looking back to the miserable state of the games industry in the seventh generation, i have to say that the feverish cries to find the citizen kane of gaming - basically paltry, philistine shorthand for the holy grail of the medium, a work that legitimizes the practice and is enshrined in the canon - were super funny, not only because of the obvious nod to that works strengths with relation to filmmaking (which cant be replicated in games wholesale), but also way more specifically because that movie is the direct result of several contextual, social, and political factors that basically 100% mean games will literally never, ever get their own citizen kane. the last of us, for a time, was that 'citizen kane', in the eyes of many. which is insane because this title introduces literally nothing new in the AAA environ through either storytelling, mechanics, or structure (even when it was released it was patchwork pastiche of everything that came before it) and on top of that it was heavily corporate funded focus-tested prestige slush which in effect fully betrays the idea of this game being a ‘citizen kane’ type. a citizen kane of the medium would have to do more than be soulless and perfunctory interactivity Big Video Games decide for you has artistic merit - i'd even go one step further to say that if anything, Big Video Games would probably frown on the citizen kane of video games, similarly to how orson welles legacy was attacked and dismantled by hollywoods vanguard again and again, and again and again and again. it amuses me this is happening yet again with god of war but what can i say i guess it's tough being a sore winner
baby's first apocalypse narrative matched with the worst gameplay elements of the Uncharted series. the last of us released at the peak of gaming media's obsession with finding validity as not just a medium for adults to enjoy, but one on par with cinema and literature. for whatever reason, this game was heralded as gaming's 'Citizen Kane' for a while. it's a third person shooter with zombies and it's one of the many pieces of media that spawned from a boring dude who saw Children of Men and decided he could also do that. everyone's angry and tense all of the time and there's lots of violence, which is how you know it's for adults (serious). but there's a dad and a daughter, so it's sorta heartwarming af tho. nothing about the game part of the game is very fun to play in a conventional sense - large parts consist of just walkin' around while you listen to dialogue. maybe you move a ladder. maybe you collect materials and craft a knife. maybe you crouch walk around enemies and press triangle to view the killing cutscene. i love games that aren't conventionally "fun", but the last of us makes no statement with its mechanics and design. more than anything, it feels like a game that is embarrassed to be a game and decides to entirely ignore any of the medium''s advantages and possibilities in favour of being completely conventional. and like, obviously there's a place for conventional stories but i just don't find this particular one interesting - especially as a game. naughty dog's uncharted series at least face the player with spectacle and dozens of enemies but tlou doesn't evolve much over its runtime, aside from having more guys. it's a culmination of the 7th gen's most boring elements distilled in one package that might as well just be the TV show it became.
this is also a game that was so successful it set the standards for what most big narrative driven triple a releases would be for the next couple generations. very much not a fan of that and the impact it had on the industry as a whole - it's the final turning point for PlayStation going from a system with a diverse library of colourful games to mostly just games like this. wide appeal titles very-normal narratives that are just like some other thing tonally and narratively but slopped up into a game that plays like a million other games. boring!!!! it's just boring.
this is also a game that was so successful it set the standards for what most big narrative driven triple a releases would be for the next couple generations. very much not a fan of that and the impact it had on the industry as a whole - it's the final turning point for PlayStation going from a system with a diverse library of colourful games to mostly just games like this. wide appeal titles very-normal narratives that are just like some other thing tonally and narratively but slopped up into a game that plays like a million other games. boring!!!! it's just boring.
I think the title of this game and among us got swaped
A narrative masterpiece, no question, but there isn’t a whole lot of game to it. What’s here is fine, it’s playable sure, but linear, repetitive, restrictive, and I honestly don’t think there’s a lot you can get out of it that you can’t get by just watching a playthrough. I also somewhat resent it for starting the trend of safe, homogenous, super cinematic, self-serious, over the shoulder oscar-bait games that dominate Sony’s first party lineup now.
Lots of reviews on this simultaneously praise the story and writing as a step forward for video games while acknowledging that that same story and writing may be exposed as somewhat weak by the TV adaptation via HBO. And that seems revealing to me, it seems to speak volumes. The quality of the game that is universally agreed to be the most enduring pales in comparison when held up to like, anything else remotely decent. And shit no one is even saying it might seem weak compared to The Wire or The Sopranos; no, people are seemingly worried about comparisons to fucking Game of Thrones or some shit. Because even next to GoT, maybe, the weaknesses of TLOU stand out.
I have not played more than two hours of this game. I enjoyed the walking sim more than the stealth combat, and while I don't know that I observed enough of the story and writing to weigh in, it seemed fine enough. But I think any game where the "story and writing" operate in the cinematic mode will necessarily fall short when compared to actual cinematic things. Better to focus on the whole, video game part, imo.
I have not played more than two hours of this game. I enjoyed the walking sim more than the stealth combat, and while I don't know that I observed enough of the story and writing to weigh in, it seemed fine enough. But I think any game where the "story and writing" operate in the cinematic mode will necessarily fall short when compared to actual cinematic things. Better to focus on the whole, video game part, imo.
Undeniably one of the best games ever made. For me personally it might even be THE best, as it marks one of the milestone-moments where videogames matured into something, that even non-gamers should be able to appreciate for many reasons. Every single thing about this game is masterful.
Enredo mid, narrativa desinteresse quase tudo é muito entediante e previsível, tal como a gameplay porca, boa parte do jogo é andar por lugares sem graça ouvindo diálogos chatos, e repetidas e repetidas vezes
HBO Showrunner: "Most games are pretty simple. You jump on enemies, you die, you have to insert another quarter to continue. The Last Of Us changed that."
As you can read from this statement, the history of gaming consists of 'Super Mario', NO OTHER GAMES, and 'The Last Of Us'. Oh by the way yeah, the game is shit from all aspects.
As you can read from this statement, the history of gaming consists of 'Super Mario', NO OTHER GAMES, and 'The Last Of Us'. Oh by the way yeah, the game is shit from all aspects.
this movie is the sequel to the mandalorian. unfortunately baby yoda is a huge megastar now so he refused to do the movie so they recast him as a white girl whose only force power is super acting. the mandalorian lost his space ship so they have to go to pawnee to see ron swanson which made me cry so hard it broke my playstation. altogether i really like this new direction for star wars but the gameplay isn't so great. too much sneaking! i hope i get the jetpack soon.
update 23/03/10: i beat the movie!! turns out humans are the real monsters and there's no jetpack. i was hoping they'd bring back amy sedaris's character because after baby yoda stopped telling jokes it was all like doom and gloom like shooting doctors and lying to children. i have a couple ideas for the sequel if the devs are reading this: 1. more jokes, maybe a funny droid or something 2. you should get the jetpack earlier 3. prioritize fidelity of control over fidelity of animation. overall i liked the story ok but the gameplay was too slow. i give it 3 out of 5 death stars.
update 23/03/10: i beat the movie!! turns out humans are the real monsters and there's no jetpack. i was hoping they'd bring back amy sedaris's character because after baby yoda stopped telling jokes it was all like doom and gloom like shooting doctors and lying to children. i have a couple ideas for the sequel if the devs are reading this: 1. more jokes, maybe a funny droid or something 2. you should get the jetpack earlier 3. prioritize fidelity of control over fidelity of animation. overall i liked the story ok but the gameplay was too slow. i give it 3 out of 5 death stars.
A linguagem cinematográfica em suas múltiplas expressões é resultado de um processos históricos e criativos que durante as primeiras décadas do cinema apresentaram as possibilidades e consolidaram essa mídia como uma linguagem própria, tomando a distância necessária de formas de expressão das quais o próprio cinema emprestou elementos, como a música, o teatro e a literatura. Para que o cinema pudesse de fato nascer foi necessário que houvesse um esforço em descolar-se de suas influências e apegar-se a sua própria tradição, tornando-se, portanto, a mídia mais autorreferencial já vista até então. O bom cinema celebra a si mesmo.
Os videogames, por outro lado, em específico o senso comum em torno da mídia interativa, celebra empréstimos, ou mesmo assimilações de artes alheias à tradição dos games, em específico o cinema. Deve-se, antes de tudo, reconhecer a relação histórica e a importância da influência da linguagem cinematográfica sobre a construção da cultura dos videogames, dado pontos de intersecção técnicos compartilhados pelas duas mídias. No entanto, cabe estabelecer que uma arte só existe quando ela realiza-se em si mesma, sem depender de empréstimos, isto é, a evolução da linguagem dos videogames depende que os games sejam cada vez mais games e celebrem a sua condição como jogo, diferente da ideia atacanha de compreender a presença de elementos cinematográficos em um jogo como sinônimo de qualidade dentro do espectro. Pelo contrário, nesses casos o que prevalece é a covardia de admitir-se como jogo e seguir a fundo um projeto de criação dentro das infinitas possibilidades da linguagem.
Sob essa lógica, The Last of Us apresenta-se como um jogo essencialmente de enredo, focado nas relações entre os personagens, valendo-se principalmente de cutscenes que pontuam os principais momentos da trama e dão sentido ao jogo, entre uma cena e outra existem sequências de exploração que consistem em segurar o direcional para frente e arenas de combate que permitem o uso de um combate quebrado e disfuncional oferecido pelos desenvolvedores, ao passo que, em termos de narrativa, principalmente nos momentos de cutscenes, após a segunda metade o jogo opera com qualidade. Trata-se de uma boa história, de bons personagens, cenários interessantes de serem observados, que no entanto não compõem um bom jogo, o corpo narrativo não integra-se junto às mecânicas, a relação se dá em dissonância, percebe-se um jogo disjuntado, cujas partes não possuem coesão. A muleta oferecida pelas sequências cinematográficas não mais é capaz de dar conta da complexidade que os videogames da ultima década demandam.
Cabe ao vídeo game negar qualquer coisa que não seja a si próprio, pretensões que visam alternativas alheias às qualidades da mídia retardam sua evolução, leia-se, perceber empréstimos cinematográficos como benéficos ou mesmo pontos altos num produto da mídia, nada menos é que desprezar a própria mídia e impregnar uma visão míope sobre suas possibilidades. Deve-se libertar o videogame e amar o videogame, pois este ainda não foi inventado.
Os videogames, por outro lado, em específico o senso comum em torno da mídia interativa, celebra empréstimos, ou mesmo assimilações de artes alheias à tradição dos games, em específico o cinema. Deve-se, antes de tudo, reconhecer a relação histórica e a importância da influência da linguagem cinematográfica sobre a construção da cultura dos videogames, dado pontos de intersecção técnicos compartilhados pelas duas mídias. No entanto, cabe estabelecer que uma arte só existe quando ela realiza-se em si mesma, sem depender de empréstimos, isto é, a evolução da linguagem dos videogames depende que os games sejam cada vez mais games e celebrem a sua condição como jogo, diferente da ideia atacanha de compreender a presença de elementos cinematográficos em um jogo como sinônimo de qualidade dentro do espectro. Pelo contrário, nesses casos o que prevalece é a covardia de admitir-se como jogo e seguir a fundo um projeto de criação dentro das infinitas possibilidades da linguagem.
Sob essa lógica, The Last of Us apresenta-se como um jogo essencialmente de enredo, focado nas relações entre os personagens, valendo-se principalmente de cutscenes que pontuam os principais momentos da trama e dão sentido ao jogo, entre uma cena e outra existem sequências de exploração que consistem em segurar o direcional para frente e arenas de combate que permitem o uso de um combate quebrado e disfuncional oferecido pelos desenvolvedores, ao passo que, em termos de narrativa, principalmente nos momentos de cutscenes, após a segunda metade o jogo opera com qualidade. Trata-se de uma boa história, de bons personagens, cenários interessantes de serem observados, que no entanto não compõem um bom jogo, o corpo narrativo não integra-se junto às mecânicas, a relação se dá em dissonância, percebe-se um jogo disjuntado, cujas partes não possuem coesão. A muleta oferecida pelas sequências cinematográficas não mais é capaz de dar conta da complexidade que os videogames da ultima década demandam.
Cabe ao vídeo game negar qualquer coisa que não seja a si próprio, pretensões que visam alternativas alheias às qualidades da mídia retardam sua evolução, leia-se, perceber empréstimos cinematográficos como benéficos ou mesmo pontos altos num produto da mídia, nada menos é que desprezar a própria mídia e impregnar uma visão míope sobre suas possibilidades. Deve-se libertar o videogame e amar o videogame, pois este ainda não foi inventado.
Ideas interesantes pero mal ejecutadas. comete el mismo error que Bioshock Infinite de no hacer que me preocupé por Ellie a través del gameplay, sumando a eso una inteligencia artificial nefasta y decisiones cuestionables de los personajes en ciertos momentos de la historia.
Aparte de lo visual, no encuentro nada destacable en este juego, bastante mediocre.
Aparte de lo visual, no encuentro nada destacable en este juego, bastante mediocre.
i absolutely fucking hate AAA design sensibilities. I hate unskippable cutscenes disguised as gameplay, I hate rote narratives that feel engineered to win GOTY, and I hate zombies. But damn, this game is amazing. It's that ending really, it's perfect. It makes everything click into place. This one is actually worth the hype.
En 2020, jugué por primera vez a este juego bajo una espesa nube de expectativas: era un juego triple A, pero uno que dirigía sus esfuerzos a contar una historia que trascendía las limitaciones a las que los juegos categorizados con ese descriptivo se suele estereotipar; era un juego violento (como cualquier triple A), pero su violencia existía para explorar una faceta de la naturaleza humana; era un juego de padres protegiendo a hijas adoptadas, el tipo de historia que había aprendido a odiar tras Bioshock Infinite, pero era la mejor historia posible de un padre protegiendo a su hija adoptiva.
Cuando lo jugué, se me hizo corto, pero su DLC me dio esperanzas de que tal vez esto era el principio de algo mejor, de un mundo en el que los triple A por fin se utilizaban para algo más que ofrecer violencia y gratificación instantánea. Pero al cabo de poco tuvimos la segunda parte, que regresaba al principio de todo y lo volvía a repetir, y me di cuenta de algo: The Last of Us no puede ofrecerte nada más que promesas de un juego mejor. Puede prometerte una explicación de por qué recrea la violencia con tanto primor, pero nunca te la dará; puede que te jure que tratará de contarte la mejor historia posible, pero siempre te dejará en un punto y aparte; y puede que te insista una y otra vez en que es un triple A "bueno", de los que "valen la pena" jugar. Pero lo único que puede hacer para valerse por sí mismo es compararse con la literal escoria del medio. Porque no es capaz de hacer nada por sí mismo.
The Last of Us es una franquicia vacía, hecha por gente sin espíritu artístico alguno, y que fiel a su programa comercial de venderse una y otra vez a jugadores nuevos, sabe muy bien prometerte cosas pero nunca te las va a dar porque sabe, en el fondo, que no puede dártelas. Y, en el fondo, es porque no sabe hacerlo.
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In 2020, I played this game with a mountain of expectations: it was a triple-A game, but one that directed its efforts towards a genuinely moving story that trascended its moniker; it was a violent game, but its violence existed to explore facets of human nature; it was a game about fathers protecting daughters, the kind of story that I'd learned to hate since Bioshock Infinite, but it was the best possible story of its kind.
When I finished it, it fell short, but its DLC gave me hope that maybe this was the beginning of something better, of the moment when triple-As were finally beginning to be used to tell something better. But not long after, we got the second part, and that game went back to the beginning and repeated everything as if nothing had happened. Then it dawned on me: The Last of Us can promise you a better game, but that's about it. It can promise you better uses of its violence, but it won't be able to; it swears that it's trying to tell you the best story it can, but won't be able to finish it; and it may insist over and over that it is a "good" triple A, the one that is "worth" playing. But the only thing it can do to defend its position is by comparing itself with the worst games ever. Because that's the bar it set out to pass, and nothing more.
The Last of Us is a nothing franchise, made by people without artistic spirit, and faithful to its capitalistic project of selling itself over and over again to new players. It knows very well how to promise you things but will never give them to you because, deep down, it knows it can deliver.
Cuando lo jugué, se me hizo corto, pero su DLC me dio esperanzas de que tal vez esto era el principio de algo mejor, de un mundo en el que los triple A por fin se utilizaban para algo más que ofrecer violencia y gratificación instantánea. Pero al cabo de poco tuvimos la segunda parte, que regresaba al principio de todo y lo volvía a repetir, y me di cuenta de algo: The Last of Us no puede ofrecerte nada más que promesas de un juego mejor. Puede prometerte una explicación de por qué recrea la violencia con tanto primor, pero nunca te la dará; puede que te jure que tratará de contarte la mejor historia posible, pero siempre te dejará en un punto y aparte; y puede que te insista una y otra vez en que es un triple A "bueno", de los que "valen la pena" jugar. Pero lo único que puede hacer para valerse por sí mismo es compararse con la literal escoria del medio. Porque no es capaz de hacer nada por sí mismo.
The Last of Us es una franquicia vacía, hecha por gente sin espíritu artístico alguno, y que fiel a su programa comercial de venderse una y otra vez a jugadores nuevos, sabe muy bien prometerte cosas pero nunca te las va a dar porque sabe, en el fondo, que no puede dártelas. Y, en el fondo, es porque no sabe hacerlo.
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In 2020, I played this game with a mountain of expectations: it was a triple-A game, but one that directed its efforts towards a genuinely moving story that trascended its moniker; it was a violent game, but its violence existed to explore facets of human nature; it was a game about fathers protecting daughters, the kind of story that I'd learned to hate since Bioshock Infinite, but it was the best possible story of its kind.
When I finished it, it fell short, but its DLC gave me hope that maybe this was the beginning of something better, of the moment when triple-As were finally beginning to be used to tell something better. But not long after, we got the second part, and that game went back to the beginning and repeated everything as if nothing had happened. Then it dawned on me: The Last of Us can promise you a better game, but that's about it. It can promise you better uses of its violence, but it won't be able to; it swears that it's trying to tell you the best story it can, but won't be able to finish it; and it may insist over and over that it is a "good" triple A, the one that is "worth" playing. But the only thing it can do to defend its position is by comparing itself with the worst games ever. Because that's the bar it set out to pass, and nothing more.
The Last of Us is a nothing franchise, made by people without artistic spirit, and faithful to its capitalistic project of selling itself over and over again to new players. It knows very well how to promise you things but will never give them to you because, deep down, it knows it can deliver.
An amazing and emotional time in a post apocalyptic world.
The story was simply brilliant and heart breaking at times.
Joel and Ellie were downright amazing. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson did an outstanding performance.
The best parts were the Intro and Winter.
3 things are a problem for me.
1 is out of my control, 1 is inconsistent and 1 is enough for me to put this at 4 and a 1/2 stars instead of 5.
The 1st thing was sometimes the cut scenes froze then caught up. This was probably the disc's fault.
The 2nd thing was enemy ammo drop. Sometimes they dropped it and sometimes they didn't. Is it 50/50 or was the RNG not in my favour????
The 3rd thing was WHAT THE HELL DID ELLIE AND JOEL DID IN BETWEEN THE TRANSITION FROM ONE SEASON TO ANOTHER!!!!!
The story was simply brilliant and heart breaking at times.
Joel and Ellie were downright amazing. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson did an outstanding performance.
The best parts were the Intro and Winter.
3 things are a problem for me.
1 is out of my control, 1 is inconsistent and 1 is enough for me to put this at 4 and a 1/2 stars instead of 5.
The 1st thing was sometimes the cut scenes froze then caught up. This was probably the disc's fault.
The 2nd thing was enemy ammo drop. Sometimes they dropped it and sometimes they didn't. Is it 50/50 or was the RNG not in my favour????
The 3rd thing was WHAT THE HELL DID ELLIE AND JOEL DID IN BETWEEN THE TRANSITION FROM ONE SEASON TO ANOTHER!!!!!
Um dos exclusivos mais famosos da Playstation e com toda certeza um dos melhores jogos da história dos videogames. Tudo nesse jogo é basicamente perfeito, desde a história até a ambientação. A evolução da relação de Joel e Ellie é linda, porque você consegue sentir que aos poucos os dois vão se tornando pai e filha. Os dois passam por situações tensas, beiram a morte e mesmo assim conseguem ter momentos lindos juntos. O fato da filha de Joel ter sido morta torna a relação deles muito mais dramática. Inclusive, é possível ver como o Joel passa a se sentir mais confortável em se abrir com a Ellie ao passar do jogo. A ambientação desse jogo é maravilhosa, tudo isso é muito bem apresentado com a direção de arte incrível desse jogo. Todos que tem a oportunidade de jogar esse jogo devem jogar, você nunca irá se arrepender de passar horas acompanhando uma história tão linda e cheia de suspense. Facilmente entraria para os melhores jogos da história, por tudo que ele carrega e pela sua influência não só nos jogos, mas também dentro do cinema. Inspirando até mesmo o filme Logan.
There's something deeply ironic about people hailing this as "The Citizen Kane of Videogames" when it feels ashamed to even be one at all.
it's been so long since i've played this but every time i think about it, i'm just reminded that it reminds me of everything i dislike about modern AAA gaming from the 7th generation onward. video game for people who can't appreciate a video game unless it tries to be an oscar award winning movie
Took me long enough to actually finish this game, but after having done so, I can say with relative ease that The Last of Us is indeed worthy of all the praise that it receives. For as much as it tells a straightforward narrative, there's a great deal of work put into how the atmosphere has been created - thus making you feel like you're a part of this situation and able to connect with the characters the more time you spend with them.
But that's also what makes The Last of Us as enthralling as it is, because you're seeing a wonderful father-daughter dynamic of sorts build between the relationship of Joel and Ellie - compromised by their own worldviews as a result of everything that they've been through. It always leads to emotional farewells with side characters, but also puts you within that spot of wondering how everything could have been done differently even though the inevitable is bound to happen.
A good amount of this is fun, but other moments can get distressing, but that's also what it feels like to see the world through Joel and Ellie's eyes.
But that's also what makes The Last of Us as enthralling as it is, because you're seeing a wonderful father-daughter dynamic of sorts build between the relationship of Joel and Ellie - compromised by their own worldviews as a result of everything that they've been through. It always leads to emotional farewells with side characters, but also puts you within that spot of wondering how everything could have been done differently even though the inevitable is bound to happen.
A good amount of this is fun, but other moments can get distressing, but that's also what it feels like to see the world through Joel and Ellie's eyes.
Been playing this bit by bit slowly for a month now. Played it high, drunk, stoned and burgeoning on a k-hole at times. Still haven't finished it. But fuck it. I just wanna diary my thoughts.
I think that it's as good as a good as a game like this could ever hope to be. It is a thematically empty experience. It is not as nuanced narratively or emotionally as it thinks it is. It is all aesthetic. It is a grim, brooding Dad game for people who love violent video games. All of its maturity is mechanical and physical. It is at almost every turn always a video game first. There are skill points and weapon upgrades. All sorts of video game narrative bullshit and conveniences ripple through it. But when you're swaying trying to load a handgun bullet-by-bullet or bashing some guy's teeth into a railing or machete-ing your 500th nameless post apocalyptic goon, all under some really intentionally well mood lit areas, you feel something. It loses impact the more you play, the game is way too long. But you see the rare instance of what happens when a AAA game developer gets an unlimited budget to heavily fetishise brutal violence. It's sick. I love it. I wish it wasn't coated in so much sentimentality and artstation lustre. But I think it's the most expensive murder simulatior ever made and it's stands as almost a novelty in my mind. The only other game like is maybe Max Payne 3 (and TLOU2, which I feel identical about but just as a sequel feel lesser).
I think that it's as good as a good as a game like this could ever hope to be. It is a thematically empty experience. It is not as nuanced narratively or emotionally as it thinks it is. It is all aesthetic. It is a grim, brooding Dad game for people who love violent video games. All of its maturity is mechanical and physical. It is at almost every turn always a video game first. There are skill points and weapon upgrades. All sorts of video game narrative bullshit and conveniences ripple through it. But when you're swaying trying to load a handgun bullet-by-bullet or bashing some guy's teeth into a railing or machete-ing your 500th nameless post apocalyptic goon, all under some really intentionally well mood lit areas, you feel something. It loses impact the more you play, the game is way too long. But you see the rare instance of what happens when a AAA game developer gets an unlimited budget to heavily fetishise brutal violence. It's sick. I love it. I wish it wasn't coated in so much sentimentality and artstation lustre. But I think it's the most expensive murder simulatior ever made and it's stands as almost a novelty in my mind. The only other game like is maybe Max Payne 3 (and TLOU2, which I feel identical about but just as a sequel feel lesser).
Listen the story is very good but if someone says this game's story is the greatest story ever told in gaming I would be begging them to play more video games
This review contains spoilers
TLOU is painfully mediocre. Except for Ellie, everything else in it is too aimless, too simple, too cynical, has no replay value whatsoever and writing is too weak to care about it. The most of the game feels like a filler and it does not even have fun set-pieces with its cinema-wannabe presentation. Strange to see how people craving towards full freedom in video games make such an exception for this game.
I had the highest amount of technical issues while playing this game than any other one - plot-important doors not opening, FPS being very unstable, walking animation being nullified and characters starting to move in T poses, textures not loading to the point of me just standing in the void and so on and so forth - but I would not say it was anything significant, as I got used to FPS and the bugs disappear from the game moment you reload from the last checkpoint
The Last of Us is immersive but merely on a micro level, with very small details that people usually do not really care about while playing games, aside of companionship with Ellie that feels very natural and there is a lot of effort put to flesh out their dynamic... and generally facial expressions and body language is good to capitalize on it further. Although conversations themselves in general are good in how they flow, as the game does not over-explain itself and establishes the kind of relationship several characters may have with one another, as well as making some neat wordplay (such as Ellie asking Joel about the gunfire and him answer 'cicadas', meaning both the group of people and how short-lived the actual cicadas by nature are).
Meanwhile, literally everything else is very lacking - such as, only having three type of monsters or fighting against fodders (who also have attempts to be humanized, but they all feel like one character anyway... hell the moment you arrive to your brother, you start seeing girls and generally more individuality in the camp, but every enemy (bar one girl in the ending) is the same face maniac guy) in cover shooters and that makes it super repetitive. In the whole game, you really only get caught by fodders in some small ares and trying to deal with them by killing or running away/stealth (You basically either repeat some simple stealth stuff or just run around to not get hit...). At least, these things have weight behind them, with heavy gunfire, close-range weapons that can be used only once most of the time, scarce ammo, how deadly the enemies are despite their small numbers and how destructive the playable characters are instead of being un-diagnosed schizophreniacs.
I did not particularly care about the opposing A.I. and they were coming off goofy whenever they tried to come at me bare handed in the middle of two-sided gunfire, even when I had more than Ellie as an ally. A.I. for the companions are good (or, at least, convincing enough for me), though and they do not really do anything that breaks the immersion despite them performing things that usually warrant flow-breaking cutscenes even in many other PS3 games and is generally convincing and entertaining, even if most of the things they do are predetermined and they even are invisible amidst the stealth, I still like it because of how puzzles would not work for a lonely brooding character, communication in the fights, delivery of some items and them being visible in stealth scenes would make the game way too insufferable.
That said, the game not having co-op option only switching POV with Ellie in a very convenient moments really does feel like a cop-out, because Ellie can disappear anytime from Joel's vision and then spawned wherever the story wants her to be. I would say RE: Revelations 2 (even if its nowhere near as immersive as TLOU - but that is not the point I am making right here, so let us ignore it) did a better job at it and it also gave each of the supporting characters different roles.
Puzzles as a breathing room? Haha, you literally just drag ladder/'boat' from one place to another obvious place like 15 times and that's it, every pathway is almost identical. It is mostly used for mundane interactions to bond the characters further, so here is that.
Of course, it has zero replay value because it is trying too much to come off as a movie, but is not good enough even at that. You can even kill zombies just by punching them. Not only that, but it virtually has no story - seasons are basically episodic story-lines with abrupt and forced plot advancements, to the point of feeling like fillers because they barely (if at all) have any importance and get immediately forgotten, making the story drag a lot despite all of these story-lines being rushed as hell (you waste whole game to get to one place and you only have one scene there... there is a story-line where Ellie gets kidnapped by a faction, Ellie kills some guy in their camp and the plot-line immediately ends in the middle of nowhere... There is also a guy and his brother you befriend, but the moment they finish their job in the plot, brother gets turned into a zombie out-of-nowhere and his older brother immediately kills himself - all this getting zero foreshadowing, internally or externally).
And there is also a weird habit of cutting the scene and immediately skipping the time, dropping as in tonally different scene the moment after something supposedly emotional happens in the story. Prominent example of this being the very prologue - first, story wants us to get attached to father and his daughter with a speed of light and even cheaply plays on the expectation by giving as 3 minute gameplay section for the daughter. 10 minutes later she dies at the hand of the soldier, who is spawned out-of-nowhere and who gets completely unjustified order and he gets confused as if he was a teenager (because that's within the characteristics for such an important job, right?). Then instead of seeing Joel's grief to at least emphasize to his grief by his own very emotions to connect with the scene, story simply does not let us and skips 20 years of his life. Needless to say, both pacing and structure of this story is quite unappealing to me personally.
Aside of Ellie, not only none of the characters give you much reason to either care about them or find interesting and be intrigued about their placement in the overarching plot, but even main characters themselves do not care about them or get affected - Joel's inseparable best friend? Dies a meaningless death at the start and Joel does not even raise an eyebrow (well he does a bit more than that, but its just not enough to be convincing)... Ellie gets assaulted? Kills someone for the first time? Someone she befriended turned into a zombie in front of her AGAIN? Well too bad, no reaction (aside of Joel being proud of her...), in the next scene she will start whistling or something I guess... Like yeah, it is mature and all with how selfish and survival oriented everyone is as the result of civilization's fall and how even the main characters can commit bad deeds without feeling bad about it, but it is just too cynical when there are not exceptions made for people they have established attachment and thus very dry for me to experience. Joel only really gets mad and tortures the random fodders, so the full potential to communicate is not reached. Oh and characters also change their minds pretty fast as well - you have Joel who does not want to take Ellie with him because he trusts his brother more than himself (that was a nice bit of confession, I must admit) and fights with her, but in the next minute he takes Ellie back... Joel's brother does not want to help Joel because he does not want to risk his family, but then sees Joel killing people and talking to Ellie and immediately changes his mind...
Also, you can't really try to come off hyper realistic and, at the same time, let some 50 years old guy (do not know his actual age, but you get the point), who can't even make proper jumps and whines about his age, to massacre an army equivalent of soldiers in their own base AND then allow him to somehow slip through the rest of the army in their own building with predictable exit routes while he is carrying a child with him. You also can't make the girl 'easy to track' in the middle of the camp full of people hunting her down and, at the same time, let her get away completely scot-free (funnily, the story-line ends before they even get out from that place). So, basically, Ellie (virtually alone) not only ruined the whole camp, but did that without any consequences whatsoever. Hell, they never get injured at someone else's hand throughout the whole game, Joel only gets injured once and that's just because he drops on something. That is not a characteristic of a plausible cinematic experience (well, not counting blockbusters), but good old FPS shooter.
And the story is full of such convenient developments in favor of main characters - like in Winter, we have a smart guy who deduced just by girls' impressive skills and need for medicine, that she was with Joel and trailed the girl, BUT somehow, his whole camp ONLY came after Ellie and completely forgot Joel's existence... - while everyone else are just always suffer heavy consequences - so even if they are not really winning anything, I still was not really invested in their conflicts, because at least they were not losing things, in comparison to everyone else - the ending was probably the only exception (and it standing out highlights how the rest of the story does not have much effort put into it), because you get like 1-2 tapes (which is quite very little) where you can see the people you are killing are struggling too and doing something for the better, while we have selfish Joel lying to even Ellie. That being said, game being so cynical and dead AND still trying to make you believe that a sacrifice of one girl WITH NO GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS can have any worthwhile effect on the world is iffy to me, given the damage seems irreversible and I fail to grasp what exactly would Ellie's sacrifice fix. Although, that probably makes the ordeal better, rather than dampening its quality.
TLOU is fine in terms of showing the consequences over the world, what the zombie attack ha done to society and an individual, but the presence of something that would deny the zombie virus and how denying people of that miraculous chance is not provided.
Already much prefer TLOU2 to it and I have not even played it
I had the highest amount of technical issues while playing this game than any other one - plot-important doors not opening, FPS being very unstable, walking animation being nullified and characters starting to move in T poses, textures not loading to the point of me just standing in the void and so on and so forth - but I would not say it was anything significant, as I got used to FPS and the bugs disappear from the game moment you reload from the last checkpoint
The Last of Us is immersive but merely on a micro level, with very small details that people usually do not really care about while playing games, aside of companionship with Ellie that feels very natural and there is a lot of effort put to flesh out their dynamic... and generally facial expressions and body language is good to capitalize on it further. Although conversations themselves in general are good in how they flow, as the game does not over-explain itself and establishes the kind of relationship several characters may have with one another, as well as making some neat wordplay (such as Ellie asking Joel about the gunfire and him answer 'cicadas', meaning both the group of people and how short-lived the actual cicadas by nature are).
Meanwhile, literally everything else is very lacking - such as, only having three type of monsters or fighting against fodders (who also have attempts to be humanized, but they all feel like one character anyway... hell the moment you arrive to your brother, you start seeing girls and generally more individuality in the camp, but every enemy (bar one girl in the ending) is the same face maniac guy) in cover shooters and that makes it super repetitive. In the whole game, you really only get caught by fodders in some small ares and trying to deal with them by killing or running away/stealth (You basically either repeat some simple stealth stuff or just run around to not get hit...). At least, these things have weight behind them, with heavy gunfire, close-range weapons that can be used only once most of the time, scarce ammo, how deadly the enemies are despite their small numbers and how destructive the playable characters are instead of being un-diagnosed schizophreniacs.
I did not particularly care about the opposing A.I. and they were coming off goofy whenever they tried to come at me bare handed in the middle of two-sided gunfire, even when I had more than Ellie as an ally. A.I. for the companions are good (or, at least, convincing enough for me), though and they do not really do anything that breaks the immersion despite them performing things that usually warrant flow-breaking cutscenes even in many other PS3 games and is generally convincing and entertaining, even if most of the things they do are predetermined and they even are invisible amidst the stealth, I still like it because of how puzzles would not work for a lonely brooding character, communication in the fights, delivery of some items and them being visible in stealth scenes would make the game way too insufferable.
That said, the game not having co-op option only switching POV with Ellie in a very convenient moments really does feel like a cop-out, because Ellie can disappear anytime from Joel's vision and then spawned wherever the story wants her to be. I would say RE: Revelations 2 (even if its nowhere near as immersive as TLOU - but that is not the point I am making right here, so let us ignore it) did a better job at it and it also gave each of the supporting characters different roles.
Puzzles as a breathing room? Haha, you literally just drag ladder/'boat' from one place to another obvious place like 15 times and that's it, every pathway is almost identical. It is mostly used for mundane interactions to bond the characters further, so here is that.
Of course, it has zero replay value because it is trying too much to come off as a movie, but is not good enough even at that. You can even kill zombies just by punching them. Not only that, but it virtually has no story - seasons are basically episodic story-lines with abrupt and forced plot advancements, to the point of feeling like fillers because they barely (if at all) have any importance and get immediately forgotten, making the story drag a lot despite all of these story-lines being rushed as hell (you waste whole game to get to one place and you only have one scene there... there is a story-line where Ellie gets kidnapped by a faction, Ellie kills some guy in their camp and the plot-line immediately ends in the middle of nowhere... There is also a guy and his brother you befriend, but the moment they finish their job in the plot, brother gets turned into a zombie out-of-nowhere and his older brother immediately kills himself - all this getting zero foreshadowing, internally or externally).
And there is also a weird habit of cutting the scene and immediately skipping the time, dropping as in tonally different scene the moment after something supposedly emotional happens in the story. Prominent example of this being the very prologue - first, story wants us to get attached to father and his daughter with a speed of light and even cheaply plays on the expectation by giving as 3 minute gameplay section for the daughter. 10 minutes later she dies at the hand of the soldier, who is spawned out-of-nowhere and who gets completely unjustified order and he gets confused as if he was a teenager (because that's within the characteristics for such an important job, right?). Then instead of seeing Joel's grief to at least emphasize to his grief by his own very emotions to connect with the scene, story simply does not let us and skips 20 years of his life. Needless to say, both pacing and structure of this story is quite unappealing to me personally.
Aside of Ellie, not only none of the characters give you much reason to either care about them or find interesting and be intrigued about their placement in the overarching plot, but even main characters themselves do not care about them or get affected - Joel's inseparable best friend? Dies a meaningless death at the start and Joel does not even raise an eyebrow (well he does a bit more than that, but its just not enough to be convincing)... Ellie gets assaulted? Kills someone for the first time? Someone she befriended turned into a zombie in front of her AGAIN? Well too bad, no reaction (aside of Joel being proud of her...), in the next scene she will start whistling or something I guess... Like yeah, it is mature and all with how selfish and survival oriented everyone is as the result of civilization's fall and how even the main characters can commit bad deeds without feeling bad about it, but it is just too cynical when there are not exceptions made for people they have established attachment and thus very dry for me to experience. Joel only really gets mad and tortures the random fodders, so the full potential to communicate is not reached. Oh and characters also change their minds pretty fast as well - you have Joel who does not want to take Ellie with him because he trusts his brother more than himself (that was a nice bit of confession, I must admit) and fights with her, but in the next minute he takes Ellie back... Joel's brother does not want to help Joel because he does not want to risk his family, but then sees Joel killing people and talking to Ellie and immediately changes his mind...
Also, you can't really try to come off hyper realistic and, at the same time, let some 50 years old guy (do not know his actual age, but you get the point), who can't even make proper jumps and whines about his age, to massacre an army equivalent of soldiers in their own base AND then allow him to somehow slip through the rest of the army in their own building with predictable exit routes while he is carrying a child with him. You also can't make the girl 'easy to track' in the middle of the camp full of people hunting her down and, at the same time, let her get away completely scot-free (funnily, the story-line ends before they even get out from that place). So, basically, Ellie (virtually alone) not only ruined the whole camp, but did that without any consequences whatsoever. Hell, they never get injured at someone else's hand throughout the whole game, Joel only gets injured once and that's just because he drops on something. That is not a characteristic of a plausible cinematic experience (well, not counting blockbusters), but good old FPS shooter.
And the story is full of such convenient developments in favor of main characters - like in Winter, we have a smart guy who deduced just by girls' impressive skills and need for medicine, that she was with Joel and trailed the girl, BUT somehow, his whole camp ONLY came after Ellie and completely forgot Joel's existence... - while everyone else are just always suffer heavy consequences - so even if they are not really winning anything, I still was not really invested in their conflicts, because at least they were not losing things, in comparison to everyone else - the ending was probably the only exception (and it standing out highlights how the rest of the story does not have much effort put into it), because you get like 1-2 tapes (which is quite very little) where you can see the people you are killing are struggling too and doing something for the better, while we have selfish Joel lying to even Ellie. That being said, game being so cynical and dead AND still trying to make you believe that a sacrifice of one girl WITH NO GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS can have any worthwhile effect on the world is iffy to me, given the damage seems irreversible and I fail to grasp what exactly would Ellie's sacrifice fix. Although, that probably makes the ordeal better, rather than dampening its quality.
TLOU is fine in terms of showing the consequences over the world, what the zombie attack ha done to society and an individual, but the presence of something that would deny the zombie virus and how denying people of that miraculous chance is not provided.
Already much prefer TLOU2 to it and I have not even played it
Doomed us to a decade of sad dads and black pilled ultraviolence.
Um ótimo jogo, acompanhado de uma experiência estética inteligente. Claro: está longe de ter uma ludonarrativa interessante, contando com uma conexão quase nula entre narrativa e gameplay. Espere MUITO por dissonância ludonarrativa, roteiro cafona nível David Cage e gameplay decente que não se destaca. Mas lembre-se de uma coisa: os personagens, a ambientação e o universo com certeza vão te conquistar. Joel e Ellie tem uma das melhores dinâmicas dos jogos e mesmo com as reclamações acima, nenhum dos problemas chega nem preto de destruir a experiência!
"okay"
Actually what George Romero's movies always lacked was survivors doing hours of platforming puzzles and scavenging for broken garbage.
Pretty generic zombie story (characters most travel from one side of the country to the other to make a cure, finding other survivors who help or fight them along the way) but the characters are pretty well written. Gameplay is a blend of decent third person shooting, bad stealth and bad puzzles but overall its passable.
A game permeated with shame: not just through the course of the story, which is fine, but in its very design: there is a disgraceful amount of self-hatred in modern videogame storytelling, as if they would much rather be movies or television shows, but organization gatekeeping forces them to an interactive medium. The Last of Us is a game designed in a manner not dissimilar to the worst of early 2010s prestige TV (think, like, Low Winter Sun) but with lazy video game time-filler like "collect 40 dog tags."
If you like zombie stories, it's a good zombie story. But if you like good video game stories, it is very much not one, and the praise for its narrative is antithetical to the development of gaming as its own medium capable of rich, emotionally fulfilling tales.
If you like zombie stories, it's a good zombie story. But if you like good video game stories, it is very much not one, and the praise for its narrative is antithetical to the development of gaming as its own medium capable of rich, emotionally fulfilling tales.
The first time you play it, it absolutely takes your breath away. However, I think looking back, while it's still pretty strong, it's not as unique or interesting as other things I've played.
This game made me cry, made me feel distraught, and left me feeling stunned and conflicted. I don't think I can handle the emotional toll of playing through it again. But I had never had such a strong emotional attachment to a game before I played this, or even since. It made me realize what a powerful storytelling medium videogames could be.
The Last of Us combines the worst aspects popular in games of its time with a mediocre story that pulls from other better, or just as mediocre but in different ways, apocalyptic plots with a world that only stands out due to not being another drab wasteland setting (we go with the Russia/Eastern European green style not the US/Australia Mad Max brown kind) and the zombies being plant zombies instead of normal slow brain devouring or violent charging horde zombies.
The few decent moments the game has are at odds with the constant obvious turns the plot takes, fairly limited combat against human enemies and dull combat against other enemies, a ridiculous ending goal due to the badly written to make everyone incompetent groups you work with, and almost every generic bad design trope of its time including a bad crafting system, dull simplistic stealth focused sections, slowly walking through areas while the "important" conversations play out, and a constant variety of nonsense busywork like finding generators, dragging objects, and moving planks around because one of the characters refuses to swim. Made during the weird time where a lot of lead developers apparently became dads and wanted to make dad games, maybe for all the time they spent not seeing their own kids while being forced to work long overtime hours making garbage for major studios.
The few decent moments the game has are at odds with the constant obvious turns the plot takes, fairly limited combat against human enemies and dull combat against other enemies, a ridiculous ending goal due to the badly written to make everyone incompetent groups you work with, and almost every generic bad design trope of its time including a bad crafting system, dull simplistic stealth focused sections, slowly walking through areas while the "important" conversations play out, and a constant variety of nonsense busywork like finding generators, dragging objects, and moving planks around because one of the characters refuses to swim. Made during the weird time where a lot of lead developers apparently became dads and wanted to make dad games, maybe for all the time they spent not seeing their own kids while being forced to work long overtime hours making garbage for major studios.