Completed it yesterday. Brilliant game I enjoyed it as much as the first one.
Gaming The Last of Us Part II (PS4)
- Thread starter Neelu
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
The more I read about the game the more I feel that I will never play it. The gameplay looks a lot of fun and the design looks amazing but with all these reports of bloated storytelling, time wasting mechanics and drag, playng through it sounds like it would be an insufferable frustration for me. I'm not a fan of ND writing in general.
Nah its still a very good game. It just suffers from its own hype.
If you're not really into Naughty Dog games, this is definitely not the game that's going to change your mind. It's everything you expect from a Naughty Dog game, taken to even more extremes.
It's anything but frustrating. This is one of those game that you should not read anything about before playing. Maybe try this once it goes on sale.
I'm a bit torn on it. In gameplay terms, it's decent. People who claim it's way better than the first though, I honestly think they've either not played the first one for a while, or just want to love this one. As yes it's a little "smoother", but still clunky, still terrible controls and still the same in terms of weapons and crafting and all that. It's a PS3 game on that front.
Then we have the worst parts, the A.I and sound engine. I'm convinced they have gone backwards as they are both that bad and broken. If you read any review that claims otherwise, or utters the word "dynamic", you know they are talking utter shite
As for the story, it's ok to me so far. This is where the pacing comes in, not the gameplay. I mean so far (19hrs) I think the gameplay pacing is pretty much bang on, it's never boring because you actually have a needed respite. Maybe on that front people who find it boring are playing on an easier difficulty and upgrading or something, because on Surviver without spending much scrap/pills, I'm finding it about right. The only boring thing is for an exploration game, you quickly learn there's not much payoff to it and it's incredibly linear (ignore every single person who utters the words open world, or even semi-open world). The pacing issues come from the story, and that alone.
In summary it's classic Naughty Dog. Looks great, attention to detail puts other's to shame, yet has mediocre gameplay, overhyped to feck by Sony and the ND fanboys but most importantly: absolutely no new ideas. But still worth the experience all the same.
I'm actually giving it a 2nd play through because I want it to win me over, but its even worse the second time and it could have been great, thats the killer, this could have been a 9 or 10.
but every character in the game is so fecking stupid, its like they are trying to out stupid the next person..
Then every time they run into a roadblock writing instead of trying to fix it logically, its "Lets knock someone out, fade to black and transfer them where we need them to be.". Whats the point in me spending 2 fecking hours going around a map that has nothing to do with story just for another cut scene that transfers me elsewhere. It makes playing said area completely pointless (the one exception being Abby in Santa Barbra. How about just design the levels properly, actually level design is good, they've just designed pointless areas that are nothing to do with the story. Which is filler.
The shock value writing, the characters and the pointless sections of gameplay. The coincidental meetings. This is a shadow of the first game.
Then every time they run into a roadblock writing instead of trying to fix it logically, its "Lets knock someone out, fade to black and transfer them where we need them to be.". Whats the point in me spending 2 fecking hours going around a map that has nothing to do with story just for another cut scene that transfers me elsewhere. It makes playing said area completely pointless (the one exception being Abby in Santa Barbra. How about just design the levels properly, actually level design is good, they've just designed pointless areas that are nothing to do with the story. Which is filler.
The shock value writing, the characters and the pointless sections of gameplay. The coincidental meetings. This is a shadow of the first game.
Finally platinum the game. My 24th one. Perfect last trophy I got was putting the hat on joel 
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Crash was my jam and the first two Uncharted games were a total blast, I'm a big fan of that Naughty Dog. However the shift in artistic pretensions and accompanying supercilious writing, in the last couple of games, has been an increasing drag to me. This game has made a cultural impact so it's very tempting, I just think that with so many other interesting games about, I should perhaps sink my time elsewhere.
Totally agree. This game was a waste opportunity, but they just cared about having a long game, rather than a coherent plot or varied gameplay.
Don't do that, don't buy into this new "long game" narrative.
It's not stupidly long game, the problems lie elsewhere.
Come on, it is. Especially for a story-driven linear game. It's compounded by the fact that it's double the length of the first game and you can probably throw in the DLC length with that.
On DLC, I hope they don't have any plot stuff in the pipeline. Add in multiplayer from the first game, TLOU's MP was fantastic and this has the perfect recipe for it; Wolves vs Scars.
It's about 20-odd hours. A few more if you really want to see the sights. How is that stupidly long?
I've spent more on any number of single player games recently. It's a daft narrative from the same people who will complain when a game is more expensive, yet shorter in the future.
Again the problem isn't the length, it's the story pacing and the fact the lulls in between the action aren't enough for some people. Not every game has to be an 8hr shooter.
I don't think the game is too long, I think the issue is the game is too long between plot points and a lot of the area's you play are too big and feel irrelevant to the story. This is early game and everyone is probably past it, but just in case I'll spoiler it.
You spend ages exploring an area miles away from the goal, get sent on a pretty standard fetch quest (not a bad thing in itself) and when you are done, you are still miles away. Then you move a little further,
and you get teleported to where you are supposed to be to fit the sloppy writing, making the 2 hours you just spent wandering around feel pointless in the grand scheme of things
.
Why not just put start me closer to the goal,
and let me feel like I've achieved something by reaching the goal. It made that entire section feel like I earned nothing, I feel like that fetch quest now didn't allow me to move on but was pointless filler. For me that's why the game drags. It doesn't feel like large sections of the players control are affecting the outcome because of this.
This kind of thing happens a lot and that just makes the game drag for me. This could easily have been a 25 hour game but as it is, it feels like a 12 hour game stretched to 20+ hours because they got so much wrong.
Downtown Seattle,
horse gets blown up
as the enemy took you where you need to go. Not you.
Why not just put start me closer to the goal,
not have me captured
This kind of thing happens a lot and that just makes the game drag for me. This could easily have been a 25 hour game but as it is, it feels like a 12 hour game stretched to 20+ hours because they got so much wrong.
I don't even mind those bits tbh. I like the struggle, then the calm (even if it's all so blatantly obvious and not surprising in the least). The time jumps do come off as lazy true, like they had to justify how long it would actually take to travel that far yet couldn't spend even a day coming up with a better way to do it. But that's not the biggest pacing issue for me...
It's still the fact you are supposed to be angry and on a mission, yet for hours the target isn't even mentioned again. That's just amateur stuff. It also makes the second half fall flat for what they wanted to achieve, instead of building up the hate and then shocking you by actually making you question it...they just kind of make you forget, hence why a lot of people just didn't care by that point.
Oh for sure, I think I mentioned that before, half the time I didn't remember who my target was till I stumbled on them. Its discussed once before setting out and not again till they are a puddle of blood.
I’m confused at the masterpiece reviews mainly because there’s tiny segments of the game (if we ignore the bigger flaws) that just annoy me.
I saw two NPC’s who looked the exact same talking to each other. Waterfalls looked worse than GTA V waterfalls which is 7/8 year old game. Plus picking up stuff whilst crouched makes the characters look strange and unnatural. Their frigging legs seem to move faster than the rest of the body sometimes.
These may be just minor things and maybe I’m being unfair but it bothers me
I saw two NPC’s who looked the exact same talking to each other. Waterfalls looked worse than GTA V waterfalls which is 7/8 year old game. Plus picking up stuff whilst crouched makes the characters look strange and unnatural. Their frigging legs seem to move faster than the rest of the body sometimes.
These may be just minor things and maybe I’m being unfair but it bothers me
I'm saying they cared more about extending the length of the game in comparison to the first game, that they ended up failing in several other problems. 25-30 hours is pretty long for a linear game in comparison to the 15 hours of the first one, and such focusing ended in weird character development, characters contradicting themselves, stupid actions, non varied gameplay that doesn't change one bit by the end, long arse sections of walking while doing nothing..etc. All these problems seem to went under the carpet just because they wanted to make it much longer than first game.
The first game had compact story that was coherent enough and it ended before it got boring or the non varied gameplay started to become a problem.
I don't have problem with long games, I just want it to be done well that's all.
The biggest missed opportunity in this game imo is
That the first open area where you can freely explore different optional places is actually the only area to be that open in the entire. I couldn't believe it at first.
I explored several sites there for 3 hours or so then decided I'll return to the story and once I get another chance I'll explore more. When they reached theater I thought it'll be like a hub area and once I exit it next day I'll be able to free explore again while being able to go to my target whenever I want.
But nope! Discovered this was the last I'll ever see this open area again.
I mean if I knew that I would have explored every inch then but I wanted to complete the story. Why the feck put an open area when you're not going to utilize it for a big portion of the game ?
I explored several sites there for 3 hours or so then decided I'll return to the story and once I get another chance I'll explore more. When they reached theater I thought it'll be like a hub area and once I exit it next day I'll be able to free explore again while being able to go to my target whenever I want.
But nope! Discovered this was the last I'll ever see this open area again.
I mean if I knew that I would have explored every inch then but I wanted to complete the story. Why the feck put an open area when you're not going to utilize it for a big portion of the game ?
Finally platinum the game. My 24th one. Perfect last trophy I got was putting the hat on joel
I'm going to play through it again for platinum maybe in a month or so.
Just a tidy up play through really.
It was quite easy to get. Just a bit time consuming with the collectables. Took 14 hours rushing through the game and collecting them. Faster then going into chapter select. Thank feck for Powerpyx hah. Kinda wish there was a grounded trophy. There's no reason to play it on hard otherwise.
yeah I use powerpyx a hell of a lot. It’s Probably one of my most visited sites, makes trophy hunting very easy, I think I’m going to download the tomb Raider game that’s free this month on PS+ I’ll complete that then go back to Last of us And do my trophy cleanup.
Final area spoilers...
What the feck was with the final group of bad guys? You spend the whole game with WLF and Seraphites as the game tries to make you understand their motivations and their differing ways of life.
Then you encounter this group of moustache-twirling goons who have slaves and crucify dozens of people on the beach? Feels like they really put zero effort in there.
Then you encounter this group of moustache-twirling goons who have slaves and crucify dozens of people on the beach? Feels like they really put zero effort in there.
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One big bench for all those crucifictions! Seriously though its like some kind of cheap biker gang. Sons of Anarchy!
There are a lot of details strewn around about them when you reach Santa Barbara both as Abby and Ellie in ways of notes and NPCs speaking.
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I am nearing the end of the game, I am going to start a new game plus to get remaining trophies. I have been pretty meticulous (My game time is over 30 hours) but still somehow have missed quote a lot. Is there an assisted mode where things like parts and supplements show up or get collected automatically? I think I read that somewhere but I dont see it in the options menuFinally platinum the game. My 24th one. Perfect last trophy I got was putting the hat on joel
I've reached the same point I did with the first one where its starting to feel like a slog to play. I don't think it helps that's it's relentlessly grim and I really feel very uncomfortable when I'm forced to brutally stab dogs. So much so I turn it off as soon as I get through those areas. This has slowed my progress significantly.
The game isn't perfect, but neither was the first. The backlash before release was clearly people who were far too emotionally invested in the story drawing conclusions from the leaks which did lose an awful lot of context. The story isn't as tight as the first but I'm apparently one of the few that thought the first one wasn't all that and the story was very generic, saved by good writing and acting.
I will finish this, hopefully before next week because I decided to order Ghost of Tsushima as I really need something more laid back after this.
The game isn't perfect, but neither was the first. The backlash before release was clearly people who were far too emotionally invested in the story drawing conclusions from the leaks which did lose an awful lot of context. The story isn't as tight as the first but I'm apparently one of the few that thought the first one wasn't all that and the story was very generic, saved by good writing and acting.
I will finish this, hopefully before next week because I decided to order Ghost of Tsushima as I really need something more laid back after this.
There’s isn’t an assisted mode for that. But I think there is a thing where it shows what you pick up, in Display or accessibility on the settings tab. There where a lot of hidden area even I didn’t find myself. PowerPyx on YouTube helped me find the rest of them. I just button mash triangle when I enter any room so I grab everything.
I made the mistake of going on the subreddit.
I've never seen a more bigoted, hateful subreddit or community ever.
I've never seen a more bigoted, hateful subreddit or community ever.
You're a braver man than me.
Never again. It's like a case study if you put every type of bigot together to see who can be the most offensive.
How do they approach TLOU3, if they do it?
If there's ever a third game, I fully expect Abby to be the protagonist with Lev as companion. Ellie's story seems to be done for.
I can't see Ellie being so heavily involved in the sense of fighting for obvious reasons, but I would have thought a 3rd game will concentrate on her immunity. There may be other characters such as Abby being controlled for the majority of it, but I can't see them leaving that behind as it's the main overriding subplot behind everything that's happened.
Plus Abby now knows about Ellie's immunity and if Abby is looking to rejoin the fireflies that is bound to be part of LOU3.
Plus Abby now knows about Ellie's immunity and if Abby is looking to rejoin the fireflies that is bound to be part of LOU3.
We'll play as Abby (now again a Firefly) who will be sent to hunt down and capture Ellie so they can finish what they started in the first game. She'll kill everyone in Jackson (where Ellie has returned to) and eventually beat Ellie to a pulp. Then she'll load her in a truck, drive half way across the country but have a change of heart and let Ellie go free so Druckmann can feel self important and cleverererer than his audience.
Two other potential stories.
Ellie has no purpose anymore, nothing left to fight for, nothing to aim for except maybe track down Dina. No story here, unless they decide to have Ellie find Dina and JJ, then have someone beat Ellie and the baby to death in the most illogical set of circumstances and coincidence that could ever happen so we can play half a game as Dina.
What we'd likely be given here is a Firefly's save the world story and honestly I don't think that fits the tone of the first 2 games. He might even make Lev the immune character we get to disect in an operation like mini game at the end.
oh yeah I never thought about that. Abby joins the fireflies, then they mention the girl who could have saved people and the man who killed them. Then they try to find Ellie but Abby might be conflicted so maybe she'll try and help ellie get away. That would be a cool twist.
She’s surely far too hated to be the protagonist
I think her immunity is pointless at this point as the record she found in the hospital indicated the only doctor that could invent the cure was Abby's dead father so there'll be hardly any fighting over her immunity from other organizations now. I think her plot line is really done for at this point. She lost everything and gained nothing at the end. Can see her returning to Jackson and living there.
While Abby's surviving and escaping with Lev must have been for a reason. They must be preparing something more for her in any upcoming installment.
While Abby's surviving and escaping with Lev must have been for a reason. They must be preparing something more for her in any upcoming installment.
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Ending...
Also, she's missing two fingers. From a gameplay perspective, firing guns, aiming bows, fighting off clickers and climbing is probably off the cards now!
Also, she's missing two fingers. From a gameplay perspective, firing guns, aiming bows, fighting off clickers and climbing is probably off the cards now!
