The Last of Us: When Does it Get Better?

[Mikeyfell]

snip

If you want the sad truth, it doesn't get better. If you don't like it by like 2 hours in (Or so) it's just not for you.

It's an... okay... game with a really well presented story.
And sadly that's enough for most people (Including me)
But if you want a really great organic feeling game go almost anywhere else

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

if you aren't in it for the story but in it for the gameplay, you might as well just stop playing this game and pick up uncharted or something.

 

[WhyWasThat]

The game is slow to start. I can understand why somebody could be put off by the first 2 or 3 hours (the part of the game you spend with Tess), but I found that as soon as you begin your journey with just Joel and Ellie, the game shifts into top gear and doesn't stop until you're back in the main menu after the end-credits. So DEFINITELY stick with it as the game is pretty much just starting to get good at the part you've come to. Not that the start was bad, mind. It's just that compared to the rest of the game it's definitely weak.

Couldn't care less about your sniffy issues with the controller. I personally think the Dualshock 3 (and the 360 pad) are terrific input methods myself, never had any issues with them (mind you I never, ever play games on PC). As for your frustration with holding down X to switch weapons in-game, that's a deliberate design choice. It's supposed to be awkward and tense. So upgrade to extra weapon belts as soon as you can, allows for instant swap between weapons.

The game has very few quick-time events.

Finally, what exactly is wrong with a game that's linear? I enjoy a (well-made) open-world game as much as the next gamer, but I dislike the fact that this almost always results in the quality of the narrative getting diminished, if not destroyed utterly.
There's an irritating trend emerging amongst gamers whereby any game that isn't completely open-world is dismissed off-hand. Must be a result of entitlement issues. The only open-world games of this generation that didn't sacrifice story for freedom of exploration were Red Dead Redemption and Dark Souls.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Spoiler

Currently, I'm still clueless as to what is going on other than that I'm apparently working for the bad guys without questioning them. It's established immediately that the Fireflies caused the outbreak, but apparently they're trying to make the world better, but it's all so vaguely defined that it's just confusing.

Wait, where the hell did it say that?!

Spoiler

The Fireflies didn't cause the outbreak. They're a terrorist organisation because they're fighting against the government's marshal law.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

My favorite thing about clickers! Although that was frustrating in the whole "upside-down" part.

That was definitely one of the parts where I was ready to bin the game. I eventually got past it, after multiple apathetic trial and error runs that inevitably ended with clicker molestation. The constant "BOOM YA DEAD" animation just got annoying. I guess this is my issue with constant death...the enemy stops being threatening, and becomes an irritation instead. First Clicker I encountered was a terrifying foe that needed to be dealt with carefully. Subsequent Clicker mobs feel like really annoying trial and error game play gimmicks.

During my first playthrough on Normal, I didn't distract enemies nearly as much as I should have, but I do remember this being more of an issue when throwing bricks. Throwing bottles seemed to successfully cause distractions all the time from what I remember, but bricks don't make as much noise. I think that throwing bricks onto soft surfaces hardly causes any noise.

Good to know. It's something I wish had been even briefly explained in a tutorial, rather than me left wondering if it was a bug, and thus avoiding the throw mechanic almost entirely as hugely unreliable.

Aim slightly higher, for some reason the lower "face" region does body damage instead of headshot damage. Once you find the sweet spot you will be popping grapes all day.

VERY good to know, thank you. I suspect this is the problem.

The damage modeling thing is for NPCs. If they get shot in the arm they can't use it as well or in the leg and they limp.

That's pretty cool. I'm obsessed with head shots but maybe I'll try winging a guy.

The enemies react to sight, sound, and light. Were you moving too fast, walking on broken glass, or kicked (nudged) a can or glass bottle? Was your flashlight on? Did they see your shadow? Did they find a body?

Flashlight no, I was using the "slow creep" for (presumably) reduced sound. The likeliest problem is me just not fully understanding the stealth mechanics. There are games in which I find them highly intuitive (Thief, DE:HR, hell even BG&E) and games in which I do not (Metro, this one). I don't know whether to blame insufficient in-game feedback, or just a lack of adapability on my part.

Dude, really... Stealth, throw a bottle to get them grouped

Fucking bottles! They weren't doing ANYTHING for me. I'd hurl a bottle across the room for a key distraction, and the Clickers would be like "Whatever man, ain't fooling me" and continue jittering slowly in my direction.

if you aren't in it for the story but in it for the gameplay, you might as well just stop playing this game and pick up uncharted or something.

Of course I'm in it for the bloody story. It's the only thing keeping me playing thus far. I'm DISAPPOINTED in the game play because I had been lead to anticipate much more.

Finally, what exactly is wrong with a game that's linear?

It's not the end of the world, it just feels like a wasted opportunity. The game practically screams for hub-based game play, and you can do that and still deliver a tightly scripted story.

Maybe I'm just biased when it comes to post-apocalyptic settings. I always want full scrounging freedom. Heavily railed games (such as Metro, which was LITERALLY ON RAILS) tend to aggravate me more than they might in a different setting.

 

[Azure23]

Sounds to me like some of you have straight up broken games, I never really experienced these problems.

1. Don't really know what to tell you about the linearity, it's a Naughty Dog game, last I checked they made linear shooters with great stories and characters.
2. I don't know if I'd call this a qte apocolypse, in fact I know I wouldn't. Ryse is a qte apocolypse, TLoS just has you pressing square or x or whatever to push dudes off, that's pretty standard action game stuff, I've been doing that for years in games.
3. This is what makes me think you have a weird broken copy, that's never happened on my game, or any of my friends copies when I've seen them play. Helmet = 2 shots unless with armor piercing weapons, no helmet= 1 shot. As for the "realistic damage modeling" I've shot dudes in the legs and they went into that begging mode before, so yeah.
4. Same deal here, he stealth has always worked perfectly for me. There's an audio sting that slowly rises when an enemy sees you until they become alarmed, that combined with listening always allowed me to stealth effectively, I liked the system, and I'm a stealth connosieur. So if you're getting spotted through walls most likely one of two things is happening, you have a shitty copy or you play the game shitty and don't want to admit it. 😛
5. I guess this one's really all down to personal opinion on how weighty you like your weapons to be. For me it was fine. And as someone who isn't a particularly good shot but knows people who are, shooting a gun is hard. Even a small handgun is weighty. And it's impossible not to shake, Joel is a great shot even without the weapon sway upgrade, with it he has supernatural aim and steadiness. Just because he's not Max Payne with rocksteady aim, jeez.
6. If clickers don't instakill then you mind as well just have runners, stalkers, and bloaters only. Without the instakill clickers are just slow, dumb, grosser looking runners.
7. Sounds like a glitch. Although as far as I can tell bottles have a larger sound radius while bricks are better blunt weapons, also if clickers are already stalking you then chances are they won't be distracted by the sound and just keep searching for you.

Sorry for the long post, felt the need to defend a game I really liked.
But you know OP, it is all about the story, it sounds like you have a lot of gameplay problems, but just give up if you don't like the characters and their arcs.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Same deal here, he stealth has always worked perfectly for me. There's an audio sting that slowly rises when an enemy sees you until they become alarmed, that combined with listening always allowed me to stealth effectively, I liked the system, and I'm a stealth connosieur. So if you're getting spotted through walls most likely one of two things is happening, you have a shitty copy or you play the game shitty and don't want to admit it.

I am the last person to prevaricate about my shittiness. I am perfectly willing to accept I am shitty. I am not a pro gamer. Neither am I an inexperienced gamer. I've sunk HUNDREDS of hours into stealth games. If it's a question of me failing to understand the mechanics, that's fine. I just need tools in-game to make the mechanics clear to me. "Trial and Error" is not a tool. If I think I'm hidden but motherfuckers can actually see me and are having a laugh, I'd like some way to know this without "bullets" being the clue.

I was unaware of the audio sting. I'll listen more carefully for that.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Are you in the Euro zone?

If yes, know this: The Last of Us is censored for all of Europe. Less blood, if any at all. Less bloodstains, if any at all. No gibs. There's a whole laundry list of what's missing and why that's a bad thing.

I thought the awful de-nazified USK releases were a thing of the past when the excellent PEGI rating system took over. That was a mistake. PEGI releases are now Euro-wide, and oftentimes they basically just release one PEGI version, which can be toned down to the USK standards of old. For a game like Super Mario Bros. X, that doesn't matter much. For a game featuring violence, blood and gore (and swastikas), it can suck hairy moose balls.

Even Beyond: Two Souls got censored.

So, once again, I basically stopped buying console games. Can't be arsed to get lied to all the time. Here, Steam. Let me throw some more money at you. Now, wiggle that arse. Phwoaaar. Yes, that's my boy.

As for the gameplay... it's like a new iteration of an old school Metal Gear (Solid) game. You really want to sneak and pick the best moment and position to initiate combat. If you don't, it's a shitty ride filled with anger and bad words. If you play along the rules laid out by the game, I think The Last of Us is quite brilliant in what it does and how it does it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Are you in the Euro zone?

If yes, know this: The Last of Us is censored for all of Europe. Less blood, if any at all. Less bloodstains, if any at all. No gibs. There's a whole laundry list of what's missing and why that's a bad thing.

I think that was just the multiplayer though.

I doubt the singleplayer could be more viceral and bloody than it currently is. Atleast, not without becoming ridiculous. There's blood mist whenever someone's head bursts open or their legs and arms get shredded by a shotgun blast or nail bomb. There's also exposed intestines, and very gooey pools blood that accumulate underneath fresh kills.

You can turn the gore off in the options though, so maybe some people simply have that turned on.

 

[Someone Depressing]

It doesn't. The game is a vague and annoying grab at the title of "artsy", it doesn't go anywhere, and calling the zombies infected what they really are, zombies, will probably get you flames on forums for not being artsy enough.

It gets better for some, especially when it picks it up a little, but for me - or anybody else realising that the game is porobably a recycle of an Uncharted spin off buy with zombies - that just didn't happen. If it does pick up for you, it'll probably slowly build up until the middle.

 

[FoolKiller]

So...does it get better? When does it get better?

1. Yes I realize part of the issue is I'm a bit shit aiming with controllers.
2. Please avoid spoilers.

So far the game has been a crushing disappointment. 75% aggravation, 25% enjoyment. I've said "Fuck this, I'm done" a few times now, and one of these times I'm going to end up meaning it.

No....it's pretty much shit. The story is good, the gameplay is okay, the gameplay mechanics suck and the save system is the worst I've seen.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

You issue seems to be that you're approaching the game as a shooter but I treated it as a stealth or strategy game. Encounters need to be planed and I always held off on guns. Even if I was spotted I would still try to hide and ambush people, maybe throw a brick at a guy to get the jump on him. As to your points:

1. I guess it is now that you mention it. I guess to me it felt like "more" because I wasn't exploring copy and pasted hallways and offices with the same layout and all the rooms had a lot of detail. It made every room feel fresh so I didn't glaze over anything. I guess I'm trying to say that there was more to see, but the reward is ultimately just atmosphere
2. I only really care about quick time events if they're hard or annoying. Otherwise its just "press X to do a thing" which is how the whole game works (sorry. That doesn't help you)
3. This has been answered.
4. Has also been answered. I guess the stealth mechanics just clicked for me first
5. There is no response number 5 [small](cause I already mentioned it)[/small]
6. Well duh. The clickers are infectious and the game is trying present every threat for how it would be in reality. It would be stupid if they latched onto you and you just pushed them away like their scratches and bites were nothing. I didn't find them that hard though, humans with guns are more dangerous. As long as you have the jump on clickers you can take them out through good planing
7. Also. been answered

I guess I didn't run into any of your issues cause I play stealth games and all the mechanics just clicked for me :/ . While I enjoyed it from the beginning, I will admit when I started playing I was questioning my spending $60 on it. After a while I felt it was totally worth it. I'm glad I didn't wait to play it. So I guess maybe it will get better for you. Its not like you paid for it, so I'd stick with it

You shouldn't feel vulnerable just because the game decided to weight the shooting mechanics. Killzone 2 gave guns weight and I still felt confident using them. Joel is supposed to have been a gun runner and a mercenary for twenty years, how is his aim that bad? Hamstringing the player with bad controls is not a good way to simulate challenge.

Unless you live in the real world. Hell, real armies don't even use automatic gun fire for killing targets. They use burst fire or single shot and they only use automatic fire to suppress enemies. The kind of skill portrayed by the average fps doesn't exist. Joel shouldn't be able kill huge amounts of people with just his guns alone because no one is that good, let alone the fact that he's like 50

It depends what you go for, I guess. In my opinion Children of Men had a terribly by-the-book, overly noble ending. Something I totally expected The Last of Us to go for, but yeah, thankfully it didn't.

One of the few endings in gaming that has stuck with me and really love to debate about.

Spoiler

Typically I hate more open endings but I felt it just worked for the story. The very last line could mean so much and I love that. Almost makes me worried about if they make a sequel, even one that just takes place in the same universe since I worry that they may validate one meaning as canon.

It had such a good ending.

Spoiler

I heard that Naughty Dog was originally going to have 2 endings with a "moral choice" but I'm so glad they didn't. That would have killed part of the game for me if they went with a "forgiveness" type ending after going through so much effort to show that there's no one left to save. And I agree, its open just enough for the implications to be obvious but still debatable

 

[tippy2k2]

How can a game that has shitty gameplay, ok, average gameplay according to fans of the game, win GOTY? Because of the story? Then, why, and I ask this honestly, don't they make movies? Like the whole 'game' being a cutscene without the gameplay ruining the experience.

For the same reason that "The Walking Dead" was less than 1% of voting away from winning Game of the Year last year here on the Escapist (13.48% of the vote for Mass Effect 3 versus 12.54% for Walking Dead), despite many (in my opinion, very silly) who said it wasn't a real game because there's virtually no game-play:

There is more to a game than how good the game-play is. This isn't the 1980's anymore when "Your Princess is in another castle" was all the story that you needed. There is far far far far FAR more that this story gives you because you are the one in control.

I am the one doing these very not nice thing. I am the one who is slowly bonding with this 13 year old girl that I'm trying to get from A to B. Movies can show the brutality of curb stomping someone (see "American History X") but it's so much more impactful to me if I'm the one doing the curbstomp. Movies can show the love that can occur between a father/daughter[footnote]Metaphorically that is[/footnote] journey (fuck it, I know it's not quite right but "Aliens" seems to be a great example here anyways) but it's so much more impactful if I'm the one fighting to keep her safe.

It's perfectly fine if the story didn't grab you; it's not going to grab everyone (and it saddens me that so many feel that way because if you fell in love with the story the same way I did, we would not need this explanation ). But if you wanted to know why this is my Game of the Year, that is exactly why. The way I cared so deeply for Joel and for Ellie is something that I've never felt from a movie.

 

[sXeth]

1. Yep, this isn't a sandbox by any means. You may need some exporation to max out your upgrades by finding gears and toolboxes, but thats about it.

2. I didn't find it too bad for QTEing myself.

3. The humans get pretty ridiculous for taking punishment. The zombies are sort of explainable, I guess. The big super zombies (which are unavoidable) are when it gets outright silly.

4. Despite the games constant barrage of "You are vulnerable and must use stealth to survive"", it has numerous sequences where it auto-spots you, even outside of cutscenes. Even with cutscene "stealth fails", it likes to throw its alleged main schtick out the window for a terrible shooting gallery/enemy waves style.

5. The gun controls are wibbly-wobbly by intent, seemingly. It'd be less irritating if not for aforementioned forced shooting gallery segments.

6. You need the upgrade, or just Molotov spam them.
7. The "sound stealth" engine is fairly wonky in general. Aforementioned scripted sequences will prevent distractions from working. The not-easily discernable enemy types also have myriad levels of hearing and some may just not hear it. Or the AI may get easily distracted by whatever.


So...does it get better? When does it get better?


The end chapters are less zombies, and more people. but overall, none of your issues are going anywhere for the duration of the game. Its down to whether you want to deal with the gameplay (which I personally find to be a mess that seems cobbled together from ideas for 2-3 different games) for the story. Which is fairly played out, although decent, and acted tremendously.

 

[Tentaquil]

All I read was 'I am bad at this game because I can't shoot everything all the time and win like COD'

This game is a good mixture of story, and gameplay, mostly the story part.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

It's not the end of the world, it just feels like a wasted opportunity. The game practically screams for hub-based game play, and you can do that and still deliver a tightly scripted story.

No, it doesn't scream for "hub based gameplay." It REALLY doesn't. The game doesn't take place in a 3 square mile city, it takes place as a cross country journey. The world is big and epic in scope, while the story is small and personal, which makes a great contrast. This wouldn't be possible with "hub based" missions.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

No, it doesn't scream for "hub based gameplay." It REALLY doesn't. The game doesn't take place in a 3 square mile city, it takes place as a cross country journey. The world is big and epic in scope, while the story is small and personal, which makes a great contrast. This wouldn't be possible with "hub based" missions.

I disagree. The few bits I've encountered that opened up an area even a LITTLE bit really improved the experience. Naturally this is opinion based, but I think "it wouldn't be possible" is a pretty hefty overstatement, unless you're seriously misunderstanding what I mean by "hub based".

All I read was 'I am bad at this game because I can't shoot everything all the time and win like COD'

Oh absolutely. Bullseye, mate. I'm definitely complaining because I can't "shoot everything all the time" like I do in that popular game series I've never actually played. I'm such a big fan of "shoot everything all the time" games, don't you know.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I hate shooting with a controller. I'm sure some of you are pro at it, it feels like trying to swim with winter boots on for me. Sluggishly prodding the cursor around the screen attempting to aim makes me crazy.

I'm sure plenty of others have commented on the game mechanic specifics of TLoU. I've only played the 1st 2 hours and the shooting is OK (Naughty Dog doesn't know how to make a good 3rd-person shooter) and the stealth felt really easy because of the Daredevil-esque hearing ability that lets you see through walls. Anyways, the key to aiming in a shooter is to aim with the free look camera, your cursor should be on the enemy when you hit L1 to shoot. You don't hit L1 and then aim, you aim before hitting L1. Naughty Dog doesn't let you change their sluggish as hell free look camera in any of the Uncharteds or in TLoU and the competitive MP is unplayable for me.

 

[Sarge034]

Spoiler

There really should be narrative, but the entire thing turns out to be a red herring since there's more people like Ellie,...

Can you source that because I'm calling bullshit. Nothing in the game says that other than...

Spoiler

when Joel lies to Elli in the car.

Flashlight no, I was using the "slow creep" for (presumably) reduced sound. The likeliest problem is me just not fully understanding the stealth mechanics. There are games in which I find them highly intuitive (Thief, DE:HR, hell even BG&E) and games in which I do not (Metro, this one). I don't know whether to blame insufficient in-game feedback, or just a lack of adapability on my part.

It took me forever to realize that the environment is your biggest enemy when you stealth. I would always nudge a bottle or cast a shadow and not realize that is why I broke stealth. Game got so much more intense when I actually figured it out. There is a known glitch that can have enemies spawning behind you or in direct view of you when reinforcements enter an area. I don't know if they fixed this as I haven't plated TLoU for three or four patches.

Fucking bottles! They weren't doing ANYTHING for me. I'd hurl a bottle across the room for a key distraction, and the Clickers would be like "Whatever man, ain't fooling me" and continue jittering slowly in my direction.

This is... odd. Unless the clicker was too far away from the noise or it caught a "glimpse" of you and was already on its way to investigate it should have went to the distraction. I always try to throw it at the feet, but not hitting, of one clicker. Molotovs are cheap, and usually the dying screams of one will attract others into the fire.

But yeah, like I said before if you can't form IRL connections to Elli then the game is kindda meah.

 

[Siege_TF]

Pretty sure Shank Mastery or something lets you avoid an instant death from a Clicker (if you have a shank).

Not only did Joel lie at the end, he overdid it in such a manner that I felt was out of character for a normally smooth operator like him (remember: the best/worst lies have a nugget of truth). This is easily enough handwaved by him still being shaken up; it wouldn't surprise me if that last action sequence had him going full 'Charlie's in the trees!'.

Yeah it's story driven, but that story is in the characters' development. It's more of a man vs self than vs man, enviroment, or other so if you can't bond with the characters because the gameplay is too clumsy it's gonna suck.

I personally played with a friend, and we switched controllers when either of us got frustrated.