By Request Review #3 - 2021
This is a landmark piece of storytelling that has the intensity and rawness that makes the early seasons of "The Walking Dead" so effective. It builds a bond between these two characters that leaves you winded and on edge when things start getting incredibly threatening. That's a great word to describe this gameplay experience: "threatening". There are few games that make me feel like every step I take, and every bullet I spend, could drastically make or break my playthrough. It could be that it's because my first playthrough of this game was on "grounded" mode, but truly, I wouldn't have it any other way. If you're looking to just enjoy the story without many obstacles, certainly hit up the easier difficulties. If you're like me, and are looking to immerse yourself in a world that's visceral and deadly, then crank the difficulty way up to "grounded". It forced me to slow down, strategize, and treat my session as if I only had one life to live. It made me feel the story even more, as I grew exhausted along side Joel and Ellie on their year long cross-country journey to find hope in a hopeless world dying from a horrifying viral outbreak.
The only negatives I experienced had a lot to do with this Remastered version's lack of perfect polish. Although very rare, glitches are capable of ruining your playthrough. Enemies clipping through walls, or even the game deciding to restart your session were very discouraging when they happened. That link leads to a clip of that moment, where I spent over an hour on that very tough section, only to have my progress yoinked away from me due to this very rare glitch. I never saw it again, but it was horrifying to have to go through that section all over again, and the playthrough from that point forward felt like a roll of the dice. I'm not sure how the PS3 version is, but hopefully it doesn't experience these problems. Otherwise, this would be a 4 star game for me.
This is a landmark piece of storytelling that has the intensity and rawness that makes the early seasons of "The Walking Dead" so effective. It builds a bond between these two characters that leaves you winded and on edge when things start getting incredibly threatening. That's a great word to describe this gameplay experience: "threatening". There are few games that make me feel like every step I take, and every bullet I spend, could drastically make or break my playthrough. It could be that it's because my first playthrough of this game was on "grounded" mode, but truly, I wouldn't have it any other way. If you're looking to just enjoy the story without many obstacles, certainly hit up the easier difficulties. If you're like me, and are looking to immerse yourself in a world that's visceral and deadly, then crank the difficulty way up to "grounded". It forced me to slow down, strategize, and treat my session as if I only had one life to live. It made me feel the story even more, as I grew exhausted along side Joel and Ellie on their year long cross-country journey to find hope in a hopeless world dying from a horrifying viral outbreak.
The only negatives I experienced had a lot to do with this Remastered version's lack of perfect polish. Although very rare, glitches are capable of ruining your playthrough. Enemies clipping through walls, or even the game deciding to restart your session were very discouraging when they happened. That link leads to a clip of that moment, where I spent over an hour on that very tough section, only to have my progress yoinked away from me due to this very rare glitch. I never saw it again, but it was horrifying to have to go through that section all over again, and the playthrough from that point forward felt like a roll of the dice. I'm not sure how the PS3 version is, but hopefully it doesn't experience these problems. Otherwise, this would be a 4 star game for me.