The Last of Us

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
User avatar
Buskalilly
Member
Posts: 39
Joined: April 20th, 2014, 6:01 pm
Contact:

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Buskalilly »

Another game which compelled me to stop lurking and contribute.

First thing's first; this was definitely a fantastic experience which I would recommend to anyone, albeit a very grim and unpleasant one at times. It looks phenomenal, the environments swing from beautiful natural vistas to decrepit wastelands with aplomb and the characters are just right to dodge the uncanny valley but still be full of personality and emotion. A colossal achievement  that defines the PS3.

The plot, although mostly typical zombie apocalypse stuff, was well-written and full of brilliant character moments. Although Joel can be an asshole at times, it always feels natural and the player definitely goes on a journey with him. And Ellie was absolutely perfect; I really did feel compelled to protect her. And obviously the relationship between the two is what holds the game together. The ending, although morally vague, was spot-on, for my money. And the bit with the giraffe . . . it was ruined a bit for me, I must have had some dust or something in my eye. That's the only explanation.

As for the gameplay. I've heard a lot of comparisons to Resident Evil 4 and certainly the games start off very similarly, with the player underpowered and just struggling to survive. And obviously the dynamic of protecting Ellie draws parallels with Ashley. However, as the two games progress they become very different. Whereas Resi gave you more and more tools, making you feel like a badass against the lesser enemies but adding scarier and scarier things to keep the tension at just the right level, TLoU is incredibly linear and, apart from a few surprisingly sparse sections of fighting the infected, it mostly plays out like a semi-stealthy cover shooter.

In fact, it did something which, if it was deliberate, was incredibly clever and impressive. It made me prefer the moments of peace to the combat. The environments were so real and occasionally beautiful, Ellie and Joel's interactions were so well written and the simple puzzle-solving was so sedate, I would have been quite happy with a whole game of just traversing an empty America. So when the violence did come, it felt genuinely unpleasant. It was difficult, tense and viciously gory.

The game is described by a lot of people as Survival Horror, although a lot of the time, it doesn't feel that way. There were a couple of panicky escape sequences and the stealth bits had some big jumps, but the horror mostly came from the world and the situations, in a more vaguely unpleasant sense than the usual “it's dark and a monster is gonna jump out!” horror. The scariest moment, for me, was a horrible boss fight between a little girl and a human villain.

This game must be played at least once by everybody, even if it is a bit linear and simplistic.

This was the game that launched my habit of doing game review poems on my stupid website.

Blimey, that was pretentious, wasn't it? But then again, it is a poem.
Katieee120

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Katieee120 »

The Last of Us is a true video game masterpiece. I will even say that it's probably the best game I've ever played. The story is just incredible. I actually got a lump in my throat a few times in this game and even shed a few tears on occasion. I won't say what happended but it was near the beginning of the game. Not many games do this, toy with your feelings and emotions. There were points where I thought something good was going to happen and then in a split second the grimness and horrors of this world returned. The only other game I can think of that also does this is The Walking Dead.

The voice acting is also something to be applauded. We were already beginning to know Troy Baker because of previous work on BioShock Infinite as Booker Dewitt and Two Face in Batman: Arkam City but he raised the bar as Joel. The emotion he poured into the role created a protagonist that will be remembered for some time. It was hard to believe that this was Ashley Johnson's first time voicing a video game character. When you hear Ellie speak you can hear Ashley's confidence in the voice. Ashley did a good job in putting female video game characters in a slightly new light. That they aren't just sex objects, there for the male viewers eyes, but that they can be just as strong and impressive as the men. These are the reasons why Ellie is one of my most favourite video game characters and, combined with Joel, they became one of the best duo's in current gen video games.

The gameplay adds to the list of reasons why this game is what it is. I'm glad that I wasn't restricted to just using guns. Throughout the game you'll discover different weapons that can be created from the ingredients around you and they can be just as effective or even more so against infected. Nailbombs, Shivs, all good and let's not forget Molotovs. You can always count on of those to take out a few Clickers.
The Multiplayer was quite a surprising accomplishment. To put a multiplayer into a game that people were mostly interested in because of the single player was a gamble but a gamble that paid off. The multiplayer is brilliant, addictive fun. Aspects from the single player carry over which turn it into hours of fun to be had.


In my opinion this game goes into the vault of great games such as MGS, Residant Evil and GTA. It's a game that I will remember and play through again and again for quite some time. Well done Naughty Dog, this definitely deserves a pat on the back.
Nekemancer

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Nekemancer »

My review? If you know someone who plays anything more than basic Facebook games, this game is a must play. Not as in MUST PLAY O M G EPIC, but as in that person is doing themselves a disservice by not at least watching someone play through the game. The characters are unforgettable, the landscape is bleak and beautiful, the tension is real and the story will surprise even the most experienced zombie game/movie plot guesser.

I'd imagine the previous 85% of the podcast is just full of great stories of moment to moment gameplay, reactions to events, opinions so positive that they're not just glowing but glowing at a nuclear level. Those people are not wrong. So I'll let all that do the convincing and bring up my massive list of problems with the mechanics of the game. #1: I'm not a stealth game guy so there were some bits that were irritating. #2: I ran into a bug that got me killed once.

Normally I talk way way way more on the games (sorry for walls of text in the past!), but this one truly does the speaking for itself. This one game is worth owning a PS3 for. You could play nothing else on it and be satisfied with your purchase.

Also, watch the documentary. It's really great, and seeing the actors performing scenes that you know by heart will send a chill down your spine.

Xantiriad

Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Xantiriad »

Here's my two cents...

Early today I managed to finish The Last of Us for the first time, after two previous aborted attempts. In fact, this play thorough almost never happened after the prologue left me in floods of tears and seriously angry at the gratuitous violence and graphic nature of the climax. I appreciate, as a father, I am more sensitive to such things, but that beginning was so horrific it almost put me off playing it any further - in my opinion it over stepped the mark in what is acceptable. 24 hours later, however, I was in a better frame of mind to continue. 

Unfortunately I found the remainder of the game to be a nihilistic, morose and joyless experience. I largely restricted myself to short 1-2 hour sessions as the game often left me feeling rotten. At times I wondered what kind of sick minds would actually come up with some of the conceits and narrative turns. 

The game protrays an unbelievable world without humanity or compassion, constrained by some pretty illogical and fantastical circumstances (*the whole contrivance of the infected existing for such a long period makes no sense biologically - the human body requires enormous amounts of energy and fluid to survive for more than a few days: a body standing around muttering to itself for years just can't happen). In even the darkest days of human history, in the most lawless or anarchic societies, there has remained basic humanity, hope, and collective fortitude: pretty much all of which are ignored by the writers to create the worst possible future. This is a general problem I have with all "zombie apocalypse" genre fiction, but TLOU goes to some pretty dark places even for that. 

Ignoring the narrative contrivances of the fiction and world, the scenes of infanticide - or at least the aftermaths- and the frequent brutal and graphic murders, occasionally committed by a "child", crossed the line for me. On each occasion I had to turn the game off. I read reviews, but none of them adaquately warned their readers of how brutal and oppressive the game is. Most simply lavished praise on the graphics, gameplay (which I found decidedly mediocre), and "emotional storytelling". I'm actually astonished that I appear to be a one of a few voices in the dark who had such problems with the game. I'm actually quite disturbed by it. 

In many ways the Uncharted games were similarly violent and illogical. But they were at least given generous spoonfuls of levity, irreverence, and whimsy. For me they were far more successful in delivering a rounded game experience, within a story and characters I could buy into, or least identify with.

I appreciate, I'm no fan of horror fiction, and I was probably a bit naive going into the TLOU not expecting it to be so horrific. I assumed it would be more like Fallout or Bioshock, which whilst oppressive and bleak, did retain some humanity and dark humour. 

In the end I'm glad I at least completed TLOU. I did find the later chapters of the game a bit easier to live with: probably because by that point I'd become desensitised to it. However, this is not a game I will go back to, nor one I could recommended to a friend without a very long list of caveats.
Woodfella

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Woodfella »

Hold on to your butts I am about to be negative. I imagine most correspondents will be filled with praise so this is what i didn't like or found frustrating.

This game just wouldn't let me love it. It's a good game and I can still remember one or two brilliant, emergent moments of combat that occurred during my play through. BUT it seemed that just when I began to enjoy myself the game thought "Not so fast Richard" and ruined it. The tedious slog of the first few hours with that effing SWAT team. The bit where you have to avoid sniper fire When I had to go and fetch a pallet for the umpteenth time I started to decry the fact you couldn't just let her drown. Oh and one of the worst bits where in a world in which resources are scarce Joel somehow magically gets infinite ammo when he gets caught in a trap and then is capable enough with a firearm while hanging upside down to head shot multiple foes. It completely took me out of the world, an absolute disaster in a game like this. One focused on world building and story.

The biggest disappointment came in Winter though. I think it's the best part of the game, the shift in the narrative and that deer hunt were fantastic. Following the trail of blood and coming upon the wounded animal, echoing what had happened a few minutes before, great. Sneaking around in that fog was brilliant too, it was really tense and also brilliantly frustrating by design. At this point the player knows where Ellie is but Joel doesn't. The fog is an equaliser. BUT THEN. THEN. I entered that building as Ellie and my heart sunk. I clocked the (un)conveniently scattered fragments of broken plate and instantly thought "Ugh, boss fight". That boss fight with David is horrendous, it sticks out horribly. And that is because it's perhaps The game's most 'videogamey' moment. A boss fight. Three hits and he's dead. Mario style. And that's a funny thing to criticise a game for isn't it? Being too "gamey", but up until then The last of us had been a bit different, film like in its narrative ambitions. This is a blemish in gameplay and narrative terms and only served to rip me out of the world just like the trap moment before it.

And that's it, when you ask someone to name their favourite moment from the last of us it is almost always a cutscene or part of the narrative the player had no control over. My favourite moment is that little shopping trip with Ellie, or the high five. If you didnt high five her you are a monster.

I like the end though and I mean the very end, not that *****e hospital siege. It was surprising and brave to end it in such a way.

No sequel please, thanks.
Woodfella

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Woodfella »

Oh and I really liked using the bow. It was really awkward to aim and often took a long time to line up but this was the penalty for being able to eliminate foes silently from distance. I upgraded it and found it a lot easier and less awkward and let me tell you I did not like that. Went back to un-upgraded, which i seem to recall meant going back about 40mins. Worth it.
arry_g

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by arry_g »

Woodfella wrote:That boss fight with... Elijah(?) is horrendous, it sticks out horribly.
Psst... David ;)
User avatar
DomsBeard
Member
Posts: 3689
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 5:03 pm
Location: Doms Chin

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by DomsBeard »

I loved the last of us. Sure the combat is frustrating and normally I think I may have binned it after a section when the same clicker had killed me about 15 times in a row but needing to know this story and how it panned out made me plough on.

The beginning was a sucker punch but I believe it helped set the tone for the whole game. I appreciated the fact the story jumped forward 20 years as this was different.

It is a violent game but with the world being as it is I think it fits as Joel would've had to have been like this to survive this long (this was hinted at by his brother and their past).

My stand out scene has to be the end of Summer. I really enjoyed the whole section before with Sam and Henry and loved the scene between Joel and Henry and then Ellie and Sam, I got a sick feeling in my stomach when Sam showed his leg and that whole scene still stays with me as one of my favourite scenes in gaming.

I really enjoyed the hospital scene at the end as I couldn't believe the treatment Joel had received by the fireflies and taking them all out I found very satisfying. If I would've changed anything I would've like to have been given the option to let them operate on Ellie or do what actually happens (I would've chosen the latter).
Woodfella

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Woodfella »

arry_g wrote:
Woodfella wrote:That boss fight with... Elijah(?) is horrendous, it sticks out horribly.
Psst... David ;)

That's the fella. Corrected
User avatar
Flabyo
Member
Posts: 3576
Joined: August 8th, 2013, 8:46 am
Location: Guildford

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Flabyo »

This is an edit of a post I made on the game elsewhere, so some might recognise it...


I think I sit somewhere between the two camps.

It's excellently acted, very atmospheric, and can be extremely subtle (when it isn't being it's almost comically OTT). I feel that the seasonal chapter structure works really well (not enough games use this kind of 'chapter break', I remember really liking the way Alan Wake did it). The world feels very coherent, and lets you discover the details of what has gone before yourself rather than beating you over the head with it in cutscene after cutscene. Each section is its own little vignette, sometimes these are front and centre, sometimes just notes you find along the way. If this kind of 'grim dark' narrative with ambiguous downer ending isn't your thing then the story isn't going to do anything for you though, no matter how well crafted it is.

It is also, however, pretty clunky to play. I suspect the combat controls being so wooly and uncooperative are a deliberate attempt to stave off the 'ludonarrative dissonance!' brigade, and to an extent it does. Joel isn't a trained killer, so killing should be hard for him.

But it took me hours to get the hang of how to actually play the thing without dying constantly, and then once I had worked out how it wanted me to play it, I didn't ever find myself in any difficulty at all.

The controls are definitely a step back from Uncharted, even allowing for the fact it's not a 'run and gun' kind of game (X to turn around? Really?). The camera could've done with moving up and away a little in melee as well, too easy to be hit from offscreen, and when some enemies can 'one hit kill'...

Also, the opening Boston section drags on for far too long, and is probably the least visually interesting part of the game. Why do developers do that? the game is amazing to look at later on, but the opening city is pretty generic.

So yeah, I enjoyed it, but I have zero desire to ever play through it again.
User avatar
NokkonWud
Moderator
Posts: 1308
Joined: August 27th, 2012, 11:58 pm
Location: North Yorkshire, UK
Contact:

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by NokkonWud »

I enjoyed the game because I enjoyed the characters. If I'm drawn to liking something strongly then I'm more likely to forgive little niggles or design choices than if I don't love anything at all. That was The Last of Us for me.

What I will say though is that *that* world, the broken people and the genuine fight for scraps to survive absolutely comes alive on Grounded difficulty where fight or flight and genuine strategy come into it. It has its moments of pure frustration, sure, but 95% of it feels pretty much spot on.
My biggest disappointment is with the combat or stealth mechanic, and it's something a lot of games with Stealth systems have, and it's that it will occasionally drop the facade and force you into moments of combat. Sure this is acceptable in certain moments, moments where perhaps it's used to accentuate a moment of drama in a cut-scene (such as the sniper section in the Suburbs), but there were a few moments where you just can't approach it in stealth as there's an invisible trigger to activate action (such as rounding a bus you have to pass on the way into the School.) This is especially frustrating when playing through on Grounded because the real lack of ammo (approaching some sections with 1 bullet and a brick did happen on two occasions, and on others I had little more!) makes the stealth moments all the more tense and the payoff for successfully accomplishing them (whether it be taking enemies out or ghosting past them) is a real adrenaline shot.

But, as I say, for the most part they do get the game right for me.
User avatar
JaySevenZero
Admin
Posts: 2642
Joined: August 27th, 2012, 4:28 pm
Location: Liverpool, Europe, Earth
Contact:

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by JaySevenZero »

Xantiriad wrote:The game protrays an unbelievable world without humanity or compassion, constrained by some pretty illogical and fantastical circumstances (*the whole contrivance of the infected existing for such a long period makes no sense biologically - the human body requires enormous amounts of energy and fluid to survive for more than a few days: a body standing around muttering to itself for years just can't happen). In even the darkest days of human history, in the most lawless or anarchic societies, there has remained basic humanity, hope, and collective fortitude: pretty much all of which are ignored by the writers to create the worst possible future. This is a general problem I have with all "zombie apocalypse" genre fiction, but TLOU goes to some pretty dark places even for that.
Gonna have to disagree with some of the points you've raised here. During the course of the game it's implied that the infection is fast acting with the instance of the opening section of the game and later with Tess's bite serving as examples. As for the lifespan duration of the infected it's never stated that they live for years and since the infection is already clearly marked as one that acts quickly the implication is that progress through the various stages is far quicker than you think. This would also account for why the streets weren't overrun with infected since their life cycle is relatively short. This leads me onto to as to how long the human body could actually survive. There are documented accounts of hunger strikers (total starvation - no food or water) lasting 40 days and the last of the 1981 Irish hunger strikers lasted 73 days with only saline as sustenance. Bearing this in mind it doesn't, for me at least, stretch my suspension of disbelief to breaking point to image the infected being able to last weeks or maybe even a month before succumbing to the fungus.

As for world they've created, never in human history have we even come close to something akin to the events depicted in the game. The closest you could say would be the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic which killed five percent of the world's population and had a mortality rate of around twenty percent of all those who carried the infection. In TLOU the mortality rate (before Ellie) was one hundred percent (which, whilst rare, is not without precedent in the real world, Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis - try saying that drunk - being one such example), so it's hard to say with certainty exactly how society would react in such a situation but the harsh, militarised, oppressively authoritarian regime depicted seemed quite plausible to me. However, I'd also say that the society that Tommy and Maria run - seen in the closing moments of the game - would signify that all hope is not lost in the world they depict.
User avatar
ratsoalbion
Admin
Posts: 7917
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:41 am
Location: Brighton, England
Contact:

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by ratsoalbion »

The key thing for me, and I presume many other humans, is that fiction/drama absolutely doesn't need to subscribe to any scientific realism or established human behaviours for me to engage with it. Look at the enduring popularity of space opera, superhero movies, fairytales, religious fantasy, classic myths and legends, The Muppets..!
Xantiriad

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Xantiriad »

It depends on the context and if the fiction is striving for realism. I find all "zombie" fiction to be ridiculous, but that doesn't stop me enjoying Plants vs Zombies or Dead Rising. In the case of TLOU I have less issue with the 'infected' more with the horrific and dark places they took it. It was too much for me personally. You asked for an opinion and so I provided one, even if it is a minority view.
User avatar
ratsoalbion
Admin
Posts: 7917
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:41 am
Location: Brighton, England
Contact:

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by ratsoalbion »

Please don't take our differing responses as not wanting to hear your opinion Gary, we're just airing our own points of view - we are grateful for your post and I'll be incorporating chunks of it into the show :)
User avatar
KissMammal
Member
Posts: 523
Joined: August 22nd, 2014, 5:52 pm

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by KissMammal »

I've always given TLoU a wide berth, mainly because I suspect it wouldn't be my cup of tea. The consensus seems to be that it's a good game primarily because of the presentation and story, despite some pretty big flaws in the actual gameplay. I've never bothered with the Uncharted series for the same reason (I tend to see a game's story as just necessary window-dressing and I have a low tolerance for scripted set-pieces and QTEs).

Is that a fair assessment? Is it still a game worth playing even if you don't really care about stories in games? For example, Resident Evil 4 is one of my favourite games purely based on the actual game. The story is complete and utter gibberish, but I don't care because the underlying mechanics, pacing and difficulty curve are so perfect.
Todinho

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by Todinho »

I think the Last of Us mechanics are pretty good if you're into a 3 person shooter/stealth hybrid with scavenging/crafting elements and mild exploration added to it,the game is 14 hours long no narrative as good as it is can hold a game for that long if the gameplay isnt compeling.
User avatar
ratsoalbion
Admin
Posts: 7917
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:41 am
Location: Brighton, England
Contact:

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by ratsoalbion »

Obviously we'll go into this in much more depth on the podcast but I thoroughly enjoy the gameplay in TLoU.

It probably wouldn't be the 96% scoring game it is without the high level of storytelling but nor I don't believe would it be considered poor by many. The fact that so many people play and replay the game on harder difficulty settings while skipping the cut-scenes speaks to that, and in my experience the game comes into its own on those higher settings.

Of course I know some people didn't enjoy the gameplay much at all, so your experience may differ from mine.
User avatar
KissMammal
Member
Posts: 523
Joined: August 22nd, 2014, 5:52 pm

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by KissMammal »

Interesting, thanks. Is there much actual exploration though? I have it in my head that's its a very linear/scripted kind of game.

It still blows my mind that no one has yet made a proper post-apocalyptic open world game in the vein of GTA.
User avatar
ratsoalbion
Admin
Posts: 7917
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:41 am
Location: Brighton, England
Contact:

Re: Our next podcast recording: The Last of Us

Post by ratsoalbion »

There is a limited amount of exploration. Some outdoor areas are quite open while indoor segments generally have extra rooms that you don't have to go in. They tend to be packed with incidental detail that flesh out the world but you'll mainly find yourself scavenging for bits and bobs (as well as collectibles) among the rubble, almost in the style of Fallout 3 or something (but without the depth and variety of RPG style loot to sift through of course).
Post Reply