The Last Of Us 2

Gyan84

Been playing this since Friday and enjoying it so far.

The narrative and atmosphere are obviously the highlight but I find the combat enjoyable too. Only thing that annoys me is the AI for your npc companion. Too many times have I been discovered because Dina decided she'd crouch directly in front or behind me blocking where I want to go.

Thoughts on the lodge:

I read no leaks/spoilers before it and was completely shocked. When they showed Ellie saying "they can't just get away with this" in the trailer I assumed that their town would get attacked and Dina or some other new character would get killed.

I also like how Joel's death plays into his "it's called luck and it's going to run out" saying from the first game. It's incredibly unlucky that he happens to be the patrol that finds her and they end up having to retreat to Abby's hideout instead of returning to Jackson.

Is there anybody who has finished the game that would be able to tell me how far I'm into the game ? I'm at the part where

I'm heading toward a hospital after leaving Jesse and Dina in the theater.

I thought I was nearing the end but still haven't come across any

of the Scars

.

Joshua J

Gyan84 wrote: »

Been playing this since Friday and enjoying it so far.

The narrative and atmosphere are obviously the highlight but I find the combat enjoyable too. Only thing that annoys me is the AI for your npc companion. Too many times have I been discovered because Dina decided she'd crouch directly in front or behind me blocking where I want to go.

Thoughts on the lodge:

I read no leaks/spoilers before it and was completely shocked. When they showed Ellie saying "they can't just get away with this" in the trailer I assumed that their town would get attacked and Dina or some other new character would get killed.

I also like how Joel's death plays into his "it's called luck and it's going to run out" saying from the first game. It's incredibly unlucky that he happens to be the patrol that finds her and they end up having to retreat to Abby's hideout instead of returning to Jackson.

Is there anybody who has finished the game that would be able to tell me how far I'm into the game ? I'm at the part where

I'm heading toward a hospital after leaving Jesse and Dina in the theater.

I thought I was nearing the end but still haven't come across any

of the Scars

.

Not even half way yet.

Grumpypants

Yeah it is about 30 hours long. Sounds like you're about 1/3 through it.

Elessar

Been playing since last night myself. Still in Seattle at the moment. Does anyone else find playing it a little bit foreboding or depressing? Not in that it's bad, but the atmosphere in the game just really takes it out of me, and I need regular breaks.

Also I loved Ellie's

guitar rendition of "Take On Me" in the music shop

. A heartfelt moment and one of the reasons I love Naughty Dog games.

Zero-Cool

In downtown Seattle

I was tempted to go straight to the dome building as it didn't look like much to explore until i saw some ledges. Then went from 1 building to the next going from a calm emotional moment to a jump scare to keep me on my toes, the world is incredible. Gonna go m cover every inch of the map before visiting my main goal.

The music shop was so cool.

Gamer Bhoy 89

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

I have a question about DOGS in this game.

Do I HAVE to kill them? I'm in an encounter where they're sniffing me out with one, and I haven't found a way to avoid killing the dog. If I don't kill the dog, he just harrasses me throughout the encounter, and I'm trying to be as stealthy as possible.

(P.S. Please don't respond to my question by complaining about the stealth mechanics. I like them, so don't make it about that, I'm getting that a lot on Reddit)

Unfortunately I didn't see a way not too.
I think it's grim but that's the game you are playing.
I added some tags as this may be considered gameplay spoilers. I was not aware they were part of the game until I experienced it for myself.

IrishJedi75

Retr0gamer wrote: »

No i mean the reviewers who did their job as a reviewer by, you know reviewing the game (the reviewers I trust didn't give it a perfect score) and ignored the non controversy around it because it had absolutely nothing to do with the review.

Also you have to realise as well that a publisher, marketing and legal team are separate entities to the developer of the game. Naughty dog and Neil would have been way too busy getting their game out the door to bother with YouTubers and Twitter trolls.

And to end hitting someone with a copyright claim on a platform might be wrong but isn't illegal in any country.

Critics don't mention the drama because it's not their job to and nobody cares so it won't generate hits.

Yep you go on being delusional.

Neil Druckman is a coward.He stated how '' delighted '' he was with the amount of user scores in the first day or two but neglected to mention how poor those scores were from actual gamers ( You know,the ones who actually purchase the game,not the shill '' professional '' reviewers who have the game given to them and are giving it a good review just because its woke.)

The game is already being called '' The Last Jedi Of Us '' given that its just going to break the fandom just like that abomination that was Star Wars Episode 8 did.

IrishJedi75

IrishJedi75 wrote: »

Yep you go on being delusional.

Neil Druckman is a coward.He stated how '' delighted '' he was with the amount of user scores in the first day or two but neglected to mention how poor those scores were from actual gamers ( You know,the ones who actually purchase the game,not the shill '' professional '' reviewers who have the game given to them and are giving it a good review just because its woke.)

The game is already being called '' The Last Jedi Of Us '' given that its just going to break the fandom just like that abomination that was Star Wars Episode 8 did.

Jesus man, why do you care so much? The intensity of the vitriol and the intensity of the defence is bizarre.

My own personal opinion that this is a showpiece game which is amazingly beautiful to look at but loses its soul to be relevant.

I have enjoyed playing it, would recommend it, bit it is not as good as it thinks it is.

A solid 7

IrishJedi75

Deleted User wrote: »

Jesus man, why do you care so much? The intensity of the vitriol and the intensity of the defence is bizarre.

My own personal opinion that this is a showpiece game which is amazingly beautiful to look at but loses its soul to be relevant.

I have enjoyed playing it, would recommend it, bit it is not as good as it thinks it is.

A solid 7

Because like a lot of people,i absolutely LOVED the first game and to see everything that was built up completely destroyed because the developer wanted to get woke and listen to a feminazi like Anita Sarkeeshian is just...ugh.

At least i saved my self 70 euros or so.

awec

Elessar wrote: »

Been playing since last night myself. Still in Seattle at the moment. Does anyone else find playing it a little bit foreboding or depressing? Not in that it's bad, but the atmosphere in the game just really takes it out of me, and I need regular breaks.

Also I loved Ellie's

guitar rendition of "Take On Me" in the music shop

. A heartfelt moment and one of the reasons I love Naughty Dog games.

Yes I can’t play this game for hours for end. Too tense and stressful.

I think it’ll take a few weeks for me to put 30 hours into it.

The Raging Bile Duct

IrishJedi75 wrote: »

Yep you go on being delusional.

Neil Druckman is a coward.He stated how '' delighted '' he was with the amount of user scores in the first day or two but neglected to mention how poor those scores were from actual gamers ( You know,the ones who actually purchase the game,not the shill '' professional '' reviewers who have the game given to them and are giving it a good review just because its woke.)

Those negative reviews are in the main not from people that bought and played the game but from people like yourselves giving out about its wokeness.

It's pretty easy to tell that Druckmann was joking in his tweet about the user reviews.

IrishJedi75

Well well...

The Raging Bile Duct

IrishJedi75 wrote: »

Well well...

You're obviously not getting the point that those review bombing it and complaining about wokeness and sjw propaganda are people like you who are never going to play the game.

Gamer Bhoy 89

IrishJedi75 wrote: »

Well well...

It's so easy to just drop a low score on any game, have your review be "crap" and hit Enter, and that's it.

There is nothing to it.

[0.4/10]
Review: My mum told me I wasn't allowed to play it

And that counts towards the average score

Always take those user scores with a grain of salt. Metacritic is a cesspit of nonsense.

This was someone's "review" for GTA San Andreas. He blamed his CD being damaged on his low score.



Absolute rubbish.

It's going to take months for TLOU2's average user score to regulate with real, honest reviews. The only people who have given negatives on that are those who were outraged by its supposed bad plot decisions and woke-crap I dunno anything about. The game was only out 12 hours and they came in like a horde.

No positive review is going to be in there within 12 hours. Give it a few weeks or months and that score will go up. Sadly it's average will probably end up being a 7, but I personally don't think it represents everyone's honest opinions of the game

2u2me

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

It's so easy to just drop a low score on any game, have your review be "crap" and hit Enter, and that's it.

You've picked 2 reviews from a possible 24,000. Do you think they fairly represent the sentiment being expressed in the negative reviews?

johnny_ultimate

Here's how review bombing works, and why people do it.

A group of people on the internet - whether that's a loosely organised group of trolls or a bunch of individuals - decide any given piece of media (usually some sort of big franchise release in gaming or film) is 'wrong' for whatever reason. It can occasionally be genuine concern over the quality or legitimate concern, but typically it has something to do with 'wokeness' (a phrase itself which has becoming laughably meaningless given the way some people abuse it).

The piece of media is then review-bombed on Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, with the people who dislike the piece of media than able to present a screenshot and smugly say 'look, the public hate this! We're objectively right and those dastardly critics are wrong'. This is a wider problem with internet culture, where many people are deeply uncomfortable with the fact that everyone consumes media in an individual and subjective manner, so they attempt to futilely 'prove' objective reasons why 'this thing is bad' (it manifests itself in various forms such as plot hole nitpicking), rather than be comfortable saying 'this wasn't for me' and move on with their lives. It's all part of the silly tribalism that has festered in many online communities, alas.

There are two main problems here:
1. Most people don't give a **** about user scores. Most people also don't give a **** about the dumbass culture wars around popular culture.

2. Review bombing campaigns are usually transparently coordinated, meaning everyone with an ounce of sense can see what's going on and see how it's a blatant case of a small group of people actively manipulating something. If there's ever any doubt, a quick look at the reviews themselves will usually prove that. Case in point:

Metacritic review bomber wrote:

The game is a vessel for woke agenda, its a deconstruction without giving you anything good in return. Its disgusting, i feel deeply violated by this game.

Metacritic review bomber wrote:

Political agenda RUINED this game

(both from the front page of TLOU2 metacritic)

None of this is to say TLOU2 is undeserving of criticism - this thread, to take one example, has many fair and pointed criticisms of the games from people who've actually played it. No game is undeserving of criticism, and no game will be universally loved or even liked. The problem is when a mob decides that the result a review bombing campaign is some sort of definitive trump card when debating any given piece of media. The problem is that everyone else can see right through and understand how easily a small number of people can manipulate a user score

Leroy42

IrishJedi75 wrote: »

Because like a lot of people,i absolutely LOVED the first game and to see everything that was built up completely destroyed because the developer wanted to get woke and listen to a feminazi like Anita Sarkeeshian is just...ugh.

At least i saved my self 70 euros or so.

But it hasn't been destroyed. TLOU is still there, this is the next chapter.

If you haven't played it how do you know it's been destroyed? Because someone else told you so? And now you won't play it because what? You think you're €70 is going to make a difference? That if you play it you might like it and that means your 'woke'?

You know Anna didn't write the entire story, there is a bit about infected that she left in.

J. Marston

Of course it was review-bombed...



The rage that games scores generates is crazy. It's like this generations consoles wars.

GottaGetGatt

Anyone else get like black screen blip for a second Every so often while playing?

Gamer Bhoy 89

I have to wonder though, who looks at all those bombed reviews and actually think "this has sparked me to also hate this game, even though I was originally interested"?

Oh I don't know. I guess I'm grateful to enjoy my games for what they are.

Gamer Bhoy 89

GottaGetGatt wrote: »

Anyone else get like black screen blip for a second Every so often while playing?

That sounds like a display/HDMI issue..... I'm probably wrong

goon_magee

IrishJedi75 wrote: »

Because like a lot of people,i absolutely LOVED the first game and to see everything that was built up completely destroyed because the developer wanted to get woke and listen to a feminazi like Anita Sarkeeshian is just...ugh.

At least i saved my self 70 euros or so.

No harm, but given you obviously haven't played it, and are basing your opinion off of the outrage of others and a number of leaks (many of which ended up not even being true), then you're opinion contributes nothing to the conversation and debate around the game.

And I can also confirm after about 15 hours of play, that there are a few criticisms you could bring up about the game, but being woke and pushing a "feminazi" agenda is absolutely not one of them. If you think the themes that are present in this game constitute pushing an agenda, then it's probably wise you didn't drop 70 quid on a 30 hour game, because you definitely need that time to work on your own insecurities.

goon_magee

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

That sounds like a display/HDMI issue..... I'm probably wrong

Yep, definitely sounds like a HDMI issue. I had this a while back. Swapped out the cable and it was fine after that.

Robert ninja

For every troll review there's more honest looking ones.



But even the dumbest, trolliest user reviews still carry more legitimacy than the disgraced game journo activists. If user reviews are valid/invalid for one game then they're valid/invalid for ever every game. You can't just point to this one and say they don't count. Just as it's easy to leave a negative review it costs nothing to leave positive ones too and we've seen it's corporations that are the ones who actually hire teams of people to improve the image of their products. Amazon, a company whose combined net worth with its CEO is more than enough to cover our nation's national debt, still can't figure a good solution to stop the fake positive reviews on products that companies abuse to bolster sales.

But people are skeptical of negative ones. :rolleyes:

The Raging Bile Duct wrote: »

You're obviously not getting the point that those review bombing it and complaining about wokeness and sjw propaganda are people like you who are never going to play the game.

Would you expect them to play it? I mean you generally don't spend money on stuff you dislike. Although if they didn't even play it then I'd agree they shouldn't be leaving reviews and instead just laugh at it in forums n' such.

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

I have to wonder though, who looks at all those bombed reviews and actually think "this has sparked me to also hate this game, even though I was originally interested"

Nobody. But the disparity between critics and user feedback might cause them to rethink the purchase, especially if they've seen this happen before and have experience of which side they'd trust.

GottaGetGatt

goon_magee wrote: »

Yep, definitely sounds like a HDMI issue. I had this a while back. Swapped out the cable and it was fine after that.

Yeah? It’s a brand new console. Only got it on Friday

Retr0gamer

I've issues with some of the lesser game journos but do you not realise how tin foil hat wearing crazy it sounds when you lump them all together as of they are all part of some conspiracy to promote so called 'wokeness' and rally against the right wing agenda? Because that is utter nonsense.

There really isn't one. You might point to that bull**** gamergate thing where they found that games journos were in contact with each other but incels don't realise that is how people in niche disciplines and jobs have to work. It's called networking and I've done it myself in academia and in industry.

Also as for them being more liberal, that's down to them being mostly highly educated in literature and social sciences.

goon_magee

GottaGetGatt wrote: »

Yeah? It’s a brand new console. Only got it on Friday

Sorry, what I meant was if its the same issue I had, then it'll just be a dodgy cable rather than the console itself. I'd try swapping the cable if you've another one and seeing if that resolves the issue.

Elessar

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

You're not alone. It can be a bit much. However, I'm invested in the story and characters I am pushing through what can sometimes be depressing or stressful segments.

I've reached the theatre, got to the section after playing the guitar - which I won't spoil - and have left it there. Ellie is entirely unlikeable and selfish. Even in her conversations with people where they express empathy and positivity she responds with the opposite. The result of being raised by one Joel Miller I'm afraid. She treats everyone like crap.

Not sure what all the fuss is about with the shamblers. They're easy to take care of with molotovs and/or a shotgun. I've fully maxed out the survival tree so otherwise lethal hits just leave me with small health; was very useful in my first encounter with them.

My one and only death has been by a human NPC who came out of nowhere and strangled me despite tapping square. The human enemies are definitely the most fun in terms of combat because they're smarter and you have to get creative to take them all down silently. You're never really out of the woods - you take down one enemy and the others get suspicious that he/she has been quiet for a while. They wander over and boom, they've found a dead body. Suddenly the whole area is on alert. :eek:

I'm at the same point in the story myself. Though I don't get the impression Ellie is selfish or unlikeable. I think she's been through so much, and hurt so much that she is guarded and can play down empathy towards her, maybe because she doesn't feel she deserves it. I think she's quite well written and I don't dislike her at all, in fact I'm falling for her as a character. I think get what you mean by thinking she treats people like crap but I honestly think it's not deliberately that way.

FrostyJack

5/6 hours in and thankfully my criticism of the 1st hour has been completely forgotten. Back to the TLOU we all love, such great story telling that gets you drawn into the game. I was going to say I cannot believe the moaners about wokeness, but I have seen enough of Trump supporters and commentators the last few years to know they are out there seething in their mothers basement. My only criticism now is the combat, having been playing lots of Warzone and Apex Legends, my shooting has been on point, in this I waste a lot of ammo panic firing. Wish they made this a bit more fluid. The last one was the same but after playing a good few hours of the multiplayer I was much better. I may improve later on. When sneaking up on infected with sods law every time I am about to grab them they turn and spot me, no matter how slow I sneak up. Nearly always ends in melee or gun fight. Won't get to play for another few days, can't wait to get back to the story.