So I finished the game on Hard having never played The Last of Us before and having been on a media blackout since media first started circulating for the original PS3 version.
My random impressions/thoughts after my first play through:
This was a very solid effort by Naughty Dog but I honestly think Uncharted 2 was a better/funner game and succeeded at what it was trying to do (an action/adventure style game with a movie feel to it) better than what The Last of Us was attempting to do (post-apocalyptic survival type game with a movie feel).
My main issue with the game is there are so many things that take you out of the immersion. For example:
- you are sneaking through an area and Ellie will shout at the top of her lungs for no apparent reason
- The level design is very video-gamey and conflicts with the world they are trying to create. There are parts in the game (buildings or the landscapes) that are designed in such a way that they would never exist in the real world. I also felt that it holds the player's hand too much. You pretty much can never go in the wrong direction because everything is blocked off for no apparent reason. I would have liked for it to have been a little more open (especially in the cities/towns) and to allow players to take a wrong turn here or there. The Uncharted games also suffer from this but it really sticks out here for some reason. Its like you can forgive Uncharted because it doesn't take itself seriously and the level design sort of lends itself to the whimsy/adventure movie tone of the game but here it sticks out like a sore thumb.
- Why am I looking for an entrance to a building on the 2nd floor when the front door is made of glass and I have a gun? Meanwhile when the enemies assault the building they can walk in from the front door, no problem.
- The way you are constantly shown your destination off in the distance and you work your way towards it. I think it's fine to show it once but to constantly show it lets the player know "ok, this part is almost over". I think I would have rather been left in the dark as to my progress towards the goal as it makes things more exciting/unpredictable (to me).
- Joel's voice acting felt very inconsistent to me. I thought his delivery was fine, but (and this could be my imagination) it sounded as though Troy Baker couldn't make up his mind as to what part of the south Joel was from (or even if he was from the south at all). It makes we wonder if his part was recorded with weeks in between takes or something and he couldn't keep it consistent b/c he couldn't remember how he did it before.
- There are basically two types of puzzles in the game: move the ladder/plank or move the wooden palette. This gets old very fast. Even the characters remark at it saying things like "you know the drill get on this palette". There needed to be way more variety here. Why are there so many ladders, planks, and palettes lying around in the world?
Much has been said about the story/narrative being so good. I honestly didn't think it was anything special. Above average, yes, but not amazing.
I could go on but I don't think it would serve much of a purpose. I know that I'm nitpicking on some of these things and that The Last of Us is not alone when it comes to these issues but honestly for as much hype as this game got I expected more from it. Especially coming from Naughty Dog (Uncharted 2 is probably my favorite game from last gen). I certainly didn't expect have so many tired video game tropes/mechanics based on the hype.
What I liked about the game:
The entire Winter chapter. It easily felt like it was the most tightly designed, well done segment in the game. It was the only part in the game where I felt like everything fell into place and just clicked (story, gameplay, set pieces, etc) with nothing straggling behind. The game was firing on all cylinders here. If the entire game was as good as this chapter it might have passed Uncharted 2 for me.
I enjoyed playing the mercs and the infected against each other in Left Behind. Why the hell wasn't there more of this in the regular game?
The game runs very smoothly. Graphics are better than I was expecting for a PS3 port. I played without the 30fps lock turned on.
Final score: 7.5 or 8 out of 10 (for reference I would give Uncharted 2 a 9).
