The Last of US II Spoilers are out! (spoiler: game out June 19)

[Tuckers Law]

As someone that adored the first game: I detested this pile of shit.

• Pacing is probably the most awful that I’ve ever experienced in a very long time, and even before the midway point I was beginning to tire of playing the game and often felt myself uninterested as it progressed, something I never felt with the first game nor its DLC.  The small adjustments/improvements to the gameplay and controls did nothing to help with this.
• Writing and direction are laughably bad.  Even if the poor directing of the scenario didn’t completely undermine the thematic intent of the story, it still would come off as amateurishly surface-level and basic when compared to other much better games that only just barely touched on same or similar themes, such as the most recent God of War.  Or GTA4, even 

If you’re looking to play a 3rd-person zombie apocalypse-em-up, pick up the much-superior-in-nearly-every-way Days Gone instead of wasting your time with this public-access dollar-general version of a bad episode of The Walking Dead.  Or maybe a replay of the first Last of Us or its DLC.  Either way, please don’t spend money on this and make Sony think we want more.

[HardcoreRetro]

Endgame

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Abby Christ on the cross was a good touch.

[close]

Absolute masterpiece.

6/10

[Don Rumata]

like what hte fuck is the relevance of super hero trading cards

It's really a stupid amount.
The coins at least are more reasonably spaced.

Do they do anything for you gameplay wise or is it just pointless achievement type stuff?

AFAIK just fluff, like the comics in 1.

[Bebpo]

So... do you all feel this is a 10/10 Must Play GOTG?  Asking for a friend.

Nothing is a "must play".
I think it's better than the first one in many respects (some obviously due to tech advancements) and worse in others ( mainly pacing and some extra story stuff, like notes and optional banter).
So i'd put it on a similar level.

Not my GOTG, not even my GOTY (that'd be Alyx) but still a great piece of work under many POVs.
Number scores are distinguished mentally-challenged fellowed, so i dunno about that.

Yeah, it's probably not my GoTY, and I don't think it's as good as Red Dead 2 and I think those two games are very comparable in very long messy narrative AAA movie/games with top-notch graphics/presentation.

But it's a great game that every person with taste should play and enjoy. Does everything work? Nah, but enough works that it's worth playing and experiencing.

[demi]

I disagree, you could spend your time on other things instead

This game doesn't really need to exist, just play the first one and leave it at that

[Bebpo]

I don't really understand how people could like the first game and not this. This isn't as good in some stuff, but gameplay-wise it's more of the same but better. Story-wise it's a completely different beast, but if you liked the characters of the original, you'd probably want to see this through, right?

[demi]

Nope

What exactly does this game do better?

From what I can see it's the same rag-scavenging bullet-picking batman-vision playing game as before

[Bebpo]

More weapons/tools and better designed larger encounter fields with dozens of ways to have emergent gameplay encounters in them. Slightly more enemy types (slightly only because they really should've had a few more enemy types).

[Tuckers Law]

I don't really understand how people could like the first game and not this. This isn't as good in some stuff, but gameplay-wise it's more of the same but better. Story-wise it's a completely different beast, but if you liked the characters of the original, you'd probably want to see this through, right?

I wish I hadn’t.  The Last of Us games are so reliant on their narrative storytelling that I don’t believe the marginal improvements to controls and encounter designs are even close to balancing out the poor pacing and wretched story, and I know that if I were to go back and play the first game knowing how they handle the sequel, my whole experience with it is very likely to be soured.

[demi]

FOUR years earlier? this bitch got roided up in 4 years? in the apocalypse? what the fuck

[demi]

also LMFAO

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Jesse getting noscope'd like some noob in CSGO

[close]

Like what was the point of this character? What the fuck

[Bebpo]

Do characters have to have a point? It's a story, there's various people and things happen to them.

[demi]

Even your average rote JRPG has more depth to their characters than Jesse

This game is so bad lmfao

[Trent Dole]

like what hte fuck is the relevance of super hero trading cards

Maybe the devs are big fans of Rare's collectathon shit.

[demi]

why is a pregnant lady fighting the hordes of infected

[bluemax]

i dont think Dina could be any worse of a character, but then she decides to pull a Maury with the random "i'm pregnant" OOOOOOOOOOK sure Dina

This dumb game pulls this lazy plot device out of the hat

spoiler (click to show/hide)

MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES

[close]

. And love triangles. Love triangles everywhere.

Druckmann has brain rot from watching too many daytime soaps and lifetime original movies.

They also had a writer from quality tv show WESTWORLD to help. Also writing for TV and movies is nothing like writing for games.

[Don Rumata]

Do characters have to have a point? It's a story, there's various people and things happen to them.

Ideally yes.
When you write a story everything needs to have a common goal, characters (like any other element) are cogs in a larger machine.

Jesse is probably the weakest link in the whole game for me, but he does have a purpose, and it's to underline the cost of Ellie's crusade.
Especially when at the end,

spoiler (click to show/hide)

she decides to leave Dina alone to raise Jesse's child, to keep pursuing her revenge, which is one way the love triangle is shaken up a bit.

[close]

However i agree he's not a very interesting character, and being Asian is probably the only element of his that one can remember.
It's one of the reasons i like Abby's side of the story better, she's got more going on with her cast.

[HardcoreRetro]

why is a pregnant lady fighting the hordes of infected

It's a game about strong women. But in the most hamfisted way possible.

[Don Rumata]

> Couple of weeks preggo fighting some zombies.
 

> Guy who got impaled, mowing through a cannibals camp and resuming his journey West after popping an antibiotic.
 



 

[HardcoreRetro]

Didn't the winter chapter imply Joel was down for a while, hence Ellie having to fend for herself?

I think Demi was also talking about bringing Mel along and not Dina.

[Don Rumata]

The guy was nearly comatose (as seen in Left Behind as well) and then reverts back to perfect form as you go through the winter resort.
It's gameplay concession, arguably they could've made something that included some gameplay handicap, but we can understand why they they didn't want to bring that aspect to impact the gameplay (same reason why companions are invisible in both games: It's fucking annoying to get spotted because of dumb AI).
The same is true for Mel, story wise they mention how she shouldn't have come, how she's putting herself/her baby in danger, but gameplay wise you don't want some annoying fucking mechanic where the pregnant lady trips and dies at the first problem.
Again, a gameplay concession.


It's the good ol' ludo-narrative dissonance people get (selectively) up in arms about.

[Ghoul]

So I'm done! Spoilers from here on out

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The last section just felt childish, Ellie going there to "Kill" Abbey that had already spared her life twice along with that dumb bitch Dima. The end fight I wanted Ellie to die, but nah she just loses a couple fingers so she can't play guitar anymore, the scar sub story sucked, it was just thrown in to be like well you don't want to hate trans people do you? Dima the lesbian child birther is just the ultimate damsel and a waste of space and time, I missed actually having Joel in it other than just the flashbacks, IMO it should have gone, Ellie and Joel section, Joel dies, Ellie and Jesse section with Dima chasing them inti seattle then finding out she's pregnant and race to get back after killing friends of abbey, abbey section catching upto them with wolves, take it back to Jackson war between Wolves and Ellie clan, would have made for a much better section, fight scene etc then go off for boohoo ruined lives

[close]

I looked at the number of collectables thinking if there's a few sure will go grab them, but there's too many and I really can't be bothered anymore. if anyone is yet to start/but wait for a sale and also don't play anything above moderate I played above it and completed it that way but it was an absolute shit show.

[HardcoreRetro]

Playing through the section with Joel getting up in the winter chapter. They actually did change the gameplay for a section of it. Joel is holding his wound and your movement speed is slowed down.

[Don Rumata]

Playing through the section with Joel getting up in the winter chapter. They actually did change the gameplay for a section of it. Joel is holding his wound and your movement speed is slowed down.

Isn't that, like, 2 screens? (basically the area immediately out the house he's sleeping in).
Hardly any kind of realistic recovery, dude's acting like he slept on his bad side and got some back pain.

Not that i'm complaining, as i said i'm ok with that kind of bullshit, since Last of Use isn't really all that realistic, more grounded than usual action games (especially Uncharted), but still essentially a comic book reality, with cults, colorful factions, and all that nonsense.

Though in both cases, they miss the opportunity to remove a couple of rooms, for something more creative.
Since Naughty Dog is kind of famous for their scripted "interactive" set pieces, those could've been opportunities to stretch that muscle.
Same with the finale of

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ellie in California, i get that they wanted the gameplay climax (equivalent to the first game's hospital) but by then, most people just want to get to the resolution of the plot, and they could've used the slavers idea to come up with some kind of (faster to go through) scripted section, maybe involving those chained infected they use in the area.

[close]

[HardcoreRetro]

Isn't that, like, 2 screens? (basically the area immediately out the house he's sleeping in).
Hardly any kind of realistic recovery, dude's acting like he slept on his bad side and got some back pain.

Which is still 100% more than Part 2 does to establish any of it's storybeats.

[Don Rumata]

Isn't that, like, 2 screens? (basically the area immediately out the house he's sleeping in).
Hardly any kind of realistic recovery, dude's acting like he slept on his bad side and got some back pain.

Which is still 100% more than Part 2 does to establish any of it's storybeats.

Getting impaled and being near comatose for weeks (months?) is also significantly worse than being pregnant, but now i feel like we're really splitting hair, and going in circle.
I think Part 2 establishes most of its story beats just fine, and comes off a bit more messy than 1, just because it's using a less safe approach in structuring its story (which also made it more interesting, in my opinion).

However i'm not here to change your minds about it, so to each their own. 

[mormapope]

Half of Resetera's userbase are paid astroturfers for Sony's products. Many those Instagram likes are probably Sony bots or accounts well (millions of people going apeshiit over a controller reveal?) 

Microsoft and Nintendo more than likely do similar things, but Sony is far more aggressive when it comes to this shit.

[Don Rumata]

Half of Resetera's userbase are paid astroturfers for Sony's products. Many those Instagram likes are probably Sony bots or accounts well (millions of people going apeshiit over a controller reveal?) 

Microsoft and Nintendo more than likely do similar things, but Sony is far more aggressive when it comes to this shit.

"Paid".
You wish! 

[demi]

Shit if you paid me I'd gladly lie and say this game is good

Imagine not being paid and still admitting that you think this game is good haha

Couldnt be me

[Rahxephon91]

The game is too long and the more ambitious story of this game is really messy and at sometimes simply boring.

[HardcoreRetro]

Getting impaled and being near comatose for weeks (months?) is also significantly worse than being pregnant, but now i feel like we're really splitting hair, and going in circle.
I think Part 2 establishes most of its story beats just fine, and comes off a bit more messy than 1, just because it's using a less safe approach in structuring its story (which also made it more interesting, in my opinion).

However i'm not here to change your minds about it, so to each their own. 

That you don't like the way they explained it doesn't change the fact that they actually explained why stuff happens.

The only reason I can think of why they would take Mel along is

spoiler (click to show/hide)

so she could be killed by Ellie. Setting up Abby's redemptive arc later on.

[close]

Which once again feeds into why I find the game so contrived. They couldn't be arsed to give even the smallest bit of information as to why stuff happens. Stuff just happens because of shock value.

[Don Rumata]

Getting impaled and being near comatose for weeks (months?) is also significantly worse than being pregnant, but now i feel like we're really splitting hair, and going in circle.
I think Part 2 establishes most of its story beats just fine, and comes off a bit more messy than 1, just because it's using a less safe approach in structuring its story (which also made it more interesting, in my opinion).

However i'm not here to change your minds about it, so to each their own. 

That you don't like the way they explained it doesn't change the fact that they actually explained why stuff happens.

The only reason I can think of why they would take Mel along is

spoiler (click to show/hide)

so she could be killed by Ellie. Setting up Abby's redemptive arc later on.

[close]

Which once again feeds into why I find the game so contrived. They couldn't be arsed to give even the smallest bit of information as to why stuff happens. Stuff just happens because of shock value.

I'm not understanding what you're referring to, evidently.
The only instance where Mel is seen "fighting zombie hordes" I can think of, is when you go to the FOB, and you get ambushed by Scars.
And my argument being, it's no more bullshit seeing her fighting and jumping around (during those gameplay phases) than Joel and his magical healing potion.

If you're referring to her being in the revenge posse at the very start, when is she shown fighting hordes of zombies there? Are we arguing about the same thing?

Anyway, the character explanation of why she's there at the start:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

She's shown to be very jealous of Abby.
She's stuck to Owen's ass 100% of the time.
She's shown to be willing to get and put her baby in harm's way multiple times.
Plus it's plausible to think she was butt-blasted by Joel's actions as well.
And they weren't expecting Jackson to be as big as it is, since Owen calls off the whole thing once they see it.

[close]

Doesn't seem that absurd to me.

Moreover, her being there isn't at all needed for

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ellie killing her when she does, remember:

Ellie goes to the Aquarium thinking she'll find Abby.
She finds Owen and her.
Gets "assaulted" by the two, and kills them in "self defense" during a struggle.

She could've just as well only recognized Owen in that scene, and you could've played it out just the same.

[close]

So i think the reason why she's there at the start is partly so you get to see the whole cast, kinda like a Kill Bill, as well as the character reasons mentioned above.

[bluemax]

So I'm done! Spoilers from here on out

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The last section just felt childish, Ellie going there to "Kill" Abbey that had already spared her life twice along with that dumb bitch Dima. The end fight I wanted Ellie to die, but nah she just loses a couple fingers so she can't play guitar anymore, the scar sub story sucked, it was just thrown in to be like well you don't want to hate trans people do you? Dima the lesbian child birther is just the ultimate damsel and a waste of space and time, I missed actually having Joel in it other than just the flashbacks, IMO it should have gone, Ellie and Joel section, Joel dies, Ellie and Jesse section with Dima chasing them inti seattle then finding out she's pregnant and race to get back after killing friends of abbey, abbey section catching upto them with wolves, take it back to Jackson war between Wolves and Ellie clan, would have made for a much better section, fight scene etc then go off for boohoo ruined lives

[close]

I looked at the number of collectables thinking if there's a few sure will go grab them, but there's too many and I really can't be bothered anymore. if anyone is yet to start/but wait for a sale and also don't play anything above moderate I played above it and completed it that way but it was an absolute shit show.

I feel like you have to be a masochist to play a Naughty Dog game on anything above normal. They don't do the kind of balancing where a harder difficulty is more interesting.

[Don Rumata]

So I'm done! Spoilers from here on out

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The last section just felt childish, Ellie going there to "Kill" Abbey that had already spared her life twice along with that dumb bitch Dima. The end fight I wanted Ellie to die, but nah she just loses a couple fingers so she can't play guitar anymore, the scar sub story sucked, it was just thrown in to be like well you don't want to hate trans people do you? Dima the lesbian child birther is just the ultimate damsel and a waste of space and time, I missed actually having Joel in it other than just the flashbacks, IMO it should have gone, Ellie and Joel section, Joel dies, Ellie and Jesse section with Dima chasing them inti seattle then finding out she's pregnant and race to get back after killing friends of abbey, abbey section catching upto them with wolves, take it back to Jackson war between Wolves and Ellie clan, would have made for a much better section, fight scene etc then go off for boohoo ruined lives

[close]

I looked at the number of collectables thinking if there's a few sure will go grab them, but there's too many and I really can't be bothered anymore. if anyone is yet to start/but wait for a sale and also don't play anything above moderate I played above it and completed it that way but it was an absolute shit show.

I feel like you have to be a masochist to play a Naughty Dog game on anything above normal. They don't do the kind of balancing where a harder difficulty is more interesting.

Uncharted in shit on hard, but Last of Us (1 and 2) are better.
I played on hard, and thought it was fine (was always loaded with stuff), Survival would've probably been better.
Meanwhile i've seen some people play on normal on Twitch, and you can just punch your way through encounters. 

And i'm not even someone that likes hard games in general.

[BIONIC]

So I'm done! Spoilers from here on out

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The last section just felt childish, Ellie going there to "Kill" Abbey that had already spared her life twice along with that dumb bitch Dima. The end fight I wanted Ellie to die, but nah she just loses a couple fingers so she can't play guitar anymore, the scar sub story sucked, it was just thrown in to be like well you don't want to hate trans people do you? Dima the lesbian child birther is just the ultimate damsel and a waste of space and time, I missed actually having Joel in it other than just the flashbacks, IMO it should have gone, Ellie and Joel section, Joel dies, Ellie and Jesse section with Dima chasing them inti seattle then finding out she's pregnant and race to get back after killing friends of abbey, abbey section catching upto them with wolves, take it back to Jackson war between Wolves and Ellie clan, would have made for a much better section, fight scene etc then go off for boohoo ruined lives

[close]

I looked at the number of collectables thinking if there's a few sure will go grab them, but there's too many and I really can't be bothered anymore. if anyone is yet to start/but wait for a sale and also don't play anything above moderate I played above it and completed it that way but it was an absolute shit show.

I feel like you have to be a masochist to play a Naughty Dog game on anything above normal. They don't do the kind of balancing where a harder difficulty is more interesting.

TLOU games are great on hard without listen mode. Decently intense, but perfectly fair. Could even stand to be a bit less forgiving.

Uncharted games are shit on hard or crushing though. No argument there.

[HardcoreRetro]

I'm not understanding what you're referring to, evidently.
The only instance where Mel is seen "fighting zombie hordes" I can think of, is when you go to the FOB, and you get ambushed by Scars.
And my argument being, it's no more bullshit seeing her fighting and jumping around (during those gameplay phases) than Joel and his magical healing potion.

If you're referring to her being in the revenge posse at the very start, when is she shown fighting hordes of zombies there? Are we arguing about the same thing?

Anyway, the character explanation of why she's there at the start:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

She's shown to be very jealous of Abby.
She's stuck to Owen's ass 100% of the time.
She's shown to be willing to get and put her baby in harm's way multiple times.
Plus it's plausible to think she was butt-blasted by Joel's actions as well.
And they weren't expecting Jackson to be as big as it is, since Owen calls off the whole thing once they see it.

[close]

Doesn't seem that absurd to me.

Moreover, her being there isn't at all needed for

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ellie killing her when she does, remember:

Ellie goes to the Aquarium thinking she'll find Abby.
She finds Owen and her.
Gets "assaulted" by the two, and kills them in "self defense" during a struggle.

She could've just as well only recognized Owen in that scene, and you could've played it out just the same.

[close]

So i think the reason why she's there at the start is partly so you get to see the whole cast, kinda like a Kill Bill, as well as the character reasons mentioned above.

I never said fighting zombie hordes. That was Demi. I have problems with the trip to the FOB.

The intro was fine.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Abby's crew are members of the Fireflies from Salt Lake City. Mel herself was a medical student under Abby's dad. Abby's dad even called her one of his best students.  There's obvious connections there.

[close]

[remy]

Half of Resetera's userbase are paid astroturfers for Sony's products. Many those Instagram likes are probably Sony bots or accounts well (millions of people going apeshiit over a controller reveal?) 

Microsoft and Nintendo more than likely do similar things, but Sony is far more aggressive when it comes to this shit.

Both my resetera warnings were posts suggesting someone was astroturfing for sony, hours after I made them 

[Tuckers Law]

This belongs here 

[demi]

whyyyyy is there a stupid resident evil boss

[demi]

i just want this game to be over and IT KEEPS FUCKING GOING

[Don Rumata]

I'l never understand this kind of masochism. 

Like people that hate open world games, but platinum them every time.

[BIONIC]

whyyyyy is there a stupid resident evil boss

That was a great part 

[demi]

what? how and why? it was completely unnecessary

like who the fuck cares about Lev and Yara i dont think they could beat it over your head any more about Lev's "secret" like who the fuck cares can we get back to the main story here where is Ellie

[Don Rumata]

Abby is the main story tho.
That fight was dope, the only problem is that comes after 40 minutes of going through buildings.

[thetylerrob]

That boss fight was actually pretty cool but Abby day 2 is an endless slog of boring combat encounters.

Abby is the main story tho.

This is why the first game was better. Abby's campaign is boring.

[Bebpo]

I didn't like that boss fight because I was shooting and then I'd get grabbed and die in 1 hit
Then I learned to just run away and take pot shots and run some more and repeat and it was ok.

That being said, I kept wondering why the final boss fight of the game was not at the end of the game.


Also I don't remember if I've mentioned it, but the game needed way more enemy types. For the budget they had they absolutely should've had another 1-2 types of infected, bosses like this, and 1-2 types of human enemies. Although I fucking hate the silent infected. They are so bullshit because they are invisible on radar and then they alert every enemy in the area and you're fucked. Not fun enemies at all and should've been replaced with something better in a stealth game.

Also Also, going from that I hate the way you can't recover from an alert and once it goes off you just have to kill or run from every enemy in the area and your stealth chance is over. As a stealth player I find these kind of systems stupid and I do a lot of pause -> restart checkpoint. There should be a way to escape and then hide and then stealth again.

[thetylerrob]

Checkpointing after you fail stealth is a holdover from the first game. I do like it because it forces you to improvise and role-play the character but I think it made a lot more sense in a 13 hour game instead of a 30 hour one.

Agreed on the lacking enemy variety also, I was waiting for some more weird shit like this

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

so I was actually pretty hype for the boss fight.

Game also needs more guns, why did we get 2 characters if they're just going to use the same weapons with minor aesthetic differences.

[Bebpo]

But like it doesn't even make sense in the game's world logic. Like the clickers that are blind and hear. If you trigger an alert and they run at you, if you get away quietly (say cause an explosion elsewhere or other loud noise) and then hide they should go back to wandering around searching for you. Instead they just home in on wherever you are for the rest of the encounter no matter what like they have a tracking chip on you which makes no sense.

It reminds me of the early MGS games where once you trigger an alert you're fucked and have to shoot your way out. The later games are more flexible iirc and you can trigger an alert, take out the alerted guard and then hide somewhere when everyone else runs over and is searching and then the alert will go off. That's exactly what I wish this game's stealth mechanic did.

[BrokenVerses]

I’m starting the Abby section and I’m already feeling the game is dragging. It shouldn’t have been this long.

[demi]

Imagine dedicating a whole section of the game

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Only for Yara to get noscoped like a noob in CSGO anyway

[close]

Thanks for wasting my time I guess

[Bebpo]

Yeah I thought that too when that happened. Seemed kinda dumb.

[HardcoreRetro]

I liked that the shot from off-screen happened. Another great moment.

[demi]

Oh yeah can't forget about

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Manny getting noscoped like a noob in CSGO

[close]

"what should we do about this character?"

"i dont fucking know just shoot him i guess we need to tell these people about Lev"

good ol fuckin Lev

[Bebpo]

Actually that bit was good, especially when you find out who the sniper is.

[demi]

But we know who the sniper is already, they spell it out 15 hours ago

The entire first ... third? Of the game hammers it home who the sniper is

[thetylerrob]

Man I just remembered that Abby decides to help Yara and Lev because she had a guilt dream about them dying after banging Owen. 

After the controversy/politicizing of this game dies down I think it’ll be seen as the second coming of Bioshock Infinite. It even goes for the same both sides shit.

[Tuckers Law]

I was thinking Highlander 2, but Bioshock Infinite also works.

[HaughtyFrank]

Man I just remembered that Abby decides to help Yara and Lev because she had a guilt dream about them dying after banging Owen. 

After the controversy/politicizing of this game dies down I think it’ll be seen as the second coming of Bioshock Infinite. It even goes for the same both sides shit.

That was corny as hell. I don't think they were really equipped to tell the story they were going for. Just like the stuff that was there to humanize Abby, whenever that came around I couldn't help but imagine a smirking writer thinking that they're so damn clever.

[Bebpo]

Damn, a lot of y'all didn't like this one.

[HaughtyFrank]

Damn, a lot of y'all didn't like this one.

This game really lives and dies with the narrative. I wanted to like it but it just didn't click.