Here, pick 5:
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
- Resident Evil 2
- Resident Evil 3
- Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Death Stranding
- Ghost Recon: Wildlands
- Days Gone
- Hitman
- Hitman 2
- Control
I never said I
wanted to play it 3 times, I said I
played it 3 times. Mainly so I didn’t have to entertain people saying that if I didn’t play it then I can’t speak about it or the classic “You just didn’t understand it.” First time was pretty good, second time was a slog, third time was painful and boring. I heard someone else put it this way: You’re an actor not a player; say your lines, play your part, stay on mark.
Trust me, there’s no fourth time through that game. Maybe if they patch it for PS5 just so I can marvel at the visuals even more.
By illusion of non-linearity I mean when they have 2 routes through a space that lead to the same point, the wide open spaces that funnel you onto their prescribed path, etc. How do you get into the supermarket? The way they make you. How do you get out? The way they make you. It keeps you on a track because it needs you to see story beats in a certain sequence, which is fine, do you Naughty Dog. I’m not saying that shouldn’t exist and I think they’re smart to use their smoke and mirrors to obscure the hand of the director, but it’s there.
I don’t know what to say, maybe I’m just sick of this style of game. Naughty Dog pushes so many things forward but not the gameplay. We got ropes (the best addition), prone, and jump. I will give them props for the level design this time around, there are so many ways to approach enemies in the fight arenas and more verticality this time.
I’m indifferent to most narrative choice in games. I’m more interested in mechanics and what I can do in a space and the tools given. Immersive Sims are my kind of game (see my avatar), but it’s a dead genre now. I‘m gonna wait and see about Cyberpunk 2077. I can’t tell if it’s for me or not, though I’m leaning toward not.
It comes down to this for me: The game is trying to tell a story more than give you tools and interesting things to do with those tools. I prefer mechanics over narrative. I found The Last of Us Part II to be lacking in its mechanics. I also did not like its story.
Maybe I expected too much. I would have liked a God of War 3 to God of War 2018 shift.
You’re right, Naughty Dog has a house style. I usually am on board for their storytelling but this one didn’t hit for me, so I’m left with the mechanics, which I found to be too similar to the original and were so-so to begin with. It can still be Naughty Dog while innovating in the gameplay. I loved the ropes and wish more of them were like the puzzle where you have to knock out some glass to toss the rope through to reach the other side of a locked door. I think that was the beginning of the Hillcrest section. They are pretty straightforward outside of that one.
What’s new? Ropes, going prone, and a jump button that may as well have not been added. Ellie is Ellie+, Abby is Joel.
I disagree. If your mechanics are tight and people love them and master them (Bloodborne), then leave them be, if they have room for improvement, go for it. I actually think there’s a chance that Part II’s Factions mode will be more innovative than the single player.