The Last of Us

[accies1874]

Right, I completed it this morning. Let's start with the good:

• Its shift slightly more than halfway in is a really good concept and would've been excellent in a tighter game with more well-rounded characters. I liked how it uses its medium to convey a certain idea and at least made me question what I did for most of the game, although that hasn't worked for everyone, it seems. 
• There's a section in a museum that, in my opinion, trumped everything in the original. 
• I think it does the action and horror gameplay better than the first, however it does lose something when you become less helpless. 
• Its Uncharted-style set pieces are great. 
• The atmosphere is incredible at points - unbelievably tense when nothing was happening. Sadly, it became predictable pretty early on that an enemy would always jump out. 
• It was distracting/overwhelming at first, but the wide open environments were a solid addition. 
• Setting infected and humans on each other remained fun until the very end and I would've love more of that. 

 

Now... the bad:

• I found the narrative directionless and filled with dull characters. It's as if they had their interesting and risky concept and worked backwards. The emphasis was on being meta as opposed to creating an engaging story or characters I could invest in. It was just a really flimsy script. 
• Suffers massively from Return of the King syndrome. It's way, way, way too long, could've wrapped up at least five times (probably more), and the final few hours were all over the place in terms of pacing and tone. 
• I saw a review that I found quite interesting. He said that Naughty Dog try so hard to make you feel bad about your actions while creating a game with loads of long, fun and satisfying sections of violence. I don't think there's any way to get round that without sacrificing your message or game but it does dampen the former. 
• There are also a couple of "boss" fights in the second half: one's pretty bad and one is horrendous.
• I might just need to get good but the new dodging mechanic was a bit awkward IMO.

Edited June 26, 2020 by accies1874

[Mr. Brightside]

The museum sequence might be my favourite section of any video game. It was perfection.

[Gianfranco]

I can’t shoot for shit so far. I don’t remember being this bad in the first one. I’m enjoying the stealth kills.

[Mr. Brightside]

I almost exclusively go the stealth route. Only time I go load is with those Stalker c***s cause you can't see them, that's when the shotgun comes out.

[Gianfranco]

I almost exclusively go the stealth route. Only time I go load is with those Stalker c***s cause you can't see them, that's when the shotgun comes out.

Same mate. I’ve died about 5 times so far when you’re forced into combat in the courthouse garage. Will need to change tactics.

[Have some faith in Magic]

I forgot how much fun the melee weapons are. 

Bit of pipe with sharpend spanners taped on. Yes. 

[Zing.]

I reckon I’ve got maybe four/five hours left. I’ve really enjoyed it but as others have said it could’ve been cut shorter.

[Gianfranco]

Setting those Shamblers on fire is great fun.

I’m finding the dogs and the runners the hardest opponents.

[NotThePars]

I've just encountered the dogs and generally flung a trap mine on my scent trail

[Gianfranco]

Getting out a building with Abby that was full of clickers took me at least 15 attempts.

[Mr. Brightside]

Having to use shivs to kill clickers again was a real pain in the arse.

[diamond_for_life]

I actually grew to Hate Ellie. Didn’t see it through her eyes I felt she was arse by the time I finished as Abby. Was it just me or did you guys find when you were playing with Abby you forgot all about the supposed storylines of Ellie and Joel. To me it felt like a completely different game taking away the full first half of the game. 

[stumigoo]

Just finished this. In terms of an experience I thought it was superb, and up alongside the first game. I liked the departure in terms of the storyline but I can understand much of the criticism aimed at the pacing and the direction. It is VERY dialogue and storyline driven, with some long cut scenes and story led moments (which didn’t bother me).

I agree with the previous post, I felt as the game went on I had less and less sympathy for Ellie. When the ‘shift’ happens halfway through I was initially frustrated and wondered where it was going but ended up enjoying it and found some of the set pieces in that section very enjoyable and more interesting.

Have managed to avoid all the online reaction so just skimming through it just now. Holy f**k people are mental! Hadn’t realised it has racked up the most Metacritic reviews ever, with all of them being either 0/1 out 10 of 9/10 out of 10. Seems like the ‘gamers’ are all raging about it. Also read some hilarious ‘reviews’ of the representation of Abby and the fact that the voice actress has received some utterly tragic abuse online. Some sad, sad people out there.

One article suggested there won’t be any DLC which is disappointing, I’m sad that it is all over, after being so immersive it is difficult not to get attached to the whole experience so some DLC would have been nice. Visually it is and unbelievable game.

I remember playing the original and wondering what the world might look like if things like this started to happen. Fast forward a few years and I reckon we are only a few bad months away from it all becoming reality! At least those of us who’ve played Last of Us will know to look in every single chest of drawers and cabinets for empty bottles and old rags.

[GAD]

I loved it as well

5 hours ago, stumigoo said:

Just finished this. In terms of an experience I thought it was superb, and up alongside the first game. I liked the departure in terms of the storyline but I can understand much of the criticism aimed at the pacing and the direction. It is VERY dialogue and storyline driven, with some long cut scenes and story led moments (which didn’t bother me).

I agree with the previous post, I felt as the game went on I had less and less sympathy for Ellie. When the ‘shift’ happens halfway through I was initially frustrated and wondered where it was going but ended up enjoying it and found some of the set pieces in that section very enjoyable and more interesting.

Have managed to avoid all the online reaction so just skimming through it just now. Holy f**k people are mental! Hadn’t realised it has racked up the most Metacritic reviews ever, with all of them being either 0/1 out 10 of 9/10 out of 10. Seems like the ‘gamers’ are all raging about it. Also read some hilarious ‘reviews’ of the representation of Abby and the fact that the voice actress has received some utterly tragic abuse online. Some sad, sad people out there.

One article suggested there won’t be any DLC which is disappointing, I’m sad that it is all over, after being so immersive it is difficult not to get attached to the whole experience so some DLC would have been nice. Visually it is and unbelievable game.

I remember playing the original and wondering what the world might look like if things like this started to happen. Fast forward a few years and I reckon we are only a few bad months away from it all becoming reality! At least those of us who’ve played Last of Us will know to look in every single chest of drawers and cabinets for empty bottles and old rags.
 

I loved it as well, I thought the story was absolutely superb. Maybe it could have been a bit shorter, I don't know, to be honest, there wasn't much in there I thought didn't work. I thought the switch was great, it was supposed to be uncomfortable, and it worked, but like you, I was pretty much rooting for Abbie by the end, but I know that's not the same for everyone.

Most of the people giving it 0/10 and threatening to kill the woman who voiced Abbie's children are absolutely  gargantuan VLs.

[accies1874]

It's unbelievable how similar the reaction to this has been to The Last Jedi's backlash. Fanboys are absolutely wild.

[GAD]

1 hour ago, accies1874 said:

It's unbelievable how similar the reaction to this has been to The Last Jedi's backlash. Fanboys are absolutely wild.

At least with the last Jedi most of them had seen the film. Yeah, they'd already decided they didn't like it because there were women and non white people in it, but they mostly still watched it before issuing the death threats.

[forameus]

I think I'm approaching the halfway mark, but not quite sure.  Just in the area before the aquarium.  So far, I'm really getting into it.  It's incredibly polished, and it's clear that a massive amount of love and care has gone into making the game.  The writing (at this stage) is very, very good, as is all of the motion capture and actors performances.  Given I'm only halfway through though, it hasn't outstayed its welcome, and I am starting to see the story start to drag its heels a bit.  

Can't work out whether the backlash to this is surprising or not though.  Which is sad in its own way.  When you're giving death threats to the voice actor of a character you don't like - and their kids apparently - in a fucking video game, you should be giving yourself a swift kick in the stones at the very least.  

[Gianfranco]

I near shat myself at the boss in the hospital. Big mutant c**t.

[RandomGuy.]

On 04/07/2020 at 15:14, stumigoo said:

At least those of us who’ve played Last of Us will know to look in every single chest of drawers and cabinets for empty bottles and old rags.
 

As a Fallout player I've always enjoyed the thought of a nuclear apocalypse happening, and every sensible person gathering as much food and supplies as possible, while folk like me charge about collecting paperclips and bottle caps, despite the fact they'll clearly be absolutely useless.

[Mr. Brightside]

I near shat myself at the boss in the hospital. Big mutant c**t.

Very Resident Evil that bit.