The Last of Us

[Bjorn]

I was starting to feel where he was coming from and then it just ended *shrug*

 

Dammit, I did the thing that people do to me, saw a first name that I associate as being gendered (even though it doesn't have to be), and assumed it was a she, not a he.

 

Yeah, I would have liked to have seen the piece continue a bit longer, with some more thoughts on it, as it's an interesting perspective on violent games in general, and TLOU specifically. 

[Dewar]

I just saw the picture and assumed, I didn't even check out the byline. I just got lucky

[syntheticgerbil]

I'm about halfway through on normal, had to stop reading this thread about page 8, will check the rest when I finish. I don't think I fully agree with toblix, but it is somewhat bland on some areas of gameplay. I think because this game seriously stresses me out and keeps scaring me, I didn't know I scared so easily, but I guess I play no survival horror games and had no idea I was getting into one (thought it was an action game). I do want to see the next part of the story though, so I keep going. I'm also really bad at aiming in anything so this adds to the stress and frustation should I get caught and everyone freaks out to try to kill me.

 

It's gorgeous, well acted, great characters, that stuff is so easy to say I wish I could be more descriptive about things like that. One thing I don't like about the environments is the amount of dark ones. Besides the scariness, I have to pick up a lot of shit to craft with because I suck and I start feeling like I have to vomit (and start feeling a headache coming on) when I have to turn on the flashlight and keep moving the camera down to shelves and corners. I have gotten motion sickness in some games before, but it's somewhat rare, I guess I need a focal point to trigger it. Most other notable time I felt like i was going to was the rollerball stuff in Psychonauts while trying to collect all those bastard figments.

 

Also it was hilarious on page 3 or so that Mington called Ellie's role.

 

One funny sidenote is I am somewhat friends with an environment artist at Naughty Dog, we went to school together and he's from Austin, where Joel is from (and where I live now). I was asking him if they consulted with him for some of the areas that were somewhat real chunks of highways from around here and he said yes and was also telling me a lot of the Californians there had weird ideas about what Texas houses were like. He had give some pointers, as Austin isn't rural so it's not really that kind of imagery. Also if Joel was born in Austin, his accent is unrealistic. I find most people in the major Texas cities do not have these country accents at all and instead sound much flatter. Joel sounds like he's straight out of Arkansas or even more east than that. I'm used to this though.

[Architecture]

They really fudge the geography in the first section--HWY 71 is nowhere near the 360 bridge is nowhere near downtown Austin (which looks much more like San Marcos than it does Austin, honestly). Also, people who live in Georgetown (Williamson County in general) have much thicker Texan accents than the city proper. Does the game actually state he was born and raised in the Austin area, or are you just inferring that?

[syntheticgerbil]

Oh yeah I should have said the geography makes no sense, my friend admits they mess with that just that the used some photo reference of certain intersections and squares and just highway name dropping. He said the bridge is just random bridge. I don't think that's supposed to be the 360 bridge, he said he thinks it was just a random bridge. I *think* Armadillo Theatre is based on a Drafthouse, who knows. It doesn't exist.

 

I'm guessing this probably how they did the other cities as well, but those were in ruin so it seems easier to get away with..

 

I'm just inferring Joel was born in Austin since I have no other info. My guess was because they got to 71 pretty quickly they were within city limits, but like you said it's fudged.

[Brannigan]

I have replayed this game a couple times recently as I picked up the ps4 bundle that came with it. Playing on the higher difficulties really changed the game for me. Every single encounter was fairly stressful as the game gives you nearly no supplies, I found myself constantly having to make decisions on how to approach things because I'd have like 5 bullets in 3 different guns. Lack of listen mode too made infected areas more tense.

I enjoyed my time with it even more this go around.

[syntheticgerbil]

Yeah I finished it on normal yesterday and started a game on Survivor for the later Grounded mode but realized that playing this way was at odds with me getting the rest of the collectibles and upgrades, so I knocked it back down to hard for my second playthrough.

 

I guess I figured since Survivor mode removes the hearing and almost everything kills me instantly anyway, why not do it with the harder mode which I think only removes the HUD on top of it. I finished about three chapters on Survivor and was crafting almost nothing and was only able to get past certain areas by just being sneaky and never engaging the enemy. If you're trying to have conversations, get more mechanical parts, and pills, it's in no way a play style that meshes.

 

Loved the game, glad I played it even though survival horror isn't my thing. I don't know what to say about the story, the ending was good, but unexpected. Made sense even if it was sort of a

bummer.

 

Oh and this is yet another game that does collectibles right. I'm glad it followed suit of Uncharted Vita, because Uncharted 1-3 are great examples of how to do collectibles badly. In Last of Us, everything is in a place that usually makes sense and is an identifiable model. It's not just a bunch of audio logs, it's a variety of objects, recordings, journals, and photos that say things about the world. Even better was the comments characters would make on items after examining them. The notes in underground tunnels left by Ish made me sad.

[Brannigan]

They don't reduce the pill amount in the harder difficulty, however I was only ever able to open 2 of the locked doors the whole game, so I missed those. I was able to craft like 3 shivs. I actually didn't know ellie could give you items until I played on that difficulty, on normal I always had more than enough supplies.

Have you played the dlc?

[Brett E]

This seems a bit reaching but during a live stream someone from Naughty Dog said:

 

"All the facial animation in the Uncharted series was led up by Eric, here," he begins, "and [on] the first The Last of Us. Uh, did I say the first The Last of Us?”

 

It seems quite possible that they have prototyped a sequel but have not necessarily put it into production which would explain why they'd think in terms of "the first" and presumably "the second". 

Full speculation here.

[syntheticgerbil]

I don't think a sequel would work well for the story, seemed like a rather self contained thing that said something about Joel and loss. That said, I suppose it doesn't have to be like that and I would trust something interesting to follow it.

 

I also heard there has been rumblings of a movie, and that also seems pointless, since part of the feeling of the game is just the exploration of the decimination and dilapidation, and your comments on them among companions. The cutscenes are only half of the story. I feel the same way about an Uncharted movie. What can you do with a movie style game where just making it a movie only enhances it?

[Dewar]

Could be other characters elsewhere in the same world. I wish that more game series did that.

[syntheticgerbil]

I'd be down with that. I haven't played the DLC yet so I don't know if it's good, but I imagine it's in that ballpark.

[Brett E]

I don't think it needs a sequel either or a movie. I don't think a movie would enhance it but it would bring it to a wider audience which isn't a bad thing I don't really want it to happen though because of hollywood's track record with adaptations.

 

Could be other characters elsewhere in the same world. I wish that more game series did that.

 

That might work.

[Brannigan]

I'd be down with that. I haven't played the DLC yet so I don't know if it's good, but I imagine it's in that ballpark.

Dlc is pretty much all ellie. Great stuff!

I think I'd like them to do something new. Last of Us feels like such a contained story that doesn't need more...but maybe they'll pull it off. Not sure.

[syntheticgerbil]

Woo, finished all the single player stuff. Might return to multiplayer crap later, but I already tried it and was getting shoot every few seconds and spent most of my time waiting for respawn. I wish Naughty Dog would stop making multiplayer stuff honestly.

 

I really loved that DLC, it had a lot of goofy exploration and conversations and was surprising me over and over.

 

I beat the main game on Grounded mode, and fuck every doing that again. While it was amazing to see I could quickly sneak through large chunks of environment and be all super cunning with my bottle throwing skills, bow and arrows, and ducking, the stuff where it forced you to fight was shitty in comparison. In a lot of areas where you had to clear out enemies, one mistake would lead to more guys spawning so considering you have almost no ammo or supplies, I usually found some way to break the AI by doing weird things like running around a desk until the guy got tired of chasing you and suddenly went back into sneaking mode (or sometimes hilariously just abruptly leave the room). Also I would figure out what thresholds would spawn enemies so I could move back some and then pick them off since they wouldn't recognize you in certain areas of the environment. Also doing weird things to exploit so I could just get by generally led to bad guys often just running into a wall forever.

 

Okay, I guess that's kind of harsh, grounded mode doesn't make you see the seams it just makes you laugh.

[Brannigan]

I didn't game it much other than luring a conga line into a room once, I think that huge fight after ellie gets the rifle.  I did like some of the desperate fights that happened occasionally.  At one point I only had an axe and was forced into combat against hunters.  Had to try to move cover to cover and ambush with the axe until I eventually found an arrow that I got lucky with and it didn't break until I used it 3 times.  The end was shockingly easy just because the ammo was rather plentiful for the m16.

[syntheticgerbil]

Ah, I think I was constantly gaming it because I noticed the more I used ammo the more people would drop it. Never bothered with health packs because everything pretty much killed me instantly anyway. But I was a little too conservative because on the last part, I snuck up to the second floor without being seen and then realized I had a bunch of ammo and bombs still unused and just didn't even bother with that final bit of stealth, so I didn't even get a chance to pick up the m16.

 

Everything where you are Ellie having to fight alongside David is infuriating. In order to get through it's reliant on David's AI not being a dumbfuck because you need him to get between infected so you can do one hit kills. Sounds fine but often David likes to run into a wall and point his gun inside.

 

Concerning the very end, did anyone

kill the medical staff helping the surgeon? I didn't do that my first time around because having Joel kill the main doctor while they yelled, "you monster" was bad enough, but it's kind of horrific and excessive if you take out all three before grabbing Ellie.

 

Also you can decide not to high five Ellie, but I was no able to give in. I found a Youtube video of it, so you get some funny commentary if you decide to be a bastard.