The Last of Us - Why can't I...?

[mokes310]

I picked up, The Last of Us, and, well, I'm not amused. Friend after friend has raved about how great this game is, but I can't help but notice the things in it that drive me nuts. A bit of background: I'm not that good at the "sneaky-aroundy" games. That being said, I was told that, for the most part, you could blast your way through. And here's where I ran into a couple issues.

1) 20 rounds of ammo? Really? Only 20? I've got a giant backpack, yet I can only carry this much? Ok, fair enough...

2) Do I have MS? I understand making targeting harder, but good lord, I felt like Michael J. Fox in the game.

3) How many times do I need to shoot a cop/military/thug in the head before they die?

4) (Probably the thing that pissed me off most) Why oh why can't I steal ammo when I kill a guy who has a gun, with anything other than a gun? If I shiv him, no ammo. Strangle him, again, no ammo. Shoot him and cause a giant ruckus, ammo. Is this just a major design flaw? If so, I would have thought they could have patched it to fix it, otherwise, I'd say it's a poor design choice.

5) Will my hand be held the entire time I play this game? I mean, I feel like I almost have zero agency here, that this entire game is just one big round of hide and seek.

I do, however, think that my frustrations aside, this appears to be a really well made game...perhaps just not one that's in my wheelhouse, so to speak.

Have any of you experienced/feel the same as I have?

 

[Zhukov]

1) Balance. They want you to be conservative with your ammo.

2) I've heard other people say this. I never had trouble, which is weird since I don't play many shooters on consoles.

3) Once, unless they're wearing a helmet. Clickers will take two headshots with some of the weaker weapons.

4) You've never seen a game where enemies don't drop all their equipment? Anyway, it's for balance. Again. Personally I think they give you too much ammo, even on the hardest difficulties. Would have preferred less.

5) Depends on your standards for "hand holding". Some people use that term to refer to anything with a tutorial. For whatever it's worth, the tutorials will stop by the time you leave Bill's town.

 

[Savagezion]

That is Naughty Dog's style really. Agency is kept off the table for pacing, and all other concerns go out the window if you play on easy because it is a solely story driven game. Taking it above easy is simply if you would like the game to be more challenging with the same story.

The enemies not dropping ammo is something I agree with, but I think it is done to keep tension high for storytelling purposes. Again it has to do with controlling pacing. What I did was pretend they had shot all their ammo by the time I kill them or when I kill them before they can shoot, their gun was only there for intimidation and they actually had no bullets. Essentially, I created a overly convenient plot device to forgive them, I'll admit. It would have been better if you had a low % chance for ammo to drop off enemies that got lower if they fired their weapon before they died.

 

[tippy2k2]

There are going to be people here that agree but I for one can't. I absolutely adore this game and it was hands down my GotY last year (might be GotGeneration while I'm at it but there's a lot I still have to get through before that title can be given).

First off, people who said you can just blast your way through lied to you. You will run out of ammo fast that way and you are not Iron Man, taking bullet after bullet. You will die very quickly doing that.

As to your 1st complaint, I chalked that up to game-play prioritized over realism (or that the backpack has to fit all that other crap in there if you want to say that instead).

For complaints 2 and 3, I've heard plenty of people having this problem but I didn't have it at all. I could aim just fine and head shots put people down real quick. I suppose once in a while it didn't catch it quite right but for the most part, I had no problems.

Complaint 4 goes back to game-play over realism (though I do remember getting ammo and whatnot from people; are you sure the guys you're killing guys who are armed with guns? Not every bad guy is armed).

For 5, it's a pretty linear game. The game doesn't hold your hand as much later but there's really only so much freedom it gives you so I suppose it depends on your definition of hand-holding...

 

[Drummodino]

One of the key themes behind The Last of Us is survival. It's a brutal, unforgiving world and you have to scavenge what minimal resources you can find just to scrape by. The limited ammo and resources in the world, along with crafting items and upgrading guns from whatever you can find lying around is there to reinforce this.

You can't just run in guns blazing (at least on the harder difficulties). You've got to be careful, manage your resources and survive. This isn't Gears of War or Uncharted, you're not some superhuman who can gun down 40 men in a firefight. Hence the controls, you need to be accurate and conservative with your shots.

This is part of why I love the game so damn much. The gameplay reinforces the overall theme of the setting, which not a lot of survival/zombie games do. You're not a soldier, you're just a guy and a girl struggling to survive.

 

[mokes310]

Yeah, all absolutely fair points. My primary gripe has to do with what I feel is an absolutely broken mechanic when silently taking guys down.

All points aside, perhaps I should just avoid the other Naughty Dog games in the future if the are all kinda like this?

 

[Drummodino]

Yeah, all absolutely fair points. My primary gripe has to do with what I feel is an absolutely broken mechanic when silently taking guys down.

All points aside, perhaps I should just avoid the other Naughty Dog games in the future if the are all kinda like this?

Well Uncharted is very linear as well, although it's more of a classical TPS where you can gun down a lot of enemies very easily. Ammo is a lot more plentiful.

The Jak trilogy is very different, the first game is a collectathon platformed. 2 and 3 though are more shooter/platformer games, similar to Ratchet and Clank. They're more open world so you can just run around if you feel like, rather than being forced to follow the story. They're great games, I highly recommend them.

 

[mokes310]

Yeah, all absolutely fair points. My primary gripe has to do with what I feel is an absolutely broken mechanic when silently taking guys down.

All points aside, perhaps I should just avoid the other Naughty Dog games in the future if the are all kinda like this?

Well Uncharted is very linear as well, although it's more of a classical TPS where you can gun down a lot of enemies very easily. Ammo is a lot more plentiful.

The Jak trilogy is very different, the first game is a collectathon platformed. 2 and 3 though are more shooter/platformer games, similar to Ratchet and Clank. They're more open world so you can just run around if you feel like, rather than being forced to follow the story. They're great games, I highly recommend them.

Thanks for the recommendations. I have less and less time to game with each passing month, so when I run into an issue with a game/game maker like this, I will tend to avoid them going forward.

 

[Vault101]

my biggest issue was the game (and yahtzee...usully I would agree with him about asshole protagonists) trying to tell me joel was somehow a bad person....he does not do one thing I would consider morally reprehensible given the context

I have not finished the game so theres probably some big plot point I havent seen

 

[Zhukov]

... so theres probably some big plot point I havent seen

I shan't spoil, but this is very much the case.

Joel isn't evil. He's not even amoral. But he sure as hell isn't nice either. I think the whole early let's-chase-this-guy-down-beat-him-break-his-arm-and-shoot-him-dead-when-he-can't-give-us-what-we-want sequence made that pretty clear.

Out of curiosity, where are you up to?

 

[Vault101]

... so theres probably some big plot point I havent seen

I shan't spoil, but this is very much the case.

Joel isn't evil. He's not even amoral. But he sure as hell isn't nice either. I think the whole early let's-chase-this-guy-down-beat-him-break-his-arm-and-shoot-him-dead-when-he-can't-give-us-what-we-want sequence made that pretty clear.

Out of curiosity, where are you up to?

that was the part that rubbed yahtzee the wrong way in particular (I can get that)

I think given the cirsumstance Joel can be forgiven for not being nice...

Spoiler: I'm up to the part where/

its winter Joel has just woken up to save ellie from the "not as nice as he seems" cannibal...you know the guy with the mustache..I'm pretty sure he has a mustache....they meet when she kills a deer

I'm probably not going to finish it anytime soon since I traded in my PS3

 

[Sniper Team 4]

... so theres probably some big plot point I havent seen

I shan't spoil, but this is very much the case.

Joel isn't evil. He's not even amoral. But he sure as hell isn't nice either. I think the whole early let's-chase-this-guy-down-beat-him-break-his-arm-and-shoot-him-dead-when-he-can't-give-us-what-we-want sequence made that pretty clear.

Out of curiosity, where are you up to?

that was the part that rubbed yahtzee the wrong way in particular (I can get that)

I think given the cirsumstance Joel can be forgiven for not being nice...

Spoiler: I'm up to the part where/

its winter Joel has just woken up to save ellie from the "not as nice as he seems" cannibal...you know the guy with the mustache..I'm pretty sure he has a mustache....they meet when she kills a deer

I'm probably not going to finish it anytime soon since I traded in my PS3

Ooooh, a pity you didn't finish that chapter. You're basically at the end of the game. After that, there was one more chapter that is rather short, and that is where the big story 'twist' comes from.

 

[Elfgore]

Never had problems with ammo or enemies not dropping enough.

But the aiming is terrible. Even fully upgraded the sway is pretty over the top.

For headshots, I believe it has to be a shot to the brain for it to count. A shot to the jaw won't kill them in one hit.

The game was hyped to high heaven though. It isn't bad, but I didn't find it as good as a majority of people made it out to be.

 

[Vault101]

Ooooh, a pity you didn't finish that chapter. You're basically at the end of the game. After that, there was one more chapter that is rather short, and that is where the big story 'twist' comes from.

yeah I knew I was close...and I supose the "twist" probaby changes it but still...up untill then he's not a monster to me

 

[Elfgore]

Ooooh, a pity you didn't finish that chapter. You're basically at the end of the game. After that, there was one more chapter that is rather short, and that is where the big story 'twist' comes from.

yeah I knew I was close...and I supose the "twist" probaby changes it but still...up untill then he's not a monster to me

He does something understandable, but overall very selfish. It didn't change my opinion of him in the slightest.

 

[Mikejames]

I'm no pro at stealth games, but I enjoyed the balance that The Last of Us had. You couldn't blindly run through it, but the melee was usually substantial enough to make up for the sparse ammo.

Worst comes to worst, lower the difficulty.

 

[Vault101]

He does something understandable, but overall very selfish. It didn't change my opinion of him in the slightest.

just for fun I'm going to try and randomly guess (just tell me if I'm right or wrong)

[spoiler/] it turns out in order for the cure Ellie has to be sacrificed...he's like "no" and so they probably kills some fireflies or whatever and rides off into the sunset with Ellie...probably too optimist for that game but whatever [/spoiler]

 

[Zhukov]

He does something understandable, but overall very selfish. It didn't change my opinion of him in the slightest.

just for fun I'm going to try and randomly guess (just tell me if I'm right or wrong)

[spoiler/] it turns out in order for the cure Ellie has to be sacrificed...he's like "no" and so they probably kills some fireflies or whatever and rides off into the sunset with Ellie...probably too optimist for that game but whatever [/spoiler]

Spoiler

You got the main thrust of it right. He saves Ellie at the cost of a cure for the fungus zombie syndrome.

However, the way he does it casts it in a somewhat different light to riding off into the sunset.

Let's just say... Ellie doesn't end up getting much say in the matter. And Joel's motivations are far from selfless.

Y'know, you could always just watch a Youtube playthrough of the last level.

 

[Vault101]

]You got the main thrust of it right..

OH....OH YEAH! WHO'S A GENIOUS? WHO'S A GENIUS HUH? I AM....I GUESSED IT! WOOO YEEEEAAAH!! I'M A MOTHERFUCKING MASTERMIND!

*ahem*

thanks, I didn't want it outright spoiled in case I was wrong....but it turns out I'm pretty good at guessing thease things XD

[spoiler/]I actually like that because it subversts the cliche "self sacrifice"[/spoiler]

 

[Casual Shinji]

my biggest issue was the game (and yahtzee...usully I would agree with him about asshole protagonists) trying to tell me joel was somehow a bad person....he does not do one thing I would consider morally reprehensible given the context

I have not finished the game so theres probably some big plot point I havent seen

I don't think the game ever tries to tell you that (although he's hardly giving people bonbons). It's showing that for Joel, and basically everyone else, violence has become a daily routine. It's not any different for him now than getting groceries.

The scene right after Ellie covered Joel with the rifle, and she asks him 'Who'd I do?' and he entrusts her with a gun, it's a bonding moment, but it's a bonding moment over the act of murder. So it's kind of fucked up in that way.

It isn't untill Winter that Joel starts to go slightly off the deep end. And it's not because he's evil, but because he's just a sad old man. The funny thing is that this is your typical "old curmugeon learns to love again thanks to youthful presence", but in this story the results aren't too positive.