I just don't like The Last Of Us

[endtherapture]

Recently I've been trying to play The Last Of Us. This was a critically acclaimed game given GOTY by almost every gaming publication and labelled game of the last generation for a few people. It looks good and is really polished and pretty.

However I just can't enjoy the game at all. It's not fun for me. I've heard the story is amazing but so far nothing has really grabbed me and I can sort of guess how the story is going to go from what has happened so far. I really enjoyed the opening of the game but since the 20 year time jump or whatever it lost all the momentum it had. It might get better, but the gameplay isn't anything I really enjoy so forcing myself through that for a story that may or may not get good is a shame.

The controls are the worst though. I'm trying to control Joel but I feel like I'm just completely disconnected from the character. He's sluggish, slow and can't aim. It's like a big wall has been erected between me and Joel to prevent me from controlling him. It doesn't help either that I don't feel the stealth is particularly tight or well designed. I don't have a clue how the clickers work, apparently they're blind but they can see you anyway? It's all very confusing.

Has anyone else had similar problems or am I just a lone voice of dissent again this game?

 

[Mezahmay]

I was also not immersed with the story in The Last of Us, so my cousins and I made our own while playing at their house. We made it the story of a drunken redneck named Joel (who we did mocking voice overs for when he spoke) and only performed combat using bricks. Really livened up the experience. We quickly learned clickers did not respond well to bricks, so unfortunately we had to sneak past or kill them. It should also be said I did not finish this game but that strategy did get me through the first few hours.

 

[tippy2k2]

The Last of Us was my GotY, if not my game of the generation.

However, I also recognize the game has some big flaws.

It's one of those games (like Spec Ops) where I truly do wish that everyone could have experienced it the way I did. I felt love for the characters. I felt hate for the Fireflies. I felt conflicted for those who just wished to live in peace.

I adore this game but I am not dumb enough to believe that people are wrong for not liking it. It is 100% story driven and if that story doesn't hook its claws into you, the game would be a big pile of Meh.

 

[endtherapture]

snip

Playing the game just made me want to play Half Life again. I was traversing a big ruined, linear city with a companion, fighting through areas of military and zombie control. But it just wasn't as good as HL. I never want to be playing a game and constantly thinking "Actually I want to play this other game".

 

[Evonisia]

That is just the case with BioShock Infinite, The Last of Us and Spec Ops (among other games). It requires you to at least get a little invested in the story. I think I did just enough to enjoy it, and I didn't mind the gameplay at all (maybe because I played Uncharted 2 just before it... *shudder*). I do have issues with it but one thing I always think of when thinking about that game: I feel like I'm one of a rare breed who didn't like that intro. I mean it was cool being the little girl but once the Zombies actually show up it's gets into a big snore. Even Dead Rising made the Zombies breaking through seem more believable, even Dead Rising did and that is sad.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Ehhh I didn't really like it either. The entire universe just doesn't fit with me, just like how The Witcher 2's universe makes me just turn the game off after 5 minutes. It can't go 30 seconds without going "DO YOU KNOW I'M GRIMDARK? NO? HAVE ANOTHER CASUAL MURDER REFERENCE LOL"

Granted TLoU isn't nearly that bad but all of the characters are unlikeable. Can't remember if it was Joel or Tess who fired but the scene where a witty comeback is replaced by a headshot early on was fucking awful, call me a pussy but I don't like the total lack of respect for human life. I can't buy the idea that after 20 years shit is still totally fucked.

 

[Catfood220]

I can't buy the idea that after 20 years shit is still totally fucked.

I can't believe that shit ever got that bad. I mean, we're talking about zombies that don't need headshots to be killed. I can't believe for one minute that some zombies which have all of a humans weakness (as in the beginning there would be no clickers) that couldn't be contained by the Police, the Army, the Air Force and even the Navy, with all their high tech weapons as well as armed civilians. This shit should of been stamped out in a week at most.

Sure there would be deaths and civilian casualties, but this would never of happened.

Unless, of course the Armed Forces, the Police and armed civilians sorted the problem of the zombies, went "its cool folks, crisis over" and humanity as a whole went "no, fuck it, zombies means civilisation has fallen and we like it" and they defeated the Armed Forces, the Police and armed civilians. Which is equally unlikely.

As for the game, it was alright. I played it through once and thought, "its alright" and didn't play it again for a year. I play it again knowing what was going to happen and enjoyed it more. If pushed, I say it was a 7 out of 10, not the greatest game ever made as some people will try to convince you it is, but its alright.

 

[murrow]

The game didn't really speak to me either. It was a surprise, because I'm generally a fan of story-driven games (to the point of playing some that barely have gameplay). I thought the production values were great: the soundtrack and visuals, in special, were outstanding. I also couldn't find any game-breaking flaw in level design or gameplay.

Still, I couldn't get a sense of progress, gameplay-wise. The encounters didn't seem to be getting more challenging, only different. Giving the very nature of the game, there wasn't much sense in levelling up or getting stronger either. So it was all on the shoulders of the story. The problem is that the plot didn't hook me. I didn't get anything from the characters that made them unique from any other father-figure/daughter-figure duo (as in Bioshock: Infinite). I didn't get anything from its post-apocalypse world that truly differed from the hundreds of other post-apocalypse worlds depicted in fiction. And I wasn't offered any deep discussion on the demise of civilization that hadn't been done better elsewhere.

I thought I would be proven wrong at the museum scene, right at the beginning. People are only bothered to preserve their past if they acknowledge that they are changing. Inversely, a society that isn't going anywhere, that lies static in time, is not likely to have a memory. Seeing the museum destroyed sent a powerful message. This world has no effort to spare in preserving its past because it has no future. The world has already ended. People here don't live. They subsist.

And then I realized this had already been done by H.G. Wells in "The Time Machine" and in countless works in many different media that either ripped it off or were inspired by it. Were the game to be more choice-driven, more friendly to emergent gameplay or just more exotic and I wouldn't even feel bothered. But, the way it came out, it feels like a compilation of tropes I've seen before strapped to an Uncharted casing.

Keep in mind, though, that I gave up after 5 hours. It might be possible that I missed the best parts (frankly, I don't even know how long is the game). But I generally consider that, for a game of this nature, ("action/adventure"), 5 hours is a decent sample.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The controls are the worst though. I'm trying to control Joel but I feel like I'm just completely disconnected from the character. He's sluggish, slow and can't aim. It's like a big wall has been erected between me and Joel to prevent me from controlling him. It doesn't help either that I don't feel the stealth is particularly tight or well designed. I don't have a clue how the clickers work, apparently they're blind but they can see you anyway? It's all very confusing.

I should really have a word document that I just copy and paste from considering the number of times I've explained TLOU stealth and clickers to people on the escapist.

So, here's the way clickers work.

Clickers are blind, but they have a sort of sonar, like bats. When they make their clicking sound that's them using their sonar. If you are moving while they make their clicking sound then they can sense you moving and will attack you. If they are clicking but there is cover between you can the clicker, then you're still allowed to move around provided you're "in cover" (the sound waves bounce off the cover in front of you), and if you're not in cover when they start clicking then you need to stand still because then the clickers will see you as just another piece of furniture, or debris, and will not attack you. This runs completely counter to most people's sensibilities of stealth, but if you're trying to avoid clickers you can walk around in front of them all you want provided that you stop moving when they start clicking.

Now, on to basic stealth mechanics:

TLOU actually has a pretty deep stealth system, but the game doesn't explain it very well. When you're stealthing against humans they can see more than just your character model. Human enemies will react to your shadow, your reflections in glass, and other things like that, which means that it's not just important to get into cover, but make sure that when you're in cover there isn't anything around you to give away your position. A lot of people have complained about stealth being broken and getting randomly seen, but they don't realize that the human enemies don't just see your physical character model. So, if you want to keep from being seen you have to appreciate where light sources are. Don't try to hide by a light source or the enemies might notice your shadow, don't hide with a mirror behind you (the reflections aren't just to show off the graphics). Different ground materials make different amounts of noise when you walk on them. Carpet will muffle your footsteps better than wood, and this means that you're easier or more difficult to hear when walking on different surfaces, sometimes you need to keep this in mind when you're sneaking up on people to choke them out.

If you're having trouble aiming then put skill points into your aim. Putting one point into accuracy solves 80% of people's aiming problems.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Poor the Last of Us. Backlashed so hard it's probably underrated now.

OP, I bitched about TLOU at length when I finally got around to playing it. It has a lot of pretty grievous flaws, most if not all on the game play side of the ledger, and seemed tailor-made to piss me off and hit on all the things I consider slipshod game design. But it's not really a bad game. It's a story-centric game padded out by a lot of wobbly guns n' sneaking. If you're finding it excessively irritating, turn the difficulty down to naught, and just enjoy it for the narrative and characters.

TLOU actually has a pretty deep stealth system, but the game doesn't explain it very well.

That was like #17 on my list of 101 complaints about the game. It would've slick if it had done fuck-all to explain the way its own mechanics worked in-game.

If you're having trouble aiming then put skill points into your aim. Putting one point into accuracy solves 80% of people's aiming problems.

My aiming issues were 95% a result of being a mouse and keyboard native. No amount of points into aim was ever going to make it feel less than abominable in comparison. =(

 

[endtherapture]

snip

Thanks, I'll keep these suggestions in mind and try again. It's a different type of stealth from other games seemingly, which is interesting but since it's so linear, so far I haven't felt like theres been enough room to play around with the stealth.

A lot of games have good mechanics but don't introduce them to you very well. The first clicker encounter was in a large open room with 3 or 4 runners in. That's just waaay too much thrown at you at a time, then the room after that is filled with 2 or 3 clickers and a load of runners. It's all a bit overwhelming and you're thrown into really tough situations for me at least, without even learning how the Clickers sonar works.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I can't buy the idea that after 20 years shit is still totally fucked.

I can't believe that shit ever got that bad. I mean, we're talking about zombies that don't need headshots to be killed. I can't believe for one minute that some zombies which have all of a humans weakness (as in the beginning there would be no clickers) that couldn't be contained by the Police, the Army, the Air Force and even the Navy, with all their high tech weapons as well as armed civilians. This shit should of been stamped out in a week at most.

Not to mention TLoU suffers from America = World Syndrome. Yeah the US got destroyed and stuff (somehow) but not one reference towards any foreign aid? Unless everyone got infected everywhere simultaneously which is unlikely at best. Unless this is Resident Evil 5 and Wesker completed his Complete. Global. Saturation of an airbourne zombie virus.

Actually that makes a surprising amount of sense, i'm down for believing that.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I never got using stealth with clickers. They use echolocation, which I understand, but if they aren't facing you, they shouldn't be able to find you. It seemed like if you were in the open and behind them, they'd find you anyways. Being in cover felt like the only thing that made it so they didn't lock-on to you, which made them feel like any other enemy. I'd say once you get to about 1/3 into the game, you don't fight clickers nearly that much, the beginning of the game felt like you were fighting nothing but clickers with no upgraded skills or decent weapons, it felt like a boring repetitive slog at points.

And the shooting isn't very good because Naughty Dog after 3 tries, still has no clue on the basics of making a 3rd-person shooter.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

To be honest I'm not really a fan of TLOU. My wife loves the game, but personally I think its at best a 7/10. Its solid mechanics-wise, and when I say solid I mean that its playable and not broken. But overall it feels like a slog of trial and error in stealth juxtaposed with "shoot humans because everyone's an asshole" sections. I'm not downing on the game, I think that despite not being impressed with the story or game itself, it is solid and well made from an objective point of view. But personally there's nothing about the game that strikes me as awesome or GOTY-worthy.

Maybe its because I'm tired of zombie-analog stories and post-apocalyptic future settings. It just feels so overdone at this point that even a good story in that setting will automatically get negative marks from me just because of the usage of such a setting.

It really feels like a mash-up of popular tropes and mechanics but with nothing that made it stand out for me, nothing that makes me think "wow this game is awesome."

 

[tippy2k2]

I can't buy the idea that after 20 years shit is still totally fucked.

I can't believe that shit ever got that bad. I mean, we're talking about zombies that don't need headshots to be killed. I can't believe for one minute that some zombies which have all of a humans weakness (as in the beginning there would be no clickers) that couldn't be contained by the Police, the Army, the Air Force and even the Navy, with all their high tech weapons as well as armed civilians. This shit should of been stamped out in a week at most.

Sure there would be deaths and civilian casualties, but this would never of happened.

Think of the Zed virus in Last of Us like the virus in "I am Legend". It's an airborn virus so a lot of people had no chance against it (many were probably infected before they even realized there was a problem) and the ones that survived then had to deal with the mutations (like the Clickers) that slowly dwindled that number down.

snip

...holy shit, I never knew how complicated that stealth system got. I knew that about the Clickers but I never realized the system worked that way with the humans. That explains a lot of the "What?!?! How the hell did he see me?" moments I ran into with the humans...

Saturation of an airbourne zombie virus.

Actually that makes a surprising amount of sense, i'm down for believing that.

I don't recall them actually saying this in the game but I believe that was the explanation; basically the virus ended up everywhere. Also, it does take place twenty years after the initial outbreak so given the state of the US and their situation, I don't think Joel would really give a rats ass over how Europe is doing (nothing personal Europe ) so he'd have no real reason to ever bring it up...

 

[Andy Shandy]

It's a 7/10 with a couple of great moments and a stellar soundtrack.

A lot like Uncharted in that respect.

 

[Ryallen]

Recently, I've decided something about this game: any game that merits discussion about a particular section of its story and have both sides be right deserves some credit.

I, however, stand by what I say about none of the characters being likable. I never found any of the characters that I encountered memorable, or even likable. Tess was a ***** that needed to die, Sam and Henry lacked any defining features other than "survival brothers", Joel and Ellie's interactions are cliche to no end, and Tommy was forgettable in that I never remember to say anything about him half the time. The only one that I liked was Bill, in that the way that he handled the Infected in his town kinda cool, making them his own security system.

I don't hate the game itself, but rather all of the dick sucking that it got, and the lack of any actual originality it had regardless. I was never fond of zombies, and the 2013 GOTY being a zombie game got on my "plums", as it were. I found the voice acting to be great, the gameplay to be solid, the game looked good for the PS3, and the soundtrack is really good. I rarely take notice of a game's soundtrack, so that's saying something. But the story and characters were never interesting for me, and frankly, I found the entire experience to be disappointing, seeing as how everyone was calling it "The Citizen Kane of gaming."

Lotta quotes here.

But yeah, story-wise, I've read so many books that are not only so much better but so much more original. So 2013 was a year that I lost a little faith in the gaming masses as whole.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I enjoyed The Last of Us well enough. I mean it wasn't great, but it lasted me a weekend. What I really didn't like was that it become politically incorrect to not like it. As if saying "You know, the script for The Last of Us could have used a few more drafts, just to tighten a few things up." was the video game equivalent of denying the Holocaust or punching caner stricken orphaned puppies in the balls.

And that whole hive-mind really bothers me, because you just know the original opinion from whatever review site that initially said "OMG! LAST OF US IS BEST PONY! If you don't like it, you're a rapist!" wasn't organic or honest, it was completely paid for. Now the resulting video game frenzy could have been organic, if planned, but that match that starting the frenzy was placed there by the developers themselves.

I guess I just don't like games like TitanFall, Borderlands, Last of Us, Destiny; games that the creators decide on our behalf is already a success.