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[Ominym]

The Last Of Us reviews come in - knives out for anyone who didn't give it 10/10

The Last Of Us finally comes out - knives out for those who gave it 10/10

Sigh

Lets take a moment and think about how terrible these kinds of people are. The kinds of people who will, before they've even played the game, say others who gave it less than satisfactory score have no idea what they're talking about.

If you think you can accurately rate a game for yourself before you've played it? You're a total idiot. This type of stuff happens way too often on GAF. Hype should not be a part of a review at any level. The game needs to live or die by its own merit, and that's it.

 

[GlamFM]

Lets take a moment and think about how terrible these kinds of people are. The kinds of people who will, before they've even played the game, say others who gave it less than satisfactory score have no idea what they're talking about.

If you think you can accurately rate a game for yourself before you've played it? You're a total idiot. This type of stuff happens way too often on GAF. Hype should not be a part of a review at any level. The game needs to live or die by its own merit, and that's it.

Bioshock is another recent example, a game that I suspect will be absent from a lot of GOTY lists by the end of the year...

Press is just as guilty.

 

[zoukka]

Oh, the checkpoints suck? That's too bad. I won't be rushing to play this.

Quite the opposite, the checkpoints are necessary because the encounters often consist of "trial & error" on hard and without listen mode at least. Would've gone crazy if I had to backtrack every time a random enemy noticed me for whatever reason and alerted all the enemies in the area.

Oh and riposte means that he doesn't like the fact that death does not punish the player in this game.

 

[nib95]

Last of Us will go down as a classic and slot in to many people's top 5 of all time. The reception on GAF has been amazingly positive. Can't count the number of times I've heard people call it game of the generation. It's basically this generations Resident Evil 4, only more ambitious and narratively poignant. But you can't please everyone, same goes for RE4 and Uncharted 2 (another popular favourite on GAF).

 

[Shinta]

Last of Us will go down as a classic and slot in to many people's top 5 of all time. The reception on GAF has been amazingly positive. Can't count the number of times I've heard people call it game of the generation. It's basically this generations Resident Evil 4, only more ambitious and narratively poignant.

 

[Interfectum]

Yeah I'm not seeing the backlash against TLoU.

It seems like this is a case of people wanting a backlash so badly they are artificially creating one.

 

[GlamFM]

Last of Us will go down as a classic and slot in to many people's top 5 of all time. The reception on GAF has been amazingly positive. Can't count the number of times I've heard people call it game of the generation. It's basically this generations Resident Evil 4, only more ambitious and narratively poignant. But you can't please everyone, same goes for RE4 and Uncharted 2 (another popular favourite on GAF).

Right! It´s the Citizen Kane of games after all....

 

[leng jai]

There's nothing been posted that warrants being labelled a universal backlash. Most complaints are around the fact it needs better hardware but other than that the praise has been glowing and relentless.

 

[nib95]

Yeah I'm not seeing the backlash against TLoU.

It seems like this is a case of people wanting a backlash so badly they are artificially creating one.

That's exactly what it is. There were a couple of vocally loud people bashing it, when the vast majority (95%) were spewing with adoration for the game. I actually quoted all the impressions from 3 pages from the LoU OP when reading this thread, and pretty much every single one was positive or glowing.

 

[zoukka]

Last of Us will go down as a classic and slot in to many people's top 5 of all time. The reception on GAF has been amazingly positive. Can't count the number of times I've heard people call it game of the generation. It's basically this generations Resident Evil 4, only more ambitious and narratively poignant. But you can't please everyone, same goes for RE4 and Uncharted 2 (another popular favourite on GAF).

It's better than the Uncharted games and it's the pinnacle of what ND wants to do with games. RE4 of the generation it is not I'm afraid, the gameplay is a bit too sloppy and the focus is too much in narrative rather than evolving gameplay like RE4 was. I'm loving the game now, but I can't see myself replaying it ever due to the level design and slow progression to the point where the encounters become interesting. RE4 has infinite replay value to me.

That's exactly what it is. There were a couple of vocally loud people bashing it, when the vast majority (95%) were spewing with adoration for the game. I actually quoted all the impressions from 3 pages from the LoU OP when reading this thread, and pretty much every single one was positive or glowing.

The backlash comes from people who thought the basic gameplay premise would differ from uncharted more than it does.

 

[The Albatross]

Lets take a moment and think about how terrible these kinds of people are. The kinds of people who will, before they've even played the game, say others who gave it less than satisfactory score have no idea what they're talking about.

If you think you can accurately rate a game for yourself before you've played it? You're a total idiot. This type of stuff happens way too often on GAF. Hype should not be a part of a review at any level. The game needs to live or die by its own merit, and that's it.

Yep. Even hinting that the game could deserve something other than a perfect score -- like suspecting that maybe these perfect 10/10 reviews are from hype and the game could be an 80% or 90% (great but with flaws) -- got you lambasted in the review thread by hundreds of people who never played it. I think that Polygon's review, which had people asking Gaf to ban the link, is getting bolstered as many people share the criticism that the Polygon reviewer wrote about.

 

[Draft]

It's really unfair to TLOU to keep making the RE4 comparisons.

 

[SkyTurnsRed]

What I have noticed is that, for the most part, even the detractors (myself including) seem to be finding enjoyment out of the game, whereas games like Infinite had people acting like we had just played Daikatana.

Question: for those who say the game opens up and gets much better, is it before/after

Spoiler

I meet Henry and Sam?

 

[thefro]

Quite the opposite, the checkpoints are necessary because the encounters often consist of "trial & error" on hard and without listen mode at least. Would've gone crazy if I had to backtrack every time a random enemy noticed me for whatever reason and alerted all the enemies in the area.

I've ran into a couple glitches with the checkpoints in my few hours with the game already where I die and it skips forward a couple rooms to a place I haven't been yet.

I would say the checkpoints are good beyond that issue.

 

[kingtuck12]

It's because the dogs that made it were naughty.

 

[kortez320]

It's much... much more than that. To simply call it a "zombie game" is selling it way short. The story, atmosphere, and overall quality of this game is unlike anything I have ever experienced in any entertainment medium. It's very much not just a "zombie game", but a gripping, emotional journey as well.

I love this forum. You motherfuckers make me laugh every day.

 

[zoukka]

What I have noticed is that, for the most part, even the detractors (myself including) seem to be finding enjoyment out of the game, whereas games like Infinite had people acting like we had just played Daikatana.

Question: for those who say the game opens up and gets much better, is it before/after

Spoiler

I meet Henry and Sam?

It never becomes "open" just less cramped and you have more options to snuff out the enemies. It becomes better because of the balance in supplies/enemies and the locations are more interesting.

 

[leng jai]

I'll say this: I found running and gunning far more viable than my preconceptions of the game thought it would be.

 

[patapuf]

It's much... much more than that. To simply call it a "zombie game" is selling it way short. The story, atmosphere, and overall quality of this game is unlike anything I have ever experienced in any entertainment medium. It's very much not just a "zombie game", but a gripping, emotional journey as well.



They didn't suck for me. The game is constantly autosaving, and they often create checkpoints at major ( and sometimes even minor) points in a fight. The Uncharted series (which I also love) has pretty rough checkpoints, but this game, at least for me, doesn't.

The forgiving nature of the checkpoints was the critisism. In a game about survival death should matter.

 

[Fjordson]

What I have noticed is that, for the most part, even the detractors (myself including) seem to be finding enjoyment out of the game, whereas games like Infinite had people acting like we had just played Daikatana.

Question: for those who say the game opens up and gets much better, is it before/after

Spoiler

I meet Henry and Sam?

:lol Daikatana

I'm a little surprised by the Infinite backlash. I enjoyed that more than I'm enjoying Last of Us.

But like you alluded to, I'm still enjoying the game. I'm not totally in love with it mechanically, but it's got great presentation and I do enjoy how tense the combat can get.

 

[Interfectum]

The backlash comes from people who thought the basic gameplay premise would differ from uncharted more than it does.

I'm not playing this game at all like Uncharted. They aren't even comparable IMO.

 

[blitzcloud]

Oh god yes! I totally see why they did it. I just wish they would stay hidden when I'm sneaking around. Like I said, it's not a deal breaker by any means. Just pulls me out of it a bit.

To be "in the back" that'd mean you have to kill every enemy before proceeding. TLOU doesn't enforce that. Also every time I died, the enemy AI did something different, so it's hard to create routes for friendly AI. Bill was all kinds of awesome though, when he sliced clean a clickers head.

 

[Baller. PhD]

Same was with Bioshock Infinite. A high praised game by press doesnt mean its good.

Actually yeah, it usually does. BioShock Infinite was great. Skyrim was great. I'm sure TLOU is great too (still need to unwrap my copy).

 

[zoukka]

I'm not playing this game at all like Uncharted. They aren't even comparable IMO.

Yes they are. If you would have individual stealth awareness for enemies in Uncharted, you could play it exactly like Last of us. The progression in the levels is exactly like in uncharted games. You explore tight areas and proceed with automated platforming to the next area with enemies in them.

 

[thefro]

The forgiving nature of the checkpoints was the critisism. In a game about survival death should matter.

They needed the checkpoints because you have enemies that can one-hit kill you, which sometimes happens in an unfair/cheap fashion. I guess that's ultimately a problem with the gameplay balance that they've tried to cover up (mostly successfully) with the checkpoints.

 

[Interfectum]

Yes they are. If you would have individual stealth awareness for enemies in Uncharted, you could play it exactly like Last of us.

I like how you blow that off as if it's not a pivotal key difference. In Uncharted I spend most of the time shooting the shit out of people. In Last of Us I'm shooting, setting traps, sneaking around, stealth killing, deciding what is the best way to get through the scenario without destroying my ammo supply, etc. Absolutely nothing like Uncharted.

 

[Joeki11a]

Praise comes from the Storytelling

Gameplay was never praised, Graphics were never praised just the design and art style.

Now

People are noticing the gameplay aint that great and its clunky slow, they expected it to be more Uncharted than RE.

 

[EatChildren]

It's mainly the framerate. It almost always dips the moment you shoot a guy and if there is splatter (like an exploding head) it goes down even further. Do you have access to a gaming PC with Tomb Raider on it? Try that at 60FPS with an xbox controller and marvel on how much better it feels and how much more precise you can play.

Yeah, that's what I meant by doing my gaming on PC. But even then, anywhere between ~45 - 60 fps is a really noticeable improvement. And I think, either because of the wireless controller + LCD screen lag, mouse pointing and PC computing in general is faster.

It's worse for me because I really am pretty shit at adjusting to analogue stick lag and a middling console framerate. I really don't do enough console shooter gaming, and haven't for years, to be really well attuned to the sticks. Vanquish is the tightest shooting I've experienced on a console. Uncharted 2 worked pretty well too. Uncharted 3, history knows. And this is quite similar to that. Good shooting, annoying input lag, and me a poo player.

They needed the checkpoints because you have enemies that can one-hit kill you, which sometimes happens in an unfair/cheap fashion. I guess that's ultimately a problem with the gameplay balance that they've tried to cover up (mostly successfully) with the checkpoints.

They didn't so much need to as chose to, in order to make the play more forgiving. It hasn't really bothered me so far but I can appreciate the criticism. Forgiving check pointing and save state abuse is counter intuitive to basically all survival gameplay.

 

[Interfectum]

Praise comes from the Storytelling

Gameplay was never praised

The gameplay is the best part about this game, IMO.

 

[Peterthumpa]

From the 5 to 6 hours that I've already played, I would say that TLoU isn't so much different than the Uncharted games on the gameplay department (or every other recent, not sucky TPS for that matter).

It's basically cover, point and shoot. The difference is that you can do it all by stealthing and figuring out tactics to kill every living thing without wasting a thousand bullets, but you could more or less do that in Uncharted by headshotting.

Anyway, the game's beauty is on it's atmosphere and story, and the stealth mechanism, albeit simple, gets the job done to really make itself apart from the Uncharted series.

But there's clearly an Uncharted feel, that's for sure.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

To be "in the back" that'd mean you have to kill every enemy before proceeding. TLOU doesn't enforce that. Also every time I died, the enemy AI did something different, so it's hard to create routes for friendly AI. Bill was all kinds of awesome though, when he sliced clean a clickers head.

There are quite a few areas that require you to kill every enemy before proceeding.

I liked the game, but I was kind of disappointed. I think it's just because it was so close to greatness that the small nagging issues are a much bigger deal.

 

[MrCookiepants]

The gameplay is the best part about this game, IMO.

Yep. Satisfying and unbelievably tense at times.

Dead Space, Gears, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, RE5 & 6 etc. I find TLoU much more enjoyable than anything you could compare it to.

 

[Joeki11a]

The gameplay is the best part about this game, IMO.

Yeah but guaranteed you it isnt getting 10s because of that, the storytelling and realistic characters are the key to this IP.
Melee is cool/brutal but gun play is where people feel like it could of flow better. Joel movements are like that of a RE game yet slower and clunky, he even has that quick turn stuff.

 

[Usobuko]

The forgiving nature of the checkpoints was the critisism. In a game about survival death should matter.

This is the part I would agree on and I started on hard, the highest default difficulty. Then again, I'm only 2 hours in at 17% of the game.

 

[| Praxis |]

I thought it was one of the best games I have played. Admittedly, I love the theme and setting so I can forgive the frame rate drops.

Who gives a shit what other people think anyway?

 

[Dyno]

What I love most about the Last of Us is that you never feel ready for the fights you get into. You're scrounging around for just a few more bullets, maybe another med kit, and of course another shiv or two would be great and then BAM! You are in some kind of violent nightmare. Every fight has been awful and you get hurt pretty badly. It's an amazing thing to fine-tune your game to have that effect.

Also you can turn off a lot of the HUD and stuff like the listen mode, which makes this game way better. With minimal HUD the game is even more imersive.

 

[CharminUltra]

I don't know if the game gets better later on, but the first 3 hours have been pretty lackluster thus far.

The framerate can go from below average (clearly under 30fps) to below 10 or 15 fps in a matter of seconds. Pop-in is also extremely distracting. My biggest complaint though is how dumb the AI is, especially for a game that tries to be super-realistic. My companions are constantly running in front of and even pushing enemies, and yet enemies will simply ignore them. In fact, I've been discovered by enemies quite a few times because my companions have pushed me into the open while trying to get into cover.

The story seems to be picking up a bit, but for me most part it feels like your average episode of the Walking Dead. I do hear it gets a lot better, and I hope it does.

 

[Emwitus]

Yes they are. If you would have individual stealth awareness for enemies in Uncharted, you could play it exactly like Last of us. The progression in the levels is exactly like in uncharted games. You explore tight areas and proceed with automated platforming to the next area with enemies in them.

So basically, what you're saying is the last of us has enemies after every area. So it's like almost every other game ever created? Cause we all know the gameplay isn't the same.

 

[revolverjgw]

Yes they are. If you would have individual stealth awareness for enemies in Uncharted, you could play it exactly like Last of us. .

But you don't, so you can't. Only in isolated sections where the enemies are specially placed for you to take a few out does Uncharted's stealth mechanics ever come into play. Encounters have a different cadence in TLOU, stealth is vital and all the time and more than just an occasional perk when the game decides to set up the enemies for you.

 

[Maastricht]

Resident Evil 4 is insanely overrated in this thread, if you ask me. I thought it was pretty cool, but couldn't finish it. The ammo thing just got way too annoying, the enemies got boring, and the shooting, well, let's just say it was a pretty nimble tank at least, and the suitcase? Hmm. Story and characters, well, not bad for this publisher, let's just say.

The Last of Us imho deserves its 10/10 wholeheartedly, and this is while I hate horror/survival. The quality just oozes off the screen. Not just the graphics are sumblime, but the gameplay is great (and sure, I can live with that AI characters aren't always smart enough to hide, but at least they don't break the game by exposing you all the time), plenty of different ways to go about things, lots of variety, etc. Story not very original (so far for me at least), but the delivery and acting are something else.

Bottom line for me - if this isn't a 10/10, then what game is? There's no accounting for taste - for me, replace all zombie types with animals, and make fights with them a much more natural interaction (sometimes they hunt you, sometimes you hunt them, sometimes they defend their territory, sometimes you help each other, etc.), and this game would be far more perfect than it is now, for me.

I think people just have to realise that a 10/10 is a relative and historical score. In theory, all existing games should have a relative score that decreases as other games improve on them. 10/10 just means that it's the best you could hope for getting from a game at this time.

 

[Emwitus]

But you don't, so you can't. Only in isolated sections where the enemies are specially placed for you to take a few out does Uncharted's stealth mechanics ever come into play. Encounters have a different cadence in TLOU, stealth is vital and all the time and more than just an occasional perk when the game decides to set up the enemies for you.

It doesn't sound like his played the game

 

[SparkTR]

Where's the catch here? I thought the game was praised universally for a reason.

There's no such thing as universal praise. Universally good reviews doesn't equal a universally praised game by consumers. You'd be an idiot to shit on this game as it does what it sets out to do well, but you'd be well within your rights to say the game missed the mark in regards to gameplay, AI or pacing for you personally.

What happens is the pre-release media and gamer hype machine sucks in consumers who may not have seen the game as appealing beforehand, and then they feel let-down by something that shouldn't have appealed to them in the first place. It happened to me with Halo 3, Tomb Raider and Uncharted 3. It's a reason why I think review scores should die.

 

[zoukka]

It doesn't sound like his played the game

Gtfo whoever you are :b

I'm playing it on hard and without listen mode. I never said it played exactly like Uncharted. Just pointed out all the similarities that exist whether you want to admit it or not. Some people painted the game out as open survival simulator, when the reality is that the game is uncharted to its core, you just don't need to mow down every enemy (but you can if you want to). And those people were disappointed to the final game. It's their fault of course, the videos revealed the basic flow of the gameplay months ago.

So basically, what you're saying is the last of us has enemies after every area. So it's like almost every other game ever created? Cause we all know the gameplay isn't the same.

Basically I'm saying that the progression and traversal are almost identical to Uncharted games. Dnno why I need to spell it out again when it was clearly written in the post you just quoted.

 

[Mileena]

The gameplay is the best part about this game, IMO.

This

I've not beat it yet but ill still put it up with the Demons/Dark/Uncharted2 SS tier. Amazing game.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Yes they are. If you would have individual stealth awareness for enemies in Uncharted, you could play it exactly like Last of us. The progression in the levels is exactly like in uncharted games. You explore tight areas and proceed with automated platforming to the next area with enemies in them.

I dont know what game youre playing but its not the one I played.

 

[kortez320]

The gameplay is awesome.

The only thing I was dissapointed in was the amount of ammo lying around. This was a big selling point for me but I'm about a third into the game (have shotty/rifle/bow/two pistols) and literally have max ammo for everything.

Part of it is I like to choke dudes out but the other part is that while max ammo is a lot less then other games you are also taking way less shots then other games. There is certainly plenty of it for the tasks given to you.

 

[zoukka]

I dont know what game youre playing but its not the one I played.

Please elaborate.

 

[Emwitus]

Gtfo whoever you are :b

I'm playing it on hard and without listen mode. I never said it played exactly like Uncharted. Just pointed out all the similarities that exist whether you want to admit it or not. Some people painted the game out as open survival simulator, when the reality is that the game is uncharted to its core, you just don't need to mow down every enemy (but you can if you want to). And those people were disappointed to the final game. It's their fault of course, the videos revealed the basic flow of the gameplay months ago.



Basically I'm saying that the progression and traversal are almost identical to Uncharted games. Dnno why I need to spell it out again when it was clearly written in the post you just quoted.

Just say the game is linear.


And i don't get what you mean by same traversal. It has no platforming. The characters are moving from point A to B so in that way it's similar to uncharted and lots of other games. Plot,gameplay, characters, weapons and atmosphere feel nothing like an uncharted game. I'll give you surrounding since it's using the same engine.

 

[zoukka]

Just say the game is linear. And i don't get what you mean by same traversal. It has no platforming and the characters are moving from point A to B

It has the same traversal where you just find the ladder/stepping stone and press x. You can jump in Uncharted but it doesn't really make any difference on a practical level because of the automated nature of it.

The atmosphere is obviously the biggest difference and one that makes it feel a lot better than the UC games to me personally. Some of the sections truly feel like pure horror game material.

 

[Emwitus]

It has the same traversal where you just find the ladder/stepping stone and press x. You can jump in Uncharted but it doesn't really make any difference on a practical level because of the automated nature of it.

The atmosphere is obviously the biggest difference and one that makes it feel a lot better than the UC games to me personally. Some of the sections truly feel like pure horror game material.

Again, every adventure game has it's trope for moving. I can count off the top of my fingers the number of times i used a ladder or board doesn't mean that's the essence of what the game is.

Spoiler

And you press triangle not x