The story is an acquired taste though I personally like it but the gameplay and combat is the best ND has done. It is so visceral and brutal. It feels like a fight for survival in a dangerous world. I saw a review by a guy who went in determined to hate it and while he still dislikes the story even he had to admit the gameplay was top notch. They stepped up their game big time on that front.
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The Last of Us Pt II |OT| Oh Ellie...I think they should be terrified of you
Nankatsu
Member
So damn this.
I just went to a benchwork and got jumped out of nowhere. 5 vs 1, I was literally fighting for my life.
Each encounter feels so damn unique.
Rac3r
Member
Just completed it today.
The way the plot unfolds is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a video game. Not much I can say about the gameplay/combat that others haven’t already said. Easily a top 5 game of the gen for me.
That said, shit was depressing. Ghost of Tsushima will be a nice change of pace.
The way the plot unfolds is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a video game. Not much I can say about the gameplay/combat that others haven’t already said. Easily a top 5 game of the gen for me.
That said, shit was depressing. Ghost of Tsushima will be a nice change of pace.
Tchu-Espresso
likes mayo on everthing and can't dance
Just finished the game.
Enthralling game. So tense and enjoyable all the way through.
Well done Naughty Dog.
Enthralling game. So tense and enjoyable all the way through.
Well done Naughty Dog.
Keihart
Member
i LOVE the AI of Stalkers.When you find stalkers and listen mode isn't there to help you:
They usually hide or try to flank you. If you look in their direction from affar they try not to move.
If you run they'll try to swarm you.
They fuck you up in groups but you can take them out easy 1v1 with melee.
good shit.
HellforLeather
Member
What is the deal with the sound settings in this game (and even TLOU Remastered). I have a 5.1 surround system but when I go into the sound options to configure it, it only shows a 2 channel system under this setting. Anyone else having issues with this? This is the only game that I have this problem in.
Maybe your system and the PS4 are not properly synced up. I use PS4 platinum headphones and it detects 3D audio just fine.
jbortz78
Member
Finished the game yesterday and I really loved it. For me it’s a 9,5/10. First half 10/10 and second half 9/10.
Such awesome gameplay and attention to details. And the sound, especially with headphones or a good sound system really makes you feel like you’re there!
Also love all the different environments/settings inte game, never gets boring.
Sure story is nothing special but it works for me same as I enjoy revenge flicks.
Really glad I didn’t listen to all the haters who infects every thread with agenda this, Abby sucks etc. Can’t wait to replay the game after Ghosts of T.
Such awesome gameplay and attention to details. And the sound, especially with headphones or a good sound system really makes you feel like you’re there!
Also love all the different environments/settings inte game, never gets boring.
Sure story is nothing special but it works for me same as I enjoy revenge flicks.
Really glad I didn’t listen to all the haters who infects every thread with agenda this, Abby sucks etc. Can’t wait to replay the game after Ghosts of T.
GymWolf
Gold Member
They are basically the enemies from dead space 2 who stay hide, then charge at you and then go hide again.
Explosive Zombie
Banned
Fuck those things in that game.
Slothbeing1209
Member
Btw it seems people never found the note on jackson(or they don't know how to read) that says that they are trying to become more "trusty" they want to start trusting people more like before the apocalypse started, that is why Tommy introduced themselves to Abby's group and then they called it plot hole lol
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Keihart
Member
it's the note related to the kids dead in the hotel.
It's no spelled out for you. but it basically explain why the kids are dead, people who grew on Jackson had it so good that they were not prepared to live outside of it, those kids didn't last a week outside and they wanted to help the world.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Nankatsu
Member
Starting what I think it is the second part of the game:
Who would have thought that the doctor you killed as Joel in the surgery room, during Part 1 finale, would end up being Abby's father.
Until this point I always thought Abby was after Joel for rescuing Ellie and preventing the cure, but it's way more personal than that. Cool.
Until this point I always thought Abby was after Joel for rescuing Ellie and preventing the cure, but it's way more personal than that. Cool.
bishopcruz
Member
I read that note. And I could but it for someone who lived in Jackson, but Joel and Tommy? Hell no. Come on, at some point during the time there David's crew attacked the man and they were out for blood. They were on the lookout for hunters as well as infected. They have likely dealt with hunters at least a few time a year, and Tommy was pretty hardcore as of four years ago when Jackson was already a going concern. Not to mention the game says that there are group patrols team patrols and others so they have their own militia essentially. It strains credulity a bit to assume that Joel and Tommy would be that soft. It's not the worst part of the game by a long shot, but it bothers enough people that it really should have been handled a different way at the very least.
It is likely handled this way due to the fact that most of Jackson was cut at some point, which meant that a whole lot had to be done in a very short period of time. The intro especially is like several random cutscenes sewn together missing most of their connective tissue.
Keihart
Member
As it is, i think it's explained enough without recurring to exposition of it, you have the context that jackson it's safe and they manage to deal with a couple hunters that attack without problem now. You get the back story that they patrol the surroundings and that they even have favorite routes, being their favorite route, that exact route.
You also get Joel having hobbies and a house now. You see kids growing up without worries inside Jackson so people like Joel, Ellie or Thommy are probably the ones most exposed to this kinda of trouble but even then, they seem pretty chill about it.
I think all of this makes sense, people can't live in survival mode 24/7 and in the situation they find Abby, they don't have much choice. (which is bad luck, but common, it makes as much sense as it should, we have logical explanation as to how Abby tracks them and how they even get in this proble, seasonal hordes, favorite route, etc)
Remember this, Tommy presents themselves, without last name before arriving to the cabin to Abby, Tommy obviously does it triying to inspire trust in Abby.
Second point is that Joel isn't even fond of going to the cabin but Tommy convinces him that it's either that or death by infected.
Abby it is conflicted for a moment or 2 before going all John Wick on Joel too, but she quickly pulls her shit together and comes up with the plan of taking them to the cabin.
And in the moment that Tommy presents himself and Joel to the group, not even the group knew who they were, so the whole situation isn't even something to be suspect about, but since Abby has other plans everything shifts in a second.
I also think that it often gets ignored, how efficient the flashbacks are in context. Without the story starting as it does you wouldn't be missing Joel and even then, every time the game thinks that you might be forgetting about Joel, bam! flashback so you don't dare forget about him. The game kinda thrives in making you feel loss during Ellies half i think. I kinda went off track, but since we were on the topic...
bishopcruz
Member
I think the flashbacks are probably the part of the structure that causes the most problems. But the timeline issues I am talking about have to do with the cuts between Ellie and Abby in the intro which actually screw with the timeline for no reason other than to create a sense of tension that isn't needed at that point. As for Joel and Tommy, I think them being in a life or death mode makes it less likely that they would make the mistake. But I have less issues with the name thing and more issues with them walking in a basement room with no exits, unarmed for no real reason. Again this reeks of a more intricate Jackson scenario that was cut down to make the minigolf happen a lot earlier.
Keihart
Member
there could be cut content, i don'd doubt it.
I think it went swiftly tho.
Joel even keeps his badassnes until the end, he doesn't take shit, he knows whats happening.
But again, no one, and i mean no one but Abby in that room, knew what was happening until a couple of seconds before the shotgun. It was not an ambush.
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angrod14
Member
I'm about to complete my second playthrough.
The production values of this game are so above every other one I've played that is kind of ridiculous, tbh. This shit is Library of Congress material. The opening section was so visually striking I could not believe I was going through it, and that is something I haven't felt since a very long time.
Strong RE4 vibes from this one, and that screams greatness. There's a particular miniboss fight I won't go into details about, but you know which one is it. Jesus, it was so unbelievably AWESOME. The atmosphere, the dread, the suspense, the enemy reveal and the climatic fight. KICKED MAJOR ASS, BABY. That whole section also reminded me of John Carpenter's The Thing.
Gameplay is incredibly tight, with the right balance in terms of realism (unlike RDR2, which tries to be a western simulator at the expense of providing actual fun). Everything has been refined and improved, with just the necessary amount of new mechanics being added to make things feel fresh. The sense of progression throughout the game is also remarkable, and gun-upgrading animations are a highlight.
I found the story super engaging across the whole journey up until the very end, which left me quite disappointed and just plain bitter. Everything felt really pointless in the epilogue. They took so many huge risks and made incredible sacrifices to end up telling THIS?
It's certainly not a bad story, but I can't stop thinking about how many better paths they could've taken with such an amazing world and characters, even with a safe approach. Abby was my absolute favorite, a badass motherfucker.
Feel bad for the streamers who straight up started playing this with a negative mindset, and were never able to leave it aside. Their loss, I guess. For all its narrative shortcomings, I can't deny this game gave me the very best moments of the gen.
The production values of this game are so above every other one I've played that is kind of ridiculous, tbh. This shit is Library of Congress material. The opening section was so visually striking I could not believe I was going through it, and that is something I haven't felt since a very long time.
Strong RE4 vibes from this one, and that screams greatness. There's a particular miniboss fight I won't go into details about, but you know which one is it. Jesus, it was so unbelievably AWESOME. The atmosphere, the dread, the suspense, the enemy reveal and the climatic fight. KICKED MAJOR ASS, BABY. That whole section also reminded me of John Carpenter's The Thing.
Gameplay is incredibly tight, with the right balance in terms of realism (unlike RDR2, which tries to be a western simulator at the expense of providing actual fun). Everything has been refined and improved, with just the necessary amount of new mechanics being added to make things feel fresh. The sense of progression throughout the game is also remarkable, and gun-upgrading animations are a highlight.
I found the story super engaging across the whole journey up until the very end, which left me quite disappointed and just plain bitter. Everything felt really pointless in the epilogue. They took so many huge risks and made incredible sacrifices to end up telling THIS?
It's certainly not a bad story, but I can't stop thinking about how many better paths they could've taken with such an amazing world and characters, even with a safe approach. Abby was my absolute favorite, a badass motherfucker.
Feel bad for the streamers who straight up started playing this with a negative mindset, and were never able to leave it aside. Their loss, I guess. For all its narrative shortcomings, I can't deny this game gave me the very best moments of the gen.
bishopcruz
Member
I was also going to say it was the first use of "SOMETHING COMES FROM OFF CAMERA TO SHOCK" but nope, I think that was Joel.
NYR
Member
I loved the game but that seems pretty important and shouldn’t be in a note. It is absolutely a plot hole.
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Explosive Zombie
Banned
"It is absolutely a plot hole" said the person unsure of what a plot hole truly is, was it characters behaving SLIGHTLY differently 5 years since you last saw them and under different circumstances? PLOT HOLE.
Geki-D
Banned
So a plot hole is actually something explained but you just personally missed? ....Okay. At several other points the game tells us that Jackson wants to be open to "refugees". One being when Dina & Ellie talk about the WLF trip mines, Ellie says they should set them up at Jackson but Dina says that they'd have to put up signs to warn refugees coming to Jackson so they don't get hurt.
I get that everyone loves to think of themselves as cool kid mini versions of Harry S Plinkett, counting off "plot sins", before leaning back in their lazy boy chair as they take a puff from a cigar and sip of whiskey on a silly amount of ice and say "Checkmate, Mr. Director!" But just so you know, not every plot point you don't understand, not every character decision you disagree with, not every plot contrivance, not every plot convenience, and even not every instance of a situation just not being directly explained is a plot hole.
A plot hole is an actual thing with a definition with an effect on the plot. You look really stupid when you call everything a plot hole, because you saw the word being thrown around by your favorite nitpicky, cynical Youtube reviewer.
Here's a video about why people's nerd rage fueled plot hole boners are dumb:
Anyway, Troy Baker had a talk with Neil Druckmann about the game:
nowhat
Gold Member
TLoU 2 only allows for sound outputs that your PS4 is capable of outputting. If you're using optical/HDMI ARC, make sure your audio output is set to either Dolby or DTS (in the console settings).
farmerboy
Member
Keihart
Member
At eleven minutes i think Neil lands an important point in most of the nipciks you hear about the story. They don't spoon feed you the information about some character developments, but it's there if you are paying attention. So when people checked out after Joel's Death or the Swicheroo, you are gonna have a looot of people not understanding shit after that moment.
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
Yeah, most nitipicks are in fact covered in the script if you bother to listen. Been saying for awhile now, the writers really put the work in to ensure character/motivations are nailed down.
Its very apparent on a second playthrough as with not having to be concerned with what's going to happen next, its a lot more comfortable just to soak in the details.
Eiknarf
Banned
Quick question speaking of sound
In TLOU Remastered the sound of the flashlight came out of the ps4 controller (when you shake it to charge it up). But in TLOU2 I didn’t hear any sound come out of the controller
Why?
bishopcruz
Member
Yeah, thing is that's something as a writer you need to know and prepare for. Druckman is putting the blame on people being checked out of the story on the audience and not on himself. One he can say he put the work in all he wants; if you lose people after the golf game that means you didn't do a good enough job of making it feel like something that SHOULD have happened due to the events and the world he created. You can sell people on pretty much anything, so long as you do the legwork for it, and if you are telling a story that plays with expectations and narrative structure like this one does, it's on him to keep people who would want to check out engaged.
And when Baker talks about never spoonfeeding the audience I had to laugh because so much of the game is spoonfeeding, but generally speaking not the parts where it is needed. Just after that Baker mentions how the ending works on its own, and I actually agree. I think the ending is the best part of the game taken as a whole, but the problem is the ending is so disconnected from the rest of the events in many ways you could remove Ellie's Seattle entirely and it would play out almost identically. You can't just handwave all the difficult character work with a line and a time skip, and I LIKE time skips, but they are often a place where you can lose the audience unless there is a strong lead-in and a strong follow up to previous events. Compare any one of the time skips in TLoU 1 they each happen after a major event that affects the players, each one continues the same relationships that we saw from before, and the story follows up directly from there.
So I don't blame anyone for not engaging with the Santa Barbara scenario as a result.
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
The audience is not a singular monolith, I didn't "check out" and neither did a lot of people. Meaning the real question is why did some people react badly whilst other's didn't.
In this case I think a lot of the reasons behind that are/were down to things outside of the fiction. Some being just inflexibly minded "fans" who can't accept that TLOU is about more than Joel, some who saw this creative choice as a sign of a leftist ideological conspiracy, others angry with ND generally for one of the many pre-release controversies and so forth.
The bottom line though is that TLOU2 deliberately and knowingly is not a crowd pleasing franchise builder. It really isn't going to play well with everyone, but that in no way impacts its legitimacy as a piece of work.
bishopcruz
Member
Ok.
Eiknarf
Banned
Say what you want about the game. You love it. You hate it...etc
You’re entitled to your opinion
But there’s something different about TLOU2
There are bad games, good games, and great games. But they’re all just games. TLOU2 feels like it’s in a place all by itself. Like it’s more than just a game. It’s more of an event. An epic “THING” no matter if you love it or hate it
You’re entitled to your opinion
But there’s something different about TLOU2
There are bad games, good games, and great games. But they’re all just games. TLOU2 feels like it’s in a place all by itself. Like it’s more than just a game. It’s more of an event. An epic “THING” no matter if you love it or hate it
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Vow of Silence
Banned
Playing this at the moment on a borrowed PS4, currently in Seattle making my way towards some tv station.
The ambient dialogue writing, tone and acting between Ellie and Dina is so fucking affected and serious it’s getting on my tits.
“Hey” they intone profoundly as if reciting Shakespeare, followed by some banal prattle about fireflies or wolves or whatever.
Also I can’t get beyond the sheer unrealism of two slight young girls tearing through armies of zombies and militants, lifting up massive metal garage doors and helping each other up sheer walls one handed.
It’s silly. TLOU had Joel who was rock fucking hard looking after a young girl. TLOU 2 presents as very serious but it has an inherent unbelievability that is just jarring.
The ambient dialogue writing, tone and acting between Ellie and Dina is so fucking affected and serious it’s getting on my tits.
“Hey” they intone profoundly as if reciting Shakespeare, followed by some banal prattle about fireflies or wolves or whatever.
Also I can’t get beyond the sheer unrealism of two slight young girls tearing through armies of zombies and militants, lifting up massive metal garage doors and helping each other up sheer walls one handed.
It’s silly. TLOU had Joel who was rock fucking hard looking after a young girl. TLOU 2 presents as very serious but it has an inherent unbelievability that is just jarring.
BluRayHiDef
Banned
My younger sister is about 5'2" and weighs 122 pounds; I'm 5'9 and weigh 159 pounds. She can lift me up and even carry me on her back for prolonged periods of time, which surprised me. So, I don't disbelieve that Ellie and Dina can lift garage doors and help each other sheer walls one handed, especially considering that back in Jackson they routinely did patrols and subsequently engaged in strenuous activities.
Vow of Silence
Banned
Can your sister tear through armies of zombies and militants?
BluRayHiDef
Banned
Explosive Zombie
Banned
Vow of Silence
Banned
Joel Miller RIP.
BluRayHiDef
Banned
He wouldn't be able to do so either. If Joel and Ellie and the world of The Last of Us were real, Joel and Ellie wouldn't have made it to the Fireflies' hospital in the first game. I reckon that they would have died very soon after beginning their journey.
This isn't an issue, however, because The Last of Us (both games) are about the emotional and psychological aspects of human interactions; the world that the characters inhabit is simply a context via which these two subjects can be explored.
Vow of Silence
Banned
It is an issue because it makes the interactions less believable, it's one of a number of aspects of the game betraying the agenda that sticks out like a broken bone and ideological art is always shit. And the dialogue is ham fisted self-serious shit a lot of the time.
On a scale of believability Joel is much more believable than Ellie and Dina at being able to physically dominate large numbers of enemies. I am not enjoying the gameplay as much as 1, I see a lot of people saying it's better than 1 but it doesn't feel right to me. The screen judder on turning is really bad too, doesn't feel like a smooth 30fps at all.