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The Last of Us Pt II |OT| Oh Ellie...I think they should be terrified of you

GribbleGrunger

Dreams in Digital
Oh, man, my opinion of this game is going to make me so unpopular. Let's just say that I'm typing this because I thought I'd find something to do after turning the game off for the third time ... The bottom line is, I don't like the story, don't like the stealth and don't like the characters. So far I've only enjoyed ONE level and I can't remember which one because I just want to finish and have it done with. The first game walks all over this in every department except graphics.
 
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Business

Member
mmmeh the game started really well and as soon as I got in the wide linear areas that ND loves so much the game started to drag. It kills all the momentum and makes the game so much less tight, to no real benefit imo, a waste of time and a collectathon grind. Also I encountered some bugs like my AI companion not coming with me or a moment where i got stuck in a room after a cutscene, no way to open either door, a restart checkpoint solved it.
 

dream

Member
Fuck, I went to Twitter to see if anyone else has run into this game breaking bug 4 hours in, and I see like 7 tweets. This might take a while to fix...
 

carlosrox

Banned
I cannot believe the fucking graphics 5 seconds after I started playing. The horse, man.

This is some sorcery. PS5 shit!

My eyes are glazed. It's taken like 15 mins to move a few feet.

Playable painting. Love the atmosphere right off the bat.
 
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DonJorginho

Banned
Okay, I'm about 7 hours into this game and aside from some odd writing and the plot being a mixed bag I am loving this game and think aside from it's narrative aspects it's miles better than the first in every way.

This game isn't perfect as a whole, but the visuals, atmosphere, tension, music, level design and combat are top tier imo.

It's not your super in-depth Platinum Games kinda combat but for AAA it's amazing, the level design is the best I've seen from ND and the AI for me is a massive step up.

I'm playing on custom difficulty as I'm a little bitch who likes resources to be plentiful, aside from that I've got it all on Moderate and above.

We can moan all day about the story, but the actual gameplay and design? It's such a step up imo, environments feel real and not just like your corridor fest's in TLOU 1.

The tension and horror has been better than the first already and seeing what lies ahead (Rat King) I am shitting myself with fear to face the monstrosities that lie ahead.

So far I'd give this an 8.5/10, cried 3 times too so far throughout, so the mental breakdown is going well!
 

dream

Member
What's the bug?
There’s a part in the courthouse where you have to drop down an elevator shaft onto a stalled elevator, except for some people, there is no elevator there so you can’t progress. It doesn’t seem to be common to a platform either (I saw someone tweet about it happening on a Pro, whereas I’m playing on a launch unit).
 

carlosrox

Banned
I'm still just gawking at the visuals and atmosphere at the very beginning of the game.

This game will take me a couple dozen hours.

I'm shaking my fuckin head to this.

PS. WHERE IS DEAD SPACE?? DEAD SPACE I WANT YOU TOO!!!
 
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DonJorginho

Banned
There’s a part in the courthouse where you have to drop down an elevator shaft onto a stalled elevator, except for some people, there is no elevator there so you can’t progress. It doesn’t seem to be common to a platform either (I saw someone tweet about it happening on a Pro, whereas I’m playing on a launch unit).
That's tragic man I'm so sorry! I had a glitch in Seattle where I visited every landmark in Downtown but the trophy failed to pop up, but when I visited every landmark a second time it luckily triggered, the games been bug free for me so far fingers crossed it stays that way.
 
Is there really no way to exit out of the guitar mini game when you want to stop? I find this absolutely absurd if so.

Overall the game is quite engrossing so far, constantly going back and forth between loving it and being mildly (or in the above case, extremely) frustrated by things.

Edit: Okay, I wasn’t paying attention to the game telling you to play specific chords. I did that for a few seconds and it mercifully ended 😂 I thought you were just meant to strum whatever for an arbitrary amount of time and it was insanely annoying.
 
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Reading the argument about whether or not the cure would have worked or whether or not they know it would have I always got the impression the fireflies were pretty sure Ellie would work that Ellie was special compared to the other ones. I think the ending works better if she was capable of curing it because it adds extra layers and dimensions to what you see if there was really no way of knowing they could cure the world by killing Ellie that it paints Joel's actions in a different way though I would still say some of the people he kills like Marlene is an over-the-top action. I viewed the game as being tragic one of the tragedies being that a man learning to care again dooms the human race. He cares so much for Ellie and protecting her but what did Ellie care about for her what mattered was that her being immune had a real reason especially after her friend Riley died. if you look at the look on her face when Joe lies to her at the end of The last of us it isn't just clear that she doesn't believe him, but to me it's clear that by saving her he also lost her a tragic irony. This is the kind of stuff that made the game interesting for me sure if the game had just been what it was up to that point I would have still been impressed with it the presentation the game play the visuals and the story we're all really well done. The bond between Joel and Ellie was really great but if it hadn't ended in such a bittersweet tragic way I seriously doubt it would be one of my favorite games. This stuff is what elevated it above something like telltale's walking Dead well that and having actual gameplay but from a story perspective it excels beyond that game for me and most games ever made. Not unlike red Dead redemption a game that I really loved playing through but became something truly special in its final third.
 
Oh, man, my opinion of this game is going to make me so unpopular. Let's just say that I'm typing this because I thought I'd find something to do after turning the game off for the third time ... The bottom line is, I don't like the story, don't like the stealth and don't like the characters. So far I've only enjoyed ONE level and I can't remember which one because I just want to finish and have it done with. The first game walks all over this in every department except graphics.
You got swept up in the hype and the actual product isn't matching your standards I'd say.

I found the prologue in this game to have much better pacing and a stronger impact than the first game and the first games prologue is by far the most gripping thing in the game. lol.

EDIT: The ambient/drone OST is by far better than the first games too. I didn't fuck with all that acoustic type music in the first game.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
The tension on this game is fucking unreal, the infected’s sounds are waaay more disturbing than original game. I’m god damn loving this game....I don’t think will ever gonna understand the hate this game gets
.
 
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Bryank75

Banned
Oh, man, my opinion of this game is going to make me so unpopular. Let's just say that I'm typing this because I thought I'd find something to do after turning the game off for the third time ... The bottom line is, I don't like the story, don't like the stealth and don't like the characters. So far I've only enjoyed ONE level and I can't remember which one because I just want to finish and have it done with. The first game walks all over this in every department except graphics.
All you can do is give it a fair shake... nobody should feel any different towards you for being honest.
 

Woggleman

Member
The tension on this game is fucking unreal, the infected’s sounds are waaay more disturbing than original game. I’m god damn loving this game....I don’t think will ever gonna understand the hate this game will get.
You and me both. It's really sad how this game has become fodder in a culture war.
 

Shmunter

Member
@Steve.1981 yeah, the immediate retcon leaves a sour taste. The prologue makes Joel out to be overly sentimental and sappy, as if he was too weak to do what was necessary to save the world, instead of a man of strong convictions seeing through a difficult personal choice where there were no easy answers. This was a guy who was more or less dead inside, but found enough of a spark of life through Ellie to channel his darkness toward saving her.

It was the most powerful aspect of TLOU1, and absolutely should not have been tampered with.
I may be putting my foot in it as I haven’t played part 2. But as a father, no parent would ever sacrifice their child for some greater good. And I guess its obvious to everyone Ellie was seen by Joal as a daughter after the loss of his and the bonds established by Joel and Ellie throughout their ordeal.
 

Shmunter

Member
Can anyone comment if ability to disable Listen mode is there? And if so, what the experience is like between the options?
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
True but why can't they just not play the game? Do they want everybody else to hate it as well?
Because we are on internet? When people on internet don’t like something they gonna be loud about it.

It’s just nature of internet.
 
Can you skip the cutscenes in this?

You should be able to although I don't see why you would unless you are going to do another play through. The game so far is stunning in the visual and sound design. Light on game play but that is understandable with a narrative driven trying to be like a movie game.
 
The start of this game is brutal, love the weather effects too. Enjoying this and also liked the CE that came from Game

O5eccD4.jpg
 

near

Gold Member
There’s a part in the courthouse where you have to drop down an elevator shaft onto a stalled elevator, except for some people, there is no elevator there so you can’t progress. It doesn’t seem to be common to a platform either (I saw someone tweet about it happening on a Pro, whereas I’m playing on a launch unit).

Are you sure thats a bug? Because if I recall correctly when I first walked past the elevator it was closed you couldn’t enter, I walked further down into the next room looked around, trigged a conversation, walked back and the shaft was open.

Edit: Spoiler tagged it just in case, even though I don’t think its a spoiler.
 
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brap

Banned
You should be able to although I don't see why you would unless you are going to do another play through. The game so far is stunning in the visual and sound design. Light on game play but that is understandable with a narrative driven trying to be like a movie game.
I hear it has a ton of accessibility options which make getting the platinum piss easy so I was thinking of picking this up one day. Don't care about the story or anything.
 
I hear it has a ton of accessibility options which make getting the platinum piss easy so I was thinking of picking this up one day. Don't care about the story or anything.

Apparently it is a super easy plat to get. Set it to dumb easy, skip the scenes and have that plat!
 

BluRayHiDef

Banned
There’s a part in the courthouse where you have to drop down an elevator shaft onto a stalled elevator, except for some people, there is no elevator there so you can’t progress. It doesn’t seem to be common to a platform either (I saw someone tweet about it happening on a Pro, whereas I’m playing on a launch unit).

I personally didn't have that problem, but I think that reloading the latest checkpoint would fix the problem.
 

TissueBox

Member
'Boout 7ish hours through. .!

It's interesting to hear everyone talk around the second half of the game in hushed whispers. At this point in the story, there is a nagging feeling that something is missing, and honestly, this second half may be it. Game's still great to play, but the moment to moment narrative is feeling less like TLOU (substance over style) and more and more like UC4 (style over substance, and stretched out sequences littered with dialogue beats that feel more necessitated than naturally insightful, even with its heart in the right place).

Where the game goes from here will be all the telling..!! Combat is sparse but I actually like that component; it's simply a matter of engaging us narratively while we're not being mechanically stimulated, and while the storytelling and presentation here are still top of its class, the actual meat of it feels much more unfocused than in TLOU. If the story picks this up somehow.... then it'll at least provide a potent pulse, for better or worse. Let's see which of the two I find it. :p
 
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I'm playing the game on Survivor and it's torturous. I think that I may lower the difficulty; it's no fun like this.

It is strange to me that sometimes games on the hardest modes are completely unbalanced and unfair just to have that "hardcore feel". It is why I love From games, they are very well balanced and it is a key part across the entire design of the game. Survivor or hardest modes in other games are almost never balanced in design and it shows. This is one of the reasons I am against easy accessibility options in games like Souls even though people claim man just make it easy its fine. They do not understand balance is a design implementation and choice day one...

Sorry for the rant, back on topic. I believe the game on regular difficulty as a first play-through is the way it should be played as it is designed as an interactive movie.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Played 4-5 hours. Graphics are fantastic. Parts of it really come alive when gunfire, sunlight, grass, and clickers come together. Gameplay wise it’s solid, but nothing incredibly new.

Pressing triangle on every object and opening doors is a nice feeling to come back to. Pressing X (cross) a lot makes a difference after a while.

I’d say it’s very well put together game. I have a sense of deja vu. If you really compared this game to a lot of AAA games you’d find TLoU2 achievement in the scale of their design. God of War probably touched on it, but on a smaller scale. Death Stranding did it, but it was broken up (in some ways) with smaller missions. The real meat and bones of it are treated like Game of Thrones. A lot of satisfaction to whatever bad thing that happens. I am just waiting for more shit to hit the fan.
 
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BluRayHiDef

Banned
Does the difficulty disable listen mode?

No, but Listen Mode is useless at points in the story at which human enemies are aware of your presence and are actively searching for you.

They spread out, which makes hiding possible for only a very brief period.

If you attempt to stealthily kill someone, it's very likely that someone else will spot you as you're doing so, resulting in you being killed with a single shot to the head.

If an enemy is getting too close to your location as they search for you, and you attempt to sneak away, it's very likely that someone else will see you, which - once again - results in a fatal shot to the head.

These challenges are compounded by continuously low amounts of ammunition and other resources. You often have only one or two bullets and critically low health, which makes fighting your way out useless; attacking someone by shooting or performing melee attacks alerts everyone else to your location, which will very likely result in - once again - a fatal shot to the head.
 
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PanzerAzel

Member
I love how the Clickers sound has evolved from only clicking in the first game to shrieking which gradually transitions into clicks in the second. Creepy. They’ve made the infected much more terrifying in this.

And the grin across my face the first time you can turn them against humans. :messenger_beaming: So glad they kept this from Left Behind.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I love how the Clickers sound has evolved from only clicking in the first game to shrieking which gradually transitions into clicks in the second. Creepy. They’ve made the infected much more terrifying in this.

And the grin across my face the first time you can turn them against humans. :messenger_beaming: So glad they kept this from Left Behind.

I like it when their body stands straight up because they think someone is behind them. It’s like their spine is having a spasm.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I'm struggling. I've reached the part where you're being sought after by a handful of WLF members in the part of a building that has a library and a class room.
The thing about me is, in survival game like this I like to struggle, I want to feel that I’m barely surviving each encounter.
 
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