sense of style.
Right now, crouching around knifing people repeatedly and knowing that every player has done precisely this, but knifed the AI at a different spot on the map, is where I feel like, I wish there was a little more here to express myself.
I think if it were true that TLOU 1 gameplay did not age and did not require some improvements, then it runs counter to this: "faithfully reproduced, but incorporating modernized gameplay, improved controls, and expanded accessibility options. Plus feel immersed with improved effects and enhanced exploration and combat"
Once again, I know this is a great game, I'm just making commentary that its gameplay did not age well, so this remake is justifiable for people wanting to experience it for the first time. For me, good gameplay means that players can reach mastery. You can easily differentiate a player who has spent 100 hrs playing a game and purposefully getting better at it and one that did not actively try to get better.
This is mastery:
Gears 5
God of War
Doom
Assassin Creed: Origins
