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Darc Requiem 6 days ago
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Eric2048 said:
Darc Requiem said:

Naughty Dog's writing used to be really good but their best writer is no longer at the studio and it shows. That's a big issue because Naugthy Dog, at least recently, makes games that live and die by their story telling. TLOU didn't get acclaim for it's gameplay, it got praise because of it's story telling. Insomniac games have story and gameplay to live on. Like Uncharted did in the past for ND. Insomniac has basically put the PS5 on it's back and released mulltiple quality titles. In the same time frame, Naughty has been re-heating and re-serving TLOU and TLOU2 to Playstation audience for what seven years (?) at this point.

Games, for me, at the end of the day are about an enjoyable experience. Slugging through a title with passable gameplay and bad story telling isn't going to cut it for me. This gets compounded if the games story telling and gameplay have a disconnect that dulls the effect of the message you are trying to get across. What makes great story telling isn't just what happens in a story but how the events of the story are conveyed. That latter aspect seems to have gone by the wayside at ND. Although it's not just them, it's become prevalent in entertainment as a whole.

Edit: This situation with Aloy's face bugs me for a different reason than most. At least I belive so. I'm tired of western developers expressing that women should not have to be beautiful while hiring beautiful women to model their characters. If you want more "average" looking women, then how about you employ them and pay them for their likeness. Paying someone to use their likeness and then altering it to the point that it looks nothing like them seems like a waste of development time and money. 

It's fine if you didn't enjoy TLOU2 it's probably one of the most divisive games ever. I liked Uncharted 4 and Lost legacy and would say they are more engaging than any game Insomniac has put out in recent years.

Spider-Man's story was fine but some of the gameplay sections were such a bore. Like those boring puzzles in the lab that thankfully could be skipped (guess they though they were bad too) and the forced stealth sections where you play as Mary Jane or Miles really bogged down the game. Spider-Man Miles Morales at least was made more fun by getting rid of those sections all together. Although I had issues with some of the writing in that game mostly pertaining to the main antagonist. I played a bit of Spider-Man 2 and it feels mostly like retreading old ground haven't gone back to it yet

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart is certainly an improvement from Ratchet and Clank 2016. But the writing still feels watered down and the great humor that was such a staple of the old games is pretty much non-existent. The story feels completely pointless and does little to advance the main plotline. Ratchet and clanks personalities feel nerfed and the dialogue is cringe worthy at times "if you're broken then so am I". It feels like a modern Disney movie at times. The gameplay might seem fine at first but then you realize it's hardly different to the last 12 or so games in the series you've played. The only real addition to this game is a dodge function which honestly does little to shake up the tired formula.

So yeah I don't see Insomniac in the same light you do. They are good but no way are they the best developer Sony has.

As for Aloy I personally don't really care about how her face looks. This has never been a issue for me. Her design fits the setting and her role in the game. The comparison seems silly anyways as her actress is wearing makeup and lives a different kind of lifestyle to this character.

Uncharted 4 released in 2016. Lost Legacy in 2017. I liked both games. If that were the Naughty Dog we were talking about, they'd be Sony's best dev hands down but that was 7 plus years ago. The only new game they've released since then is TLOU2. meanwhile Insomniac has released 3 Spiderman and 2 Ratchet & Clank games.