The Last of Us Game Director Finds Modern AAA Games 'Boring,' Says He's 'Not Excited' by God of War Laufey's Gameplay

Bruce Straley, the director of The Last of Us and Uncharted games, claims that today's big-budget video games are unexciting and boring. During an Edge magazine interview, he spoke about the modern AAA game landscape, expressing disappointment with the lack of risk-taking. Straley highlighted God of War: Ragnarok as a notable example of a game that requires immense effort and skill from its developers, yet may not offer groundbreaking innovations.

He noted that while he admires the technical mastery present in the game, he is not particularly excited by its content. Straley admitted that he may have indirectly inspired the trend of hyper-cinematic action games, as seen in the Uncharted and The Last of Us series. Notably, the 2018 reboot of God of War faced criticism for resembling The Last of Us.

Straley parted ways with Naughty Dog in 2017 after completing Uncharted 4 and subsequently experiencing fatigue from the intensive development process of AAA titles. Now, he is focusing on creating smaller projects at his independent studio, Wildflower Interactive, with his first game set to be released sometime in the future.