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The Last of Us Part II - Review Thread
- Thread starter vestan
- Start date
No it's a little strange to me too. I absolutely adore dogs and even have a hard time going to shelters because I instantly start bawling when I see the lonely animals there, but a digital representation with no real inner life or feelings. 🤷♂️ I can feel dramatic emotion and tension, but not the actual pain and sadness I feel for the real animals I meet that are suffering or sad.
I am fucking craving for the next part even if it takes place somewhere else and with someone else. As I said before, this world is just perfect for these kinds of deep, depressing and authentic stories. I dont think they can replicate the idealn settings, environments and people psychological states in other games/genres.
Probably mean the realistically animated collision into the car from the trailer. I admit I'm curious too, if that is replicatable with other surfaces.
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that kind of a smooth transition in animations? nah, i dont think i have seen Ellie dodging to objects then bouncing off of them. She just dodges to empty space. But its still very enjoyable!
This is all so interesting.Maddy Myers at Polygon was not a fan.
Here's a parallel I read about recently:
In the 1970s there was a real-life situation where some young boys from a Polynesian island (I believe) were stranded on a desert island for 15 months or so. The incident drew comparisons to William Golding's landmark novel Lord of the Flies, where Golding portrayed exactly the same scenario.
- In Golding's novel, the boys devolved into tribalism, violence and fear. One of them dies. They worship some nightmare god (the "Lord of the Flies"). The ultimate theme of the novel is that mankind is inherently evil and selfish and will always return to its base nature.
- ... But what happened in real life? To those boys who got stranded on the island? They formed democracy, took care of each other, and lived in balance with the island's ecosystem for over a year.
I think many have these double standards in video games, curiously enough.
Am I just a complete freak or does this not sound really fun to anyone else from a gameplay / combat scenario perspective. I don't know if its like I'm imaging in my head but I really want to replay encounters and do things in different ways and see how the unit reacts.
There were a few jump scares, but it's more tense than the first game in general. One of the jump scares caught me off guard so much I dropped my controller. Then again the second time, even though I knew it was coming
Great post and sums up my thoughts.
In a world where we just saw BLM and protests, etc. I can't agree with her take. ND isn't showing anything outside of what the world is showing us right now.
I too find it odd how emotionally attached some are towards dogs, John Wick.
Preordered. I never liked the ending of the first one but thought everything else was damn near perfect. Maybe this will be the one for me? Excited all the same, can't wait for release.
Good news it's a 96 the highest rated PS exclusive of the gen. lol what else do you want my dude.
I suppose that would depend. Like, obviously I can't speak for them personally, for, well, obvious reasons. But I imagine that would largely depend on what one considers "violent media." How violent does a piece of work need to be to be considered "violent" media? As that has to be defined fist.
Like I said though, either way, I can't speak for them at all, and can only speak for myself. But in my case, putting aside the question of violence for a moment and just talking about apocalyptic fiction more broadly and stuff, two examples that come to mind for me are stuff like the original novel of World War Z and the movie 28 Days Later, both of which I go into detail why in my previous post here if you would like to see my reasoning:
The Last of Us Part II - Review Thread
I mean, technically yes. But you realize during the time of the Black Plague... that was long before the era of smartphones and the Internet, yes? For all most people knew, that WAS affecting the entire world. As how would they know if it was or wasn't? Of course they didn't. For all your...
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But then there's also of course Last of Us 1 for very similar reasons. Where TLOU, from, y'know, the end of the prologue, establishes very clearly that humans are the "real" bad guys of the universe, and by the end of the game, if it wasn't clear at the beginning, well, it's certainly clear by the end of the game that humanity is likely screwed in this particular world. But at the same time, it doesn't completely wallow in misery and suffering either. That yes, it definitely makes it clear that all kinds of terrible things are happening in this world and there are all kinds of terrible people doing terrible things. But at the same time, there are others just trying their best to survive, and that's that. And sometimes tragedy befalls them, sometimes in doesn't. But nonetheless, they persevere and just do their best to survive. There's a good balance of those different kind of perspectives, the different ways people react to the end of the world in TLOU1, with some using it as an excuse to be god-awful, some just trying to survive, and I appreciate that.
And obviously, unlike any of the reviewers, I myself have not played the game. But reading those reviews from people that have, such as those that mention, maybe this is true, maybe it's not, but I just worry that TLOU2 might have lost sight of that and become just way too cynical and nihilistic for my personal tastes, in contrast to apocalyptic fiction I enjoy more, such as World War Z (novel), 28 Days Later, and yes, TLOU1 even. Obviously I myself haven't played it, but that's my personal worry in regards to that stuff (on top of yes, me being personally very squeamish when it comes to violence in general and it being hard for me to watch this stuff in general so if I'm going to watch it, there needs to be some damn good payoff for me to put myself through that and if the only payoff is just messages like "humanity is the real monster," "violence begets violence," "hatred only leads to more hatred" that forget about other apocalyptic works, but y'know are the type of messages and conversations that games like say Shadow of the Colossus and Undertale invoke all the time and people have constantly surrounding those games without they themselves having anywhere near that level of violence or any need for it at all, or going a completely different direction, is also a recurring theme in shit like Star Wars, that's... just not anywhere near justification enough for me to subject myself to something so uncomfortable, if it truly never gets beyond surface level stuff like that or invokes any particular conversations that games like Undertale or Shadow of the Colossus don't beyond just the additional meta-conversation of "did this game actually need to be so violent though" I suppose.
Now again, one more time, I myself, not having played the game, I obviously have no idea if any of that is true or not. But being so squeamish and reactive to violence (like, fuck, I hate even seeing GIFs from the modern Mortal Kombat games and shit, I know people say they are supposed to still be cartoony or some shit like that to try and defend that, but I quite honestly don't care, they're still just faaaaaaaaar too realistic and detailed for me all the same and I just don't want to see that stuff if I can help it, I have no interest in becoming desensitized to it or whatever, and so like it always annoyed me back on like NeoGAF when there were certain people who liked to post certain GIFs from the modern Mortal Kombat games and stuff as reaction gifs and the like. Fortunately, I haven't seen much of that in years and am very thankful for that, but that was really annoying and I always AdBlocked that stuff like instantly whenever I saw it, for what good that did since obviously it was just rehosted each time and a pointless thing to do, but whatever, but anyway), that's just how I am, and so if I'm going to put myself through that, if I nonetheless want to subject myself to something I'd personally find that uncomfortable, I'd want there to be some damn good pay-off and from what I'm hearing in stuff like that, there's just nowhere enough for me to risk it.
That might not be correct, perhaps it isn't, but with how much discomfort that stuff causes me, I just have no interest in personally at all risking it, it just doesn't seem worth it at all from what I'm hearing, but that's just me and I don't in any way begrudge those who feel otherwise and am glad and it's very cool to see so many people so positive regardless of my own feelings and suspicions here so I hope none of this is taken in the wrong way or a slight towards anyone who does enjoy it, because that's not at all how I intend it, far from it, and just hope that makes sense and can be respected and I'm just kinda rambling again at this point, so, well yeah. xD
It's still killing, no matter what motivation the victim had. That's why death sentences are mostly illegal nowadays.
To feel emotional pain killing a dog, but not when killing a human being, irritates me.
Oh thank god! I was worried we were gonna get another lis2 build that wall non-human entity that would be reticule until the end of time! so it does play out "better" then the description implies.
Right, but Jeff didn't compare God of War and the Last of Us for their character drama, he was talking about its combat.
and personally I've ALWAYS wanted Zelda to have a story that was compelling and meaningful.
Breath of the Wild became and absolute slog by hour 30 because the rewards for exploration were so repetitive and the format was so copy and paste. You want to talk about an overrated game. Now that's an overrated game. Ill take God of War over it any day, and Zelda is one of my all time favorite franchises. I hope BOTW 2 can strike a better balance between the old formula and the current one.
So 96 metacritic and people are still arguing? That's amazing by today's standards and tbh regarding Gamespot, the original got an 8 too.
It'll likely drop by 94 in the end so people need to chill. It won't maintain and stay at 97 like Rockstar or Nintendo games.
It'll likely drop by 94 in the end so people need to chill. It won't maintain and stay at 97 like Rockstar or Nintendo games.
that only works if you consider cops people, which they aren't
in reality what the BLM protests show us is that people have immense capacity for empathy and will form communities to take care of each other, absent the oppressive jackboot of The State. But this isn't something ND seems to believe, instead opting for a deeply cynical, nihilistic world view.
My feelings on the "give players story volition" take are here, but how is this correct?
You could play an absolute murderous psychopath (say Trevor in GTA V) but if that psychopath is faced with overwhelming odds, of course they'll take the sneaky route or avoid killing if their survival depends on it. There is no ludonarrative dissonance here, because every single one of the player's actions is contextualised and flush with what the character would or could do in the gameplay scenario.
In fact I'd argue Naughty Dog are one of the few developers who ensure that character-motive aligns with gameplay possibilities almost 100%.
Actually, if Edge gives this a 10, it will more than likely jump to 97. It's not dropping to 94.
So RLOU2 scoring betetr than the first game and even GOW, hmmm is this is the highest rated Sony game so far?
That's a big if. I'd love to see it hop to 97 and just see the tears of those claiming it's going to bomb after the leaks came out. However 94 is still one of the highest rated games of the generation while being tied with God or War.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was a 96 too, but yeah, highest score for an exclusive from what I can see on metacritic.
Jeez.
This quote from Hollywood Reporter's Review:
"Beautifully and even gruesomely crafted, The Last of Us Part II represents the pinnacle of what video games can be. It's an unflinching, impeccable example of how the medium can be used to propel the art form forward by employing the same visceral storytelling techniques and disturbing imagery you'd see from Oscar-nominated films. Critics have been asking when video games would "grow up" for years. The real question is this: when will films catch up with video games like The Last of Us Part II?"
This quote from Hollywood Reporter's Review:
"Beautifully and even gruesomely crafted, The Last of Us Part II represents the pinnacle of what video games can be. It's an unflinching, impeccable example of how the medium can be used to propel the art form forward by employing the same visceral storytelling techniques and disturbing imagery you'd see from Oscar-nominated films. Critics have been asking when video games would "grow up" for years. The real question is this: when will films catch up with video games like The Last of Us Part II?"
I mean, sure, but Edge giving another 10 is a huge bet lol
It can happen, but it's hard!
Right, BLM and protests. Tons of people coming out together, across the country and beyond it, to speak out against injustice despite the risk of police brutality. That's literally what she's talking about! What are you missing?
ive been part of a foster home for the Humane Society for 30 years, housing and finding homes for dogs, training them and looking after their health until they're adopted
a lot of the times when we couldn't find a home for a dog, we'd end up just adopting them ourselves. this was not a rare thing to happen
but in video games you gotta snuff that pupper, that digital dogs gonna make me waste a healing item
a lot of the times when we couldn't find a home for a dog, we'd end up just adopting them ourselves. this was not a rare thing to happen
but in video games you gotta snuff that pupper, that digital dogs gonna make me waste a healing item
I do not understand it either. In a game where you brutally murder human beings for 25 hours, killing a handful of animals is the last thing on my mind.
I'm honestly surprised its scored as high as it has. I figured there would be a lot more folks perturbed by the game and its depiction and focus on violence. Not that I'm complaining, just figured a game that even the director was stating was going to be extremely divisive would garner similar reviews. Then again it sounds like they nailed it going by like 95% of the takes on it and those that didn't like it seem to be partially affected by recent events (understandably).
To return to these quotes after consuming a lot of the review I think the one thing people seem to fail to mention when bringing up the protests and other things going on in light of George Floyd's death is that he died in part because of systemic widely accepted or at best ignored racism in not only the police forces but the justice system in general. We can certainly be better than we are but the fact it took how many videos of how many black people being murdered for nothing for this to finally happen speaks about as much to the fact that yes, we're often are as bad as we think we are. Its just rarely as in your face as a post apocalypse setting makes it out to be.
Maddy Myers at Polygon was not a fan.
To return to these quotes after consuming a lot of the review I think the one thing people seem to fail to mention when bringing up the protests and other things going on in light of George Floyd's death is that he died in part because of systemic widely accepted or at best ignored racism in not only the police forces but the justice system in general. We can certainly be better than we are but the fact it took how many videos of how many black people being murdered for nothing for this to finally happen speaks about as much to the fact that yes, we're often are as bad as we think we are. Its just rarely as in your face as a post apocalypse setting makes it out to be.
Fictional depictions can still stir up real connections and memories for me. Obviously its not on the same level, but its still not something I want to be desensitized to or enjoy.
It's not like preorders have been low for this game. It's been number 1 on Amazon for ages now and I think we got confirmation last week or the week before that it was above gow in EU (iirc)
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I'm impressed the Hollywood Reporter, of all publications, is throwing the entire film industry under the bus here.
It's entirely possible that TLOU2 has surpassed even highly regarded films, but that's a very big statement to make and deserves more discussion than a quick "send-off" summary quote.
I agree for it so stay at 97 it has to either play like garbage or it has to be no narrative at all.
It's mostly sarcasm. Don't worry 😒
The last 14? Years of my life, I've been surrounded by dogs. I absolutely love them, they've been my best friends and family, hell I went to a shelter and cried as soon as I left because I wanted to take them all home.
If a dog in a video game is attacking me? It's gotta go. It's either the dog or me.