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Naughty Dogs The Last of Us Part 2 is the most violent game I've ever played
- Thread starter MarlboroRed
- Start date
- Opinion
Hawking Radiation
Member
How far down the rabbit hole are you willing to go? Personally I'd like to see Ellie killing white cisgender males with the strapon from the film Seven. Also we need decapitations and dismemberments.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Don't want to dissuade you from TLOU 2 in case you haven't played it already, but TLOU 2 makes TLOU 1 looks like a rom-com. It's so heavy and gut-wrenching. But something you must experience at least once. Masterpiece!
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Same. It's my most favorite story but I'll likely never find out how it ends. After years of waiting, with a heavy heart, I just moved on to Brandon's Cosmere. Mistborn is absolutely brilliant, and Stormlight Archives also scratches that itch very well.
I'd love to see Mistborn getting a AAA game adaptation.
On topic though, Stormlight Archives also has the potential to display violence -- and make viewers uncomfortable -- just like TLOU 2. Some of the scenes in this book, especially with Kaladin's and young Dalinar Kholin can be portrayed very well by using violence as a narrative tool.
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
It's definitely a murder porn heavy series. It's not something I enjoy in my games.
Lethal01
Member
I disagree.
The Last Of Us does this in a non-fantasy or non-parody type setting. I have nothing against MK, but that isn't the type of violence I'm talking about, as in...I'm not talking about over the top fantasy stuff.
I'd argue many titles use that over the top fantasy stuff to disassociate the player and to bring the level of violence down to a comedic level. Again, we rarely have REALSITC mature titles with real levels of violence. If anything, I want you to read an interview by Michael Haneke on violence between his films and Tarantino's films, consider I love BOTH directors, but the level of violence in Funny Games or Benny's Video is on a completely different level. When something is done so over the top, to the point of being funny, it loses a lot of that gore and feel in terms of how people view violence and that kinda is what QT is going for in many of his films. Its very easy to lose interest mentally when a person gets a arm cut off and they die off screen.....its a harder film to watch if for 2 hours you have to watch them suffer, cry out, lose their minds etc Why? Because its not simply what is going on with the content, it is the effect of the trama in what it does to others around them, how it effects them after and even during the death.
A better example that I used in one of my film classes on a final talking about it, was the difference between some random dying in Kill Bill and a death notification on First 48, trust me bud....its very, very tough to watch someone get that news. The reality is, them getting that news and their reaction, might be more heart breaking then a film showing it, because its not simply the act, its everything else around it that makes violence what it is. So MK violence like Kill Bill Violence is not the same as Funny Games or The Last Of Us 2.
SPIEGEL Interview with Director Michael Haneke: 'Every Film Rapes the Viewer'
Austrian director Michael Haneke discusses his shocking new film, "The White Ribbon," which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, his penchant for gloomy stories that unnerve his viewers and his unsettling view of humanity.www.spiegel.de
Have fun, its a great read on the difference.
"But that's something else. These films make violence unreal and therefore consumable. It's like being on a ghost train ride. I deliberately allow myself to be frightened but I know that nothing can happen to me. I remember when Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" came out, and I was sitting in a matinee filled with young people. The famous scene of a boy's head being blown off caused a huge commotion in the theater. They thought it was great and they almost died laughing."
Didn't I specifically mention the difference in the use of the violence in my original comment? I really don't need a lesson on this. I'm well aware of the difference in how the violence is used, I just wouldn't call it more violent because it affects you more or is more realistically portrayed.
I would have simply said that the last of us has the most realistic violence. But it's semantics I suppose. I get what Op means.
Nautilus
Banned
It felt needlesly violent to me.So much so, with its fetish of killing charachters left and right, that it didnt make you feel compassioned about the people suffering there, it just pissed me off.
I wont go into details how the story and the game overall is a giant dissapointment, and will make me think twice before buying a Naughty Dog game again, but there is a reason why series like Game Of Thrones use the "Kill X character suddenly" very sporadicly. You need not only time for characters to grow on you, but you grow numb, and pissed in my case, if they just keep killing them.Why care and symphatize about any of their (stupid) struggles if they will simply die 2 or 3 scenes later?The way the story is structured, it is more about the drama, than the story and character themselves, like a bloody novela.And I hate novelas.
I wont go into details how the story and the game overall is a giant dissapointment, and will make me think twice before buying a Naughty Dog game again, but there is a reason why series like Game Of Thrones use the "Kill X character suddenly" very sporadicly. You need not only time for characters to grow on you, but you grow numb, and pissed in my case, if they just keep killing them.Why care and symphatize about any of their (stupid) struggles if they will simply die 2 or 3 scenes later?The way the story is structured, it is more about the drama, than the story and character themselves, like a bloody novela.And I hate novelas.
SLB1904
Banned
Yeah the most violent stuff for me is not the dismemberment, but how realistic punchs and body collision in this game.
There is one scene where the character is punching the other in the face and there is that dry sound of bones and flesh. Or when the character punches the other in the face repeatedly and the back of the head is hitting the floor on every punch. I was got damn this is brutal
Moridianae
Member
Been in gaming my whole life; even worked for GameStop for many years. Violence in video games continues to be a touchy subject, ever since the olden days of Mortal Kombat offending everyone in yesteryear.
The Last of Us 2 is one of those games where the violence is pretty rough. It is one of the few games that when I played it, I refused to allow my young one around because it was simply too much. He's been allowed within reason to play or watch me play some M-Rated games(that we've approved), but TLoU2 was up there with some others such as GTA5.
The Last of Us 2 is one of those games where the violence is pretty rough. It is one of the few games that when I played it, I refused to allow my young one around because it was simply too much. He's been allowed within reason to play or watch me play some M-Rated games(that we've approved), but TLoU2 was up there with some others such as GTA5.
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Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Not sure why you used Game of Thrones as an example, because TLOU 1 and 2 gave way more time to most of their characters George Martin ever did. It's way less sporadic than TLOU.
Here is every death in the book series.
Moreover, in the show, many of the characters were introduced and killed off in the same episode, e.g., Karsi in S05E08, Will, Gared, Waymar Royce in S01E01, and then other characters were killed without much development, e.g., Jory Cassel, Rodrik Cassel, Septa Mordane, Rickon Stark, Viserys, etc.
On the other hand, TLOU 1 and TLOU 2 gave ample to their characters before killing them off. In fact, we always spent considerable time with all relatively minor characters: Sam, Henry, Tess, Jessie, Bill, Marlene, Owen, Yara, etc.
Oddvintagechap
Member
Well, here is the original artwork for Abby. I do believe they made her less conventionally attractive so that the player wouldn't forgive her too easily. Not that I have a problem with how Abby looks even if they did it for another reason. Just pointing it out as I found it interesting.
Riley in Alien
Conner Terminator
Strode in Halloween
Or they were going for capable, utilitarian, and strong.
Abby isnt even ugly. She is modeled after a VFX artisted that worked in Naughty Dog.
Not any uglier than Tess, the original Last of us tough girl.
Insane Metal
Member
It's probably also the best game. It's fucking amazing.
Nautilus
Banned
I wasnt comparing it to the first game, but sure.In the first TLOU, the characters that did die didnt die just suddenly like that, with gunshot to the head or gunned down in front of you, that you had to escape and not even be able to mourn their death.They all had their "time", for a lack of a better word, and their deaths had more meaning, even from the perspective of the story, than TLOU 2 ever did. The woman in the beginning diyng was a noble sacrifice to let Joel and Ellie escape, and that was done in stark contrast to what they have been doing before as smuggles(?), in order to show that the hope for the good side of humanity, qualities like hope, self sacrifice, love, etc was still there.Not sure why you used Game of Thrones as an example, because TLOU 1 and 2 gave way more time to most of their characters George Martin ever did. It's way less sporadic than TLOU.
Here is every death in the book series.
Moreover, in the show, many of the characters were introduced and killed off in the same episode, e.g., Karsi in S05E08, Will, Gared, Waymar Royce in S01E01, and then other characters were killed without much development, e.g., Jory Cassel, Rodrik Cassel, Septa Mordane, Rickon Stark, Viserys, etc.
On the other hand, TLOU 1 and TLOU 2 gave ample to their characters before killing them off. In fact, we always spent considerable time with all relatively minor characters: Sam, Henry, Tess, Jessie, Bill, Marlene, Owen, Yara, etc.
The death(i believe they die, cant quite remember now), of the two brothers later in the game serve a similar purpose:Show not only that its joel and ellie that is going through a similar ordeal, but that life isnt fair sometimes, as one of them gets infected and the brother cant go on living without him.
You see the pattern?Not only each death and circunstance strenghten the main story beats(sacrifice, love, good traits of humanity), but each death is given more weight without all this brutality, because it the topic it touches are more interesting, and each of them has a different punch line.
In TLOU 2, all deaths point to only two punch lines: Revenge only brings more pain and that life is unfair. Both topics that not only are less interesting than the ones the first game touches, but also one(Life is simply unfair) that is not entertaining from a spectator point of view.The best example of this last topic is how the latino inspired NPC(From the Abby side) dies so suddenly and then abby gets "over him" in 5 seconds and the game never comes back to it.I know that is what the game is going for(Its the apocolapsr, its realism, etc), but thats my whole point:Its not entertaining.Its there to make you unconfortable just to make you unconfortable.And that is just one example, there are countless others in both sides(Abby and Ellie) that happens just as suddenly, and the game moves on as if nothing has happened.
Maybe you liked that, but for me, it felt like that bully from school that went and took your toys and said "you like tjis one?" just before he smashed to pieces.It had no meaning, no purpose, other than to make you frustrated.
For Game of Thrones, its the same. Like I have been saying, the deaths are not the problem, its how you portain them.The deaths that occur suddenly like in the TLOU 2 are minimal.On the top of my head, most of them occur on the weddings.For the other deaths?They are given weight, they are given meaning, either because they sacrifice themselves in order for others to escape, or they are important for the growth of a character.It didnt simply came out of nowhere.Simplyfying what I mean, the deaths have purpose, meaning, and serve to move the story forward in a meaningful way.
In the end you can say that its a matter of taste, and I do think that TLOU 2 has other flaws, but the way that ND structed the story and focused more on the schock and "Its the appocalipse, people die" aspect of the franchise just put me off.
M1chl
Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Not sure why I am so disturbed by the first gif in the OP. I guess I don't really like this realistic approach and certainly makes me really disturbed at situation where they took their inspiration.
But no boobs or anything like that, obviously, that would be too much.
But no boobs or anything like that, obviously, that would be too much.
MasterDerico
Member
Guilty_AI
Member
Video game violence stopped being entertaining like 15 years ago.
Here I am playing carmageddon, running over old ladies in the most gruesome ways possible, and all that goes through my mind is "yay, points"
And even if TLOU2 tries to be "realistic", i find the story and characters too dumb to take seriously.
Even that thing of enemies calling the names of fallen comrades only made me laugh with how unnatural it comes out in the game.
Here I am playing carmageddon, running over old ladies in the most gruesome ways possible, and all that goes through my mind is "yay, points"
And even if TLOU2 tries to be "realistic", i find the story and characters too dumb to take seriously.
Even that thing of enemies calling the names of fallen comrades only made me laugh with how unnatural it comes out in the game.
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Reizo Ryuu
Gold Member
Nah Gears and MK are definitely more violent. If you are talking "realistic", tomb raider also exists:
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Astral Dog
Member
and the sexiest too
skit_data
Member
Maybe, if you’re into Big Biceps Womenand the sexiest too
Tschumi
Member
I totally intend to eventually, but yeah it's just hard to find a moment when filling my house with those kind of sounds works out well lol, having similar trouble with god of war and doom eternal
One of the most disturbing things was when Ellie and Dina were discussing the first person they killed. They weren't even old enough to drink in the pre-apocalypse world and here they were discussing killing like it was their first kiss. This kind of violence is completely normal to them.
kyliethicc
Member
Well we all sorta know how it ends cuz of the show. But it will suck to never be able to read the real full ending.
Captain Toad
Banned
We get it. You hate everything.
buenoblue
Member
Yeah playing through again on ps5 and it's indeed very violent and graphic. Played through spiderman remastered on ps5 too as I had a week off work and wife was working. These games are so good at 60fps. I toggled 30fps in both games and it's so bad, actually made me feel sick lol. Please don't make me go back to 30fps I'm begging.
Sygma
Member
yeah Druckmann pretty much said that verbatim
I know I'll never play TLOU 2 precisely because of how realistic the violence is, was just happy to read about the story. Didn't watch a playthrough either and won't do it. I much prefer having very stylized violence like in Quake III Arena where it goes so over the top, the violence feels visceral and engaging
I don't watch TV at home, very rarely read news and try being as far away as possible to all that constant negative feed the media convey in order to create drama on social media for the platforms to generate traffic in the first place. I know TLOU put an accent on how violence should make us feel like shit and that it only continues an endless cycle, and as someone who's a social worker since 17 years I just don't need the reminder because I'm aware of it on many more layers than TLOU will ever be able to convey. Props to the devs for sticking to their vision tho
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Rhazer Fusion
Member
The violence in MK11 imo looks realistic enough as well despite it being way over the top. The violence in TLOU2 is gruesome obviously, but I feel MK11 goes to places unimaginable at times with gratuitous blood, violence and gore. I feel nothing in TLOU2 holds a candle to the majority of the fatalities or X-Ray moves in the game.
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Kuranghi
Member
I definitely don't want gore in games going forward to become as visceral as how its portrayed in the TLOU2, I'm all ludicrous gore like simulating someones guts in their belly and having them fly out when you shoot them there, but it has to be done it a way thats not actually sickening.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to violence/gore of the level it is in TLOU2, I'm just not interested in it being portrayed in this really realistic and depressing way, I don't like films that are like that either. My favourite thing about playing games is physics, be that bodies flying or objects and how they interact, ie "kinetic action", having a zombies guts fly out in Diablo 3 when I kill them doesn't get old very fast and I'd love to see more stuff like that going forward.
People here saying "make it look like when you really shoot someone in real life!", uh I don't want that at all, I've seen it and its really unpleasant to watch and its not very visualling exciting on top of that either, people just slump down or fall forward when they get shot while running towards the shooter. If you mean simulating limb loss or more "gore damage" sort of the thing then I get that, but with my proviso of limiting the queasiness of it.
RE2 Remake or RE8 absolutely nails it for me, its stylised to a point that makes it gross but not groin-grabbingly-gross.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to violence/gore of the level it is in TLOU2, I'm just not interested in it being portrayed in this really realistic and depressing way, I don't like films that are like that either. My favourite thing about playing games is physics, be that bodies flying or objects and how they interact, ie "kinetic action", having a zombies guts fly out in Diablo 3 when I kill them doesn't get old very fast and I'd love to see more stuff like that going forward.
People here saying "make it look like when you really shoot someone in real life!", uh I don't want that at all, I've seen it and its really unpleasant to watch and its not very visualling exciting on top of that either, people just slump down or fall forward when they get shot while running towards the shooter. If you mean simulating limb loss or more "gore damage" sort of the thing then I get that, but with my proviso of limiting the queasiness of it.
RE2 Remake or RE8 absolutely nails it for me, its stylised to a point that makes it gross but not groin-grabbingly-gross.
sloppyjoe_gamer
Gold Member
The violence is the least of this POS game's problems
EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Last of Us 2 was unbelievable so much so that people are still talking about it and the Last of Us 3 might be even better.
Tiamat2san
Member
Yep, it’s really intense in this game.
I’ve seen more bloody/gore games but they always are more « cartoonish ».
TLOU 2 tried to stick to reality and it’s all the difference.
I Can’t wait for the third game.
I’ve seen more bloody/gore games but they always are more « cartoonish ».
TLOU 2 tried to stick to reality and it’s all the difference.
I Can’t wait for the third game.
blastprocessor
The Amiga Brotherhood
I'd suggest it's the most realistic violent game that I've played. It felt brutal and perhaps uncomfortable sometimes.
8BiTw0LF
Banned
Exactly. There's a difference between violence and gore. Like the rape scene in the french movie Irreversible - that's violence.
Jon Neu
Banned
Not sure why you used Game of Thrones as an example, because TLOU 1 and 2 gave way more time to most of their characters George Martin ever did. It's way less sporadic than TLOU.
Here is every death in the book series.
Moreover, in the show, many of the characters were introduced and killed off in the same episode, e.g., Karsi in S05E08, Will, Gared, Waymar Royce in S01E01, and then other characters were killed without much development, e.g., Jory Cassel, Rodrik Cassel, Septa Mordane, Rickon Stark, Viserys, etc.
On the other hand, TLOU 1 and TLOU 2 gave ample to their characters before killing them off. In fact, we always spent considerable time with all relatively minor characters: Sam, Henry, Tess, Jessie, Bill, Marlene, Owen, Yara, etc.
This is such a bad take it’s not even funny.
alabtrosMyster
Banned
Yes, I used to think God of War III was disturbing.
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
To be fair, if any of the fatalities was like something out of the TLOU2 people would say it was pretty lame.
Vick
Member
Well, it was.
But it felt glorious.
What i did to this guy just felt like shit.
I think RE2R might be the most gross game i've ever played.
Love it to death, but the whole dismemberment system is the most violent thing in gaming, helped for sure by the fact the game looks photorealistic.
I believe Capcom watched more real life references than ND, because the gore in their game is more realistic than in TLOUII.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
Haha how funny.and the sexiest too
I am tired of people joking about this