The Last of Us Sweeps the 17th Annual DICE Awards

The Last of Us did at least fail to take home the Best Sports Game Award.

I loved The Last of Us. It wasn’t perfect, but it was an amazing experience. One thing I did complain about, however, was that it failed to innovate much, instead dedicating everything it had to the story and characters. That didn’t stop it from taking home the Outstanding Innovation in Gaming Award at the 17th Annual DICE Awards, much to the chagrin of a vast swath of those I follow on Twitter. In fact, The Last of Us took home 10 awards of the 12 categories it was nominated in, dropping only Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering and Online Game of the Year, the nomination for which is still a complete mystery to me. That said, The Last of Us, at least in my humble opinion, was more than deserving of many of the awards it did take home, and we at The Escapist applaud the hard work and dedication from the team at Naughty Dog that helped make this game what it is.

In related news, Eugene Jarvis, creator of Defender and Robotron 2084 was honored with the Pioneer Award for his legacy, as well as his continued work in the field. He is probably best known for Defender, the first side-scroller in video games. He’s even introduced coin-op arcade games as recently as 2004, continuing a tradition long after its popularity has waned. I’m apparently a couple years too young to appreciate his contribution with Robotron, but he was also responsible for one of my favorite bits of classic digital ultraviolence, NARC.

Without further ado, here’s the full list of winners for the 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards:

• Adventure Game of the Year – The Last of Us
• Downloadable Game of the Year – Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons
• Mobile Game of the Year – Plants vs Zombies 2
• Handheld Game of the Year – The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
• Outstanding Achievement in Animation – The Last of Us
• Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction – The Last of Us
• Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering – The Last of Us
• Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering – Grand Theft Auto V
• Casual Game of the Year – Plants vs Zombies 2
• Family Game of the Year – Super Mario 3D World
• Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year – Diablo III
• Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year – XCOM: Enemy Within
• Outstanding Innovation in Gaming – The Last of Us
• Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition – Bioshock Infinite
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design – The Last of Us
• Outstanding Achievement in Story – The Last of Us
• Outstanding Character Performance – The Last of Us – Ellie
• Online Game of the Year – World of Tanks
• Sports Game of the Year – FIFA 14
• Racing Game of the Year – Forza Motorsport 5
• Fighting Game of the Year – Injustice: Gods Among Us
• Action Game of the Year – Bioshock Infinite
• Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction – The Last of Us
• Game of the Year – The Last of Us

That’s what The Academy thinks, but what are your thoughts? Was The Last of Us really deserving of this kind of total sweep of the awards, or did indie titles like The Escapist‘s reader favorite Papers, Please get unduly cut from the running? Let us know in the comments.