Goliath100 said:
Casual Shinji said:
Walking around abandoned houses and observing the history that took place, following the story of Ish, the deer hunt. All of those were not cutscenes.
No, they go under "equivalent to cutscene", also known as a scripted event.
I'm not anywhere near as big a fan of TLoU as some, but I do think you're being quite unfair to it. These examples don't count as scripted events - except maybe the deer hunt - because you only experience them through player agency. That is, you don't wander around all the empty houses unless you choose to enter them. You don't find the notes telling Ish's story unless you explore and find them. This kind of thing is the very opposite of a scripted event - instead of taking player control away in order to present a story, they hide bits of story all around and trust the player to uncover it themselves.
Yes The Last of Us does have scripted events, and it does have lots of cutscenes which are completely non-interactive. But on top of that, there's a lot of narrative in there that is only found through the player's curiosity and desire to explore.
Now while the stealth mechanics weren't as extensive or smooth to control as Metal Gear, the terrain traversal wasn't as flowing as Uncharted, the combat wasn't as tight as Gears of War, I would argue that all these things are deliberate designs that actually serve this game well. Take the stealth, for example: yes the mechanics are a bit clunky, but this is not a game where you play a nanomachine enhanced super-soldier; you are (most of the time) Joel - some middle aged dude trying to stay alive. There's definitely an argument that this game's systems being a little rough around the edges are a good example of mechanics as metaphor; especially when you consider the tight, smooth controls of Naughty Dog's other major franchise last gen: Uncharted.
The levels are big and allow the player to approach problems in multiple ways. There is a sensibly implemented crafting and upgrade system that gives you plenty of options and allows for some genuine creativity. OK, so it doesn't allow for the kind of freedom that Deus Ex does, but this is a linear stealth/action/survival game. Not all of it's mechanics are great, but there is greatness IN those mechanics when everything comes together just right. To put it down as a 'movie where all the game bits are rubbish' is doing it a massive disservice. The gameplay may not have been quite to your taste, but take a step back and you must surely appreciate it is a finely crafted and well-considered work, even if you ignore the cutscenes and take it on game design alone.