Just finished it myself. Had to speed through it a bit since I had it rented through Redbox and every day I kept it was an extra $2, so I beat it in three days. Normal mode.
Combat is fun, but the game gets hell of easy around the middle point, especially since the AI is so abuseable. They always react to bottles/bricks the same way, and the game has tons of them. At one point I was able to create a little death corridor at an area with five or so bottles. One guy wanders over, gets a bottle to the face and then gets stun killed. Other guy walks over to investigate dead body, bottle to the face, stun kill, then repeat with the next guy. Managed to clear out an area that way. Most of the combat was fun though.
Graphics...everything is well designed and put together, but the massive aliasing, notable framerate drops and blurry textures kinda took me out of it. Character models look good though.
One thing that really stood out to me with the acting is that it felt like Troy Baker forgot that his character was supposed to have a Texas accent at times, so he would try to overcompensate other times to make up for it.
The banter between Joel and Ellie is one of the most impressive things about the game. Its strange how much it grounds you into believing in their relationship.
The banter between Joel and Ellie is one of the most impressive things about the game. Its strange how much it grounds you into believing in their relationship.
Absolutely, and that is something that is consistent throughout the entire experience. Seeing her react and respond to other characters is equally great.
One of my favorite sections in the game for this and many other reasons is
exploring the neighborhood outside of the sewers.
The way they turn you loose to look through all of the abandoned houses is fantastic, and along the way you gain a massive appreciation for ND's artists and designers. There is so much incredible detail in this game, and every room of every house is thought out completely. And while you are exploring you get those great moments of dialogues between Joel and Ellie, or the other characters stepping in to add comments. It manages to make what would seemingly be a boring section so incredibly engaging because of the way it's paced and designed.
Also, the scene where
Sam gets infected and Henry kills himself is one of the most powerful in the entire game. The anguish in Henry's face, Joel's recoil after the shot and the instant and harsh cut to black with the solemn guitar notes just hits so, so hard.
My hype level for this game was so high, but somehow it collapsed in the days before the release. I still haven't bought The Last of Us and I'm not sure if I ever will.
Absolutely, and that is something that is consistent throughout the entire experience. Seeing her react and respond to other characters is equally great.
One of my favorite sections in the game for this and many other reasons is
exploring the neighborhood outside of the sewers.
The way they turn you loose to look through all of the abandoned houses is fantastic, and along the way you gain a massive appreciation for ND's artists and designers. There is so much incredible detail in this game, and every room of every house is thought out completely. And while you are exploring you get those great moments of dialogues between Joel and Ellie, or the other characters stepping in to add comments. It manages to make what would seemingly be a boring section so incredibly engaging because of the way it's paced and designed.
Also, the scene where
Sam gets infected and Henry kills himself is one of the most powerful in the entire game. The anguish in Henry's face, Joel's recoil after the shot and the instant and harsh cut to black with the solemn guitar notes just hits so, so hard.
Yeah I couldn't agree more with all of that. I constantly found myself in awe at ND's ability to create a game like this in 3-4 years. There is so many nuances and small details that lend to magic of the whole experience that it seems like a superhuman amount of work.
The best compliment I think I can give the game is the first couple of hours your amazed by dialogue, delivery, character animation and faces. After a couple hours though that all melts away and it just becomes Joel and Ellie and you let yourself get attached to these characters and think about them as whole individuals as you would a book where you spend countless hours inside the mind of one person.
S¡mon;70182271 said:
My hype level for this game was so high, but somehow it collapsed in the days before the release. I still haven't bought The Last of Us and I'm not sure if I ever will.
My hype level for this game was so high, but somehow it collapsed in the days before the release. I still haven't bought The Last of Us and I'm not sure if I ever will.
I get what he's saying, but it doesn't make it any less fun. There's definitely a point where you've "seen it all" and learn how to best manage the AI like any other stealth game. Still had plenty of sticky situations solved by some last minute improv.
Yeah I couldn't agree more with all of that. I constantly found myself in awe at ND's ability to create a game like this in 3-4 years. There is so many nuances and small details that lend to magic of the whole experience that it seems like a superhuman amount of work.
The best compliment I think I can give the game is the first couple of hours your amazed by dialogue, delivery, character animation and faces. After a couple hours though that all melts away and it just becomes Joel and Ellie and you let yourself get attached to these characters and think about them as whole individuals as you would a book where you spend countless hours inside the mind of one person.
Absolutely. The length of the game works perfectly to establish that connection with the characters. There is never a wasted moment, and everything is put into building Joel and Ellie, their relationship, and how they feel and think. It's exactly like reading a book, and that connection to the characters is something no other game has been able to do as successfully as The Last of Us. That, of course, is what makes those incredible story moments that much more impactful.
S¡mon;70182271 said:
My hype level for this game was so high, but somehow it collapsed in the days before the release. I still haven't bought The Last of Us and I'm not sure if I ever will.
I get what he's saying, but it doesn't make it any less fun. There's definitely a point where you've "seen it all" and learn how to best manage the AI like any other stealth game. Still had plenty of sticky situations solved by some last minute improv.
Yeah good point. I think the improv is really what makes it great. Normally I restart sections I fail the stealth on but I never felt compelled to do that here. You have enough tactical options at your disposal to deal with pretty much any situation efficiently if you think it through.
Yeah good point. I think the improv is really what makes it great. Normally I restart sections I fail the stealth on but I never felt compelled to do that here. You have enough tactical options at your disposal to deal with pretty much any situation efficiently if you think it through.
Started playing yesterday and just got to the point where
Ellie and Henry get separated from Joel and the other kid.
. The area immediately after when that takes place is really hard! I am stuck on it now and keep getting mashed.
I am stunned by how impressive the story telling, characters and gameplay fits together in this game. ND did amazing things with Uncharted, but this has genuinely moved story telling on, it really is fantastic stuff.
For me, this game plays just how I would of liked Uncharted to play when looking at combat and enemy encounters. Real stealth options, no bullet sponge enemies, allowing specific strategy to complete an area. I know they're different games but.. well I guess that's that really Uncharted is still rad.
The game has many, many scary moments where you are just waiting for the right moment to strike, or evade an enemy. The game does a really good job of keeping you tense, and the music is very well placed too to add atmosphere to those sections. Weapon crafting and upgrades seems good, and I do like the way that the game doesn't pause whilst dealing with inventory stuff. Hurray for non-recovering health too. I wonder if any of that will make it over to the inevitable Uncharted PS4? Also, the starting sequence? FUCK ME that was some powerful shit.
One thing I noticed, was that within my 14 or so hours played I've only had one Trophy pop-up. Makes a change as they usually rain down.
So looking at the Trophies, I see it has NG+. Will I be able to play the game on Crushing or whatever with NG+ after this run (playing on Hard right now)? I've got some collectibles too. Sorry if it's already been answered, scared to look through in case of spoilers!
Ouch, you're a brave man hanging out in the spoiler thread before beating it!
I dunno if it's the strongest, but compared to ND's other offerings, and even things that are supposed to have strong narratives like the Bioshock series, it stands heads and shoulders above. It's as much the way it is told as the quality of the content, though. No detraction from the story we are given as it allows for a lot of reflection and interpretation, but I think multiple endings would have been amazing.
Just finished my second run on survivor. It was much easier, just because I have experience playing. NOTE: I did the glitch that let's you pick survivor + on only the second playthrough and all the right trophies clicked. The biggest problem I had was having enough shivs for all of the doors.
Still great the second time. I still didn't get enough meds or parts to max out Joel or his guns so I guess I'm going for one more run.
Ouch, you're a brave man hanging out in the spoiler thread before beating it!
I dunno if it's the strongest, but compared to ND's other offerings, and even things that are supposed to have strong narratives like the Bioshock series, it stands heads and shoulders above. It's as much the way it is told as the quality of the content, though. No detraction from the story we are given as it allows for a lot of reflection and interpretation, but I think multiple endings would have been amazing.
No. No. No no no no. Multiple endings would have been absolutely horrible. It would have gone against everything the game so perfectly established about these characters, and would have made it a game about you, the player, instead of Joel as a character. The Last of Us is the story of Joel and Ellie, and the ending is a perfect representation and culmination of their respective characters.
So, strongly disagree with you here haha but I'm open to discussion.
The game was not designed for listen mode in mind. It never feels unfair without it.
Though I've seen people who do use listen mode lean on it to the point where they develop habits that I wouldn't even dare think about during my playthrough.
Edit: IIRC, they added it in around the January Alpha preview build. Before then, they had a lean mechanic seen in the PAX Prime demo which I wished they at least gave you an option to use.
The game was not designed for listen mode in mind. It never feels unfair without it.
Though I've seen people who do use listen mode lean on it to the point where they develop habits that I wouldn't even dare think about during my playthrough.
You need to approach it very, very differently with and without listen mode. The good thing without is that you'll get a more holistic approach to all areas. You'll take some more time to assess the situation, but once you have, you feel more in control.
I'm really enjoying playing without it, but I still do feel that for it to be "real" with positional audio, I really should turn off the music, since I'd help me place where things are.
Finished this today(in about 12 hours) and the game is a fucking Masterpiece. Outside of the wonky combat in certain areas the game is pretty close to perfect.
I hope Naughty Dog doesn't do a sequel and leaves the ending to interpretation but I doubt that will happen :/
Listen Mode is truly worthless and is born of a age of gamer that needs things spoonfed to them the reason I find it so offensive is the system ND have built to give you a sense of your surroundings is much better handled than any other game. LOUS uses your .AI partner and audio cues to perfect effect.
If I was about to go around a corner that was exposing me to a enemys line of sight Ellie would either say "Joel RIGHT!" or I would get the whoooph noise. You get so good at it that you can effectively fight people blind because you know the second your in the open. The best part about it is you are completely engaged the whole time with a guy you are stalking or avoiding. Turning on Listen Mode completely negates all of that.
Well its completely different. I adore Infinite and love the twist but I didn't care for the characters like I did in TLoU. The ending is pretty perfect I think.
I'd rather stealth and in the first encounter with multiple infected, I died 10 times so I put it on Normal.
I'll definitely bring it back up to Hard if I feel it gets easy, I do like a challenge.
An ending doesn't need to be a mind fuck to be good. The Last of Us in my opinion had a perfect ending that felt real and true to the story/world/characters, and after such an incredible journey to get there was so much more impactful than Infinite's. And that is being said as a huge fan of Infinite as well.
Finished the game on hard. About 34 hours for the entire run with 100 collectibles. I took my time exploring every thing.
Beginning of winter was the only spot that gave me trouble.
I felt the ending sections dragged on a bit.
After David dies, I thought that was the end of the game. But when the save file said only 90% complete, I felt I just needed to see the end of story. About 1/2 hour later, I was glad that game didn't end. Encounters in the subway/tunnel sections were amazing.
I had imagined a different ending. I thought Joel would become infected and Ellie would have to shoot him. But this ending was OK too.
The narration in the game beats everything that I have played so far, ever. Easily one of the best games in this generation.
Also, I game only on weekends. My weekend ended with Joel getting impaled. I had to wait for a depressing couple of days not knowing if he would be ok. I was thinking the writers must have taken inspiration from Season 3, Game of thrones.
Just finished the game a few minutes ago. This is my favorite single player campaign ever. I have no idea whether I'll devote any time to the multi-player, but it doesn't matter. There are not enough superlatives to accurately describe the game.
All that being said, I don't need another game in the "Last of Us" universe. I think this is a single use story.
Had a real glitchy play session today where I had to redo the entire
Hotel
section. During it, I had a ladder that needed me to progress disappear, and enemies just start to stand still. Quit out to the main menu and saw that it didn't even register the section I played as "Completed on Survivor" so I had to restart.
During this, it made me realize that the save and checkpointing system is really suspect. Might be a limitation of the engine as the Ucharted games weren't really built for this, but reloading a manual save might keep track of certain progress such as your ammo, health and supplies, but it sometimes resets enemy spawning, usually having human enemies stand perfectly still if you didn't finish clearing out the area; sometimes having to replay scripted sections such as
the rats moving running away at the start of the hotel basement section, even though the game remembers you have the key card and saves all the ammo you used up against the stalkers - who also happen to respawn.
Fix this shit, ND. I want PC like save states when I manually save, not this half checkpoint, half progression stuff.
Yeah the saves aren't manual but still utilize the checkpoint system. I never had a issue with the checkpoint though. If it was a long section of enemies it just added to the tension. Instant saves breaks that immersion.
I just finished my new game plus playthrough and it was glitchy as hell. I had to restart at one point because I door I had to open didn't give me the triangle prompt. I had another where enemies kept disappearing and reappearing
I had more fun with the second playthrough however, I was less conservative with my resources. Nail bombs and Molotov's for everyone!
Missed a shiv door and finished 100 parts away from having every weapon maxed. Should have upgraded the bow or pistol last so I could get that trophy at the first work bench of a third playthrough instead of having get 3/4 through the game where I finally get the last weapon I need to upgrade.
Just finished it myself. Had to speed through it a bit since I had it rented through Redbox and every day I kept it was an extra $2, so I beat it in three days. Normal mode.
Combat is fun, but the game gets hell of easy around the middle point, especially since the AI is so abuseable. They always react to bottles/bricks the same way, and the game has tons of them. At one point I was able to create a little death corridor at an area with five or so bottles. One guy wanders over, gets a bottle to the face and then gets stun killed. Other guy walks over to investigate dead body, bottle to the face, stun kill, then repeat with the next guy. Managed to clear out an area that way. Most of the combat was fun though.
Graphics...everything is well designed and put together, but the massive aliasing, notable framerate drops and blurry textures kinda took me out of it. Character models look good though.
One thing that really stood out to me with the acting is that it felt like Troy Baker forgot that his character was supposed to have a Texas accent at times, so he would try to overcompensate other times to make up for it.
yeah, the supplies around are too many (except for Survivor) making the game a bit easy. The only part that made me use most of them was the last part.
It's too bad you have to beat the game to unlock survivor. Survivor is the way TLoU is meant to be played. Wish I could have done my first play through on it.
It's too bad you have to beat the game to unlock survivor. Survivor is the way TLoU is meant to be played. Wish I could have done my first play through on it.
I was lucky in that my boyfriend played through the game first on Easy (switched to Normal mid-way through), so for my first playthrough Survivor was unlocked.
Had a great time. Some areas are absolutely punishing though.
Survivor is also unfortunate in that it really highlights the glitches of the game in certain places.
I don't know. It just... collapsed. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I thought: I am going to keep that 60 and I am going to use it for the PS4 Eye or an extra DualShock 4 controller. I'll just have to play it some day through PS+.
yeah, the supplies around are too many (except for Survivor) making the game a bit easy. The only part that made me use most of them was the last part.
I don't know. It just... collapsed. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I thought: I am going to keep that 60 and I am going to use it for the PS4 Eye or an extra DualShock 4 controller. I'll just have to play it some day through PS+.
I don't know. It just... collapsed. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I thought: I am going to keep that 60 and I am going to use it for the PS4 Eye or an extra DualShock 4 controller. I'll just have to play it some day through PS+.
