Many cookbooks makes decent but unoriginal broth
Playing The Last of Us feels like every single part is infused with the DNA of some earlier videogame or movie. In some cases, it might be because a certain design choice has long become a staple of games in general but in other cases it either seems like open homage or borrowing from the best in the hope that it's not too obvious.
Playing the game, I was reminded of the following in certain design decisions:
Half Life 2
Silent Hill 3 (particularly in the DLC Left Behind- no doubt. A carousel and mannequins and a shopping centre)
Max Payne
Resident Evil
Alan Wake
Red Dead Redemption
I am Legend
Tomb Raider (maybe The Last of Us did hunting first in tense linear / wide linear adventure games)
(and, of course, Uncharted 2, for the ladder dropping but that's Naughty Dog's own game anyway)