TLOU2 Review Thread

Johnny Novgorod

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I haven't played the game and from what I've read so far I wouldn't be into it very much... having said that can we appreciate 35 pages and 700 comments in how much the game is giving people to talk about?
 

Gyrobot

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You know, on Angry Joe's ban, I think one thing that has shaped the defensive nature of the devs is the toxicity behind youtube reviewers. You would believe they could use their viewer count to encourage people to give certain games a chance but instead they rile up people and create a hatewagon. YT reviewers got on the hatewagon for TLOU2 when they hit people with DMCA takedowns and locking out comment sections knowing full well people are looking for something to rally around to validate their truth
 

Drathnoxis

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I haven't played the game and from what I've read so far I wouldn't be into it very much... having said that can we appreciate 35 pages and 700 comments in how much the game is giving people to talk about?
I was just about to post the same thing. It's unbelievable! This thread has as much activity as every other thread combined! In just under a month it has surpassed "What are you currently playing?" which we've been working on since April.

Seriously, what the heck!?
 

Specter Von Baren

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I was just about to post the same thing. It's unbelievable! This thread has as much activity as every other thread combined! In just under a month it has surpassed "What are you currently playing?" which we've been working on since April.

Seriously, what the heck!?
I don't think it's that surprising. It's a contentious topic with various "scandals" behind it and is about a highly anticipated game.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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"Some of [the fans of the original game] are not going to like this game, and not like where it goes, and not like what it says or the fate of characters that they love," Druckmann said. "I'd rather have people passionately hate it than just be like, 'Yeah, it was OK.'"

Pretty much.
 

Drathnoxis

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I don't think it's that surprising. It's a contentious topic with various "scandals" behind it and is about a highly anticipated game.
Are there? I haven't been following the conversation, to be honest. I'm not really much interested in games that have just come out.
 

Phoenixmgs

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I usually don’t care, but I feel like this game has gotten an unfair amount of hate considering the quality level and passion that clearly went into it. It’s not even something I’m interested in playing through again any time soon if at all due to pacing mostly, but I can appreciate that it’s an artistic and technical marvel of this generation even if the story is a divisive, occasional mess.

"Some of [the fans of the original game] are not going to like this game, and not like where it goes, and not like what it says or the fate of characters that they love," Druckmann said. "I'd rather have people passionately hate it than just be like, 'Yeah, it was OK.'"

Pretty much.
The amount of work and passion that goes into something doesn't really equate to the increased liking of something though. I'm bigger fan of Zach Snyder than most (Watchmen is my favorite comic book movie) and I'm sure he really wanted to make an awesome movie with regards to Batman v Superman but that doesn't change that the movie is complete shit, it's complete shit in a way that only could be made from being passionate. I ended up only watching the TLOU2 movie because Desperados 3 was the better stealth game that released the very same week as TLOU2. Also, the devs behind Desperados 3 have as much passion as other devs (they just have 20 people though) and they also don't do crunch so I feel much better supporting them than Naughty Dog regardless of game quality. It really seems like TLOU2 got hung up on the whole concept of showing both character's perspectives vs asking if that was indeed the best concept for the game. I feel the concept would've worked a lot better if the player didn't already know one side. It kinda feels like (to a much lesser degree) like God of War's "single-shot" camera concept that I wouldn't have even noticed if I wasn't told about it. Doing a single shot in film is really noticeable while in a game where the player is moving the camera, it loses its impact. Cory Barlog had this idea and he just wanted to do it no matter what (as he wanted to do it for Mad Max too).

Well, I thought it was OK.
 
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dscross

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I have officially platinumed this damn thing. The moment the trophy popped i deleted the game from my playststion and buried the disc in the backyard.

Closure.
Why did you bother putting all that time in if you hate it so much?
 

Dalisclock

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Perhaps so they could be sure that they were giving it a fair shot? And so they could be confident with their complaints about the game.
Normally people reach that point after a full playthrough, or a fair bit of a playthrough. Going for a plat is more of a "I really like this game so I'm gonna do everything", though sometimes it's more of a completist thing over all else.

Though it wouldn't be the first time I've heard of someone 100% a game and ending up hating the process.

 

BrawlMan

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Why did you bother putting all that time in if you hate it so much?
I hated DmC and did a 100% trophy run. Though it was mostly accidental. By the time I realized I was nearing 100%, I decided just finish it due to it being easy to do. It was the Defintive Edition with all of the gameplay improvements. I still hate the story and most of the characters. My opinion on those will never change.
 
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Catfood220

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I have officially platinumed this damn thing. The moment the trophy popped i deleted the game from my playststion and buried the disc in the backyard.

Closure.
Surely smashing the disk to bits with a golf club would be a more fitting end?

Too soon?
 

CriticalGaming

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Why did you bother putting all that time in if you hate it so much?
Because the trophies were very very easy to get and having a platinum on your psnprofile increases your ranking. Plus having the platinum means nobody can say I didn't put time into the game to call it a shit sandwich. I can wholeheartedly 100% declare that this game is a shit sandwich. Abby is shit, Ellie is shit, and Joel is the meat in the middle.

I didn't like DBZ Kakarot but platinum'ed it anyway because again easy and rank increase.

Also it turns out that if you skip all the cut scenes you can beat the game in 6 hours. Did you know that means it takes like 14 hours to watch all the cut scenes?
 

Dalisclock

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Also it turns out that if you skip all the cut scenes you can beat the game in 6 hours. Did you know that means it takes like 14 hours to watch all the cut scenes?
That's a worse ratio of MGS4, which had an infamous 9.5 hours of cutscenes.

Aren't there also a lot of "walk and talk" sections that aren't cutscenes as well? I was watch Yathzee and Jack Stream it and noticed there's a fairly long section(or what it feels like) at the beginning which is basically just cutscenes and walk and talk sections.
 

Hawki

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I can certainly sympathize with one hundred percenting. I don't go that far, but I've got a general rule that if I start something, I finish it. It was the only way I could force myself to complete Andromeda for instance.
 

Casual Shinji

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That's a worse ratio of MGS4, which had an infamous 9.5 hours of cutscenes.

Aren't there also a lot of "walk and talk" sections that aren't cutscenes as well? I was watch Yathzee and Jack Stream it and noticed there's a fairly long section(or what it feels like) at the beginning which is basically just cutscenes and walk and talk sections.
I'm gonna have to call bullshit on that, unless we're deeming everything that isn't full-on combat 'cutscenes'. And even then... After getting into the game proper I must've spent 4 hours atleast till I got to the first flasback, and those 4 hours had maybe 20 minutes of cutscenes in total.

And technically most of the game is "walk 'n talk", since most of the game someone will be with you talking about things as you walk, climb, and scrounge around the area.

Of the 31 hours I spent playing through this game on the first run I can't say I had a moment where I could put down the controller for 90 minutes straight. Looking at you, MGS4.
 

CriticalGaming

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I'm gonna have to call bullshit on that, unless we're deeming everything that isn't full-on combat 'cutscenes'. And even then... After getting into the game proper I must've spent 4 hours atleast till I got to the first flasback, and those 4 hours had maybe 20 minutes of cutscenes in total.

And technically most of the game is "walk 'n talk", since most of the game someone will be with you talking about things as you walk, climb, and scrounge around the area.

Of the 31 hours I spent playing through this game on the first run I can't say I had a moment where I could put down the controller for 90 minutes straight. Looking at you, MGS4.
I count anything that doesn't provide the player free control over the characters as a cut scene. However my final playtime included those because they cannot be skipped. I skipped every cut scene possible. And I had the benefit of knowing where to go and not needed to savage for stuff thanks to NG+. So basically I run through the game as fast as possible stopping only to grab the collectibles I needed for completion.

My NG+ file was completed at 6hrs 45minutes. However I feel like I could shave another 2 hours off of that easily if all I did was sprint though the game.

Another point I'd like to point out, is there are a lot of combat sections that you can outright just skip. You simply sneak past the enemies and open the door that marks the next section, and all the enemies disappear.

Im not a speedrunner but I feel like you could likely beat this game in 3 or so hours without much trouble.
 

Nick Calandra

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Jack and I provided our final thoughts on the game now that he's finished it.