The Last of Us (Part) 2 [PS4]

[Deleted member 11852]

The review embargo is over and the reviews are gradually, slowly, coming out..

GameInformer: 10
Eurogamer: Essential
GameSpot: 8

Leaving it there, got work.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Some of the backlash to these reviews is expected but still silly. People are wrapped up in their emotions before even playing the game

 

[Strange]

Currently sitting at 96% with 76 reviews. Wow.



https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/the-last-of-us-part-ii/critic-reviews

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yeah, there are a lot of "100" or "10" perfect scores. Plenty below as well but it was 95% meteoritic 5 minutes past embargo time, and it's been gradually creeping up.

I would have been surprising if it equalled, let alone surprised, the original game. For all the changes, refinements and improvements across the board, it is more of the same core mechanics. More than anything, I think people were bowled over the the writing, acting and direction of the original game. It was unexpected. This time, it was just wholly expected.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I've read some of the non-trolly lower scoring reviews and there is a common theme is that the game is just too dark (grim, depressing, violent) for some. Polygon summed up their review with:

"The Last of Us Part 2 depicts individual people who are instead ruthless, capable, yet self-absorbed, and whose perception of violence is limited to how it affects them and their chosen family members. They are almost unbelievably unable to see the bigger picture. Part 2 ends up feeling needlessly bleak, at a time when a nihilistic worldview has perhaps never been less attractive. Its characters are surviving, but they’re not learning, and they’re certainly not making anything better."​

It sounds like they were expecting The Last of Us Part II (and the original game) to be telling a story where being good, or having good moral fibre, in any way helps in the world that the games depict. They have definitely missed the marketing beat of both games I think. The characters exist in a world where trusting people will get you killed and where not killing first will get you killed. It takes place in a brutal hopeless hellscape. As for not seeing the big picture? Did reviewers expect this to be a theme after the ending of the first game? Literally somebody putting their personal feelings above literally everybody else in the world.

It sounds like The Last of Us Part II has doubled down on not having a virtuous protagonist and it is a risky choice. We've seen from many games with moral decision that the vast majority of gamers will take the good path so embracing a character who will do anything to survive is unusual. Given the option to be good/bad in a game (Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Infamous etc) I naturally gravitate to the good choice because that's just me. In games like this I am able to sidestep the morals because a) I'm not making the decision here, the story is beating to it's own drum, and b) I'm not trying to change the world I'm in, I'm trying to survive it.

The level of graphic violence has cropped up in most reviews, even those with perfect scores. Kinda Funny Games did an hour-long review podcast with four folks talking about it. They absolutely loved the game and had few criticisms but one of the guys said the he had to take a break every three hours, get some light and fresh air, because it was all just so dark, violent and bleak.

I'm curious to see if I feel the same way. I recall many previews for Red Dead Redemption 2 mentioned that the graphic violence may deter many for taking a violent path but I never felt it was as bad as some described.

 

[Arwin]

Yep this is what stopped me from playing through the original game and prefer something like the Uncharted series. But I don’t like most Stephen King stories et al either. To each their own.

 

[Xbat]

To each their own.

Exactly and there's nothing wrong with that. What gets on my titties is when people suggest that it should be changed, like people wanting an easy mode in a souls game.
If the games not for you just don't get it but wanting it to change to suit you is just wrong( when I say you I don't mean you I mean people in general).

The Last of Us wouldn't be the same game for me without the violence( that's not glorified) and the characters being true to themselves( they aren't people playing games without consequences ) funnily enough I hate restarting in stealth games when I get found I try and fight out of the situation or adapt as best I can. I also hate exploring if something is time sensitive in the story because it breaks the emersion at least for the first play through.

 

[DieH@rd]

Only the previously shown zones are in this vid. The game looks stellar.

Pro is steady 1440p30 with minor drops when swimming, base PS4 is rock solid 1080p30.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yep this is what stopped me from playing through the original game and prefer something like the Uncharted series. But I don’t like most Stephen King stories et al either. To each their own.

Exactly. these games share a lot of third-person action game DNA but tonally they couldn't be more polar opposites - although I felt they gradually introduced more serious themes as the series progressed but it was still pulp adventure. I'm not a huge horror game fan myself, for me to get into it then it has to be doing something interesting. I do like the post-apocalyptic genre though and that swung it for me and I took a risk buying a genre I don't like on PS3.

Exactly and there's nothing wrong with that. What gets on my titties is when people suggest that it should be changed, like people wanting an easy mode in a souls game.

Yeah. None of the reviews I read asked for that but whatever reason they had a different expectation of the what the story, story themes, and character motivation that what Naughty Dog delivered. Going back to my previous post, I don't what caused that expectation because I had no expectation based on that brutal first trailer.

The Last of Us is telling a story. It's a story about loss, pain and worse themes and just's just the first game. Not every game needs to have a happy ending. Not every game is there to make you feel good. It's clearly trying to make you experience something else entirely and that isn't going to be for everybody.

Only the previously shown zones are in this vid. The game looks stellar.

Yeah, I look forward to the full video showing all the cool show that nobody have been allowed to show before release. Once I complete it!

 

[ultragpu]

Only the previously shown zones are in this vid. The game looks stellar.

Pro is steady 1440p30 with minor drops when swimming, base PS4 is rock solid 1080p30.

I just can't get over how crazy beautiful it looks whenever foliage is on screen, that urban forest level alone makes it the best looking current gen title to date and DF said it's only the tip of the iceberg from whatever they couldn't show in this vid. The indirect lighting is super efficient here I wonder what sorcery ND has used this time.

 

[Noize]

Naughty Dog creates the best looking foliage bar none. All of their games have the most lush vegetation as well. It all originated from Crash Bandicoot the 1996 ps1 classic. I was blown away by its lush graphics when I've first played it. It was like no other 3d game at the time. Some thought it was cgi quality. Lol.

 

[London Geezer]

I can't even begin to imagine what ND will come up with on PS5. Bit scared actually.

 

[ultragpu]

Yeah to think they've achieved this on current gen hardware, the leap in graphics on PS5 would be nothing short of mind blowing.
YT capture.

Indirect lighting/foliage The Game.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

My main beef with TLoU2 is how static the world is. Beautiful folded, well lit table-cloths that don't move when you touch them. Perhaps next-gen will be able to simulate the world more. How about your tell-tale movements are actually used by AI to track you? Or you can pick up any of the clutter and detritus lying around and chuck it?

 

[London Geezer]

My main beef with TLoU2 is how static the world is. Beautiful folded, well lit table-cloths that don't move when you touch them. Perhaps next-gen will be able to simulate the world more. How about your tell-tale movements are actually used by AI to track you? Or you can pick up any of the clutter and detritus lying around and chuck it?

I agree. My brain now has PS5 in mind and everything I see on PS4 is just static and empty.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I agree. My brain now has PS5 in mind and everything I see on PS4 is just static and empty.

I've been trying to replay The Last of Us but I've now seen so much of the same B-roll footage in various spoiler-free TLoU2 reviews that replaying has been hard knowing what I will experience in four days time.

As good as the visuals are for PS4/Pro DF's Part 1 analysis made it very clear that all the really impressive graphics stuff has not yet been shown and a second DF Part 2 analysis of everything they couldn't show will follow. So uhhh...

 

[orangpelupa]

I can't even begin to imagine what ND will come up with on PS5. Bit scared actually.

I don't think I can comfortably play TLOU3 on PS5 if ND keeps dialing up the realism, gore, and how "human" the bots are.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I’ve read some of the criticism of the game. I think some of it sounds like legitimate criticism though I wouldn’t necessarily agree. I haven’t played it so I don’t know. The general complaint seems to be that the game forces you to do terrible things and then drives the point home by making you feel guilty, which could work if it were a moral/ethical exploration, but the game lacks sophistication in dealing with things. That’s a similar criticism that I’d level against the Walking Dead after a certain point. I’m not sure if the game runs up against fatigue because of the same kind of stories and scenarios in tv, film etc. A Boy and His Dog was published in 1969 so these kinds of apocalypse ethics have been explored for a long time.

 

[Scott_Arm]

This is a pretty funny spoof of the trolley cart problem which is essentially the Last of Us 1.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1272138808142761987

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The general complaint seems to be that the game forces you to do terrible things and then drives the point home by making you feel guilty, which could work if it were a moral/ethical exploration, but the game lacks sophistication in dealing with things.

All of the reviews I read/watched mention the violence and consequences of it told throughout the story, with consequences not always apparent at the time of said violence. I assume there was a purpose to giving 'enemies' names and identities and you as the player may not perhaps understand the ramification of a (or many) particular kills until later on. Whether or not the game lacks sophistication delivering this message is both subjective and a bit of an unknown. Once the game has been out a while, I hope the creative team responsible for the story and scene-to-scene writing will reveal what it was they intended the player to feel. Then we'll know if they missed their mark, or hit it. If the aim was to deliberately make people uncomfortable with senseless violence, I'd say it hit that spot for many. If that's not what they were going for, they very much missed it.

Some reviewers definitely did not like how playing the game made them feel. The vast majority, the 40+ 10/10 reviews, have generally said that the game has made them seriously reflect on it. A phrase that cropped up a lot in those having completed the game was that they were "still processing it". I am really curious about this common comment and where this game is going to take me.

That’s a similar criticism that I’d level against the Walking Dead after a certain point. I’m not sure if the game runs up against fatigue because of the same kind of stories and scenarios in tv, film etc. A Boy and His Dog was published in 1969 so these kinds of apocalypse ethics have been explored for a long time.

A Boy and His Dog is a interesting movie and one I was only saw a couple of years back. A Clockwork Orange is another film that created controversy with its subject matter. I very much agree on The Walking Dead, it feels like cheap 'shock' value for ratings.

I am really curious at this point to experience the game because I can't recall ever having been shocked by video game violence. I can and do get very immersed in games but I've always had that 'game filter' that reminds me that these are just pixels. Even watching gruesome deaths in Until Dawn, I can register "that is really fucking unpleasant" but it's not something that sticks with me even when it's mo-capped well acted pixels.

I mentioned earlier in the thread that RDR2's violence was cited as putting some people off committing acts of violence but I can't say it impacted me at all. I had a solid game violence mental filter, but have no filter for TV and movies. They continue to shock except where it's does excessively to the absurd.

Roll on Friday..