Caporegime
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2013
- Posts
- 28,907
It's been out over a year...
The Last of Us Part II
- Thread starter antijoke
- Start date
Nope.
Yup.
Soldato
Graphics, sound and (most) levels - yes. It's quite a huge step forward, but let's not forget TLOU was a PS3 game that only had a nice but of shine added for PS4.
Story-wise, which is where TLOU really excelled (imo) - the second game is quite poor by comparison. The story does a fair about of jumping around timelines, so you will get a bit of the old TLOU-era to play, but you'll also get a bit of background on Abby too, it's ok - but if you like the story to progress from A to B directly, then it might be a bit annoying. I don't recall TLOU being like this, or if it was, then it wasn't so jarring but that's by the by.
The main characters are (for me at least) where it falls so short of the mark: Abby I didn't bond with at all really, and it feels like you are forced to play her the most; to the point I was pretty much ready to ditch the game and not bother to finish it. We all know her reason for being in the game, and her mission to off one of the big players from TLOU - but considering how incredible the first story played out and how characters were introduced and developed - Abby feels like a really poor shoe-horn into the series. A pretty random NPC’s daughter… though it does make me chuckle thinking about the leak-era comments people were making; asking ND when they can expect the expansion packs, for the avenging family of a soldier you killed in the first game
As for Ellie – she was a right laugh in the first game, she acted as a great point of humour for a sullen Joel, but this time around she is bitter, even before Abby’s mission is completed. We are left to accept that this is because she suspects Joel lied about her being the cure, but it feels really poorly written into the game, and just puts an air around Ellie that makes her feel almost as annoying as Abby. Both kind of end up feeling like ‘strong female character’ tick boxes.
Gameplay-wise, it’s much the same as TLOU, there’s a nice few additions to spice things up, and the enemy AI can be ramped up quite highly – though don’t expect amazing tactics to flush you out; often you can lay in the grass chucking bottles/smoke to distract, whilst picking them off. Though dogs are a right pain in the *** - best to just off them asap imo.
Depending on whether you kept up with marketing at the time, or leaks, there were a few fairly deceptive things to make you believe Joel would feature deeper into the game – but he doesn’t. I’ll not add specifics, as although this is an old game now, people may not have played it through, or experienced anything above the leaks.
Think I’ve said it before – it’s an easy 10/10 game for me, but only for graphics, sound and setting. The story is a 6/10 at best – I just wished they had retained the original team who wrote TLOU, and had given us more of the same, as it would have been an instant 10/10 all around for me, and a pre-order. But I cancelled mine when the leaks hit, and glad I only picked it up second hand.
There was no prone mechanic in the first, right? I really love the fighting mechanics in this. Grab a runner, clicker comes for you then clicker grabs and eats the runner. Or do the same with a human. If you're good at timing you can fool a clicker into grabbing another clicker while dodging and it'll attack it thinking it was you. You need to be very close to both of them for it to work as it is very risky play.
The room with the double locked door with Lev and the other woman was a bit messed up. You can normally lose clickers etc fast by hiding somewhere yet they knew from far far away for 2 minutes as they started dropping down then along with the two shamblers.
Soldato
Am I the only one who hated the Scars 'Whistle' thing, I don't know why but I just found it so annoying and kinda weird for a cult to be whistling lol
They use it to communicate over long distances, there was a great thread on Twitter last year about how much research they did into that kind of communication used by actual tribes.
I quite liked that feature, as they kept giving away their position as I snuck about. The more I play this the more I'm impressed with the game. It has been quite a ride.
Currently on Seattle Day 3: The Marina.
Soldato
Oh right, I never knew that. That puts it into some perspective, I thought it was just a random act. Would be cool to read up on that.
What is it with Naughty Dog and their obsession with Hospitals, elevators, generators and basements/garages filled with water?
The amount of flashbacks to the hospital I've seen so far has been quite a lot I've noticed. Like reliving a bad dream in that hallway. Almost like Donnie Darko moments.
The amount of flashbacks to the hospital I've seen so far has been quite a lot I've noticed. Like reliving a bad dream in that hallway. Almost like Donnie Darko moments.
Soldato
There was something I noticed interesting last night with some clickers in the last section of the room in the descent chapter. It's as if there are some different types of clickers yet they look the same.
There were clickers in that section that I was almost in their face and they wouldn't detect me while sitting still versus the boat.
I think in total in that room it was 5 clickers, 3 stalkers ready to jump out of the walls and one shambler.
There were clickers in that section that I was almost in their face and they wouldn't detect me while sitting still versus the boat.
I think in total in that room it was 5 clickers, 3 stalkers ready to jump out of the walls and one shambler.
Soldato
Well I've finally finished this for the first time after playing it on PS5. I enjoyed it, not sure what all the controversy was about though. Story was fine, ending was a bit meh, but that's just because I like stories to tie up all threads, but I assume there will be a 3rd game.
It is a bit but it’s well worth playing.
I finished it last night. I'm not seeing the outrage so many claim but I must admit, I prefer this game over the first. This was a DEEP and long emotional story. I thought it was a very sad ending to both Ellie and Abby. Seeing anger, revenge turn into regret.