Aside from the story, is 'The Last Of Us' really that special?

Is it necessary to have kids to know what it's like to be one? Pretty sure we've all been there.

You'd be amazed how much you learn about childhood (even your own) by watching someone else live theirs every day.

I'm not saying that she should have had dewey eyes and believe in magic but they way they wrote her was too heavy handed and not believable.
 
Prove that's it's praised and damned in equal measure. I've barely seen any specific references to actual gameplay scenarios from people who criticize the gameplay, you included. It's always vague statements without any actual argumentation. If you're going to offer a contentious opinion, you need to support it so a dialogue and discussion can occur.

This, I'm waiting for ONE SINGLE post that actually criticizes in an intelligent and constructive way the gameplay. Allow me to repeat, intelligent and costructive way.
Bring your arguments, prove you're right, explain us what ND did wrong, why and what would have been a good alternative.
Or more selfishly, don't make me think I've done a huge mistake taking this thread seriously.

The crafting system is useless? Amazing, tell me why. What's the alternative, picking things up already created? What about the moment when you have to choose between a medikit and a knife, is that useless too? Don't you think this would make a poorer gameplay?
Why the stealth doesn't work or it doesn't satisfy you?
What's wrong with the melee? I've even read it's a bunch of QTE, please explain.
What's wrong with the IA, apart from the known bug of Bill's section? The behaviour of the enemies isn't convincing?
Why you think that mechanics from Splinter Cell or MGS would help the game? Don't you think they would have been out of place and inconsistent with the character?
edit: almost forgot, please tell me why you compare TLOU to Uncharted or even Vanquish (this is fantastic by the way). Do you think that just because there's a man with a gun and a couple of bad guys, then things MUST be like Uncharted? Jumping around, almost no recoil, no damage animations, fast regeneration.. I'm sure you don't think that, then I ask, why bring them in the topic? And I'm ignoring those who talked about Zelda just because.. I don't know.

Tons of critical, not a single argumentation.
 
Hardest difficulty available is the way to play this game from the get-go. Playing it with the "see sound" mode is cheating and kills the dramatic vibe of the game.
 
It's really good. Makes me sad that they are back to making an Uncharted game and not another new IP.
They can't just keep pumping out new IPs one after the other. It's an exhaustive process to come up with something completely new. They need time to incubate and reap more rewards from before moving on to the next thing.
 
You'd be amazed how much you learn about childhood (even your own) by watching someone else live theirs every day.

I'm not saying that she should have had dewey eyes and believe in magic but they way they wrote her was too heavy handed and not believable.
And you'd be amazed by seeing what living in a post-apocalyptic world is like.

And lots of kids swear a lot at her age, I don't know what you're talking about.
 
i found the gameplay very fun, also found myself resetting checkpoints frequently to try and get the entire section done in stealth, very cool

cannot wait to play it on ps4 on the hardest difficulty!
 
As a whole the game I thought was really good.

The story is excellent and the voice acting sells it. No complaints. However the gameplay has it's low points in my opinion.

There's certain areas in the game you can enter, see the layout of chest-high walls, and go "well after all the story stuff is done im gonna get ambushed here" and sure enough, it happened. That sort of thing took me out of the game a fair bit, and the biggest offender would be
near the end of the game, when you finally reach the University and it's completely empty. As you're exploring it and making your way deeper you pass lots of long corridors with overturned carts and such, perfect for cover. When you get jumped by the bandits it's the least surprising thing in the world

I'm not sure how to fix that though, but overall it was a great game for me.

Yea that stuff really pissed me off. I upgraded the listening ability to the max so I can see if there are enemies lurking in an area that I go into. But it's completely useless (like many of the perks in the game). I creep into a building. Use my skill to see if there are enemies in the building, and there are none. I can see Ellie all the way outside the building but nothing is inside. Oh but I triggered an event walking through a door or starting some machine and all of a sudden bad guys start pouring out of no where. What the hell is the point of upgrading that skill then...

I especially hated how the bad guys always try to kill you the moment they see you even if you are just walking around
then later in the game they make it seem like you are a bad guy to the other side. Like they are the same as you, foraging for resources or supplies, when you come and kill them. Fuck that. How am I supposed to take that seriously.
 
Some people's opinions here are somewhat off base.

I mean... Why would you want morality choices and character customization in a game that wants to tell a VERY specific story, driven by characters with strong motivations that come from unambiguous backgrounds? It's like wanting to deconstruct a film's narrative just 'cause instead of enjoying what the artists are trying to tell.
 
It's a package, you can't just pick certain parts and say that they disinterest you. Everything together is what makes this game special.

What you're basically asking without having played it is:

"Besides everything that's special about this game, what makes this game special?" All of those elements you've listed support the gameplay. That's what made the game so "special" to so many people.
 
I'm one of the rare few that found this to be forgettable. Story is nothing new or different for me personally, and the gameplay, for what is was, was obviously in the backseat to make the story the star.

It seemed to repeat human encounters in the same fashion way too much, and when I tried to play it as the character on screen, I'd break the game - for instance, trying to avoid a fight with humans when entering a building (this is what I thought the characters in the game were trying to do, and what I was expecting from gameplay - more stealth I guess), I got to what I believe was the checkpoint, a set of double doors, then enemies rushed out but ran past me, back and forth. They could never see me. I had to reload the checkpoint but make sure I engage with enemies at certain points in order to stop the bug from occurring.

What would have been more fun is if the game focused more on the infected, throwing the player in situations where they just have to survive and get out - it happened a few times, but not enough - then, make human encounters stealth-based.
 
My post from the Last of Us has gone Gold thread, which I think applies here too.

When people say The Last of Us has no "gameplay", or a limited amount of it, I always have an innate feeling of disbelief. As if we've played or seen two completely different games or something.

I can say that The Last of Us is most probably my Game of the (last) Generation, and the reasons for that revolve around the game as an entire package, with special focus on it's gameplay, and not just the other quality aspects of it.

It's not just the beautifully written characters, world, narrative and score that make the game impressive. Those things alone are not enough for the game to soar to such acclaim, not for a game released so late in the generation. Instead it relies on the quality of it's actual gameplay to give the rest the foundations to blossom.

The fantastic, visceral combat, with it's beautifully animated sense of weight and kill satisfaction. The dynamic upgrade system and inventory, that is highly rewarding and also adds a sense of tension and immediacy to decisions. The excellent combat scenario's that offer an entertaining multitude of potential advances, from pure stealth, to all out carnage, to diverse tactical consideration. The pacing throughout, which constantly balances areas of tension and intensity, with calm, serenity, exploration and beauty, and then carefully chooses when to throw you back in to an emotionally engaging fray all over again. The excellent enemy AI, that is tweaked to be intelligent enough to be challenging to fight against, but not too realistic that it's game breaking or un-fun. The addition of the different alternate enemy types, clickers, runners etc, that offer gameplay differentiating, often scary and aggressive alternatives, and so on and so on.

It's just sublime in nearly every sense of the word (imo). A truly ground breaking achievement, more so given it's not even particularly innovative or new, just immensely refined and supremely satisfying.

This 'Last of Us has no gameplay' narrative, is to me, utterly absurd, and going back to my first point, I honestly do wonder if those who say such baffling things have actually played the same game I have.
 
but but but...that's exactly what TLoU is!

Art direction, animation , voicing, sound design etc Really elevate this game to great heights.

TLoU represents a leap in presentation and cinematic quality of games but the gameplay is really just ok.

There is no survival gameplay, no role playing , no true choice when it comes to the story.Enemies are still just targets for you to slay around every corner.

In that sense I don't think TLoU achieves perfect union between its script(teases you with morality all the time) and its gameplay.

TLoU is to TPS what Bioshock is to FPS.

No survival gameplay? You are constantly debating whether to go for stealth if you are low on supplies but if you mess up you have to make decisions on the fly in order to stay alive, the game has resource management, that's why people encourage others to play in the higher difficulties or else you'll find supplies every corner.

No true choice? You are not supposed to create Joel's story, the story is already set just like a lot of games out there.

Regarding still enemies, I'm gonna guess you played on the easiest difficulty, there are places with enemies behind cover but there are also places with enemies (infected and humans) all over the place.
 
but but but...that's exactly what TLoU is!

Art direction, animation , voicing, sound design etc Really elevate this game to great heights.

TLoU represents a leap in presentation and cinematic quality of games but the gameplay is really just ok.

There is no survival gameplay, no role playing , no true choice when it comes to the story.Enemies are still just targets for you to slay around every corner.

In that sense I don't think TLoU achieves perfect union between its script(teases you with morality all the time) and its gameplay.

TLoU is to TPS what Bioshock is to FPS.

Have you played the game on Survival without hearing mode ? It very much is a survival game when you have three bullets and no medkit. It's tense, you've got to plan out your approach and makes the single-player gameplay really good.

Also, as I've often said recently and many have said, try the multiplayer. It's great and it's like no other multiplayer mode. Survival gameplay is even more emphasized there.
 
No survival gameplay? You are constantly debating whether to go for stealth if you are low on supplies but if you mess up you have to make decisions on the fly in order to stay alive, the game has resource management, that's why people encourage others to play in the higher difficulties or else you'll find supplies every corner.

Yeah, but in the end you're just debating how you will slaughter everyone. In the world the game presents, I was assuming you can avoid encounters if you take advantage of stealth. In this game, stealth just means killing someone without them knowing.
 
Yeah, but in the end you're just debating how you will slaughter everyone. In the world the game presents, I was assuming you can avoid encounters if you take advantage of stealth. In this game, stealth just means killing someone without them knowing.

You absolutely can do that. You didn't try hard enough, apparently. Some conflicts are required but many you can sneak right past if you're meticulous.
 
Yeah, but in the end you're just debating how you will slaughter everyone. In the world the game presents, I was assuming you can avoid encounters if you take advantage of stealth. In this game, stealth just means killing someone without them knowing.
Well, it's not really meant to be a game in the pure stealth genre Adam, at least Naughty Dog never promoted it as such. In any case, there are multiple areas where you can indeed skip past enemies, but it's very difficult. Stealth is mostly just another added component to the gameplay layer in how to tackle scenarios, not completely skip past every enemy really. Thus, I'm not sure that's something I would dog the game on.
 
Yeah, but in the end you're just debating how you will slaughter everyone. In the world the game presents, I was assuming you can avoid encounters if you take advantage of stealth. In this game, stealth just means killing someone without them knowing.

Actually more than once you can just avoid them, first part of the hospital included where there are dozens of enemies.
 
i honestly didn't get on with it at all, and i really expected to like it. couldn't get more than halfway through, but i'll give it another shot on PS4 because there has to be something there.

it's just yet another game i thought would have been 300x better off without guns in it.
 
It has terrific atmosphere and characters. The story itself isn't that original or mind-blowing, but the atmosphere, world building, characters, and variety--infected versus human foes, makes it a very special game. In harder difficulties, the game requires a lot of strategy as well.

I don't know why TLOU gets a movie game vibe. Yes, it has a great presentation, but it is a fully fledged game too.
 
I think praising the game for its "story" is oversimplifying it. The plot itself is actually pretty standard for the zombie genre. What it gets its praises for is in its storytelling. The way characters interact with each other, the amount of ancillary dialogue, the world building, etc. It's a very well written game that tells a very simple story.

In terms of gameplay, I think the closest comparison is something like Splinter Cell Conviction. It's a very solid action/stealth game. I never really liked how the Uncharted games played. I think Naughty Dog's gameplay talents were more suited to the action/stealth mechanics of TLOU than they were to Uncharted. I think the Uncharted series is tremendously overrated but I really, really liked TLOU so take that for what you will.
 
but but but...that's exactly what TLoU is!

Art direction, animation , voicing, sound design etc Really elevate this game to great heights.

TLoU represents a leap in presentation and cinematic quality of games but the gameplay is really just ok.

There is no survival gameplay, no role playing , no true choice when it comes to the story.Enemies are still just targets for you to slay around every corner.

In that sense I don't think TLoU achieves perfect union between its script(teases you with morality all the time) and its gameplay.

TLoU is to TPS what Bioshock is to FPS.

This is pure bullshit. Especially because the bolded. This isn't an RPG. There isn't meant to be choice. Choice would only have made the story weaker.

As for gameplay, name me a single game in 2013 with superior gameplay, while I prepare my laughter.
 
Yeah, but in the end you're just debating how you will slaughter everyone. In the world the game presents, I was assuming you can avoid encounters if you take advantage of stealth. In this game, stealth just means killing someone without them knowing.

Running through a level waving your hands and shouting 'waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!', isn't stealthy behaviour. No wonder that room full of enemies was waiting for you.
 
To me it was one of the greatest games of all time for many reasons.

One that is less discussed is its use of the mature rating. Where most games tackle maturity from a very juvenile perspective, it carried weight that actually felt "mature." It's the first game to make me think that the M rating can be used to enhance the story/experience without being gratuitous. Sure, there's plenty of gore, but given the circumstances it feels justified and backs up just how dire the situation is. As a guy who most enjoys colorful, cartoony, innocent games, I'm usually pretty apathetic as to whether or not a game has blood, gore, and language, but for the first time I felt TLoU would have been a lesser experience had it carried a T rating.
 
It's really good. Makes me sad that they are back to making an Uncharted game and not another new IP.

Agreed that TLOU gameplay is satisfying if you like playing the hunter/hunted type scenario (which I do). Who's to say that given the darker vibes I got from the UC4 trailer, we won't be seeing more of this type of gameplay in UC. I'd love for Drake to realistically flinch and fall backwards from being shot directly like Joel. Also the realtime healing mechanic using bandages would really up the tension in firefights, heck just use Joel's animation setup in UC4 for Drake complete with backpack for storing weapons etc. Just keep some of the set piece's and locations more OTT to keep the best bits of UC (which it looks like they will - pirate's on an island + mention of globe trotting, count me in!)
 
It's not a game I would want to play twice.

And I think a little 14 year old cursing like a storm and killing grown men and mutated humans is a bit ridiculous, but whatever.

Fun game though.

That was what killed the game for me. She seemed almost cartoonish compared to Clementine in TWD. Clem reminded me of my daughter; Ellie struck me as someone trying to Mary Sue in their teenage alter ego.

There are kids/people that grow up in similar fashion and that do similar things in our real life. Shocking isnt it? Kids who grow up in war torn nations and who get enlisted in gangs or violent situations do worse shit. Go to the OT and read some horror stories there. Last one was kids who were being trained to be assassins. Why? Because the victim is most likely thinking the adult walking by is gonna take their life not a kid that went past who seemed innocent and will stab him/her the minute they have their back.

Ellie being a potty mouth and not afraid to do extreme things (stab humans/clickers) is on par with her world. To me she was highly believable character like the rest of the gang. The voice actress nailed her role too. Nothing was exaggerated or fake to me. I believe those who have a problem with the character keep thinking of their pretty normal lives and maybe kids around them that dont "cuss" around or hurt other kids. Well its a video game and you have to be open minded about these things. But kids these days do cuss like Ellie does, not every kid out there but those that dont have someone that can lead them by example like a parent or guardian. This is true and you cant say "well I dont believed Ellie because my kids dont cuss or I never did myself". You have to think the bigger picture and not think like every kid in the world has lived their up bringing like you or I have....
 
No true choice? You are not supposed to create Joel's story, the story is already set just like a lot of games out there.

We're talking about the 'Citizen Kane' of gaming here.Why should I expect the game not take advantage of its medium in what is, arguably, its strongest element ?

The story was satisfying but there are many ways it could be deeper and better if it let the player actually steer what happens.At least to some degree.

Imo TLoU 2 should attempt to be like the Witcher 2.

The Witcher 2 actually lets you negotiate with Human characters and avoid encounters or make allies.Something I wish TLoU would let you do.

Regarding still enemies, I'm gonna guess you played on the easiest difficulty, there are places with enemies behind cover but there are also places with enemies (infected and humans) all over the place.

I played the game on normal once.

I wasn't discussing enemy placement at all(actually the game does a good job of that) Like Adam said I think its annoying that everyone is out to kill or get killed in a world where survival is supposedly of high value.

Have you played the game on Survival without hearing mode ? It very much is a survival game when you have three bullets and no medkit. It's tense, you've got to plan out your approach and makes the single-player gameplay really good.

Also, as I've often said recently and many have said, try the multiplayer. It's great and it's like no other multiplayer mode. Survival gameplay is even more emphasized there.

These are good suggestions I didn't try at all.

I am certainly going to try new things once the PS4 version is released.

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EDIT : In summary TLoU is without a doubt a great game.

Is it something that's never been before ? No.

Does it push gaming forward ? Imo, No.Only when it comes to a really high bar of presentation then yes.
 
The game is one of the best. The rises and falls in suspense from story and level design, the weapon feel and lack of bullets or supplies, the constant choice in tactical play (a group of runners and clickers, gotta make sure you kill in the right order or your screwed.) Yes, TLOU "really is that special"


Yeah, but in the end you're just debating how you will slaughter everyone. In the world the game presents, I was assuming you can avoid encounters if you take advantage of stealth. In this game, stealth just means killing someone without them knowing.

You can. There are a number of encounters where you have no other option but engage or stealth kill, but you can stealth with no confrontation in a number of areas also.
 
You'd be amazed how much you learn about childhood (even your own) by watching someone else live theirs every day.

I'm not saying that she should have had dewey eyes and believe in magic but they way they wrote her was too heavy handed and not believable.

Me and all of my friends swore more than Ellie does at her age, and we all grew up in a big city with lots of modern conveniences. I'm not understanding what is so unbelievable about her writing in regards to language.
 
For creating a good story (while kinda generic) that actually worked with the gameplay. It didn't sacrifice one or the other, they gelled very well together. Both complemented each other, something you don't see often in games.

It serves as a good stepping stone moving forward
 
The one thing I didn't like about the story-driven aspect of TLoU was that the story and gameplay felt separated. It's still a great game, but I don't really consider it the narrative innovation in gaming it's made out to be.
 
TLoU is to TPS what Bioshock is to FPS.

Interesting. I can agree with this.

When you analyze certain elements in isolation, they're nothing amazing, but as a whole experience, they stand out from the pack.

Even though I think they are both overblown in how amazing people make them out to be.
 
This, I'm waiting for ONE SINGLE post that actually criticizes in an intelligent and constructive way the gameplay. Allow me to repeat, intelligent and constructive way.
Bring your arguments, prove you're right, explain us what ND did wrong, why and what would have been a good alternative.
Or more selfishly, don't make me think I've done a huge mistake taking this thread seriously.

It would be difficult to establish an argument from that point of view. There is nothing inherintly wrong with The Last of Us' gameplay.

The game has polished and perfected those particular mechanics to a level that is difficult to criticize.
Now is that gameplay progressive and innovative? I would argue no. In the Last of Us, Naughty Dog generally retreads where they have been before and didn't bring anything particularly new or compelling to the table as far as gameplay mechanics are concerned.
 
It sounds to me like you've already convinced yourself.
Yeah seriously. This is like making a thread on a racing game(lets say forza or something) then telling everyone that you hate competitive racing, sim and/or arcady controls, and that your entire family was killed by a car and now you're terrified of cars in any form. But try to convince him to get forza.

No need for this thread man, it sounds like you don't want the game. And if you did get it I bet you'd make a thread on how the game is over hyped. Just skip it.
With that said, the MP is really different. Bullets/supplies are limited. So you don't really get too many run and gunners. Plus you have to make traps after the match begins by collecting resources.
 
It would be difficult to establish an argument from that point of view. There is nothing inherintly wrong with The Last of Us' gameplay.

The game has polished and perfected those particular mechanics to a level that is difficult to criticize.
Now is that gameplay progressive and innovative? I would argue no. In the Last of Us, Naughty Dog generally retreads where they have been before and didn't bring anything particularly new or compelling to the table as far as gameplay mechanics are concerned.

Have you actually played a game on console? I'm surprised.
 
I didn't even think the story was that great. I couldn't connect with the characters at all or care about anything they went through so it fell flat for me.

The gameplay is decent but not all that remarkable.

I'm not exactly a fan of this game if you can't tell.
 
It's not a rhetorical question!

I'm in two minds over whether to buy it or not. Almost all the reviews I've read or watched focus on the story and the 'experience', but from the footage it just looks like a fairly standard third-person action game with stealth bits.

I can appreciate that the story might be this wonderful, transcendent Citizen Kane of videogames but I'm not particularly interested in yet another post-apocalyptic journey of growth and redemption. I also don't really have an appetite for a third-person shooty/stealthy game right now (I'm more excited by Diablo 3).The PS4 release schedule is so empty, though, that I'm not exactly spoiled for choice.

What do you think?

(I'm expecting the usual one word answers, but it'd be great if you could actually, you know, explain your thinking. Thanks.)

I would say it was fun (i loved the bow mechanics and the salvaging/upgrading your weapons and tools). I don't think it was anything "special" though, i'd say the presentation and story were really what set this game apart. I'd still recommend it, the gameplay is more than good enough to keep you satisfied.
 
The story and characters definitely carry the game. The gameplay is by no means bad (especially how seamlessly it mixes stealth and combat) but occasionally it can feel a bit repetitive.
Have you played the game on Survival without hearing mode ? It very much is a survival game when you have three bullets and no medkit. It's tense, you've got to plan out your approach and makes the single-player gameplay really good.

Also, as I've often said recently and many have said, try the multiplayer. It's great and it's like no other multiplayer mode. Survival gameplay is even more emphasized there.
I played through the game on survival and in those situations, when you really run out of stuff Ellie will usually hand you some bullets or a med kit she got out of nowhere. I suppose it's ND way to not have you stuck in a dead end, but that always killed a bit of tension for me.
 
It would be difficult to establish an argument from that point of view. There is nothing inherintly wrong with The Last of Us' gameplay.

The game has polished and perfected those particular mechanics to a level that is difficult to criticize.
Now is that gameplay progressive and innovative? I would argue no. In the Last of Us, Naughty Dog generally retreads where they have been before and didn't bring anything particularly new or compelling to the table as far as gameplay mechanics are concerned.

Agreed. It's kind of like Mario Galaxy 2, there's nothing too innovative about the game, but the mechanics are perfect and everything is so well made that the title is considered a masterpiece. The Last of Us is a refinement of the TPS genre, it's doing everything that's been done before but better.
 
Agreed that TLOU gameplay is satisfying if you like playing the hunter/hunted type scenario (which I do). Who's to say that given the darker vibes I got from the UC4 trailer, we won't be seeing more of this type of gameplay in UC. I'd love for Drake to realistically flinch and fall backwards from being shot directly like Joel. Also the realtime healing mechanic using bandages would really up the tension in firefights, heck just use Joel's animation setup in UC4 for Drake complete with backpack for storing weapons etc. Just keep some of the set piece's and locations more OTT to keep the best bits of UC (which it looks like they will - pirate's on an island + mention of globe trotting, count me in!)

Um no. Uncharted is a faster paced game, more arcade like. TLoU works because its supposed to be a little slower paced game. What you are asking is ridiculous and basically want TLoU2. Its funny because you probably dislike Uncharted because there are too many already yet want more TLoU games. (that gameplay you want will only work in TLoU type game - Action/Survivor)

Sadly U4 will be more like the past games, gameplay wise, make sure you skip all the threads on that game that way you can avoid getting mad it doesnt have TLoU gameplay.
 
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