I think people should watch this review for people who think the game is amazing and for the people who think its average
It explains what the game does right and what it did not do right, I for one love the Last of Us, i think it was one of the best games this generation
But this man below does a very well and balanced review and I can understand the criticsm he has but also appreciate the praise he gives the game for what it does right, unlike some people in this thread who just complain about the gameplay being nothing special because its not fun without cutscenes, or whatever, without explaining why the gameplay sucks (yup almost every person who was negative in this thread never gave concrete reasons as to why they thought some things were bad in the game). Some parts in this review might be nitpicky but I for one hope Naughty Dog takes this advice to heart, and I believe naughty dog is a company that is always looking for a way to improve, it made me realise the flaws the last of us has, but also appreciate the things it did right:
Also check out his Bioshock Infinite review, it made me see Bioshock infinite in a whole different light (from awesome game to realising that it is a quite generic and bad game).
I think people should watch this review for people who think the game is amazing and for the people who think its average
It explains what the game does right and what it did not do right, I for one love the Last of Us, i think it was one of the best games this generation
But this man below does a very well and balanced review and I can understand the criticsm he has but also appreciate the praise he gives the game for what it does right, unlike some people in this thread who just complain about the gameplay being nothing special because its not fun without cutscenes, or whatever, without explaining why the gameplay sucks (yup almost every person who was negative in this thread never gave concrete reasons as to why they thought some things were bad in the game). Some parts in this review might be nitpicky but I for one hope Naughty Dog takes this advice to heart, and I believe naughty dog is a company that is always looking for a way to improve, it made me realise the flaws the last of us has, but also appreciate the things it did right:
Also check out his Bioshock Infinite review, it made me see Bioshock infinite in a whole different light (from awesome game to realising that it is a quite generic and bad game).
Well of course a guy posting a 40 minute video review is going to go more in depth than guys posting on a message board merely about the disappointing aspects of the game. There have been numerous people going in depth about their issues with the game. If you want more of that, fine, I'll explain mine a little deeper.
Combat - As my post said I think bad level design resulted in some poor combat. The video goes into this as well, how most of the encounters are ones you can see coming a mile away when you see the typical little area littered with things that just make perfect cover spots. Imho there should have been more of the encounters where you are inside of buildings, going floor to floor and room to room. Those were the most tense fights to me. The ones out in the open where the game gives you loads of cover spots just made it a typical 3rd person shooter.
AI - I don't really give the zombie AI any criticism because they're zombies, they are supposed to be dumb. But the human AI is almost as terrible imho. And it doesn't really matter if you are playing an encounter all out guns blazing or if you are sneaking around trying to take them out silently. A lot of the times they glitch out stuck in the same patrol pattern only they run it super fast, this might have been eventually fixed in an update. Other times they just come right at you. Since the game makes sure to give you ample amount of cover for most of these fights, the enemies should use them as well. A lot of the times they have huge numbers on you yet never really try to smartly flank you. A couple of them might just run right at you with melee weapons, which you can easily pick off. In stealth settings it's equally disappointing. I still remember the last scene with Tess and when the enemy team swarms into the building you're in, I sat in a very small office and just choked them all out one by one as they came in, didn't see half my body sticking out from beside a chair, and then ignored the growing pile of bodies on the floor and slowly walked into a position for me to easily dispatch them. That left only the 2 remaining in the lobby, 2 on 1 and they have SMG's. But they don't work together to take you out, they stand there and just poke their head out and die. In later parts of the game once Ellie is armed you can actually just sit there and let her take all the enemies out as she cannot die, and the enemies will very rarely try to attack you and finish the fight.
Immersion - As the video says, the immersion is broken when anyone tagging along with you can run around unphased by the surrounding zombies or enemies. Once you get the mechanics of the game down, they really just become more of an annoyance during the zombie scenes. I've said it here before, I actually found all of the little side stories and sections to by far be the best part of the SP. When I am just walking through the waste land, scouring for supplies and reading the accounts of all these other doomed players, the immersion is actually quite nice. But when the combat happens the game just snaps you right out of it.
Zombies - I was disappointed with the zombies because somehow even though the runners had speed and awareness most zombies don't have in other games, they're just so easy to dispatch. They never team up on you. There's also a disconnect same as the other encounters as they cannot see the light from your flashlight. There are a lot of gameplay shortcuts in the game and this was one of them. The other two zombie types are stronger and less predictable but extremely easy to beat since you ALWAYS have a brick and a shiv on you. And this sucked because I really dug the clickers, even though, as the video says, their clicking doesn't really make a lot of sense vision wise. If they can still sense stationary objects in their way and walls without clicks, they must have a great sense of their surroundings plus some sense of memory. They should known where the person is even when stationary. I dug the bloaters, mostly just because action was really the only option there.
Survival - Maybe my problem with the survival was that I was coming into this zombie game right out of State of Decay and dabbling in DayZ. Those games present real survival elements. A lot was made of LoU being a survival horror type game before release and it was not. I played the game on the hardest setting available at the start (which, IIRC, is just "hard"? I might be mistaken) and I think I played maybe 1/4th of it through on the hardest (survival?). Supplies are never an issue unless you play the game poorly. And death is not an issue because the game saves a ton and when you die you simply respawn right before where you died. This is a small complaint though, but if they make a sequel I would love to see something where you really need to eat, drink, and sleep or face health consequences. That's survival.
As I said though, it's still a game that simply must be played just for the experience of the story. And it's in my top 5 of 2013 just for the MP. No one ever seems to talk about that but the MP was extremely good, it and the first Gears are really the two best third person tactical MP games of this gen imho. And these might seem like petty complaints or small complaints/non-issues to others and that's fine as well. The guy that posted the video you posted, also posted a Bioshock Infinite video filled with complaints I found to be petty and extreme reaches but to each his own. I simply think the game is a great thing to experience, a pretty ho-hum thing to actually play. Strictly talking SP of course.
radishhead said: GTAV's story, gameplay and sheer scale should have given it the GotY
GTA's story was terrible, They just forgot about Franklins story halfway through and just shoved him with Michael. The gameplay was excellent and a vast improvement over 4. But no game should win GOTY for scale. Especially not a game with so much money thrown at it. I put in well over 300 hours in GTA but after a while you begin to realise that the world is dull. They still haven't matched SA for things to do. I could go back and play that game now whereas 5 just got boring.
ps3-sales! said: No offence, but judging by your previous posts, pic, and sig you might be a bit Nintendo-biased...
If you don't like a game, that's cool. But IMO, the greatest strength of TLoU is indeed the immersion factor. The way it places you into it's universe; which you somehow think is a weakness of the game.
GTA5 was great, but expected and familiar. SM3DW was also great, but there really isn't a story there and the gameplay can be found in 3D land on the 3DS (although obviously not as big). Have not placed Link Between Worlds, so I can't really be unbiased with that... But it's a remake of an 80's game that was very popular; so might have some biased fans who are factoring in the nostolgia effect.
Just my opinion, but TLoU is not only the best of 2013 (although not easily), but one of the best games of all time. It made me cry. I've never cried before playing a game. That's crazy.
I think people should watch this review for people who think the game is amazing and for the people who think its average
It explains what the game does right and what it did not do right, I for one love the Last of Us, i think it was one of the best games this generation
But this man below does a very well and balanced review and I can understand the criticsm he has but also appreciate the praise he gives the game for what it does right, unlike some people in this thread who just complain about the gameplay being nothing special because its not fun without cutscenes, or whatever, without explaining why the gameplay sucks (yup almost every person who was negative in this thread never gave concrete reasons as to why they thought some things were bad in the game). Some parts in this review might be nitpicky but I for one hope Naughty Dog takes this advice to heart, and I believe naughty dog is a company that is always looking for a way to improve, it made me realise the flaws the last of us has, but also appreciate the things it did right:
Also check out his Bioshock Infinite review, it made me see Bioshock infinite in a whole different light (from awesome game to realising that it is a quite generic and bad game).
Well of course a guy posting a 40 minute video review is going to go more in depth than guys posting on a message board merely about the disappointing aspects of the game. There have been numerous people going in depth about their issues with the game. If you want more of that, fine, I'll explain mine a little deeper.
Combat - As my post said I think bad level design resulted in some poor combat. The video goes into this as well, how most of the encounters are ones you can see coming a mile away when you see the typical little area littered with things that just make perfect cover spots. Imho there should have been more of the encounters where you are inside of buildings, going floor to floor and room to room. Those were the most tense fights to me. The ones out in the open where the game gives you loads of cover spots just made it a typical 3rd person shooter.
The reviewer does say that level design is bad in the first few hours, but then praises it in the other parts of the game and how well they implemented covers in the game, and different enviroments (if I remember correctly). And I agree with him. I do agree however that the outside fights were not as intense as the inside fights. But during Survival mode I experienced that the outside fights were much more difficult and intense. And I thought the melee was awesome in Last of Us, so was the shooting. Like the reviewer states about the gameplay. They combat does feel intense, the guns feel like they carry a punch, and the gun sway is there in a somewhat realistic manner to the point where you miss that you dont blame the game but yourself, I thought this was very well done in the game
AI - I don't really give the zombie AI any criticism because they're zombies, they are supposed to be dumb. But the human AI is almost as terrible imho. And it doesn't really matter if you are playing an encounter all out guns blazing or if you are sneaking around trying to take them out silently. A lot of the times they glitch out stuck in the same patrol pattern only they run it super fast, this might have been eventually fixed in an update. Other times they just come right at you. Since the game makes sure to give you ample amount of cover for most of these fights, the enemies should use them as well. A lot of the times they have huge numbers on you yet never really try to smartly flank you. A couple of them might just run right at you with melee weapons, which you can easily pick off. In stealth settings it's equally disappointing. I still remember the last scene with Tess and when the enemy team swarms into the building you're in, I sat in a very small office and just choked them all out one by one as they came in, didn't see half my body sticking out from beside a chair, and then ignored the growing pile of bodies on the floor and slowly walked into a position for me to easily dispatch them. That left only the 2 remaining in the lobby, 2 on 1 and they have SMG's. But they don't work together to take you out, they stand there and just poke their head out and die. In later parts of the game once Ellie is armed you can actually just sit there and let her take all the enemies out as she cannot die, and the enemies will very rarely try to attack you and finish the fight.
I think the AI experience is different for everyone actually, because what you said now about the AI, i never experienced. I think its different for everyone and like the reviewer said, it shows brilliance and stupidity, but with me it was mostly brilliance. I was lucky enough to never have a moment where the immersion broke. Enemies called other people when they saw a body on the floor, I hid in a small room once with no way out and killed one guy who came in, another approached and i had to hide in that room, he saw the body called another guy and both went into the room which caused me to try to kill both of them but failing because the second guy kept his distance to provide cover fire. Ellie can die though, I had to save a bunch of times in the game with Joel, but that does not happen too often I agree.
Also the part where Ellie gets the rifle for the first time was a completely different experience for me on Survival. The guys who were in the middle immediately went to sides of the space where Ellie could not shoot them. And they were absolutely relentless i hunting me down at that part. At one point i was hiding in the coffeeshop of that part and they enemies attacked me from different sides. I had to redo that part of the game a lot of times on survival.
The part with Joel sticking out of cover like a sore thumb was noticeable though, but again in survival mode, they actually seemed to notice me much quicker, even when I only stuck out a bit. I kinda wish it was the same on different difficulties. But yeah AI acting stupid can happen, but it can also be brilliant, and I was lucky enough to experience game like that
Immersion - As the video says, the immersion is broken when anyone tagging along with you can run around unphased by the surrounding zombies or enemies. Once you get the mechanics of the game down, they really just become more of an annoyance during the zombie scenes. I've said it here before, I actually found all of the little side stories and sections to by far be the best part of the SP. When I am just walking through the waste land, scouring for supplies and reading the accounts of all these other doomed players, the immersion is actually quite nice. But when the combat happens the game just snaps you right out of it.
Friendly AI can be dumb, I agree, I only experienced it a few times, but luckily enough not too bad to get me out of the immersion. My favorite part with the zombies, were actually in the Hotel basement when you are alone, like the reviewer states. And yeah Ish is awesome i was kinda hoping they would make the DLC about him But I still enjoyed great immersion during zombie parts and combat. Especially during the parts with just Ellie. She actually saved my ass a bunch of times in Survival mode, and it really makes the immersion of these two people that much greater. She also warned me when an enemy suddenly snuck up behind me and saved my ass again (in survival mode you will be on low health a lot of the time).
Zombies - I was disappointed with the zombies because somehow even though the runners had speed and awareness most zombies don't have in other games, they're just so easy to dispatch. They never team up on you. There's also a disconnect same as the other encounters as they cannot see the light from your flashlight. There are a lot of gameplay shortcuts in the game and this was one of them. The other two zombie types are stronger and less predictable but extremely easy to beat since you ALWAYS have a brick and a shiv on you. And this sucked because I really dug the clickers, even though, as the video says, their clicking doesn't really make a lot of sense vision wise. If they can still sense stationary objects in their way and walls without clicks, they must have a great sense of their surroundings plus some sense of memory. They should known where the person is even when stationary. I dug the bloaters, mostly just because action was really the only option there
Yeah I liked the zombies, but they were not anything special besides their design but I think stalkers are very cool, they are like between the runners and clickers stage of infection, and you encounter them in the hotel basement, and those bastards are sneaky, I was caught by surprise a few times. Bloaters are actually much more exciting in Survival Mode and so are clickers. But I thought the gameplay was improved quite a bit for the zombies during survival mode, bloaters made me deplete my ammo a lot of times.
Survival - Maybe my problem with the survival was that I was coming into this zombie game right out of State of Decay and dabbling in DayZ. Those games present real survival elements. A lot was made of LoU being a survival horror type game before release and it was not. I played the game on the hardest setting available at the start (which, IIRC, is just "hard"? I might be mistaken) and I think I played maybe 1/4th of it through on the hardest (survival?). Supplies are never an issue unless you play the game poorly. And death is not an issue because the game saves a ton and when you die you simply respawn right before where you died. This is a small complaint though, but if they make a sequel I would love to see something where you really need to eat, drink, and sleep or face health consequences. That's survival.
Yeah you were right hard is the hardest mode, but after you finish it you unlock survival mode. I have to agree that the survival aspect was not as great as it seemed. And i may sound like a broken record but again on survival mode, I actually had to do fights without bullets to the point where I had to sneak past enemies. I think Survival mode should have been hard mode to be honest. And the checkpoints are further apart during Survival mode I experienced. But I would like them to see to implement more survival aspects in the sequel.
As I said though, it's still a game that simply must be played just for the experience of the story. And it's in my top 5 of 2013 just for the MP. No one ever seems to talk about that but the MP was extremely good, it and the first Gears are really the two best third person tactical MP games of this gen imho.
I started the MP last week, and I have never been a fan of MP games, one of the reason im not interested in Titanfall, please dont hate me now (just teasing) But I have to say Last of Us MP is damn entertaining, I am getting quite addicted to it, and it actually convinced me to try other multiplayers in the future (maybe God of War or even Titanfall )
Read above. Thanks for giving me some concrete arguments, I can understand why the game was not that great for you. I hope you had a fun discussion like I did Also try Survival mode and add me on PSN: clemens-nl if you want so we can play some Last of Us online
I will conclude with this though. I think Naughty Dog could have made Last of Us an ever much bigger experience if they released it on PS4. Because I kinda suspect that a lot of issues in the game could be because of hardware limitations, but maybe that is just wishful thinking. But I cannot wait to see what the last of us sequel will be like on PS4 I hope they will be able to make it more immersive and awesome.
Also did you like the story in the Last of Us? I did, i know it was told hundred times before, but I still think they did a fresh take on it and also told the story very well which made it more immersive for me.
Yeah I agree the inside combat was much better and much more tense, particularly against the scavengers, as the military simply ran patrols and were much easier to kill. There just wasn't enough of it imho and the easy to see kill box scenarios were a little too frequent for my tastes. I don't play the MP much anymore but will add you and I've been thinking of getting back into it.
But I still enjoyed great immersion during zombie parts and combat. Especially during the parts with just Ellie. She actually saved my ass a bunch of times in Survival mode, and it really makes the immersion of these two people that much greater. She also warned me when an enemy suddenly snuck up behind me and saved my ass again (in survival mode you will be on low health a lot of the time).
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