The Last of Us Part 2 - SPOILERS (1 Viewer)

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antipop

antipop

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you have been warned....this thread will contain spoilers for the game

I finished the game last week and sat on it for a few days....i think over all, the game is fine and i am not really sure why people are so angry about it

Gameplay:
  • there isn't really much to say about the gameplay as it's not much different than the first game...i quite enjoy the loop of exploration, finding resources and then taking on an encounter and trying to manage the resources you have...
  • the new rope swing mechanic didn't really impress me much
  • being able to go prone was a really nice addition to stealth
  • the new skill trees were interesting enough and i like when you can't max everything out in the first playthrough, forcing you to decide what you want to prioritize
  • enemy AI still pretty dumb but maybe a little smarter than the first game...the dogs were an interesting wrinkle on the human enemy side...infected enemies seem a little more sensitive to your presence and I hated those stalkers
  • the maylay mechanics were a little wonky with the dodge button being L1...just an odd button choice that doesn't feel natural
Graphics:
  • what else needs to be said? the game is gorgeous....ND gets every bit of power out of the PS4 much like they did for the PS3
  • just the right amount of bleak and beautiful...pretty cool how nature took back what used to be civilization
  • characters look great...facial animations are rivaled only by Rockstar and maybe a couple of others
  • brutal and visceral but somehow campy enough to feel like a B horror film
Story:
  • i didn't really have a problem with the story overall, it was just poorly paced and executed
  • voice acting was good and even great at times, no issues there
  • i liked the flashback sequences but some of them felt like they should have just been cutscenes...don't give me control of a character so i can walk around and abandoned museum and put hats on dinosaurs...feels like i could have just watched that play out in about 3 minutes instead of 30 minutes of gameplay
  • the first half of the story is amazing and what i think most people expected...Ellie on blood soaked revenge quest...even though revenge stories are a cliche in video games, i was fine with going through the motions of that
  • i didn't read any spoilers when they leaked but i always suspected Joel would be killed off...i think it happened too early in the game but i guess they had to get the 27 hour plot started immediately :freak7:
  • i mean, how dumb was it for Abby and company to leave Ellie and Tommy alive?
  • they maybe should have kept it a secret who killed Joel and it would have been easier to like Abby...if you have no idea what she ends up doing, she actually has a pretty good story and redemption arc going on with Lev and his sister escaping from the Serephites...
  • i really didn't like the Abby vs. Ellie fight sequences...but i think you aren't supposed to be comfortable with them
  • i mean, Abby allows Ellie to walk away a second time?
  • Abby adventure was probably too long and where the story suffers...
  • i kind of just laughed at the ending..."it can't be for nothing" was something Ellie said in the first game and it ultimately the entire game ends up being for nothing soooo :freak7:

discuss.
 
I agree that the rope swing sucked although there were a couple of creative uses that allowed you to get to hidden areas like the place at the complex where you broke two windows and through it over the metal framework.

This one really awarded those who did not give up on exploring. There were some creative ways to get places and a ton of what seamed background turned out to be accessible.

I completely agree on going prone. It wasn't an afterthought either, it really made some of the stealth sequences great as did the swimming in shallow water - taking out WLFs like a shark.

I only have Santa Barbara left on 2nd play through. AI is smarter on hard. I don't think I will be tackling grounded soon. On the second time around I was more comfortable with the Eli fight. Her approach to the fight (and it may have been smarter the 2nd time) but its kind of impressive to watch it from another view.

Killing Joel - well if you really want to be cliche you could do four games with him alive. This series was never rainbows and unicorns. One of the things that really worked in the first was watching the maturation of Eli. Something broke in her in the fight with David and it never comes back - not in this one. She never is a kid anymore. And the first time you took over Eli in the first was in a hunting scene, begun with seeing a rabbit hoping along right before her arrow pierces it. Animal as symbolic instrument were huge in both games. I didn't care for that little interlude at Eli and Dina's house much. Didn't have anything to do with her sexuality - if I had to put a finger on it, its the seeing Eli all grown up. Grown up with a great big hole inside of her. And one minute she is playing with the baby, retrieving stuffed elephant and petting baby goats and then the very next scene, right before Tommy comes back, she kills another rabbit. I know all that is symbolic, probably of her divided self.

I do love that her P*** and vinegar is consistent throughout. Every time she is caught and faced with death she is antagonistic to the extreme. And what she does with the hanging clicker at the end is savage and smart. Nice touch. She used the fact that she couldn't get infected brilliantly a couple of times.

I don't mind that many people didn't like the story. The thing is that plots for games are getting smarter and this is the leader IMO. So much like movies got more creative and artistic - think old Westerns vs modern stuff, especially the independent stuff. Maybe they weren't trying to please everyone. They had a message and I think it was ballsy to try and bring it. Not sure they pulled it off flawlessly on all fronts but I appreciate the attempt.
 
It was also interesting 2nd time around because many of the notes made more sense and conversations you overhear are pretty cool. Like Eli hears scars talking about "Lilly" and his sister in her first encounter.

another interesting question to ponder, where might the series go from here if anywhere.
 
Zack Lee said:
I don't mind that many people didn't like the story. The thing is that plots for games are getting smarter and this is the leader IMO. So much like movies got more creative and artistic - think old Westerns vs modern stuff, especially the independent stuff. Maybe they weren't trying to please everyone. They had a message and I think it was ballsy to try and bring it. Not sure they pulled it off flawlessly on all fronts but I appreciate the attempt.
Click to expand...

this wasn't a smarter plot though...it was in the wrong order for them to do what they were trying to do...

the whole point is that revenge is a fool's game that doesn't fix anything, and it's done really well from Ellie's perspective...but they make it impossible to like Abby in any capacity because they start off with her killing Joel...it just doesn't work in that order...even though you get to experience her side of the story, it's almost impossible to care whether or not she had good reasons for it

imagine if you didn't even know that Joel and Ellie were in the game...you play 10-15 hours of Abby tracking someone down that killed her father...you don't even know that her father was that doctor...then you finally catch up to the guy she's hunting and it's Joel...that would have been a huge gut punch...then you have Ellie's story of revenge set up perfectly and you likely feel conflicted because you might have liked Abby up until you watch her kill Joel....
 
yes, I don't know if it was smarter but it was outside the box. I think a plot like you talk about might have worked but it would have taken some serious deception to pull it off. I mean everyone knew Eli was in this and you could have not put her in trailers but there is no way they could have disguised that. They could have been creative though and made it seem like the two parties were coming together but not necessarily in adversarial roles.

and again, I don't know if they ever thought they could have made us like Abby - maybe they did. I think they just wanted to show that she had another civil component to, that there is always more to the other side than what we choose to see. They obviously failed on many if not most peoples expectations as far as story and layout.

So did they leave enough time between 1 and 2 (couple of years I think based on flashbacks) for a story with Joel. Is prequel to all of it a possibility or is Joel done for good. I don't think we will see more of Abby. Lev's perseverance through what he went through was interesting but I don't think they made him interesting in a way to suggest we would ever see him again. Firefly's are obviously in some sort of existence. Seattle groups seemed to implode themselves totally in the end.

People still like Eli's character obviously but they didn't develop her character much in this one. To me it was one of the more disappointing things. She just isn't as interesting with the huge hole she has inside of her. Maybe there is no plan for third installment.
 
God of War hid the Blades of Chaos from everyone...in fact, they did it so well that by the time you get them out of storage, you have grown to love the Leviathan axe(it's actually quite brilliant and one of my favorite parts ever in a video game)...and yeah, they are just a weapon but the Blades of Chaos are as much of a part of Kratos' identity as his tattoo and ashen skin tone....

it could have been done...it could have been marketed as a side story instead of a sequel, even hinting at Joel and Ellie being involved in some waty...the game world has plenty of room for other interesting charachers

i agree that they rolled the dice but they really just crapped out on the format...interesting story but jumbled presentation makes you feel weird about the entire thing...there is no doubt that i felt something but it's mostly just confusion and disappointment
 
yea, GOW may be my next replay. Its time

I agree on most counts. I just love the LOU game play so much. Like you I have always gravitated toward stealth games. I could still probably enjoy some Tenchu if they updated controls and graphics. I would play levels for hours trying to GM all three layouts. And this one, the more difficult a stage was, the more I enjoyed revamping my approach with everything dead and no "seen"

The controls of this game are some of the most intuitive I have found and I don't really have to think about anything anymore. I can kind of see your point with the dodge but I made an association with "run' fairly quick. And in some instances was doing one just so I could do the other.
 
i loved Tenchu...throwing down poisonous rice cakes

i think Ghost of Tsushima will be along the lines of Tenchu
 
one of the highlights of TLOU2 was hearing someone jamming to Today Was a Good Day by Ice Cube
 
antipop said:
one of the highlights of TLOU2 was hearing someone jamming to Today Was a Good Day by Ice Cube
Click to expand...

love the song. I missed it twice somehow. They had some good music in places.

and is Eli immune to all disease, Abby’s mouth had to be a Petri dish lol
I also got a little chuckle at Eugene’s porn title. I’m sure they did too lol

poison rice cakes are the best. I remember thinking it was the dumbest item until I realized I didn’t even have to let them get to it. Just keep them going in one direction. Like throwing corn out for pigeons

when I built my RaspberryPi Tenchu was one of the first games I put on it.Those controls were wonk by today’s standards.
 
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The Ice Cube song is when you’re playing as Ellie in the WLF hospital. As you crawl through the vents to get to Nora. It was random and pretty jarring considering the world they live in. No Goodyear blimps that read ‘Ice Cube’s a pimp’

The Splinter Cell games are what got me into stealth games. The first three were all really good but they went for too much action after those.

Since you like stealth, you really should check out the Dishonored series.You can usually buy all three games for pretty cheap on PSN. Fantastic games.
 

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