The Last Of Us

[Oxigen_Waste]

@dwarf_gourami, I'll hush, it's back to being great. But you gotta admit,

that gigantic segment from the highschool 'till you arrive at the sniper village is both incredibly long and predictable, not to mention underwhelming, especially when compared to the first act and the part you just played... By the way, it's gonna keep getting better from now on, at least so far, for me. I overreacted a bit because those segments where just so big and underwhelming that I thought that'd be it 'til the end... It felt like Uncharted, and it left a bad aftertaste, tbh.

[dwarf]

What was predictable?

 

Dwarf's multiplayer guide/tips:

 

-Downing enemies, executing enemies, healing allies, marking targets and crafting items (generally playing well) gives you cogs/money which tallies up during a match. If you go to your inventory and hit R1, you can buy ammunition, armour, or upgrade your weapons. If you have a 'purchaseable' weapon in your load-out, this can be bought as well.

 

-The little white dots on the map signify tool kits. Open these up with triangle and press triangle repeatedly to collect the parts that scatter from them. When you first spawn there is always one nearby, make sure you use it. The tool kits are individual to each player so you won't miss out if other players use them before you. It takes a couple of minutes for each kit's supply to replenish so it's usually best to work your way round the map in a circular fashion to find more.

 

- The contents of one tool kit are usually insufficient to craft an explosive, but you'll probably be able to craft a shiv or a melee item. Shivs are used for stealth killing from behind and are therefore rarely useful. Melee items give you a 1v1 advantage in a fist fight against anyone who doesn't have one, and when upgraded they are devastating.

 

-Two tool kits will always supply you with enough items to make an explosive. The bomb is the most lethal and versatile explosive in my experience. You could also make a medikit but doing so is normally wasteful as these can be found around the map. If you're severely injured but have found a safe spot, then obviously do it. It's much easier to do this by pressing up on the dpad and holding X to craft one without wasting time in the select menu.

 

- Stay within the same third of the map as the rest of your squad. This obviously helps with reviving, but even if you don't reach a bleeding ally in time, enemies are sitting ducks if they attempt an execution because it takes several seconds to perform one.

 

- Sprint marks you on the radar. Sprinting is best used sparingly in situations where you're getting surrounded and you need to rush back behind your squad, or if you need to close the gap on an unaware enemy and either shiv or melee them. Shivs would be much more useful if sprinting wasn't penalised in this way.

 

- 'Hearing' with R2 lets you see through walls for a short distance, but only for a couple of seconds unlike in the campaign. You won't get spotted through walls if you're completely stationary while crouching. For this reason I almost always equip the Covert Training booster in the load-out. This booster can be levelled. Level 1 spawns you with a shiv (meh) but Level 2 means you can crouch-walk without being 'heard'. Can't remember what Level 3 does but it probably chews through more load-out points than is worthwhile.

 

-Explosive expert is awesome and only costs one load-out point. Explosives can be hard to use without this damage radius buff.

 

- Mark your targets with R3 as often as possible. If you spot an enemy from afar but know you can't kill them before they get to cover, save your ammo and keep yourself off the radar by marking instead of shooting. Upgrading the relevant booster to level two increases the duration of a mark and also gives the target a heat signature, which makes pinpointing them much easier.

 

-Be patient when shooting. Most guns have a sharp kick so you need to wait a fraction of a second before each consecutive shot.

 

- Headshots reign supreme, and they aren't too difficult to pull off either. Lethal headshots also give you more cogs for spending on upgrades. The standard rifle is a monster when scoped in because headshots kill in a single hit.

 

- The revolver is better than the pistol.

 

- Consider using load-outs that don't have secondary &/or purchaseable weapons. After one or two kills/revives you will be able to upgrade side-arms and these can be extremely powerful. By doing this, you can save points for a couple of insanely powerful boosters. You'll likely have to purchase ammo as you go and scavenge, but it's a viable option.

 

///

 

That's the bulk of it. I haven't tested the support side of the multiplayer and I'm yet to try some of the exotic purchaseable weapons. They aren't that great value but if you're having a stormer it's fun to splash out on the sniper or machete.

 

The longevity is going to be questionable if you don't have a season pass. Having forked out full price I'm hesitant to get one.

Edited June 16, 2013 by dwarf

[LegoMan1031]

Sooooo is this game as awesome as the reviews have suggested?

[Hero-of-Time]

Sooooo is this game as awesome as the reviews have suggested?

 

It's...unique. I found the gameplay a bit off at times but, the characters and story are what drive the game and this is where it excels.

[flameboy]

I've still not touched this. Too many people hassling me and such I just want to relax and enjoy it for what it is uninteruppted.

[Dog-amoto]

Does anybody find it really weird that

 

When you kill an enemy who was carrying a machine gun, the weapon totally disappears? I understand it's to make sure you aren't too powerful and balance things out and all, but it still doesn't make any sense, logic-wise

 

[Tales]

Just finished the game. In short, totally awesome. Thing I am going to start on Survivor tomorrow. Played some online, but I don't know if I will spend much more on it.

[dwarf]

Had one of the best multiplayer moments ever earlier.

 

Reinforcements for both sides were depleted and I was left as the last man standing against two others inside the same building, one was on the top floor with me and the other was on the ground floor at the end of a long room. I was cacking it and had no idea what to do.

 

So eventually I bring myself to sprint down the stairs and take a pop shot at the guy below, we both miss each other a bit and we find ourselves crouched behind cover. But this is obviously no good for me because I'm now on the radar and there's a bastard making his way towards the stairs down to where I'm sat, so I flank down the outside of the room, sprint past a pillar and catch this hidden dude completely unawares with a few rounds from my revolver. So I turn around and sure enough the second bastard is coasting down the stairs to close in on me. We exchange a few shots, each connecting with one bullet but misfiring several times out of anxious haste, because this shit was for the match brethrens.

 

There's 20 seconds left on the clock, and my team is pegged to lose on time unless I finish the enemy off. Thinking he was just camping it out so as to win on time, I go into the backpack to buy some ammo only to find out I'm out of cash. So fuck it, I thought, I'll upgrade my melee weapon and hope he misses the shot when I rush him. I craft it and dart forwards. Just as I'm in limbo between our two cover points a molotov cocktail loops over my shoulder and crashes down behind me, which allows me just enough time to vault over the sofa and deliver a bludgeoning one-hit blow to his skull with a spiked baseball bat in the last second of the match (and that's no shitting embellishment) . I received a prompt PSN message of congratulation from a squad mate.

 

Fucking annihilation.

 

Games, motherfuckers. GAMES.

[drahkon]

@dwarf gourami

 

Can you please stop writing all these cool posts about how awesome you are and how great the multiplayer is?

 

I have to wait until Friday.

[Oxigen_Waste]

Just finished it. Fucking amazing. Will elaborate further, need to get some food in me first.

 

Edit:

 

The bad:

- The gameplay is good, but far from ideal.

- There's a huge (~5 hour) segment that's incredibly average and feels completely wrong. It would feel at home at an Uncharted game, but certainly not here. Too avoid spoilers, the moment when you get the shotgun marks the start of this segment and it ends after crossing a bridge. There's about 5 mins of greatness within that entire segment. Fortunately, as soon as it ends, the game is pretty fantastic until the end.

- Way too much action. Ridiculously so, almost... in typical Naughty Dog fashion, regardless of where you are or what you just did, people start shooting at you at the end of every single segment. Sometimes it makes sense, others it feels forced, and is incredibly annoying. There's other ways to make the game interesting besides forcing you to shoot at things, Naughty Dog! It feels wrong and out of place racking up such a high body count in a game like this.

- Apart from the Clickers, which are indeed quite awesome, the infected are very lame. Especially the bloaters... this isn't Left4Dead! The game would be better off without the infected, for the most part.

- Too many weapons.

- Too many glitches and technical flaws. Constant clipping, sometimes the world around you completely disappears, characters hovering in the air in christlike positions, going through walls, etc...

- Ellie (and your other companions) are a bit ridiculous when you're being stealthy. Ellie literally runs around and bumps into enemies and they act like nothing happened. I get why it's like that, but it would've made alot more sense if they just waited somewhere, it's a bit too silly.

 

The good:

- The story. Won't find better in many games.

- The main characters. The secondary characters are entirely too forgettable, though.

- The soundtrack. Fits perfectly. Gustavo Santaolalla's music is always the same, but when it fits, it's incredible, and it most certainly fits in The Last Of Us.

- The graphics. The thing looks gorgeous.

- The pacing (and therefore the narrative). Apart from that 5 hour segment I mentioned, it's a thing of beauty.

 

 

 

In general, it's quite a triumph, even if it does way too many things wrong/poorly to warrant all the 10s it's getting. The game has alot of personality and it's packed full of memorable moments. It is a joy to play through, for the most part. It stands alongside Unch2 as Naughty Dog's crowning achievement, unfortunately, just like Unch 2, the lesser components are impossible to ignore. It does amount to something bigger than the sum of it's parts though, and for that, I think it wholeheartedly deserves a score of 9/10.

 

I absolutely love that this game will not suffer from sequelitis, too. =D Or rather, I motherfucking hope it won't!

 

Will try the multiplayer tomorrow, but it's bound to be irrelevant compared to the singleplayer portion, considering how unpolished the gameplay is.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Oxigen_Waste
Not hungry anymore.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just finished the game. In short, totally awesome. Thing I am going to start on Survivor tomorrow. Played some online, but I don't know if I will spend much more on it.

 

Just finished it. Fucking amazing. Will elaborate further, need to get some food in me first.

 

What did you guys think of the ending? I thought it was quite touching yet dark at the same time. Joel is willing to lie to Ellie to protect her but at the same time sacrifice the human race. Although given what he has seen he probably doesn't deem humanity worth saving.

 

Did you guys kill the doctors at the end? I blew away the one standing in my way but allowed the others to live.

 

[Tales]

Yeah, the ending was amazing, sweet but with a bitter aftertaste. I couldn't believe he lied to her.

 

I shot them all :p

 

[Oxigen_Waste]

What did you guys think of the ending? I thought it was quite touching yet dark at the same time. Joel is willing to lie to Ellie to protect her but at the same time sacrifice the human race. Although given what he has seen he probably doesn't deem humanity worth saving.

 

Did you guys kill the doctors at the end? I blew away the one standing in my way but allowed the others to live.

 

I don't think it's about him not deeming humanity worth saving at all (otherwise he wouldn't endorse his brother's project in Jackson, WY), he's just a very selfish man, which is something that the game had been establishing since the very start. In the end, his own happiness and that of those he loves was more important to him than saving the human race. And it's a wonderful ending, an ending that's true to human nature, and leaves you with that shadow of a doubt about it... wether a sweet lie is prefferable to the bitter truth sometimes is a conclusion that is left for us to make, the game itself makes no judgement call.

 

As for the doctors, I did the same thing you did, except I accidentaly killed another one, as the last weapon I had used was a molotov cocktail, and in the heat of the moment I forgot to switch weapons and just lobbed a 'tov at the poor surgeon and one of his friends (the male one) ended up dying too. That was fucking cruel of me, although unintentional. =/

 

 

A more interesting question is what would you have done in that situation? ^^

[Hero-of-Time]

A more interesting question is what would you have done in that situation? ^^

 

I probably would have asked her if she knew she was going to die and whether she was prepared for it.

 

Did the game say whether she knew this or not?

 

[Oxigen_Waste]

I probably would have asked her if she knew she was going to die and whether she was prepared for it.

 

Did the game say whether she knew this or not?

 

Nothing certain was said, but it was heavily implied she wasn't aware. Although deep down I think she had her doubts about it, hence her asking him that final question.

 

Let's be honest, she's not dumb and probably figured out something weird had happened by herself when she awoke in the car dressed in nothing but a surgery gown and still under the effects of anesthesia. I think deep down she knew he wasn't being 100% honest.

 

[dwarf]

Might be worth pointing out - can all N-E players choose the Fireflies for their multiplayer faction? It's locked in until you either complete the 'story' or your 'clan' gets wiped out. Cool.

[ReZourceman]

Whew! Finished!

 

Amazing, amazing amazing.

 

Probably the best characters/narrative/story play out in any game I think. And for that reason it is one of my favourite gaming experiences of all time.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay too. I'm not too into stealthy stuff, but the fact that this was very open, as in....you can choose to totally ignore combat (in a lot of cases) as a reward for stealth...and just....it did it all so well. The sound aspects of it was a triumph. I was often, absolutely terrified.

 

In the hotel basement....I was next to the generator, I turned around. I waited. I listened. I checked to my left....and then to my right....and then my left again....and then my right again.....nothing. Silence. So I slowly turned around and started the generator....suddenly I am grabbed from behind and I shit my pants.

 

First 20 minutes = I wept. Well I had a tear or two. Fucking emotional for so soon into it.

 

The mix up and narrative breakdown towards the end of playing as Ellie/Joel/Ellie was sublime.

 

David was spine chillingly creepy and the boss fight was genius, reminiscent of Jurassic Park and the Raptors.

 

 

Loved every second. I'd say it lulls/the worst bit is from the 20 minute mark to 90 minute mark I was thinking "This is decent, but hasn't blown me" but then it blew me. Took me about 16-18 or so hours I think, I need to double check that time. That was on normal.

 

What did everyone choose the upgrade?

 

I got both holsters first, then upgraded rifle and shottie as best as possible.

 

Pills wise I upgraded health to full health and weapon sway.

 

 

So good. Joel is so beautifully troubled.

 

 

 

 

 

Fuck you OW, roll on the sequel! :p

[drahkon]

I hate you all.

 

Friday night, I won't get any sleep. I will play the shit out of this game.

 

And I hope I chose Fireflies for my faction.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Everyone seems to be finishing this game rather quickly... How long is it?

[ReZourceman]

Everyone seems to be finishing this game rather quickly... How long is it?

 

I wanted to hammer through it.

 

I looked around a fair amount and clocked in at about 16-18 hours ish. I think that might be a blit slow though.

[dwarf]

Yeah, that was superb. Campaign was much longer than I anticipated.

Oxigen, it's like you're overcompensating on the criticism as if to bring down its inflated meta-score, that's the impression I'm getting. I agree there are too many weapons and there are a couple of tedious sections, but I thought there was plenty of downtime throughout and the gameplay was pretty much as polished as they could make it - the infrequent technical flaws barely warrant a mention.

 

2 neat things I liked

 

- the similarities between Ellie and Sarah. We never saw much of Sarah of course but the opening was fantastic and I knew I was in for something special from the get-go when she cracked the joke about selling hardcore drugs. Later Ellie makes a joke about the magazine pages sticking together, which makes Joel's face tighten up. Their precocious humour is very alike and it stirs up that melancholia.

 

-the way the Comics echo the plot. The last one alludes to a duo sacrificing themselves for humanity, which obviously throws you off the ending of the game.

 

///

 

I suppose the secondary characters were forgettable, but their minimal screen time showed they were only really meant to be functional. I liked Henry and his son Sam though. That foreboding scene between Elly and Sam was pitch perfect, and I usually hate it when children try to convey their personalities in movies and games. Worked really well having seen the two sharing lame jokes not long before, that in-game stuff genuinely made me smile.

 

There's no game like it really. Dark, great characters, surprising and gratifying ending, plenty of time for the player to soak in the environment, and the odd dollop of humour thrown in for good measure (but not of the wisecracking Uncharted kind I was fearful of). I wouldn't personally write a story in which zombies featured in any way, but TLOU cracks the genre and is a thrill to play. It delivered what it promised.

 

 

Edit: didn't realise Nolan North voiced David. Good job.

Edited June 19, 2013 by dwarf

[bryanee]

Just done that stuff from the E3 demo last year, that entire section was tense and creepy as fuck.

[Oxigen_Waste]

Fuck you OW, roll on the sequel! :p

 

Let's be honest, even if there is one, the tale of Joel and Ellie is pretty much done. That's more or less what I meant. I wouldn't mind a sequel if it were radically different in setting from this game, like set in Thailand or India or something.

 

Everyone seems to be finishing this game rather quickly... How long is it?

 

Like ReZ, it took me around 16-17 hours. But I'm a slow player, I like to explore every nook and cranny, so you can probably complete it in 12. I played across 4 days in 6 play sessions. Pretty meaty. And that's completely excluding the multiplayer.

 

Oxigen, it's like you're overcompensating on the criticism as if to bring down its inflated meta-score, that's the impression I'm getting. I agree there are too many weapons and there are a couple of tedious sections, but I thought there was plenty of downtime throughout and the gameplay was pretty much as polished as they could make it - the infrequent technical flaws barely warrant a mention.

 

There aren't any tedious sections, as far as I'm concerned, the game is never boring or tedious, it's just incredibly generic during the Pittsburgh segment (apart from the basement scene ReZ mentioned and the ocasional story moment). It gets much much better from then on. The gameplay isn't that polished, though. It's good, yes, but far from perfect. And the technical flaws aren't infrequent at all, the clipping in particular is constantly there. I'm not onvercompensating on the criticism, I'm merely listing off the things it did wrong. Luckily, those blemishes are negligeable compared to what it does right. It's a wonderful game, one of the very best this gen. But it's not a 10. Like Shadow Of The Colossus (my fav game of all time), it's one of those games that'll grow to define the generation it belongs to because what it did right is so undeniably important and carries such an emotional punch. In short, the game is a masterpiece... but just like SotC, it's a very flawed masterpiece.

 

In other words, just because it's not a perfect game it doesn't mean it's not a very very important (and good) game. But media outlets know most people won't bother reading the reviews and so they use a 10 even though the game doesn't warrant it just to make sure people don't ignore this game-changing gem.

 

In the end, the game's true legacy are those moments you'll never forget. And it's fucking jam packed with memorable sections and moments. More so than any other game this gen.

 

-----------

 

Edit:

 

Been messing around with the multiplayer for the last few hours. I get it, but don't like it. They approached it wrong, in my opinion. Too action oriented, was gutted to see everyone brandishing assault rifles and shotty pistols and running around like fools meleeing each other. It's also a bit too complicated to understand at first, ND should've added a "playground" for people under lvl 5 or something. It's good, but I think it's a failure because it doesn't really bring anything new to the table, and it most certainly could have.

 

Also, wtf at the bow not being a 1hk... it's completely pointless this way, takes way too long to prepare that second shot, people just run...

Edited June 19, 2013 by Oxigen_Waste

[Happenstance]

[dwarf]

The game has taught me one thing. In the event of a zombie apocalypse, just look for the yellow tape.