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The Last of Us Pt II |OT| Oh Ellie...I think they should be terrified of you

Itachi87

Member
Just beat the game on Survivor difficulty a few days ago. The gameplay is amazing, but the story itself does not hold a candle to the original. Story's not terrible but definitely not 10/10. Also, didn't enjoy the constant flashbacks. Also, the game just ran a bit too long and that last sequence could easily have been cut out and the game would've been fine and even better imo.
 

Keihart

Member
I’m only a few hours in, but so far I find Ellie really annoying and quite like Abby. I’ve kept my nose out of most news for this game, instead just seeing the odd headline. I didn’t deep dive on spoilers but do know a (the?) big one.

Abby just seems a more believable character for the world. I don’t know how you have Ellie’s life experiences and turn out to be, her.

Worth throwing in, story wise this game has a lot of fucking improving to do until it starts to catch the first game. It’s a soap opera so far. And a bit annoying.
I don't know how far you are into the story, but there are several hints at how Ellie has a thing with getting upset too easily, which is also one of her main traits in the first game. This seems to be more of a coming of age story for Ellie framed in revenge than Ellie being already a complete adult.

It's also a slow burn so far, it builds tension several times, going as far as trying to trick you into thinking your are gonna get some action with the level design and items but then more often than not holds it without immediate payoff.
 
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After 22 hours and 48 minutes on Survival difficulty, I've reached the part at which Abby confronts Ellie at the theater. This game is amazing; its gameplay is tense and its story is suspenseful and darkly adventurous.

You're at 45% completion :) It took me 39 hrs in my first run. Looks like you gonna hit 40+.
 
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evanft

Member
It's also a slow burn so far, it builds tension several times, going as far as trying to trick you into thinking your are gonna get some action with the level design and items but then more often than not holds it without immediate payoff.

I noticed this as well. The way they build tension and then sometimes not break it until you least expect it is absolutely masterful. I'm 9.5 hours in, Seattle Day 2, and this is unequivocally ND's best game. If this keeps going like it is, I may end up calling it my game of the generation.
 

Clarissa

Banned
So I have Josh Holloway as Tommy. And now I think Ronda Rousey will make the perfect Abby.


ZKP33w8.jpg
 

TissueBox

Member
Anybody who knows Japanese and have access to the Famitsu review(s) of TLOUPII know what they had to say about it? I know, this is kiind of a shot in the dark but I'mma curious lass in a monkey named George. *shrug*
 
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thelastword

Banned
Amazing game, 11/10. High bar to eclipse this gen.....I like how the story is not set up as the white knight story that many people expected.....Here's my hero and no matter what action he takes, there are no consequences. Life is not a Utopia, especially in a post apocalyptical Zombie setting,

Somebody asked what can the story be in Part 3. I can see Abby and Ellie tag teaming the torture clan in Santa Barbara. There must be a leader of said folk somewhere. I can also see Lev playing a huge roll in part 3 too. Seems like he will grow up to be a formidable warrior.....Even Dina's son may come into play....

Ellie. Love the double barrel and crossbow, but the flamethrower is so terrible it drags the entire second set down.

I have never played a game with a good flamethrower ever. Not CoD World at War. Not Alien Isolation. Not Team Fortress 2. They all suck.
The flamethrower in Killzone 2 is pretty good for effect.....
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Contains some mid-game spoilers.


Contains some mid-game spoilers.

Some of that isn't too impressive. But stuff like the teeth, the glass, and the dust? Goddamn son.
 

BluRayHiDef

Banned
Just finished.

I read the spoilers, watched the cut scenes and leaks and was convinced the story was BS and ruined.

Boy was I wrong, it literally might be my single player game of a gen.

For me, the best single-player campaign of this generation so far is either Batman: Arkham Knight, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, or The Last of Us Part II.
 
Finally finished up the game today and really enjoyed it. I do agree that there are sections that seem a bit disjointed in the scheme of things and even a bit like two games mashed into one. With that said I really enjoyed it. In fact I've really struggled keeping interest in gaming over the last few years because of the feeling of stagnation in the medium. Being that I have a preference for story driven games over filler, this gives me hope for the direction of gaming in tye future.
 
I'm struggling through Survivor. Struggling! However, I find the Seraphites to be easier to fight than the WLF for some reason.

Survivor is torture on a first playthrough... you should tone it down if you're struggling too much and want to speed up the story (you can do that at any time). There is no trophy for survivor.
 
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bender

What time is it?
Survivor is torture on a first playthrough... you should tone it down if you're struggling too much and want to speed up the story (you can do that at any time). There is no trophy for survivor.

I didn't have much trouble with Survivor. You can abuse the overly generous checkpoint system.
 

bender

What time is it?
The Bloater boss battle that takes place in the arcade was a pain on Survivor. I died perhaps 30 times.

First try! Most of the boss battles didn't give me much of an issue. I think my major pain points were when you were trapped in the mansion waiting for Lev and Yara to help you escape through the ambulance and again as Abby in the warehouse right after the shelving collapsed underneath you. Both of those were mostly ammo related as I needed to not miss shots or I'd not have enough to dispatch all the infected. Maybe my recent TLOU Grounded play through paid off.
 

Kagero

Member
Just had a Dead Space moment. *really mild spoiler*
What I mean is, I was going to use a upgrade bench, and while the controls were taken away from me (and my guard was down) got grabbed from behind. Scared the piss outta me. More games need to do this!
That part scared the crap out of me! I was wearing headphones and you can actually hear the dude sprint from across the room. His footsteps getting louder as he got close. Pretty awesome moment.
 

jakinov

Member
Just got Platinum. Replaying the game was a bit of chore to get the collectibles and upgrades. You can only skip certain cut-scenes which you then got super long loading screen either way, and doing those story heavy chapters are annoying. I was one pill away from being done, did two sections with no pills then got kidnapped and had to do that whole thing. I did figure out a trick in determining which cut scenes you can skip. If Abby of Ellie's face look shiny and highly detailed, you can skip it.

I wish the game featured less exploration and cutscenes and more of the survival/action aspect. Way too many cutscenes and way too many areas where if you aren't looting, you are looking for a hole in the wall. I was never a huge fan of the first game but I think this game was significantly more fun to play. Gunplay is better, AI seems smarter and puzzles are better. I enjoy the production value and the little details of the story but like most video game stories I'm not a huge fan.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Just finished. I will have more to say tomorrow.

Gameplay wise. It was easily much better than the first one. Story-wise it wasn't great. Not Last Jedi bad, but I hated playing as Abby so much.
 

Keihart

Member
I just want to say, that since i'm past the mid point, regardless of endgame twists and turns, the plot it's exactly what i would have told you the game was going to be about after part 2 was announced. I have no idea how anyone can say the events are coming out of left field.

The game it's blue balling me hard as of right now tho, but i'm expecting a payoff in the climax of the game before some bitter ending like the first game.

Edit: Also this guy Keith Paciello created the system for the facial animations in TLoU2 during gameplay. It's not motion capture.
They could seamlessly jump into some type of RPG with branching stories then, although i doubt they would since it wouldn't have the same quality as the cinematics, but still. This is some witcher 3 shit in a ND game.
 
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JTCx

Member
After finishing the game this weekend, it definitely left a impression on me. Naughty Dog has done it again. Gameplay is top notch, intense, and stressful. Its such a challenging game to absorb and filled with lots of gray areas. Naughty Dog clearly knew the direction of the story was going to be divisive. I applaud them for this and will look forward to their PS5 project. :messenger_sunglasses:

I went back to check on those 'leaks'. Most of those shits werent even true and people were ready to write this game off based on those LOL. Stay gullible lmao.
 
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whatup

Member
Sure they know, they don't care. Neither do I.

And why should we? Joel's decision was based on love. It may not have been the right choice, but it's one that's at least understandable by those who witnessed him losing his child. They could empathize with him. What's Abby have at the point she kills Joel? What backstory? Nothing. She's a complete stranger we know nothing of torturing and killing a character we know a great deal of and care about a lot.

Why shouldn't they dislike her in the way she's presented?

That's literally the entire point of the game and why you play as Abby LATER, after you've come to hate her.
 

Winkle

Member
Is there anyway to get the original start screen back after completing the game? The one where the boats moored floating in the water. I find it more relaxing than the new finished game screen.
 

GymWolf

Member
So I have Josh Holloway as Tommy. And now I think Ronda Rousey will make the perfect Abby.


ZKP33w8.jpg
Nah, abby is not a complete cunt and rousey making the VA for her would be horrible and histerical at the same time.

Also abby doesn't look like a dog in the face.
 
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DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
Some comments about Abby’s story:
It relies too much on coincidences to be believable:
She magically meets Joel and Tommy while being chased by a giant zombie horde in a almost frozen region with daily scouts, wut?

She magically falls into a pool when she slips up from that crane thing on the skyscraper

Manny comes out of nowhere to save her from Tommy, just so that he can die later

While being close to starvation and obviously dehydrated, she manages to fight an armed Ellie for a while, only going down after several slashes

I really like Abby’s story, but this stuff is really bad writing

I don't think the first apart is "too much on coincidence" in my opinion. Owen was scouting the area and spotted a patrol, which happened to be Tommy and Joel's location. Abby ran off by herself and came across some horse tracks leading in their direction. Abby was going to capture at least one of them to force Joel out of the city so she could kill him.
 

scalman

Member
Playing second time after open area all stats and all weapons maxed so nothing more to upgrade there just for arrows and bullets. Kinda too fast but i wanted that though i no shoot weapons allmost at all. Just arrows.
juts we need more bonus clothes and even hair cuts for replaying game. Why those gone ? We had those in first game.
 
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Hostile_18

Banned
I must admit its strange to be about women empowerment yet them reducing Dinas tits. Ellie, Abby and Dina all have less than average. One or two characters would be fine but all three gives the impression some how that bigger busts are somehow bad. For me this is the first time politics has started intruding in Naughty Dog games in a forced/unnatural way.

It's pretty much my only minor complaint about this game. Oh and Owen going for Mel wtf she's fugllllllly.
 
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Woggleman

Member
Now that I have finished it I give it a 9/10.

The gameplay is superb and easily ND's best. The combat is just so fun.

The story could have used a bit more focus but overall I thought it was well told

The world building and atmosphere is top notch. You genuinely get the feel of what a post apocalyptic world would feel like.

They did overdo it on the flashbacks and the early missions in Seattle were a bit too open.
 

JimiNutz

Banned
I'm not sure if I can be bothered to Platinum this game.

Although the gameplay is mostly very entertaining and the combat encounters are very fun to play through multiple times, I don't enjoy finding the collectibles and there seem to be a lot of these.

I suppose I could use a guide to try and find them all but I don't find that particularly rewarding and I don't find traversing or exploring the environments that interesting.

How did others find it? Was it easy enough to find all of the collectibles?
 
I've been playing this for a few hours now. I'm not ready to talk about any spoilers, but holy shit this game slapped me hard.

The graphics are just insane for a console that is almost 7 years old. Well I'm playing on Pro but still.
I don't even miss TLoU Remastered's 60fps because IMO the frame rate in Part II is really smooth and stable.
 

nowhat

Member
So I finished the game a couple of days back, have been gathering my thoughts how I really feel about it. But the obvious stuff first - yeah, the game is an incredible technical achievement. I only have one minor quibble about the presentation, and surprisingly it's the music. What's on offer here is good, but didn't quite hit me as hard as the first game, also I would have liked more ambient music (not that every scene needs to have a soundtrack, but the soundscape can be quite barren at times). Still, a minor complaint. And the gameplay has improved in pretty much every conceivable aspect.

But then there's the story. I'll spoiler-tag this naturally, but before that - I don't think the first game had a great story. It wasn't bad, but it was never going to win any literary awards. What makes it work are the characters and the relationships between them. Similarly, I don't think the story here is great, nor bad. But the execution is something I have issues with.

I'll start by saying that the decision to not have Joel as a main character was the only right call. I don't have any animosity towards him, but as a character, he was pretty much done. The whole first game is really about Joel getting his daughter back, and in the process, regaining some of his lost humanity. After a fashion, he does both. It can be argued whether what he did was justified, but it really doesn't matter; from his perspective, he did the right thing and would do the same thing again. He has found his peace, such as it were. But where you do go with such a character? I suppose the writers could have killed off Ellie, but then it would be like the first game all over again. So, no issues with Joel getting offed at the very start. You need some motivation into the events that follow.

So far, so good. And I don't mind playing as Abby, it's good to have some gameplay variation, and while the whole "violence begets violence"-thing may be too played out, it's nice to have a different perspective to the events. But the problem is, you never really get to know the characters involved that well. If I kill someone, and later learn that person had a name and perhaps hints of a personality, it really does nothing for me. I'd need to care about that person for me to care about them dying.

I think this is exemplified by what was to me the most shocking death in the game, that of Jesse. Shocking, as in coming so out of the blue and unceremoniously, but not because I really cared. Sure, we get to spend some time with him. But what do we know of him as a person? He... uhh... umm... provably boned Dina at least once, so he's got that going for him I guess...

There's no easy fix for this though. The game already overstays it welcome a bit I think, it would have benefited from tighter editing. So, we can't have like a whole first game's worth of character interaction for both of the main characters to establish relationships with other characters, but perhaps doing a more intimate story with fewer characters could have helped. Also I feel the third faction (whachhacallit, those guys in California) was kinda pointless, you never got anything else out of them besides "they're bad".

The ending though, that I have no issue with - with the final cutscene with Joel. Without that cutscene it would have been totally pointless, but as it is, I'm fine with it.

Oh, one more thing. Was I the only one who thought Abby had like totally killed Tommy in the theatre? When I saw Tommy at the farm my first though was "oh please no, this is a dream sequence". I'm glad that turned out not to be the case, but for a while I was really worried.

Still, I really liked the game. I'll give the tech a 10, gameplay 9 and 8 for the story, so I guess that averages to 9.
 
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