Zero Punctuation: The Last of Us
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
YES! Thank you Yahtzee! God I hated the main characters, I wanted them to die more then anyone else in the game!
Maybe I've been playing a fair too many games as of late, but when I'm being shot at, shooting back seems a hell of a lot less like murder than simply surviving. Hell, they even bring it up in the game; it's either this entire group of bandits or me, and knowing there are still full cities thriving, even under military rule, I have nothing against getting rid of a few murderous cocks. Killing a raider that murders, rapes, and steals everything in sight is no more of a murder than me killing those zombies, and yet we have nothing against mowing them down.
I've mentioned this before on other forums, but I think the friendly AI "safety" is determined by difficulty. I played it on normal and found that, yeah, enemies would never notice Ellie or my other allies, but my friends that played it on hard said he opposite, that enemies would not only notice, but sometimes the friendly AI would jump out and fire, breaking stealth, if they felt it was necessary.
As for the ending: I personally liked it. I was going over this with a friend, and I realized that anything else would've made me not care. Considering what I personally found the story to be (not a "We have to save the world, but at what cost", but more "What would you give to actually live as oppose to simply survive") I understand that some people were angry or thought that Joel was being a dick, but I think part of the appeal in The Last of Us is realizing that, to a certain extent, you have to be a dick, otherwise you're used and killed. It's also keeping in character I think, because the more we learn about Joel, the more we realize just how much evil shit he's actually done, and this just sort of feels like we got a glimpse as to the type of stuff he used to do.
As for the ending: I personally liked it. I was going over this with a friend, and I realized that anything else would've made me not care. Considering what I personally found the story to be (not a "We have to save the world, but at what cost", but more "What would you give to actually live as oppose to simply survive") I understand that some people were angry or thought that Joel was being a dick, but I think part of the appeal in The Last of Us is realizing that, to a certain extent, you have to be a dick, otherwise you're used and killed. It's also keeping in character I think, because the more we learn about Joel, the more we realize just how much evil shit he's actually done, and this just sort of feels like we got a glimpse as to the type of stuff he used to do.
Me: "Naughty Dog, why are you making another zombie apocalypse game? Zombie apocalypses are so generically overplayed we've got a wildly popular AMC series based on them."
Naughty Dog: "... Fuck you, got mine."
Me: "Not regretting not owning a PS3 right now."
Naughty Dog: "... Fuck you, got mine."
Me: "Not regretting not owning a PS3 right now."
The only part I agree with is the problem with the enemies all ignoring Ellie. In stealth situations having her happily run around and Clickers not even noticing was a little jarring.
The smoke bomb part I agree that they are useless, but not because they are not necessary, it's just that they don't seem to work properly. The enemy never stopped firing at me when I threw them either when it was at their feet or at mine.
The rest of it I couldn't agree with less. It seemed like complaining for the sake of it and/or deliberately missing the point.
The smoke bomb part I agree that they are useless, but not because they are not necessary, it's just that they don't seem to work properly. The enemy never stopped firing at me when I threw them either when it was at their feet or at mine.
The rest of it I couldn't agree with less. It seemed like complaining for the sake of it and/or deliberately missing the point.
New to Zero Punctuation? That tends to be Yahtzee's thing... taking the piss out of games even if they are generally good. Though normally he also mentions that the game did have it's upsides if he ended up enjoying it, so his lack of anything along those lines kind of surprises me considering all the acclaim the game is getting.Legion said:
They become pretty damn useful in Survivor though. Don't have a shit worth of ammo? Just throw a smoke bomb into a group of enemies and go to town with a melee weapon.Legion said:
OT: It's sad how wrong you are, Yahtzee. I'll cry for your lost soul.
Yahtzee, there's a fuckton of enemies in the game you can just sneak by entirely, you know.
But yeah, some of them have to die. So what exactly are Joel and Ellie supposed to do instead of killing them, roll over and die? They only ever did it to protect their fucking lives. I completely fail to grasp how you can apply that logic to that particular world, or hell, most video games where you kill enemies (90% of all games).
Seriously. I think I heard at least one other person say this shit, but I don't get it. What did they do that was so intolerable in that dog-eat-dog world that it was a shame they "got away with it"? The ending is perfectly fine.
But yeah, some of them have to die. So what exactly are Joel and Ellie supposed to do instead of killing them, roll over and die? They only ever did it to protect their fucking lives. I completely fail to grasp how you can apply that logic to that particular world, or hell, most video games where you kill enemies (90% of all games).
Seriously. I think I heard at least one other person say this shit, but I don't get it. What did they do that was so intolerable in that dog-eat-dog world that it was a shame they "got away with it"? The ending is perfectly fine.
Normally he seems to try and be humorous about it while being comically over the top, with this it just seems to be a mild rant. Usually even if I disagree with him I can find the humour in it, in this case it felt like somebody just complaining, like in a "Why does everybody love The Last of Us?" thread.Lvl 64 Klutz said:
I was with Yahtzee on his umbrage against Uncharted, but I get the feeling that he's somewhat anti Naughty Dog at this point. I'd definitely agree that the plot is safe and cliché, so much so that you can pretty much infer almost everything that happens when someone tells you the concept of the game, but it was the characters which took the spotlight -- and they were pretty refreshing.
I felt that a lot of the gameplay was pretty fluffy too, but it was frantic, scrappy and brutal at the best of times, especially against the infected. I ultimately didn't feel unsatisfied with it, but I'm having a hard time getting myself to play through the entire thing again. Though it's never like the combat in Uncharted which, as you said, you completely forget about as soon as you're done playing it. Kinda disappointing, I thought Yahtzee would really dig this, but all he seemed to talk about was how much he doesn't like Uncharted and how you can see its DNA in The Last of Us without talking about any of the really great things about it.
I felt that a lot of the gameplay was pretty fluffy too, but it was frantic, scrappy and brutal at the best of times, especially against the infected. I ultimately didn't feel unsatisfied with it, but I'm having a hard time getting myself to play through the entire thing again. Though it's never like the combat in Uncharted which, as you said, you completely forget about as soon as you're done playing it. Kinda disappointing, I thought Yahtzee would really dig this, but all he seemed to talk about was how much he doesn't like Uncharted and how you can see its DNA in The Last of Us without talking about any of the really great things about it.
This struck me as a fairly lazy review for what is an interesting game. It's pretty easy to complain that zombies are a fad and that the gameplay was generic (which I don't really agree with). A lot of his complaints were also increidbly weak - the stealth pace was pretty good and his comments about the story smacked of someone that didn't really engage with it. It struck me that he didn't play it very sensibly as well - I got instakilled about twice in the game and the reason Ellie couldn't go and hide in the bin during a fight is that the smartest tactic was usually to kill one person and sneak through which would make her hiding at the beginning of the level a pain.
Really what irritated me is that the game employed so many elements that he has championed in his reviews and in Extra Punctuation and he dismissed it for some fairly cheap and uninteresting digs.
Really what irritated me is that the game employed so many elements that he has championed in his reviews and in Extra Punctuation and he dismissed it for some fairly cheap and uninteresting digs.