The Last Of Us

Andrew_McP said:
I'm going to cut & paste something I've just written elsewhere.

It's been a tricky week in some ways. Some real world events have made me feel like time spent in virtual worlds is even more pointless than I usually do (I should have been Catholic with all this guilt!) And yet... I'm now 16+ hours into The Last of Us. I'm still playing on Easy, I'm still getting to grips with this whole stick waggly finger-fumbly nonsense (I hope that pad on the PS4 controller can be used for mousing), but I no longer feel like I'm playing a game.

Something strange happened along the way. Features like the crafting, and the constant hunting for resources started off as a "been here, done this all before" type affair, but came to feel like an integral part of the plot and experience. I started off thinking this was "just another linear game", with some better than average acting and very impressive artistic and aural flair. But before I knew it that wasn't an issue. Is The Sopranos a totally linear story? Yes. Is The Wire an open world to explore? No.

Obviously those are very grand comparisons to be making, but what I'm getting at is that I feel like I'm participating in an interactive episodic drama series, rather than the usual interactive movie. And a B Movie at best, in the vast majority of cases. Clearly The Last of Us is not really to be compared with the very best of TV drama. But it's not to be compared with the best of normal computer games either. It is much more than that; it's a wonderfully crafted experience which I will certainly never forget.

I'm 68% through. It's Fall. And I'm torn in exactly the same way I get torn as the end of a DVD or Netflix series approaches. I want to finish the journey. But I also want the journey to last forever. At 50 I didn't think a game would ever make me feel like this again. Maybe it's a paternalistic thing. Maybe it's because Joel is an old git like me. Or maybe it's early-onset senility. But I don't care.

Of course I may just be justifying a full price purchase to myself, or getting brainwashed by so many great reviews and the "buzz" which has grown up around this title. But I can also see why Polygon only gave it a 7.5. In some ways the gameplay is both derivative and as flawed as any one of a hundred other forgettable titles. However for me the frantic survival segments, the blessed relief of the exploratory phases, and the genuinely welcome drama in the cut scenes forms a cocktail unlike any gaming kool-aid I've ever drunk before.

Disclaimer: I'm enjoying this so much I've signed up for a year of PS+ because I now need to investigate Naughty Dog's other work, and Uncharted3 is 'free' this month. Given I've played hardly any PS3 titles, and the fact they'll be keen to keep the PS+ deal very sweet for PS3 and eventually PS4 owners, it seems like a very fair deal. But it's quite possible that I have been overcome by a bout of fanboy-ism, from which I will wake before too long.
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To be honest you have not even got to the best part of the game, no spoilers of course but the best is yet to come :D
 
OK theres something wierd going on here - before I was playing with the flashlight off most of the time when around runners/clickers as I just assumed they could see, I just replayed an area with the flashlight on and everyone I silently strangled/shived I got bullets for, but before the few times Ive replayed the same section I didnt get any bullets.

Very strange - its like it rewards you when the flashlight is on but not off when killing :confused:

EDIT: I really need to stop playing this like thief where Im trying never to be spotted and when I do I restart encounter - really slowing me down!

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
ps3ud0 said:
OK theres something wierd going on here - before I was playing with the flashlight off most of the time when around runners/clickers as I just assumed they could see, I just replayed an area with the flashlight on and everyone I silently strangled/shived I got bullets for, but before the few times Ive replayed the same section I didnt get any bullets.

Very strange - its like it rewards you when the flashlight is on but not off when killing :confused:

EDIT: I really need to stop playing this like thief where Im trying never to be spotted and when I do I restart encounter - really slowing me down!

ps3ud0 :cool:
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I restarted encounters many times during the game, if not so I could remain undetected (at least for a bit longer) then to just go through certain moments or conversations again. :)
 
TheVoice said:
One thing I do want to try to recreate is the E3 demo from last year in the hotel. Try as I might throughout the game, I could never seem to get the enemies to behave in a way that allowed me to take them on with guns but pick them off one at a time, they'd always rush or flank. Never had one run away from me to hide either, as happened in the demo.
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If you butcher enough of a group quickly then if there are only a couple if them left, they will run off and hide from you.

Especially later in the game.
 
Up to 75% and loving it. The only thing I'm not loving is the cramp I've got in my left hand/thumb. DS4s better be an improvement.
 
atpbx said:
If you butcher enough of a group quickly then if there are only a couple if them left, they will run off and hide from you.

Especially later in the game.
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I loved that. As I'd try and sneak about get spotted then just all hell would break lose and nail bombs would be thrown and molotov cocktails would be ablaze. Then a calm would fall and I'd stalk the rest of them. :D

The story and character dev steals the show and a few feel the game play lets the side down but I really enjoyed it all :)
 
They also react depending on what weapon you have out and what weapon they have. The riflemen will try and shoot it out, the brawlers will try and flank and rush you unless you fire a few rounds and then they usually scarper. Some don't get it and just leeeeeeroy jeeeeeenkins you. I like to torment the melee enemies with bricks and bottles.
 
In my opinion Survivor difficulty should have been unlocked from the get go, hard is ok, but the sheer amount of resources available in hard make it almost too easy. I wish I could wipe my memory of this game and play on survivor from the start. Nothing comes close to that feeling of terror when you have 8 bullets, half a rag and a shiv and you stumble across a group of clickers and runners.

You could shiv that clicker, but what if I cant get the resources to open that next shiv door which might have a few precious bullets and some rubbing alcohol? I could try to sneak past but the runner might see me and I will most likely die. I could try to take the runner out silently but his movement is erratic and he might spot me before I can sneak up behind him. Oh crap there are actually two runners patrolling, screw that plan. Which one is the cry in a corner button?
 
Noxia said:
I am still enjoying it but I do also find it a bit tedious at times.
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I think my earlier comparison with The Sopranos or The Wire is fairly accurate in some ways. In series like that you get long periods where there's no real activity and a lot of atmospheric, or background build up.

If you're not fully engaged with the main characters those periods can feel a bit dull, but if handled well they can act as a kind of "amplifier" for the action, when it happens. Otherwise you'd get de-sensitised to the raw, brutal action when it happens.
 
Ok so i just finished the game and after initially saying that couldn't get into it, i stuck with it and glad i did.
Great story, emotional at parts and just the right length.

Anyone else think that the use of ladders was a bit overdone? lol.
 
Finished the game, overall a really nice stealth post-apo action experience, characters are great and ending was very interesting, not very happy. Took me 20 hours on hard with listen mode off, some places were quite difficult. Molotov was very useful.

I really wish I could play it on my PC though, the PS3 is really slow and framerate and jaggy graphics detracted from the experience quite a bit. Oh and that horrible sixaxis, I wish I could play it with my x360pad.
 
Nimdok said:
Was that a GAME trade-in special, or from the back of a van in an alleyway? :p
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lol, it was from Xtravision, had to trade in two games, the selection of games you could trade in were limited enough, but I had two such games, I traded in Black Ops II and Injustice (I already had another copy of Injustice anyway). Looking forward to getting stuck in to this tonight. :D
 
Bought this full price end of last week, for playing in the dire english weather.

Didn't read any reviews, or even user input. Just knew it was my kind of game, and Naughty Dog have a decent track record.

Figured it was probably the last new release game I would buy on PS3, so why not just go for it....

Anyway, not bad.

Just went straight to hard, but am playing with things like listening enabled.

Only thing really bugging me, is that the friendly AI is stupid, and you can see why they disabled enemies being able to detect them.

When trying to sneak through clickers, the friendly AI will be running around like idiots, bumping into the clickers... it kind of ruins the immersion on those parts.

But, apart from that, am enjoying it. Can't wait for PS4 though in hopes of getting rid of all these jaggies and bad textures.
 
15hrs game time so far with about 81% complete.

I found the first half of the game a bit underwhelming but the game seems to have got a lot better in the second half.
 
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