Support NeoGAF

[Dreamer RD]

Finished yesterday. Damn, it's hard to describe this game with words. Just 10/10.
I was scared that

Spoiler

Ellie might die in the end

. Glad it didn't happened. Amazing character.
GOTY right here. Or even game of the decade.

Also tried some multiplayer and earned about 50 survivors. Not sure what they do, need to read GAF multiplayer thread.

 

[Mr. RHC]

The game being playable on normal is a very positive thing , if I'd want a more punishing challenge I could have done so from the very beginning.

The emotional impact of the acceleration in pace from that point up until the end of the chapter, followed by the

Spoiler

slow, languishing, serene introduction of Spring in Salt Lake City

... just unprecedented

Could you clarify that please? I have no idea what you mean.

Spoiler

Yes, she is a killer and yet she acts pretty down to earth. She seems very mature for her age, which probably makes sense given the circumstances but a character, who is so heavily engaged in surviving, killing and challenge and not showing any major signs of psychological scars does not make too much sense for me

Im guessing you missed out on a bunch of collectibles and optional side conversations? There are instances where interaction with the environment does occur.

Yes, more of that, I loved that stuff!

 

[SolidSnakex]

There's a fine line between challenging and annoying though. UC2 Crushing was definitely more difficult than Hard, but it was just ridiculous with the enemy waves and the bullshit final boss fight. Hard still provided a good level of challenge while preserving my sanity.

But isn't Crushing always locked until you complete the game? I think that it's expected that an unlockable difficulty could see a dramatic ramp up in challenge since it's basically for expert players.

Well this game isnt Uncharted, so thats another mistake you're going to make assuming the difficulty is on the same level as a completely different game.

Yeah, the difficulty wasn't going to be the same in a game that has persistent health. They were going to have to scale the difficulty differently for TLoU.

 

[hunnies28]

I just got to the

Spoiler

college campus

. Sadly, it seems I won't be able to play anymore until Monday.

 

[LuuKyK]

Spoiler

Yes, she is a killer and yet she acts pretty down to earth. She seems very mature for her age, which probably makes sense given the circumstances but a character, who is so heavily engaged in surviving, killing and challenge and not showing any major signs of psychological scars does not make too much sense for me

Uhm... Im supposing you finished the game? Ending spoilers:

Spoiler

right after she killed David, actually a whole season after it, she was still clearly changed. Dont you remember how quiet and sad she seemed to be at the start of the last season (not helping or answering Joel)? She was clearly affected by all that she went through, even if she is still a strong girl. It seemed pretty clear to me that it made her feel bad.

 

[Lima]

Is this the full documentary?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2N9bRc8r0A

Yes.

 

[Mr. RHC]

Uhm... Im supposing you finished the game? Ending spoilers:

Spoiler

right after she killed Tommy, actually a whole season after it, she was still clearly changed. Dont you remember how quiet and sad she seemed to be at the start of the last season (not helping or answering Joel)? She was clearly affected by all that she went through, even if she is still a strong girl. It seemed pretty clear to me that it made her feel bad.

Sure, and I appreciated that scene...I expected it more and more intense, especially near the end of the game. Of course we don't know how everything turns out after the credits, that would be sequel material then. hehe

 

[Hawkian]

Spoiler

Yes, she is a killer and yet she acts pretty down to earth. She seems very mature for her age, which probably makes sense given the circumstances but a character, who is so heavily engaged in surviving, killing and challenge and not showing any major signs of psychological scars does not make too much sense for me

This criticism is so far off-base that I feel like you must have missed or looked over some really important details of the entire experience. :-/

Spoiler

The infection began as Cordyceps started to spread throughout the country. Six years after that, Ellie was born. She has never known anything but a world that is horrifically, mercilessly, brutally violent and disturbing. Days that do not involve multiple acts of intense bloodshed, human or otherwise, have been more rare for her than those that do. Survival at all costs is all she knows. She is a kid, and has the instincts of a kid, and despite being wise and mature she can't help being distracted by things or looking at things she's never seen before with a sense of wonder.

Every single convention that you or I consider "normal" about healthy, psychologically-stable life in modern society does not apply to her. She was born into a world we have no experience with at all.

Furthermore, despite all of the qualities that make it impossible for any of us to relate to her psychologically, she is experiencing extreme, debilitating survivor's guilt compounded over the course of the game, to the point where she most likely believed she wanted to or deserved to die by the end of the story.

 

[Tangeroo]

Uhm... Im supposing you finished the game? Ending spoilers:

Spoiler

right after she killed Tommy, actually a whole season after it, she was still clearly changed. Dont you remember how quiet and sad she seemed to be at the start of the last season (not helping or answering Joel)? She was clearly affected by all that she went through, even if she is still a strong girl. It seemed pretty clear to me that it made her feel bad.

Uh...

Spoiler

Do you mean after she killed David (which technically, Joel did)? I'm pretty sure she didn't kill Joel's brother Tommy.

 

[Hawkian]

Uh...

Spoiler

Do you mean after she killed David (which technically, Joel did)? I'm pretty sure she didn't kill Joel's brother Tommy.

Haha, um, yes he must have meant that, but

Spoiler

what the fuck are you talking about, how did Joel come anywhere close to "technically" killing him?

 

[Levito]

Finished The Last Of Us last night, here's my brief summation of the good and the bad:

Bad:
-Terrible partner AI
-Rampant auto saving kills tension + trivializes death, and most combat and stealth encounters are reptative and boring as a result
-Stealth mechanics are sloppy
-Enemy AI are all like hawkeye too. (seriously, the spot you so easily)
-Game as a whole is too easy, finished on hard no problem

Good:
-Stellar score
-Fantastic characters
-extremely sharp writing
-Only kept on getting better and better till the finale
-Amazing performances from cast
-Best dilapidated environments I've seen ( outside of Metro and old Silent Hill that is)

Overall an experience you really shouldn't miss. It's no masterpiece, nor does it create storytelling methods unique to gaming, however it's a damn fine game.

 

[krae_man]

Just got to winter. This game just became Tomb Raider :lol

I'll probably finish the rest of it tonight. Less humans more infected please.

 

[Tangeroo]

Haha, um, yes he must have meant that, but

Spoiler

what the fuck are you talking about, how did Joel come anywhere close to "technically" killing him?

Spoiler

Sorry, my memory is a little hazy because I had a been playing for a loooooong time when I hit that scene. From what I recall, David mounts Ellie which prompts Joel to attack him. I remember David getting killed from multiple machete whacks to the head but I guess it *was* Ellie and not Joel. My bad.

 

[LuuKyK]

Uh...

Spoiler

Do you mean after she killed David (which technically, Joel did)? I'm pretty sure she didn't kill Joel's brother Tommy.

LoL oops. I always confuse them. Nvm that. Fixed.

 

[smallios74]

Just finshed, fantastic gmae maybe the best game ive played for many years (even ever?), but im just sad that its ended. I can get why some people didnt enjoy it as much as others but for me all the little quirks/issues are so insignificant compared to the game in whole it seems to be daft to even mention them.

 

[SuperSonic1305]

Bad:
-Terrible partner AI
-Rampant auto saving kills tension + trivializes death, and most combat and stealth encounters are reptative and boring as a result
-Stealth mechanics are sloppy
-Enemy AI are all like hawkeye too. (seriously, the spot you so easily)
-Game as a whole is too easy, finished on hard no problem

I disagree with literally every single bit of this.

 

[bonesmccoy]

I think I encountered a bug near the mid-point of the game:

Spoiler

In the Winter section, I've tracked Ellie into the ranch house. On the 2nd floor there's a door slightly ajar that refused to open - I don't even get a button prompt - and it's the only room I'm unable to access. Should I just restart the encounter?

 

[JB1981]

I'm playing on hard and finding it fairly challenging actually, definitely died an embarrassing number of times.

That said, the game feels balanced at this difficulty. I never have a lot of ammo so it forces me to experiment and really explore each location on the off chance I find a few rounds lying about.

I agree. The difficult on Hard with the hearing mechanic disables is perfect so far.

 

[Hawkian]

Spoiler

Sorry, my memory is a little hazy because I had a been playing for a loooooong time when I hit that scene. From what I recall, David mounts Ellie which prompts Joel to attack him. I remember David getting killed from multiple machete whacks to the head but I guess it *was* Ellie and not Joel. My bad.

Spoiler

Joel get there way too late to save her. It's you, as Ellie, just barely managing to grab David's machete and get a clean shot to the neck. That probably killed him- you'd already stabbed him in the back two or three times before that. But then you/Ellie keep your grip on the machete and just start fucking wailing on him. By the time Joel gets there David is probably an unrecognizable mass of blood and bone.

All he can do is get Ellie to stop and calm down and recognize him. Joel, the unrepentant survivor who murders without flinching, gets a 14-year-old girl to reign in her brutality. It's possibly my favorite moment in the game.

I think I encountered a bug near the mid-point of the game:

Spoiler

In the Winter section, I've tracked Ellie into the ranch house. On the 2nd floor there's a door slightly ajar that refused to open - I don't even get a button prompt - and it's the only room I'm unable to access. Should I just restart the encounter?

Can you be a little more specific? I can't actually identify where in the game you are. What building is it...?

 

[Kenshin001]

Just reached Fall. Holy shit. This game.

 

[Levito]

I disagree with literally every single bit of this.

That fine.

Really don't know how you disagree with the game trivializing death though. Dying in this game means nothing, the most you lose is 1 minute or less of gameplay due to the rampant autosaving. There's no tension because there's nothing at stake to lose.


If the game had traditional save points and no autosaving, it would've been a much better experience.

 

[UrbanRats]

That fine.

Really don't know how you disagree with the game trivializing death though. Dying in this game means nothing, the most you lose is 1 minute or less of gameplay due to the rampant autosaving. There's no tension because there's nothing at stake to lose.


If the game had traditional save points and no autosaving, it would've been a much better experience.

You don't think tension is subjective? I liked the checkpoint system, i still had plenty of tension simply because i don't like to see my character die and i feel empathy for them, but when it happened i didn't had to repeat some trivial bullshit to get to the hard part again.

 

[Hawkian]

That fine.

Really don't know how you disagree with the game trivializing death though. Dying in this game means nothing, the most you lose is 1 minute or less of gameplay due to the rampant autosaving. There's no tension because there's nothing at stake to lose.


If the game had traditional save points and no autosaving, it would've been a much better experience.

I honestly felt this way for the first few hours, but ultimately the game (on Hard, listen mode off) is such a consistent challenge and has such a robust length anyway that I don't think it would have added much to the experience to force replays of longer segments on death. 1 minute is quite a massive exaggeration when it comes to the most difficult sections, but whatever. You described the game as "too easy" on hard whereas I found the challenge to be pitch-perfect, very tough at its toughest points but never frustrating or unfair. I suppose I should make sure at this point that you had listen mode off just for the sake of understanding. Outside of that you're likely just better at video games than most people.

Wholly disagree that there is no tension. Just because I might not lose that much progress if I died never meant I stopped caring about it.

 

[abrack08]

That fine.

Really don't know how you disagree with the game trivializing death though. Dying in this game means nothing, the most you lose is 1 minute or less of gameplay due to the rampant autosaving. There's no tension because there's nothing at stake to lose.


If the game had traditional save points and no autosaving, it would've been a much better experience.

For me, dying and having to replay long sections of a game or go back to the very beginning of an encounter is one of the most annoying things in any game. I don't feel "tense" when I'm about to die in that situation, just frustrated. It'd be nice if there were meaningful consequences for dying that didn't just annoy me, but in the mean time I'll take lots of checkpoints.

Oh, and I still felt tense because I liked the characters and didn't want to see them get their faces ripped apart too many times.

 

[nelsonroyale]

That fine.

Really don't know how you disagree with the game trivializing death though. Dying in this game means nothing, the most you lose is 1 minute or less of gameplay due to the rampant autosaving. There's no tension because there's nothing at stake to lose.


If the game had traditional save points and no autosaving, it would've been a much better experience.

Personally, I much prefer this kind of check point system to a less forgiving one. One of the reason's I had crap experience with GTA IV was because I had to drive across the city after each death. I think replaying length combat scenarios can be quite irritating. Certainly was during those trials in Ascension at least...

 

[bonesmccoy]

Can you be a little more specific? I can't actually identify where in the game you are. What building is it...?

Sorry, that was vague:

Spoiler

I'm actually in the Fall section. Ellie took off on a horse, and Joel and Tommy followed her to a ranch house. I'm in the ranch house now, and there's one door on the 2nd floor that I can't open. It looks like I'm either missing a button prompt, or the game has completely skipped over the cut-scene queue that should have kicked in.

My hope is that 'Restart Encounter' will correct the issue. Did anyone else have this problem?

 

[Superflat]

That fine.

Really don't know how you disagree with the game trivializing death though. Dying in this game means nothing, the most you lose is 1 minute or less of gameplay due to the rampant autosaving. There's no tension because there's nothing at stake to lose.


If the game had traditional save points and no autosaving, it would've been a much better experience.

A number of times I found myself losing around 10 minutes of gameplay at a time, but I guess that was because I was meticulously doing stealth 90 percent of the time. But that could be just me being terrible at stealth :T

 

[ThaiNoodles]

Oh my god I can't wait to save up some money and buy this sucker. Just watched the intro video.

Is the game really linear or does it have open world qualities to it?

 

[abrack08]

Sorry, that was vague:

Spoiler

I'm actually in the Fall section. Ellie took off on a horse, and Joel and Tommy followed her to a ranch house. I'm in the ranch house now, and there's one door on the 2nd floor that I can't open. It looks like I'm either missing a button prompt, or the game has completely skipped over the cut-scene queue that should have kicked in.

My hope is that 'Restart Encounter' will correct the issue. Did anyone else have this problem?

Someone earlier in the thread had the same problem and restarting the encounter worked for him.

I'm surprised at all the bugs I see people talk about. I literally experienced 0 bugs in my playthrough.

 

[djplaeskool]

Finished in about 10 hours.
Best Resident Evil game I've ever played.
Seriously though, fantastic experience overall.
First time a game had me legit shook in a while.

 

[Moonlight]

Oh my god I can't wait to save up some money and buy this sucker. Just watched the intro video.

Is the game really linear or does it have open world qualities to it?

It's wide linear. The game is always pushing you in a certain direction, but the spaces that you're pushed into are relatively open and you can choose to explore and poke around them.

 

[krae_man]

Oh my god I can't wait to save up some money and buy this sucker. Just watched the intro video.

Is the game really linear or does it have open world qualities to it?

You can go off an explore a little bit to scavenge for recourses. The story however is very linear.

 

[Red Blaster]

Oh my god I can't wait to save up some money and buy this sucker. Just watched the intro video.

Is the game really linear or does it have open world qualities to it?

it's linear the same way metal gear solid 3 is linear

 

[Mister Negative]

I'm still in the first part of the game I think, I just have a question about Bill's town:

Spoiler

When you get there, there's a safe in the first section of the town. It safe you need the key to open it. What's the deal with that safe? I never found any key and I went over that area pretty well.

 

[Levito]

I honestly felt this way for the first few hours, but ultimately the game (on Hard, listen mode off) is such a consistent challenge and has such a robust length anyway that I don't think it would have added much to the experience to force replays of longer segments on death. 1 minute is quite a massive exaggeration when it comes to the most difficult sections, but whatever. You described the game as "too easy" on hard whereas I found the challenge to be pitch-perfect, very tough at its toughest points but never frustrating or unfair. I suppose I should make sure at this point that you had listen mode off just for the sake of understanding. Outside of that you're likely just better at video games than most people.

I played on hard my first playthrough and didn't run into many issues. Game as a whole is pretty easy, far too many supplies in the environments and most enemies(even Clickers) can be taken down quickly with melee weapons if you get the timing just right.

Then there's things like most enemies not reacting to sound when they should. Near the end I was choking human enemies out when another would be 4 feet away and they wouldn't hear it. haha


Personally for me, if there's no tension when nothing is at stake. Games like Dark Souls or older survival horror games like Silent Hill 1-3 actively discouraged you from dying, because of all the progress you'd lose. (and in the case of Dark Souls, make the enemies harder and half your health etc) LTOU however is all like: "Yeah, we checkpoint every 30 seconds, sometimes even after you take out 1 enemy, so w/e no biggie keep on trucking."

This is more a problem with modern game design the it is exclusively in TLOU, but it bothers me more here because the game is try to fill you with fear/tension.dread etc.

 

[abrack08]

Finished in about 10 hours.
Best Resident Evil game I've ever played.
Seriously though, fantastic experience overall.
First time a game had me legit shook in a while.

Wow, that's the fastest time I've seen, did you skip cutscenes and not explore too much? I thought I was fast with my ~15 hours

 

[blainethemono]

That fine.

Really don't know how you disagree with the game trivializing death though. Dying in this game means nothing, the most you lose is 1 minute or less of gameplay due to the rampant autosaving. There's no tension because there's nothing at stake to lose.


If the game had traditional save points and no autosaving, it would've been a much better experience.

There have been multiple times where I have lost like 30-45 minutes or more later in the game trying to stealth through sections on hard with listen mode off

I'm still in the first part of the game I think, I just have a question about Bill's town:

Spoiler

When you get there, there's a safe in the first section of the town. It safe you need the key to open it. What's the deal with that safe? I never found any key and I went over that area pretty well.

I think the combination was on a note in one of the houses in that same area. The notes usually are somewhere in the same area as the safes

 

[deim0s]

Damn I wish I found out about the new game plus trick sooner.

What trick?

 

[djplaeskool]

Wow, that's the fastest time I've seen, did you skip cutscenes and not explore too much? I thought I was fast with my ~15 hours

Watched all the cutscenes fully. Explored what I thought was a fair bit (though admittedly, I tend to do as I'm told), Normal difficulty. Once I learned that running away and regaining my bearings isn't a bad idea sometimes, combat ran at a much more even clip.

 

[chickdigger802]

Got a few questions:

1. How does melee 'work'? I don't feel like i have a grasp over if my melee combo will land first or the enemies'. is it random? Is there any defense moves or techniques to do when im getting pumbled? How come sometimes a 'grab' prompt happens? Other times I shove... hmmm...

2. Can i unequip my melee weapon? I like saving my upgraded weapon for like clickers, and fist against other folks?

3. what really are the pros cons of brick vs bottle?


ty!

 

[abrack08]

Got a few questions:

1. How does melee 'work'? I don't feel like i have a grasp over if my melee combo will land first or the enemies'. is it random? Is there any defense moves or techniques to do when im getting pumbled? How come sometimes a 'grab' prompt happens? Other times I shove... hmmm...

2. Can i unequip my melee weapon? I like saving my upgraded weapon for like clickers, and fist against other folks?

3. what really are the pros cons of brick vs bottle?


ty!

1. No defense/block that I'm aware of. I think it's just a matter of who starts to hit the other person first. Maybe there's a little randomness thrown in. You can "grab" people after beating them down a bit so that you can curb stomp their face without using your melee weapon (or use them as a shield I think? I never actually did it). I never shoved anyone, not sure what that's about.

2. If there's a way to drop your weapon or use your fists instead, I never found it. I don't THINK you can.

3. #TeamBrick

 

[GulAtiCa]

Now 92% done with Survival mode. Should complete it tonight hopefully.

Not sure if I'll do a 3rd playthrough so soon, but I think I'll do a Easy NG+ playthrough for the fun of it as well as to make things different and do a Survival NG+ later down the road.

 

[sometimes i game]

I love Ellies comments. Whether it's a serious danger response, or her going bam bam bam to herself while Joel is doing something, she definitely gets better as the game goes on.

That's sort of the philosophy for every aspect of this game. You may have to wait for 55% but it does get great.

Just got to winter. This game just became Tomb Raider :lol

I'll probably finish the rest of it tonight. Less humans more infected please.

Haha yeah same reminder for me.

 

[LightofRohan]

Sorry, this discussion was from a few pages back...

Man, people still say Ellen Paige should play Ellie if there was a movie? She don't look like this no more:

This is her...

It's like the people that IMPLORE that Nathan Fillion should play Drake. I agree... 10 years ago.

Now...? Maybe drakes dad?

Drake is James Roday every day, all day.

Looks just like him, acts just like him and even does the Nathan Drake yell. Sorry... I digress...

 

[blainethemono]

Got a few questions:

1. How does melee 'work'? I don't feel like i have a grasp over if my melee combo will land first or the enemies'. is it random? Is there any defense moves or techniques to do when im getting pumbled? How come sometimes a 'grab' prompt happens? Other times I shove... hmmm...

2. Can i unequip my melee weapon? I like saving my upgraded weapon for like clickers, and fist against other folks?

3. what really are the pros cons of brick vs bottle?


ty!

Bricks stun enemies and you can use them as a single-use melee weapon, not sure about bottles since I never actually tried to throw one at an enemy, but they maybe make more noise/attract enemies from a wider area? Don't think this was ever actually explained in-game. Brick + Melee weapon is a good combo too, instant kills most stuff I think

 

[Hawkian]

Got a few questions:

1. How does melee 'work'? I don't feel like i have a grasp over if my melee combo will land first or the enemies'. is it random? Is there any defense moves or techniques to do when im getting pumbled? How come sometimes a 'grab' prompt happens? Other times I shove... hmmm...

First off, be aware that there are running melee attacks and they are fucking awesome. Second of all, melee priority is pretty natural.. you'll just come to understand the timing as you play. You can use the environment (walls, tables, doors) to your advantage by meleeing enemies "toward" them. The grab prompt occurs anytime you're facing an enemy's back, which will sometimes occur as you land a couple blows in melee and they're facing the ground. At these moments you can also pull out your gun for a instant headshot (you'll be targeting the head immediately), or you can go for the grab. However, some fiesty enemies will throw off you grab so it'll just be a shove.

2. Can i unequip my melee weapon? I like saving my upgraded weapon for like clickers, and fist against other folks?

Nope, it's all or nothing

3. what really are the pros cons of brick vs bottle?

Bricks hurt more, bottles make more noise. I'm on #TeamBottle because more often I was using the throwables to lure enemies into planned traps or headshots, or just distract them to get a clear path to the exit, than for offense.

 

[Hung Wei Lo]

What bugs did people experience? The only bug I experienced was the very last fight one of the enemies kept running back and forth between bits of cover

I did a running baseball bat swing a knocked a guy right through the roof /wishing for PS4 share feature

New game + question - I thought I did a good job finding everything but only ended up with 111 items...will I have to scour for everything again, or will only the items that I didn't find be there?

 

[StunandStab]

That fine.

Really don't know how you disagree with the game trivializing death though. Dying in this game means nothing, the most you lose is 1 minute or less of gameplay due to the rampant autosaving. There's no tension because there's nothing at stake to lose.


If the game had traditional save points and no autosaving, it would've been a much better experience.

This is not always the case. I once shot the last enemy in an encounter in the head and got hit with a molotav at that exact moment, losing a whole bunch of health. Instead of picking up loot from the downed enemies, I immediately (without thinking) pressed start and went to restart encounter because I wanted to redo the encounter without losing health. Unfortunately, since I had killed all the enemies, the autosave had kicked in and I was unable to go back to the start of the encounter, AND all the loot was gone.

So, I lost a whole bunch of stuff thanks to the damn autosave system, haha.

I totally see what you're getting at, though. I think this game expects you to die a lot with there being enemies that can 1 hit kill you all over the place and everything.

 

[BloodMoney]

Damn I wish I found out about the new game plus trick sooner.

wait what? What is Game+

 

[StunandStab]

What trick?

I assume he means this one:

http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/last-us/201752-all-difficulty-trophies-2-playthroughs.html