They specifically went out of their way to portray violence in a way that's way more plausible and human than Gears, specifically making it so that the characters are photorealistic and that the violence itself is less stylized than the first game. Frankly I've never seen characters looked more convincing injured and or dead as during the trailers in this game.
You want to make a point about violence in a videogame whose system of fun derives from said violence?
Agreed that it's something worth having a discussion over, sometimes it does really feel that creators create "misdirects" just for the sake of fooling the audience. My take on whether they should have revealed Abby as a playable character in the marketing however, is a firm no as that would actively harm the game's narrative. The thing I think most people forget when discussing this is how warped our perception of it all is due to spoilers and knowing crucial things about the plot ND deliberately held back from the general audience.
See, I get that, but... there's combat in the game. It's how we have fun. I'm worried any message about "violence" in the game is going to be undermined by the fact that in order for us to have fun... we have to be violent.
See my comment about Spec Ops the line. That game actively makes playing it unenjoyable due to the harshness of the narrative and gameplay. It still plays like a shooter and technically has its "fun game" in TPS combat, but it gets its message across just fine. Playing to the tropes of video games (endless violence against waves of enemies) may serve to better deliver messages against violence. In spec ops it felt so crappy doing shootouts when you knew the enemies didn't deserve it. You can see this in the recent TLOU2 interview where they talk about giving each AI a unique name that is called upon their death by other AI. They want to make you feel guilty for your actions. If the violence of the game gives you joy from playing it but then the game chastised you for it, it will make you feel uncomfortable and you may question yourself ala Spec Ops. I encourage you to check out that game, it may open your mind to how framing violence in games can really lead to interesting and productive narratives.
They're gone out of their way to state that the intention is for it to not be fun in the traditional sense. It'd be like saying that any movie that portrays violence is meant to entertain us. Games more than any other medium is perfect for this sort of message not only because we directly interact with characters, but also because violence is at the forefront of the medium so much so that games that have core gameplay loops centered around other things instead of violence
See my recent comment about Spec Ops. Games have done it before and TLOU2 is putting many things in place to pull it off.
yes, exactly. it's not our world, so it's stupid to compare it in that way. it's a world shaped by non-stop violence and survival and crazy fucking cult people. trying to equivocate the two is useless.
Spec ops the line has you burn civilians with white phosphorus and then shows their burning skeletons and melted flesh. It shows a burnt out mother holding a charred and melted baby. Excuse me but how in any world is that subtle? It also has you murder a platoon of soldiers and then grab the walkie talkie from a dying soldier who is vomiting up blood and choking.
They specifically went out of their way to portray violence in a way that's way more plausible and human than Gears, specifically making it so that the characters are photorealistic and that the violence itself is less stylized than the first game. Frankly I've never seen characters looked more convincing injured and or dead as during the trailers in this game.
Also, like, what if I have more fun being violent? I'm not a huge fan of sneaking around. Like, I get the comparison between books and movies, but the thing is, video games main form of entertainment is interaction. That's where the fun derives. It's kinda undermining the game's message if it's trying to say violence is bad but, "hey, you can make explosive arrows."
This isn't meant as a sarcastic response/criticism of the game, but I can't wait to use the exploding arrows. Well, and the bow. The bow was my favorite part of the Last of Us because you could fire it without alerting any humans or infected. It allowed you to be very methodical. I can't wait for that again.
Yes, you can have a game where violence is a central gameplay mechanic that also critiques violence, I mean you yourself mentioned Spec Ops which is a game that does exactly that. How the combat is designed to feel is far more important than its sole inclusion. The game is exploring the horrors of violence exactly by forcing you to engage with it and it seems that they made sure that the feel of it all isn't fun or rewarding in the slightest. It's supposed to be a harrowing experience and it doubles down on how harrowing it is by making you actually dread enemy encounters because of how sheer the brutality is. It's taking away the satisfaction these encounters would have in a lot of other games.
I don't agree with the direction they took the story and no amount of context will change that sadly.
Oh I loved the bow in part 1, but holy fuck, the aiming was bad or I just didn't know what I was doing😂
It's like all these chucklefucks where waiting for something to drop to use as an excuse to go after Neil & naughty dog for muh sjw agenda... some are using the excuse of thier horrible crunch culture, but it is interesting to see that no where on thier youtube channel, that nothing on the crunch is there, but they do bring it up in between thier ramblings about muh sjw agenda.
We don't know if that's the end of the game or close to it, but no Ellie doesn't die there. Abby says "I better not see you again" or something like that, why threaten the dead girl.
I think it's some kind of "bring them down to our level" kind of thing, like why is this one dev so highly regarded I didn't even like tlou, ND overrated, etc. I just don't think it's really going to matter once the game is out, it's either going to be good or not regardless of how the internet thought of the leaks (which is literally always negative).
Complaining about the story being bad and giving props to the visuals isn't tucking tail.
One of the leaked videos shows one of their hideouts and a figurine of their messiah you can pick up. I think her name is Nora? I don't remember exactly but I'm sure it's the same Nora mentioned in the level list. She's the reason they all have the scars on their face. Besides that we know nothing except they like to gut anyone who isn't them. Edit: Actually there's a newspaper clipping that describes how they started: this woman had enough food and supplies to keep her whole neighborhood alive when the outbreak started and saved them all. Because they were prepared, they managed to survive the initial wave of the infection and continued to survive while keeping their neighborhood free of any infected. They called it a divine miracle and started the cult around her.
Again?
True but this is super detailed. I've not seen the trailer myself yet but does it make mention of a Jadon character? Because this summary does.
Yep
No but might as well post the summary anyway. If it's wrong it's wrong and if it's true it's true. Gives something to analyze and talk about either way
