Can you name a few examples please, I might wanna give them a try.
There are plenty games with a story at that level. What people are observing in The Last of Us that makes people feel its storytelling is unrivaled is the quality of the digital actors, the mo-cap, the attention to detail, and the elaborate cutscenes, all things that rightly elevate even relatively simple story moments and deliver something that many other games simply have never achieved. So it's less about the story itself, which is great, and more about the presentation of the story being told. Naughty Dog just has the formula down. As does Santa Monica studio.
I feel there are plenty of stories that are at that level. Mass Effect 1-2, Kotor, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy VII (original), Max Payne, Persona 3-5, Last of Us 2 (may hate how events play out, but it's impressive), Halo 4, Splinter Cell Conviction, Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break (one of the best videogame stories I've ever experienced), Halo Infinite, Call of Duty 4, Final Fantasy 9, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, MGS 1, MGS3: Snake Eater, Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3, and many others I'm forgetting.
The distinguishing factor about The Last of Us is the quality and presentation of the cutscenes and the character models. And a willingness to make murder really look more like murder, much more disturbing.