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The Last of Us |OT| It Can’t Be For Nothing (Spoilers)

CrisKre

Member
One hour in and I'm not feeling it so far :/
The controls seem needlessly cumbersome and it's just a bit tedious.
I'm hoping it gets better quick.
 

Daingurse

Member
Wow, put in about 3 hours before stopping. This is some compelling shit. Also the graphics are fucking incredible for PS3, some fucking wizardry. But man, Crysis 3 on PC has completely fucked me up in some ways. Some of these abandoned city environments really remind me of C3 and this game doesn't measure up to that of course visually. But for this level of hardware? I am fucking impressed. The in-engine cinematics in-particular, look phenomenal.
 
One hour in and I'm not feeling it so far :/
The controls seem needlessly cumbersome and it's just a bit tedious.
I'm hoping it gets better quick.

I was in the same situation as you earlier on, thankfully it picks up as you play and gets much better. It feels like a really long game. I'm expecting reaching 20 plus hours on my play through.
 

DatDude

Banned
One hour in and I'm not feeling it so far :/
The controls seem needlessly cumbersome and it's just a bit tedious.
I'm hoping it gets better quick.

Take it from me, this game takes time for it to build up steam. If you still don't feel it after the bill segment than this game might not be for you.

But I have a good feeling, your mind will be a total 360 after that point.

Honestly, I think that's when the game really starts clicking. Everything before bill just felt meh.
 

CrisKre

Member
I was in the same situation as you earlier on, thankfully it picks up as you play and gets much better. It feels like a really long game. I'm expecting reaching 20 plus hours on my play through.
Good to hear!
I must say I'm not too impressed so far by the graphics either. Must be spending the last three days at e3 with all them pretty next gen graphics. .. Sigh.
 
About halfway through, game keeps getting better and better, with more intense situations and gorgeous locations. If you've only played 2 or 3 hours you ain't seen nothing yet.

Some random thoughts:

Having several types of enemies keeps things fresh, the way you approach an encounter with humans, runners or clickers is completely different.

Playing on hard and still feel like I have too much ammo, survival is probably the ideal way to play the game.

Some tips I'd give people is to make the most out of molotovs by luring a bunch of enemies to a single spot with a bottle/brick and then take them out all at once with the molotov. What's even better is that the screams will atract others that are farther away and when they step into the flames they'll also burn to death. You can easily take out 4 enemies simultaneously.
Upgrade the shiv so you can use it more than once, between opening doors and stealth killing clickers you'll always be running low on these otherwise.
Bow is very useful, silent one hit kills. Don't forget to recover your arrows.

Some locations allow for a decent amount of exploration. Building that are completely optional areworth checking out not just for the loot but also to trigger some cool dialogues with Ellie.

The attention to detail is absolutely incredible. I love how Ellie hides under Joel when they're behind cover.

Speaking of Ellie, I friggin' love her, so funny and badass. Kudos to the writers and specially to Ashley for the fantastic performance. All actors knocked it out of the park to be honest. Troy Baker might be the best in the business at this point.

Melee and shooting feel great, animations are fantastic, you can see that this is the result of an entire generation spent perfecting the third person action/adventure genre, not only regarding ND's previous endeavours but also the efforts of other developers.

My only gripes with the game so far:

Though I have defended the option to make the companion AI invisible to the enemy during stealth, I can't help but feel that it could be better than it is. Sometimes I'm completely stationary and they are just running around for no reason, an issue I never had when doing stealth in uncharted.

Considering howw good the puzzles in Uncharted 3 were, it's disappointing that in TLOU it comes down to pushing crates and planks, specially considering the strong puzzle heritage of the genre.

Some bugs but nothing gamebreaking (except for the save glitch of course but we've been over that).

When all is said and done this will probably be my game of the generation. I've been waiting for someone to make a game just like this. I'm a sucker for post apocalyptic settings, specially of this kind. I remember thinking I wanted a game with a story like The Road or Children of Men, Enslaved's setting and I Am Alive's gameplay so I'm obviously happy.

Congratulations to ND for creating this masterpiece. Ignore the haters and keep doing what you do best, because you are the best at it.

Now I'm going to read the first issue of American Dreams.
 

Chris R

Member
Liking what I've played so far but man is it rough in some places. Platforming is a huge step back from uncharted and some of the ai stuff is wonky as well. Only put three hours in tonight though.
 
Finally found the time to play the first 3 hours or so.

Great game, but I´m still waiting for the game get back to the greatness of the first half hour.
Hope that wasn´t the high point already.

I still don´t like NDs gunplay at all. Hope that one day they make a game that plays as well as it looks.

Still - great game, can´t wait to get back to it tonight.

Wait till Lincoln.
 

JawzPause

Member
I was in the same situation as you earlier on, thankfully it picks up as you play and gets much better. It feels like a really long game. I'm expecting reaching 20 plus hours on my play through.

Unfortunately it only took me 13 hours to complete, with me completely taking my time.
 

Arch Stanton

Neo Member
About Bill, and some superb subtle writing:

best fucking gay character, probably since New Vegas. But 20 million times better. I am so impressed. As soon as I heard the line "somebody i cared about" from the trailer, I wondered.

Then he said 'partner'

Then we come across Frank, still not even slightly explicit he's gay.

Then Frank's note in the back room.

Then dirty gay mags.

So classy Naughty Dog. That made my fucking night.

I agree wholeheartedly. It was handled with grace and felt honest and more poignant than I was ever expecting from that moment or that character.
 
Played about 4 hours of The Last Of Us. It's pretty good... No wait I mean CITIZEN KANE WHARGARBLE.


Impressions, the good: Great score, really fleshed out characters, plot moves along nicely, great art direction, intense stealth with the infected

Impressions, the bad: AI partners are dumb as mud and make tons of noise during stealth, hurts the immersion. Framerate is weak and AA is very lacking, this game really needed to be a PS4 title. It really puts a spotlight on the aging PS3 hardware.

This game also fully utilizes the cutscene crutch too, and has yet to really advance storytelling methods in a way that is unique to gaming. Normally I wouldn't give a game shit for that, but considering how many reviews praised it as a landmark, it's a bit disappointing. Although, not finished yet so hopefully it'll improve in that regard.

Anyone else playing on Hard? The infected(mostly clickers) can be quite a handful on this difficulty.

About the storytelling thing, it does do one method that i love so much. Naughty Dog went out of the way making most of the rooms you enter unique. Everything, even to the spreading of weeds makes sense and just pulls you much more into the post-apocalyptic settIng.

What I like to do is to take my time and try to piece out the story of how some rooms are left that way.

By the way the game is definitely a slow burner. I felt the first few hours were mediocre, but now everything is just GOTY material amazing.
 

Fjordson

Member
I was in the same situation as you earlier on, thankfully it picks up as you play and gets much better. It feels like a really long game. I'm expecting reaching 20 plus hours on my play through.

Take it from me, this game takes time for it to build up steam. If you still don't feel it after the bill segment than this game might not be for you.

But I have a good feeling, your mind will be a total 360 after that point.

Honestly, I think that's when the game really starts clicking. Everything before bill just felt meh.
Funny, I was just about to post how this is picking up for me after the initial 4-5 hours. Getting more used to the combat, the relationship between Joel and Ellie is becoming more and more interesting. I'm digging it.

Also, I have to give props where props are due to Neil Druckmann. I think the writing here is truly top notch. One of the best written games I've played in years. And this is coming from someone who didn't really love his past work, including Uncharted 1 and 2. But Druckmann has totally outdone himself.

Right now he's up there with personal favourites like Chris Avellone, Dan Houser and Erik Wolpaw. Dude hit it out of the park. Will definitely be excited for whatever he does next after playing this.
 

Atruvius

Member
A friend bought this game yesterday and we played it around 13-14 hours yesterday, save says 81% complete on hard mode.

The game is great, probably my game of the year. It's just so surprising how big AAA game can have non-regenerating health and scarcity of ammo, when all other games are just the opposite. You're always against the odds when you beat an enemy encounter it truly feels rewarding. And when you miss your shot you feel bad. The combat kind-of reminds me of Alan Wake, your character some battlehardened marine but a normal person, whose a bit clumsy, which makes the combat look more real and more brutal and thus more satisfying.

Character all look really good, move in a natural way, and voice acting is probably the best I've heard. Joel's and
Henry's
are probably the best. And
Henry
is probably the best looking character in the game, almost looks real at some points. If I didn't that know Troy Baker were voicing Joel, I wouldn't recognize him as Joel. Joel's accent sounds very smooth in my ears, just great VA all around.

The first area's didn't wow much in terms of graphics, I was actually thinking that UC2 looked better. Then we got to later levels, which looked a looot better, better than Uncharteds. Though, framerate is a lot worse than in Uncharteds, which all were pretty smooth 30fps. The framerate drops pretty often and noticeably, which is a bit of shame. I hope Sony ports the game to PS4.

Companion AI is pretty bad. When trying to sneak your companions are constantly in your way or running around the place bumping into enemies. Enemies don't react to your companions which is good but also looks really stupid. I've also had moments where I've been meleeing an enemy and a companion just walks in front of me unabling me to hit the enemy and then bad stuff happening to me.
 
No idea how far I am in the game
Still in pittsburgh after the hotel

But I felt like saying
The insta death by the bloaters... just.... probably the most brutal thing Ive seen
 
It seems like I'm nearing the end. What a ride. Really feels like I've been on an adventure.

So what kind of score out of 10 do you guys think this game deserves if you totally ignore story and acting and *only* consider gameplay? (I haven't played it, and I'm wondering if I should).

9.5. It feels like an evolution of RE4, with possibly the most satisfying melee combat ever. And it's a better stealth game than the majority of stealth games.

No idea how far I am in the game
Still in pittsburgh after the hotel

But I felt like saying
The insta death by the bloaters... just.... probably the most brutal thing Ive seen

Take notice of the sound they make next time you encounter one that isn't aggressive. Terrifying.
Remarkable sound design all round.
 

Arch Stanton

Neo Member
I guess calling myself a "methodical gamer" would be an understatement, as I have currently played for 10 hours, 47 minutes and am only 44% through the game. Location spoiler:
I'm in Pittsburgh, in the flooded bowels of the hotel. And holy shit is this part intense and claustrophobic! I actually had to quit for the night because it was gnawing at my nerves. Goddamn! By the way, this is an excellent example of plant-and-payoff with respect to a certain thing that I won't name just in case someone accidentally hits the spoiler tags. Nevertheless, most games would have had the plant, and then minutes later illustrate the pay-off in a totally uninspired way.

Question about play percentages: does this game count the items you've collected into the completion percentage? Because if not, I have a hell of a way still to go, which is A-OK in my book.

Aside from friendly AI issues, and a couple annoying "forced" action moments, I'm loving my experience with the game. Naughty Dog's character and storytelling influences are obvious, but they're crafting it (no pun) in their own voice – at least so far. Here's hoping it holds up.

I know some people aren't digging the gun play or weapon switching, but I'm finding combat to be pretty fucking awesome. I love the feel of the melee attacks and the shooting is intense, especially when compensating for weapon sway. I'm glad I'm playing on Hard with Listen Mode off.

Lastly, the sound design is superb. I know many people, fans and critics alike, cite the Dead Space series as a paragon of great video game sound design – and it is pretty good sound design. But the sounds in Dead Space often bludgeon you with incessant LOUDNESS, whereas TLoU uses quieter and low frequency sounds to enhance the tension and thus, making the screech of a Runner or a click of the Clickers stand out all the more.

By the way, Clickers... instantly iconic.
 
Taking into account the quality of the voice acting, the incredible music and the overall sound design, I consider this to be the best game ever as far as sound is concerned. Taking all these factors into account, my ears have never been so pleased with a game.
 
I guess calling myself a "methodical gamer" would be an understatement, as I have currently played for 10 hours, 47 minutes and am only 44% through the game. Location spoiler:
I'm in Pittsburgh, in the flooded bowels of the hotel. And holy shit is this part intense and claustrophobic! I actually had to quit for the night because it was gnawing at my nerves. Goddamn! By the way, this is an excellent example of plant-and-payoff with respect to a certain thing that I won't name just in case someone accidentally hits the spoiler tags. Nevertheless, most games would have had the plant, and then minutes later illustrate the pay-off in a totally uninspired way.

Question about play percentages: does this game count the items you've collected into the completion percentage? Because if not, I have a hell of a way still to go, which is A-OK in my book.

Aside from friendly AI issues, and a couple annoying "forced" action moments, I'm loving my experience with the game. Naughty Dog's character and storytelling influences are obvious, but they're crafting it (no pun) in their own voice – at least so far. Here's hoping it holds up.

I know some people aren't digging the gun play or weapon switching, but I'm finding combat to be pretty fucking awesome. I love the feel of the melee attacks and the shooting is intense, especially when compensating for weapon sway. I'm glad I'm playing on Hard with Listen Mode off.

Lastly, the sound design is superb. I know many people, fans and critics alike, cite the Dead Space series as a paragon of great video game sound design – and it is pretty good sound design. But the sounds in Dead Space often bludgeon you with incessant LOUDNESS, whereas TLoU uses quieter and low frequency sounds to enhance the tension and thus, making the screech of a Runner or a click of the Clickers stand out all the more.

By the way, Clickers... instantly iconic.

percentages = story progression
Yep, it's a long game.
 

DatDude

Banned
I wish Naughty Dog would include more cut-scenes in this game. The few long one's in this game are some of the best in the medium.

Also, that scene with
Henry and Sam. Wow, simply wow. Also would I be correct in assuming Ellie is atheist judging by her talks with sam?
 

raphanum

Member
Alright, so I just completed the game. I had the autosave issue so I hadn't turned off my ps3 since I begun playing. My PS3 crashed after I quit the credits so hopefully I haven't lost my save.

Took me about 12 hours to complete.
 
Is this game possible to play without stealth? Everything was going great, then one of my AI partners decided to shoot a monster or something and then everything came screaming at me and then boom game over. I can't imagine trying to fend those things off when there a bunch of them running around you.

I like it, but as I expected it's a bit of trial and error for me because I'm not terribly good at shooters or stealth games. It's breathtaking though, my god.
 
It seems like I'm nearing the end. What a ride. Really feels like I've been on an adventure.



9.5. It feels like an evolution of RE4, with possibly the most satisfying melee combat ever. And it's a better stealth game than the majority of stealth games.



Take notice of the sound they make next time you encounter one that isn't aggressive. Terrifying.
Remarkable sound design all round.

Already ran into a second on. And by ran into, I mean ran right the hell past it because I didn't want to attempt to take it down. It was in the flooded portion of the hotel right when you need the keycard. I heard other infected and just went "Nooooope" and ran around the corner to see it standing there... Absolutely terrifying.
 

DatDude

Banned
The only thing that I'm sort of bugged is that they don't document Joel and Ellie's travel all that well.

I mean one second there in
Pitsburgh. Than we see them in Wyoming?

I mean Naughty Dog never explained how they got there? What did they encounter along the way? Did they walk or did they find another car? I mean, surely that took months upon months, and surely there's quite a bit of story to tell there?

Maybe dlc who knows.
 

JawzPause

Member
The only thing that I'm sort of bugged is that they don't document Joel and Ellie's travel all that well.

I mean one second there in
Pitsburgh. Than we see them in Wyoming?

I mean Naughty Dog never explained how they got there? What did they encounter along the way? Did they walk or did they find another car? I mean, surely that took months upon months, and surely there's quite a bit of story to tell there?

Maybe dlc who knows.

They said there's going to be story dlc, so I'm guessing that's why they left some gaps.
 

DatDude

Banned
Is this game possible to play without stealth? Everything was going great, then one of my AI partners decided to shoot a monster or something and then everything came screaming at me and then boom game over. I can't imagine trying to fend those things off when there a bunch of them running around you.

I like it, but as I expected it's a bit of trial and error for me because I'm not terribly good at shooters or stealth games. It's breathtaking though, my god.

Very possible.

More so later in the game, compared to early in the game.

Turn listen mode on, and maybe notch it down to medium or easy (if you aren't there already). As you continue, your weapons will upgrade, your skills will upgrade, and things will become more abundant in terms of ammo, and things to craft and upgrade.

I'm personally terrible at stealth. Simply don't have the patience for it. So far I've been doing alot of blitzes with my baseball bat attatched with scissor :p

So yeah the action route is very possible.
 

nib95

Banned
I told my sister/brother in law I'd wait for them before I started it, but decided I'd just play the beginning (have played for well over an hour lol...). Will re-start again later, but wow at the beginning. Gripped me from the off set. And these visuals, art, lighting and voice acting. Amazing. The whole world ND have created is just rich with atmosphere and beauty. Amazing stuff so far, if a little slow.
 

Plumpman

Member
*Click Click Click* goes my revolver...
As I start reloading, the guy I'm trading shots with yells, "He's out of ammo, get him!" and proceeds to rush me down with a burst of intensity. I immediately halt my reload short on the second bullet and manage to pop one in his skull. At that instant, that brief instant of respite, Ellie yells "Behind you!" and I quick turn on instinct. Sure enough, I squeeze off my final round into the forehead of another guy inches away from clubbing me with a lead pipe. Ellie just saved my skin...

I had to put the controller down and appreciate what I had just witnessed. Goty Confirmed!
 

Zemm

Member
Care to explain why?
I haven't enjoyed a multiplayer like this since cod4: mw

You can tell it was tacked on, really feels like little effort has gone into it with how bare bones it is, should have included a co-op mode at the very least. Plus I'm just not feeling it, small maps + easy to get behind people + heavy emphasis on melee combat = dull to me.
 
Oh yeah the section where
you're hanging upside down
in Lincoln was ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I had like 4 bullets across all my guns
 

Rewrite

Not as deep as he thinks
I played about five multiplayer matches of this and I will never touch it again. It's absolute trash to me. It's slow, everyone camps, the animations are terrible compared with Uncharted's MP, no personality, not a fan of the maps, and it's overall boring. Never been a fan of elimination modes at all and this is basically just what it offers. It's not fun watching other people's camera while they are just hiding somewhere endlessly. To me it feels like it's trying to be Socom, no thanks. I don't understand what the point of the revival system is when nobody does it because they are being exposed/vulnerable. I hate the executions too. Fire a few bullets and just execute your enemy zzz.

I'd rather play shade survival in Uncharted 3 (trust me, it's absolute shit too) and I'll probably still have more fun there than what this game offers.

I hope they add in co-op in the future. It's almost impossible to fuck up co-op.
 

Thrakier

Member
People complaining about framerate problems - I found it similar to the last 2 Uncharted games, nothing really to complain about.

Not at all. Those were very stable 30FPS, but this one drops frames like a bitch, all the time. It's very noticable when you turn your flashlight on. I try to keep it off for this reason, which doesn't help immersion.

I have to say that I'm kinda disappointed by Naughty Dog that they valued some amout of eye candy more so than gameplay. They definitly know that 30FPS is already shit to begin with, but throwing a game on the market that's a fair amount of time SUB 30FPS, esepcially in scenes when you need high framerates to make it fun like in the shoot outs, really is not acceptable. I hope they find back to form one day and set the right priorities.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
One hour in and I'm not feeling it so far :/
The controls seem needlessly cumbersome and it's just a bit tedious.
I'm hoping it gets better quick.

I said the same thing earlier but it does pick up once you encounter the infected.

However, I've played it for about 3 hours now and I still wouldn't say it's worthy of the praise it has gotten.

I guess calling myself a "methodical gamer" would be an understatement, as I have currently played for 10 hours, 47 minutes and am only 44% through the game.

Huh? I've played for 3 hours and I'm 28% through O__o
 

nib95

Banned
Not at all. Those were very stable 30FPS, but this one drops frames like a bitch, all the time. It's very noticable when you turn your flashlight on. I try to keep it off for this reason, which doesn't help immersion.

I have to say that I'm kinda disappointed by Naughty Dog that they valued some amout of eye candy more so than gameplay. They definitly know that 30FPS is already shit to begin with, but throwing a game on the market that's a fair amount of time SUB 30FPS, esepcially in scenes when you need high framerates to make it fun like in the shoot outs, really is not acceptable. I hope they find back to form one day and set the right priorities.

I don't think it's just the eye candy, but the scale and amount of geometry. I think they realised that to make it truly feel living, breathing and realistic, there needed to be a sense of scale to the cities, layers upon layers of vegetation and buildings littering the backgrounds etc. I think it was a calculated decision and imo the wiser one, this frame issues do little to take away from the experience, and are rare negatives. The motion blur largely makes up for any woes.
 

DatDude

Banned
I said the same thing earlier but it does pick up once you encounter the infected.

However, I've played it for about 3 hours now and I still wouldn't say it's worthy of the praise it has gotten.

I would say that to. Except it really does get worthy of that praise once you move into the 2nd half. That shit is just a fucking emotional rollercoaster.
 

JawzPause

Member
You can tell it was tacked on, really feels like little effort has gone into it with how bare bones it is, should have included a co-op mode at the very least. Plus I'm just not feeling it, small maps + easy to get behind people + heavy emphasis on melee combat = dull to me.

I do agree that there should have been a co-op mode, maybe a sort of horde mode, but I feel like the multiplayer is very well made. I like how much of the single player has transferred over. I've actually had moments just as tense as single player (playing survival of course).
But I can see how this is not for everyone.
 
You can tell it was tacked on, really feels like little effort has gone into it with how bare bones it is, should have included a co-op mode at the very least. Plus I'm just not feeling it, small maps + easy to get behind people + heavy emphasis on melee combat = dull to me.

wtf? Why should every game have co-op?
Do you want another dudebro shooter?

The MP is fantastic and doesn't feel tacked on, imo.
 

Thrakier

Member
I don't think it's just the eye candy, but the scale and amount of geometry. I think they realised that to make it truly feel living, breathing and realistic, there needed to be a sense of scale to the cities, layers upon layers of vegetation and buildings littering the backgrounds etc. I think it was a calculated decision and imo the wiser one, this frame issues do little to take away from the experience, and are rare negatives. The motion blur largely makes up for any woes.

Well, that's very subjective. If you move around outside of your house, does your world stutter and feel laggy around you? Framerate (60FPS for that reason) imo is the Nr. 1 immersion factor and as soon as I feel that the game drops frames again (or I stop using the flashlight because it drops frames so bad) I'm out of that world and back on my couch. Immersion doesn't work that way. This thing is not a movie, it's a game and therefore a good developer prioritizes that the interaction between player and game world is perfect. Framerate is a huge factor here. I'm kinda annoyed when I need to shoot an enemy (worse: he's running at me) because I feel like I can't aim for shit at 27FPS. The difference to 1080p/60FPS Tomb Raider is gigantic and I'm actuall more immersed in the latter although Tomb Raiders characters, story and world really is shit in comparison.
 
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