The Last of Us Reviews

[Shilka]

Just been watching 2 hours of gameplay video's...it's good The prologue actually got some tears flowing with my wife, lol.

 

[Kenadian]

Just been watching 2 hours of gameplay video's...it's good The prologue actually got some tears flowing with my wife, lol.

You can tell her she's not alone.

It really reminds me of the first Max Payne where you come home to a crying baby and screaming wife that you can't get to. Your wife is being raped by a bunch of thugs high on a synthetic drug and your baby is crying trapped in an overturned crib if I remember correctly.

They are both shot and killed with you on the other side of the door trying to break through.

 

[little P]

You can tell her she's not alone.

It really reminds me of the first Max Payne where you come home to a crying baby and screaming wife that you can't get to. Your wife is being raped by a bunch of thugs high on a synthetic drug and your baby is crying trapped in an overturned crib if I remember correctly.

They are both shot and killed with you on the other side of the door trying to break through.

Fucking hell... :icon_eek: I'm glad I didn't play that.. wtf?!?

 

[Kenadian]

Fucking hell... :icon_eek: I'm glad I didn't play that.. wtf?!?

The original Max Payne was simply amazing and though they've tried, they've just never been able to recreate the raw emotion you pulled from that game. It was also pure genius in so many ways from story telling, to environments, to sounds, to music, to immersion and of course, bullet time. Still stands out in my mind as one of the best games ever.

...

Well I'm just under 2 hours into The Last of Us and have no idea how to put it in context? I'm playing a game, I have a controller in my hand and I'm watching it on TV but yet, I'm not playing a game.

There is so much authenticity in this world that it's hard not to connect with it. That being said, there are moments when you get kicked back to game because AI does something a bit off, a texture will pop or something else but pretty much everything else is story progression.

I have not met a character yet I've felt is wooden nor have I run into an area that has felt anything other than completely believable and authentic.

Unfortunately I'm not the best person to describe controls because the only other console game I've played recently is Fallout 3 last night (for the very first time), just to get used to having a controller in my hand.

I can say that I feel the controls are a mix of slick and horribly cumbersome. Movement and sneaking melee combat feels slick and controlled but gunfights and head to head melee feels horribly shaky and rushed. The thing about it is that it just adds to the authenticity of the entire The Last of Us experience.

I don't think it should be BF3 easy to shoot a gun under any circumstances and it isn't in the Last of Us. The gun does not aim steady and bobs with the natural movement of Joel's body.

Popping up from behind cover to aim or shoot will get you shot immediately so you have to be smart about it. You have to take aim behind cover and pop up, adjust and shoot, its brilliant because you're always at risk.

Moving over and around cover is very well done, perhaps the best I've seen in any game to date.

I've just agreed to take Ellie to the Fireflies whom represent the resistance fighting an ever losing battle over the military.

From what I can gather so far, the military is only interested in locking down their quarantine zones and diligently policing everyone for the fear of spread of infection. The Fireflies on the other hand are somehow tied into development of a possible cure for which Ellie is the supposed key.

I've got to get back into it so I'll update later but so far saying this game is amazing may not be a large enough word.

Will update shortly.

 

[Leftnut]

I just messed around with my sons copy plays a little bit like Hitman control wise.

 

[Kenadian]

OK I'm in close to 5 hours now and the game is simply amazing. The one thing I will say though is if I were to rate it out of 10, at this point in time I'd give it an 8 or a 9, but not a perfect score.

There are issues that do detract from the immersion at least in my case.

What I don't think was a wise decision was making clickers pretty much unkillable from the front. I have some decent melee weaponry right now and I'm still clicker bait. Hopefully that changes as I progress but right now whenever one is agro'd, I'm guaranteed to die every single time.

The other thing that does break it for me a bit is that I can be getting attacked by Runners which makes a horrible amount of noise yet the Clicker can find me by echo location in the middle of a Runner swarm, kinda silly actually.

Also, Tess and Ellie have gotten in my way numerous times and I've died as a result of it. I wish they would hang back a bit rather than keep pace with me especially if their to offer no assistance in the middle of a fight.

Lastly, they talk and run past clickers who can't seem to hear them yet I have to slow crouch or they'll find me.

These really are little things but each has the tendency to break the immersion that the game is mostly exceptional at sucking you into.

It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here as you already sense that Joel is warming up to Ellie. The story itself and most of the mechanics are truly second to none.

Overall so far, a truly great game, one that I'll certainly play through more than once.

 

[little P]

I'll give this review an 986/10. The content of the review was top-notch, pointing out both pro's and con's, and leaving me with an accurate impression of this game without having played it.

Unfortunately the reviewer is Canadian so 978 points need to be deducted. So, overall, 8 moose/10.

 

[Shilka]

If you have problems with the clickers, there is a special ability which will cause you to do a defensive shiv kill when being grabbed by a clicker, might be worth it.

How's the console gaming in general for you btw? Can you live with the graphics and controller of an 8 year old platform?

 

[Kenadian]

If you have problems with the clickers, there is a special ability which will cause you to do a defensive shiv kill when being grabbed by a clicker, might be worth it.

How's the console gaming in general for you btw? Can you live with the graphics and controller of an 8 year old platform?

I actually purchased the ability last night but I'm in the upside down sequence where I'm hanging upside down in one of Bill's traps so it unfortunately does me no good.

For the most part though, if I can stealth I can usually take out a clicker quite easily but shooting them dead is exceptionally difficult even with the Revolver. In fact, shooting in the game is difficult overall mostly because I'm new to console gaming though I'd wager.

I've kept my misgivings about consoles out of this review because if given a choice, I'd never own a console. The PC just has everything I need whereas a console is always a tradeoff at some level IMHO.

Even the prettiest console games just don't have the same image quality as PC games and that's hard to get acclimated to. 720p at 42" is noticeably lacking in visual fidelity compared to 1080p on my LED/LCD.

The other thing I just don't like is the speed and accuracy of a controller. Even at the highest sensitivity (where I'm at), it takes forever to turn 360° unless you use the key combination that makes you immediately spin 180° which is hard to do in intense combat.

Aiming is a complete nightmare especially if the target is not moving directly toward you.

I will say though that the rumbleshock in The Last of Us is awesome and really helps to give you feedback on what's happening around you.

Really, at this stage I'd never play a console again if I thought I could get away with it but I don't think that's going to be possible.

Maybe with more time I'll become accustomed to a controller and have a better time with it. Even if that does become the case, there is no scenario where a controller will beat the mouse/keyboard in pinpointing targets nor will it do so in movement IMHO.

There will always be a delay in changing direction as the stick has to go from one extreme direction to the other which only takes milliseconds but adding in micro adjustments really can mean the difference between life and death.

A mouse and keyboard never has this issue as you can change direction instantly without having to pass a center point.

This is the exact reason why in Battlefield 3 (for example) a good pilot using a Joystick will always die to a pilot of similar skill set using a Keyboard/Mouse.

All that being said though Shilka, if I'm to call myself an owner of a Gaming Website I should probably experience all gaming and not just PC Gaming.

This is one reason I've been watching console news a lot more as of late because there is a good chance I'll purchase a PS4 within the next year or so. I was open to either XBox or PS4 but I think you get freedom with PS4 and no BS (so far) which I don't believe is the case with XBox.

Anyway I'm not trying to moan or degrade the experience on console vs PC or PS4 vs XBox. This is just where my mind is today and it can change as time moves on.

 

[Shilka]

Doesn't sound that bad really bud. Controller is generally easy to learn, but hard to master, and it took me at least a week to get some basic use skills, but a lot longer to memorize the buttons, get decent fine movement on the thumbsticks and triggers, and even longer to get a good control by using both sticks simultaneously (for example drive/fly while looking around, or strafe and look to turn around faster). Once you get used to it it's second nature though, and currently I'd always opt to turn auto-aim off on games because my stick skills are pretty decent now. Hell, even the military uses xbox controllers for bomb dismantling and wireless flight, so there must be something decent about it, lol.

All the little pro-player tips are true I guess, but not really realistic I think. Instant turn around and stuff is great for winning, not for immersion imho, so I don't really mind or even notice those kind of things, but I do get those points. As far as I heard aiming especially in this game is almost designed to be a nightmare and though frustrating, it does add to the panic when under stress, hehehe.

Good to see you're enjoying the game though, and not totally put off by having to play it on console. My xbox just plays on 1080p on hdmi connection, so I have little complaints there, could be you need to change some settings or something.

Thanks for your opinion, was kind of curious about it

 

[Shilka]

K, I'm well beyond what you last described and I can tell you this; better wear some diapers because you'll be definately shitting your pants... Wow this game is so tense, just watching the gameplay vids I got to a point where I was like, if I'd be playing this now this is where I would turn of the game and return another day because I'd have to grow bigger balls first.
Seriously awesome atmosphere this game has if just watching the vids make me feel this uneasy, lol.

 

[Leftnut]

I only have slow twitch muscles so controller play is always a chore for me.

 

[Kenadian]

K, I'm well beyond what you last described and I can tell you this; better wear some diapers because you'll be definately shitting your pants... Wow this game is so tense, just watching the gameplay vids I got to a point where I was like, if I'd be playing this now this is where I would turn of the game and return another day because I'd have to grow bigger balls first.
Seriously awesome atmosphere this game has if just watching the vids make me feel this uneasy, lol.

I'm actually at the school now and facing the biggest baddie I've yet encountered ingame. He's basically a Level 3 (or perhaps Level 4, which is blank in the game description) and completely covered in armor. I think he spits spores right at you which not only blind you but take away health at the same time; he's horrible.

I still haven't managed to kill him and have no idea how I'm going to get past this point? It wouldn't be so bad if it were just him but it's him and runners and the runners beat you to shit while you're trying to kill him.

I only have slow twitch muscles so controller play is always a chore for me.

I find that twitch isn't really required in this game because I have more time to kill stuff that in BF3; the only issue is that I suck with the controller.

I was watching FrankieonPC play and he's certainly a seasoned pro with the controller as his movement and overall game confidence is noticeably better than my own.

At this point I'm almost tempted to restart a new game as I'll be way more acclimated to the controller and possibly more effective ingame.

 

[Kenadian]

OK I finally beat the big guy in the Gymnasium. Their pretty much covered in infected, scale like, armor and take a lot of damage to take down.

Their called bloaters and apparently have been infected for a very long time.

I emptied a shogun into one with little effect, than God for the revolver.

 

[Kenadian]

I just got seperated from Ellie from falling down an elevator shaft and it's so fucking creepy in here. I finally managed to get the generator started and as I did there was one ungodly scream and a Bloater came after me.

I was trapped in fear mostly so he cornered me easily and tore my face in two.

That will do it for tonight.

I have to say that some of my misgivings about the game here and there have almost completely given way. I had to play through a Library Level just outside of a Military Checkpoint and not only was it one of the best levels in the game, it's one of the best levels of any game I've ever played.

All I can say is thank God for the Shotgun, Molotov and my personal favorite so far, the Nail Bomb:

 

[little P]

I just got seperated from Ellie from falling down an elevator shaft and it's so fucking creepy in here. I finally managed to get the generator started and as I did there was one ungodly scream and a Bloater came after me.

I was trapped in fear mostly so he cornered me easily and tore my face in two.

That will do it for tonight.

I have to say that some of my misgivings about the game here and there have almost completely given way. I had to play through a Library Level just outside of a Military Checkpoint and not only was it one of the best levels in the game, it's one of the best levels of any game I've ever played.

All I can say is thank God for the Shotgun, Molotov and my personal favorite so far, the Nail Bomb:

View attachment 476

This game sounds awesome, I might have to borrow a PS3 from someone to play this

 

[Shilka]

Hahaha, I thought the part where you have to start the generator is awesome creepy stuff, every sound gets your adrenalin running (even when just watching the gameplaymovie), and when that bloater and all other baddies run in it's just sheer panic. All the half flooded darkness makes for an awesome atmosphere, it's a part I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Without wanting to spoil anything, I've seen hard and easy ways out of that situation, I'm curious how you're going to tackle it.

I'm also on the brink of checking if I can loan a ps3 just to play this game, there's a few ps3's around in the neighbourhood, so could be a possibility for me...

 

[Kenadian]

Just do what I did, buy The Last of Us for the person you're borrowing the PS3 with the deal that you can borrow the PS3 anytime you want to play or replay the game.

I have access to my friends PS3 pretty much anytime I want to play.

I have no idea how I'm going to get past this guy? I'll probably see if I can lay a few nail bombs down behind me to slow him down and the molotov him a few times more. The shotgun does nothing to him so I'll have to run up one of the ramps probably and try to keep some distance between us.

 

[Shilka]

Well, if you're completely stuck you can ask me for the easy way, but just ask yourself, why are you starting up the generator?

 

[Kenadian]

I must be thick because I'm not sure what hint you're trying to give me with starting up the generator As it turns out I had to start it up so I could use a Security Pass Card to get out of the level.

I did work out after the initial shock of having my face ripped in two that the Generator would attract everything around so the second time through I laid Nail Bombs (3 of them) in the water surrounding it. As it turns out, the Bloater tripped two of them and simply had to be hit with a molotov to finish it off.

That being said, there were other issues on the floor above so it did get a bit hairy but I managed to pull through.

I find that I'm much more comfortable with the controller now and do a pretty good job defending myself but I can see there is still much room for improvement.

I'm out of the town now and coupled with another survivor and his younger brother. Actually, we got split up by a big metal door so now I have his little brother with me and Ellie is with the other guy.