The Last of Us (Part) 2 [PS4]

Turns out TLOU2 use the usual "boxed" level. So instead of murdering everyone or sneaking like snake, you can simply run thru all of them directly to the next "boxed" level. At least in normal difficulty. Dunno other difficulty makes you run slower or not, enemy run faster or not, they aim better or not.

Really handy for some levels / area where the next "boxed" level looks so obvious. Usually indicated by

* cramped space
* closed door that looks obviously it's the way to the next loom
* jumping / climbing / height difference that higher than normal

This makes me wonder, does it have multiple cutscene / dialogue alternative? What if you do zero kills and just run past all of them? What if you completely sneak pass them?

 

Just ran my playthough on survivor mode and mine is 33 hrs.
Agreed, players that have played it will have quite a bit of psychological impact.

Most of the story criticism comes from people that read the plot without actually experiencing it.
I can understand if people hate the plot after playing through it due to *reasons*.

 

ya you can run through them if you can complete the exiting sequence.

 

I'm only about 6-8 hours in and been taking my time but resources are very scarce on survivor so far unless I'm missing a lot of hidden resources.

 

Maybe I'm used to the snappiness of the Division 2 (the only 3rd person shooter I'm currently playing), but I find it hard to aim.
That makes me want to sneak and stealth kill as much as I can. The aiming though, really adds to the tension.
And in this case, as opposed to RDR2 where I simply couldn't get into it because of the controls, the animations really make up for the slightly sluggish controls.
Other than that, I really like the game.
I am still in Seattle, taking my time exploring everything.

Spoiler: Spoiler

I don't know how I'll feel when the game makes me play again as Abby.
Because I really wanna help Ellie kill her.

 

I'm just starting Seattle Day 2 and I'm already missing Dina. I love her character more so then Ellie. She's very smart and saved my ass more then a few occasion. She has this sense of charm and sweetness that is easy to get attached to without being annoying like other supporting character. I really hope we get to reconnect at some point later in the game.

As for the game itself. This is more like a refined and clean up version of TLOU regarding the gameplay mechanics. Which I'm fine with because the gameplay was already near perfect.

The story. Oh my...it has been an emotional roller coaster ride for the six hours that I've put in so far. I'm not sure where this thing is gonna take us but I'm very curious and to be cautiously optimistic of what's to come. I came into the game blind and free of spoiler and I'm loving what I see and hear so far. This has some of the best graphics and sound you will ever get to witness on the PS4.

 

Second half is quite different in the way you approach combat, but for the first half I find it quite easy to preserve resources.
General Guideline to playing survivor mode (having cleared it in 33 hours)

1. Don't get shot at. I'd rather throw a cocktail hidden than engaging in open combat and then using a medkit.

2. Stay hidden (duh). SHOOT WHILE PRONE, as shooting crouched means your character is actually standing when you aim and can be seen from across the map. It's okay to alert enemies or killing some of them in sight of other NPCs. Just make sure you have a plan to lure and kill or run away. Throwing a brick and striking is a no go for stealth. Bricking => grab=>stealth kill is the way to go if you have trouble grabbing. Some NPCs taking the high ground are worth killing off using a rifle&scope and going loud so don't be too stingy on them. Just make sure you don't waste rifle rounds on enemies that you can kill using another weapon. Also, feel free to kill the final few by going loud. You don't need stealth if there's nobody to see it. Judge how many enemies are left by using their dialogue against them.

3. Learn to dodge through the usual infected and humans. Never melee anything else, as you'll likely come out dead or enduring lots of HP loss.

4. Cocktail/booby trap dogs and their handlers. That safely kills them and avoids the risk of being spotted and engaging in open combat. Dogs are annoying as hell. Learn to hate them more than Abby. They are priority #1 without a doubt, and have a special place in my heart for using my booze. Yes that alerts everybody but that's going to happen with every encounter no matter what.

5. AI is quite good in this game and their unsuspecting search pattern is actually harder to predict than their Search and destroy pattern, so you'll actually want them to come out looking for you once you've cleared your initial area and established a safe zone for you.

6. Choose your skills WISELY. The skills I put in high priority is the following:

1. Entire Stealth Tree, all the way up to Faster Stealth Kills - Essential for stealth. (first upgrade book and entire should be maxed ASAP, also gives silencer with its upgrade, which is vital late game)
2. Precision line - Get Listener range upgrade ASAP, doesn't need explaining.
3. Then save your supplements, and wait for the final book, where you'll see the explosive line. I didn't see too much reason to use the explosive arrow, so I leveled it up to the fourth skill, giving you Craft Explosive Arrows, Improved Trap Mines, Improved Molotovs, and Craft More Trap Mines. Trap mines have huge range and will save you in the latter parts (one certain type of infected), so getting 2 traps for the price of one is ESSENTIAL. Molotovs getting more bang for the buck is also good.
4. Lastly, get craft more arrows. Good resource sink because you can't do much else with scissors and tape other than upgrading your melee weapon, which Ellie really doesn't need.
5. Anything else you have left over.​

7. Get damage boost / scope mods ASAP, and save up for ~100 parts for bow as the bow mods are "CRITICAL" to the bow being remotely useful. You'll see why when you actually use the rangefinder upgrade.

8. Day 3 is where you'll be quite resource limited according to my play through, but mainly because you'll be force to empty your arsenal through several encounters. The is the point in those encounters: use the loud weapons and mines freely, but save up on silent weapons. You should save pistol rounds and bows for normal encounters.

The most important skill for the second half after listening range upgrade imo is shiv upgrade. #2 is craft more pipe bombs/improved silencer as you'll be using a lot of that.

 

enable the auto aim (or whatever it was called) in the option.

 

I learnt that if you kill the handler, the dogs aren't a threat anymore. They just sit and patrol the area where the handler is so then are really easy to navigate around.

 

you end up killing everybody on the map to finish your scavenging of the map so might as well as kill the dogs too.

 

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We're in the latter half of the game now but doubling down on stealth, detection and traps skills worked well for us. That said, we didn't play this like MGS and had number open wild fights charging around the environment and melee. The dodge and strike feels great. Resources were not a massive issue for us most of the time except early on in the game. Once you've unlocked several weapons and other devices, you'll always have some combat options. If all else fails, investing in stealth/detection means toy can avoid open combat

The range finger was the only bow upgrade we didn't get, we got really good at eyeballing it. That and we tended to bow snipe close up. We found the the human AI had a good sense of the direction of a stealth bow attack but poor perception of range. So they've often charge in your direction and go past you, allowing you to stealth kill them from behind.

Explosives arrows were tremendous though. If there are lot a human enemies far away, snipe one with a regular arrow then when all his buddies cluster around take them all out with an explosive arrow. This is more for fun, we found that most weapons and tactics could be used in any situation. The only enemy that require specific tactics are the stage 4 infected. Fire, explosives, shotguns for the quickest takedowns.

Same. Clearing the map makes for quicker and more comprehensive scavenging.

 

Will try it...
I hate overtly aggressive autoaim, I hope it's subtle.

 

The messy aiming is kinda part of the game though, since you can then upgrade weapons and yourself to 'more stable' aiming, which makes your life much easier.

I remedied that by simply avoiding gun fights as much as possible, which is actually how I think this game is meant to be played.

 

More games need the range of options of The Last of Us 2. So many games put me off with just control/gameplay aspects that I can't change that more often than not will just have me quit in frustration rather than slog through it. I only tweaked a few options here and there but I bet the game could be made anywhere from very easy to very difficult. I have no problem with this, if folks want something more akin to a gratuitous walking simulator for the story, good for then. Likewise if folks want this to be a punishingly brutal experience with little resources and facing perception level 10 enemies with 20/20 vision and perfect hearing, then go for it.

This is the future of gaming. Here are the game fundamentals, tweak it as you see it to get the maximum enjoyment out of it.

 

Day One in Seattle was already stunningly pretty, then Day Two takes it to the next level . The foliage and indirect lighting just seem to get better and better what the hell Naught Dog. I honestly don't know at what point does the visual peak in this game haha.

 

We're still playing but thus far the best line in the game has been "Hello?. Sorry, all the dinosaurs are busy.." followed by the next couple of lines. So good

 

Love how they pay homage to Jurassic Park and The Lost World, as a JP and dinosaur fan this couldn't please me more.

 

oh my! the car chase scene got a new awesome twist! too bad at the end of the chase, ND seems forgot about the door / deliberate cutscene direction to forget the door. Or maybe the door scene was a late addition and they didnt have the time to rework the end cutscene for the car chase.

indeed! the accessability option are CRAZY. heck, its way above what PC games usually over (outside of editing ini file). Its awesome. im just baffled why no chromatic aberration option (and noise option?).

EDIT:

in one of the flashback

Spoiler: weird inconsistencies?

in a flashback where joal and ellie gonna go to a music store, they meet bloater. Ellie knew its a bloater.

but in the main story, in the current time, ellie didnt know a bloater, it was the first time she's seeing a bloater. She even complains why nature keeps making new zombies.

maybe the flashbacks were a late addition pretty late in development?