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[taizuke]

How many months before people talk about how terrible it is?

Where you been? Happens already in every new GOTY thread.

 

[Larson]

More proof that TLoU is a populist pleasing dude bro action game with mostly mainstream appeal, like CoD:MW2 before it.

I know some here like to hold it up as art and proof of legitimizing gaming, but it's definitely more Michael Bay than Stanley Kubrick.

Gaming doesn't yet have its Citizen Kane but at least it has its Transformers.

Just because the game has many followers doesn't make the game any less "art", Mona Lisa gets many million visitors every year, does the painting gets less "art" because people want to see it?

 

[MercuryLS]

This game was uniformly amazing, but this scene in particular really really hit me hard.

SPOILERS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCGNGWUQEwk SPOILERS

It's the exact moment that the game reached legendary status for me. It's such a powerful scene.

 

[Lasthope106]

I wouldn't compare it to a Telltale game either. But I do think the gameplay is actually quite poor.

I was writing up a post to the other thread that just got closed about why I personally think it has poor gameplay, but it got locked. Since it seems kinda on topic here, I'll post it. Maybe someone out there agrees with me.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think the gameplay in The Last of Us is pretty terrible, so I can give you my reasons at least.

1) The stealth is more basic than Tenchu Z. You basically just crouch and creep around, and the game puts more focus on sound detection. Despite that, jumping over cover spots, dropping down from elevated areas don't seem to make any additional noise. The stealth takedowns are very basic, and mostly are just a rear choke-hold.

2) The enemies are very poorly designed.

Clickers are horribly designed for the gameplay systems in place. Clickers are blind, and they are difficult to fight in open combat. So your main strategy is to focus on stealth. However, with no sight capabilities, this means that all you have to do is just walk slow and you will never have any trouble from a clicker. The main way to take them down with stealth hits is to use a shiv. However, killing a clicker doesn't reward you with anything as far as I remember, xp or ammo wise. So the rational choice every single time is to simply walk past the clickers and not burn your shivs, because they are limited, and they're used to open locked doors or for your emergency melee counters.

So, every time I saw clickers, instead of feeling anything like fear or heightened tension, I instead knew that it meant that I simply had to walk slowly for a long time. Every time I saw a large area with clickers, I would of course still have to explore everything for items and materials I could scavenge. Only now I had to explore it in slow motion. Every time I got to an area like that, it was so mind numbing that I wanted to turn off the game. I don't enjoy 30 minutes of just walking slowly and not doing anything else. And the entire game's storyline was hanging on the clickers, and how well they worked. These are the key element of their version of the apocalypse; these are their new zombies. I wasn't sold on it at all.

Clickers also bother me because once they're alerted, they fucking sprint at you at an unbelievable speed and instantly one hit kill you. And in addition to that, this game makes sure that you bob and weave when aiming, so you're not likely to ever routinely defend yourself from a clicker attack. And you can't run because that screws up your aiming even more, even though the enemies are exceptionally mobile and fast.

A better example of how to make enemies scary, unique, and make them work well with the gameplay systems you have is Resident Evil 4. By comparing clickers to the many, many enemies in RE4, it becomes a lot easier to see how inferior TLoU really is. Look at the chainsaw guys. Their sound effects were a lot more terrifying to me than the clickers were. Both developers wanted you to know these guys were there to drum up the fear, so RE4 had the constant humming of the chainsaw rumbling behind you getting louder and louder, as well as the guy's high pitched screams and wails. TLoU had ... clicking. Yes, it makes sense for sonar detection, but it's not scary. The chainsaw guys also could one hit kill you, and that was the main reason people were scared of them. But, the chainsaw guys were slower than you, and their aim was not perfect. Even with these limitations on their killing ability, they were still terrifying, and still managed to one shot you many times in the game, but they actually made the gameplay systems work. You could stop and aim and get some shots in because they were slower than you, but at some point they would just barrel right through you regardless. TLoU has enemies just sprint right at you and instant kill you, which doesn't enhance the gameplay, it just leads you to a retry screen. Or look at the Regenerators in RE4. These guys were even slower, and could absolutely be outrun if the player wanted to run away. However, they were perfectly designed to enhance a gameplay system that wanted you to stop and aim carefully. You used your thermal sniper rifle scope to find their weak spots and hit them, or else they were invincible. And despite this, they were still completely terrifying. But they managed to make the gameplay better, and make the stop and aim system work better, instead of creating contradictory designs that just lead to a restart screen. And RE has tons more enemies like this, like the blind wolverine with claws that relies on sound (much like the clickers, but still better, and they have you manipulating sound in the environments during gameplay, hitting weak spots on his back, and he can still one hit kill you but not every time, and his aim isn't perfect because he's fucking blind).

Where RE4 had tons and tons of enemies and bosses that worked flawlessly, TLoU had one enemy to get right, and they totally, completely blew it.

Perhaps the only enemy worse than that is the "newly turned," which just literally sit there and do nothing, waiting to be killed. That's possibly the most pointless enemy of this entire generation.

3) The first 4 hours of the game might as well have been a cutscene, because you basically just followed an NPC down a narrow road and watched cutscenes. I love FFXIII, and TLoU's intro was so scripted and linear that even I felt suffocated.

4) There is very little verticality allowed in the stealth, or the level design. In one of the first missions I was with Tess going to get the guns from the guy who double crossed them. They showed that we were sneaking into a large area and were greatly outnumbered. There were gigantic metal shipping crates stacked all over, with smaller wooden crates next to them making natural stairs. Being a stealth focused game (and a Naughty Dog game) I naturally assumed you could at least do limited platforming to climb a couple boxes and get a better perspective to see the enemy patterns, but you can't at all. Instead of having level design that helps make stealth gameplay organic, they instead had to add x-ray vision for Joel.

5) The partner AI ruins the game's main strength, presentation and immersion. Everyone is aware of this one. You're sneaking around a clicker and Ellie just goes barreling right past them, jumping and talking to you full volume and no one notices. You remember how frustrating I said it was to be forced to walk slowly for 30 minutes? It's even worse when Ellie is able to just run all over and you have to watch.

6) It's a game about two people and the 2nd person is basically non-existent as far as gameplay systems design is concerned. RE4 has you protecting Ashley from damage, sneaking around as Ashley, strategically hiding her in dumpsters instead of making her invisible and invincible. TLoU basically just doesn't even try to make this work.

7) The game's "puzzles" and platforming were very bad. Moving around crates and dumpsters felt like a Dreamcast-era box puzzle, something I thought was officially gone from gaming in 2013, let alone a big budget game like this. Moving planks around was equally cumbersome and simplistic. Moving Ellie on a raft is basically another box puzzle, but with water physics added (barely). People trash the tombs in Tomb Raider, but TLoU makes them look like master class puzzles.

8) The crafting system being real time doesn't really add much to the gameplay in my opinion, and it doesn't make as much of a difference as the earlier trailers made it seem like it would. If some of you guys liked it, cool. I really didn't think it added anything.

9) The game has very, very weak level up abilities that don't add a lot to gameplay, and can probably be skipped if you want. The counter is probably the best one.

10) I didn't like the handling and the feel of the bow. It might be because Tomb Raider came out in the very same year, and they're kind of similar games. But the handling and feel of the bow in TR was just so much better.

11) For a game focusing on story and presentation over gameplay, I thought it was a really weird decision to have such trial and error gameplay that demanded frequent restarts. It took me out of the experience that they tried so hard to prioritize. Just broadly speaking, the gameplay systems don't really further the telling of the story, or the immersion for me. It's a very, very limited trial and error stealth TPS chopped up and grafted onto a story.

And I didn't think the story was strong enough to carry the poor gameplay. The intro was supposed to be the watershed moment, when

Spoiler

his child dies. But I didn't see why this was better than the intro in Splinter Cell Conviction, or the intro in Mass Effect 3, which people criticized heavily. It's the same weak story hook. A little kid dies, and we only care for the sole reason that its a little kid and that is supposed to be shocking. In Mass Effect 3 I remember laughing at how obvious and transparent the attempt to force emotional content was, and it was a very similar intro for TLoU. We know nothing about this girl, and yet her death is the driving force for the entire story? The intro's only real gameplay was walking around in the house, suspecting a break in or something gone wrong. I thought that this was also extremely similar to the intro to Splinter Cell Conviction, with Sam protecting his daughter from a home burglary attempt. At least in that game, they use that as not just a story intro, but a tutorial to set up the Mark and Execute system, while TLoU feels content with not letting the gameplay start for hours.

Then shortly after that,

Spoiler

you have to go "get your guns back" with Tess. Okay, what are the guns for? They never say. Why is it worth it to take on a suicide mission escorting Ellie for "guns" when they have guns already? They never say. Literally the entire story is hanging on their desire to get these guns. Tess dies because she wants these guns. For a game focusing so much on story, I don't think it even really has a great one.

I can probably think of some more, but that's just off the top of my head.

I can definitely admit it's a gorgeous game, and well made in some ways. But I wouldn't ever rate it as GOTY, and when people do, it makes me a little sad because the game doesn't do much to actually further gameplay in any way, and is far behind RE4, which came out in 2005, in terms of actual gameplay and was one of the first highly influential TPS/stealth/horror games on consoles. The gameplay isn't even better than Tomb Raider.

 

[Amir0x]

but if I call you a fanboy for liking it, I'm banned...

anyway, put out the salt, ladies & gents! The #1 hater has arrived.

Why is it that everything with you is about some perceived unfairness about the community and you?

Relax, breakfuss. There is no conspiracy. There are a finite number of mods and they cannot get to every grievance. They're a capable bunch and know what they're doing. It's also possible you're simply wrong and you're seeing shadows where there are none because you're too emotionally involved with a platform of choice. Just lean back and relax

 

[antitrop]

The Game of the Generation receives recognition appropriately. Everything in its right place.

 

[kylej]

Well deserved. Probably my Game of the Generation.

 

[Hoo-doo]

Just because the game has many followers doesn't make the game any less "art", Mona Lisa gets many million visitors every year, does the painting gets less "art" because people want to see it?

Don't get trolled.

 

[FloweryMarston]

guys relax a little, jesus christ.


No need to shit on Resident evil 4 too, saying that will little be forgotten, when it's been 10 years since its release and people STILL talk about it.

 

[Larson]

Don't get trolled.

I know, but i am bored so i need something too argue over.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

More proof that TLoU is a populist pleasing dude bro action game with mostly mainstream appeal, like CoD:MW2 before it.

I know some here like to hold it up as art and proof of legitimizing gaming, but it's definitely more Michael Bay than Stanley Kubrick.

Gaming doesn't yet have its Citizen Kane but at least it has its Transformers.

Shameless copy & paste from another Gaffer.

 

[Theecliff]

but if I call you a fanboy for liking it, I'm banned...

anyway, put out the salt, ladies & gents! The #1 hater has arrived.

I'd imagine that inflammatory posts of either nature would probably result in a ban.

 

[Byron Bluth]

Thanks Shinta, the RE4 comparison leaned heavily on me when I played too. I thought enemies were going to get more complex when bloaters arrived but nothing ever came about.

The University section is a great example of the stealth issues. That section was so boring.

 

[RoboPlato]

So well deserved. One of the two games I would call flawless.

 

[waggabond]

Justice has been served! Huzzah!

 

[Imm0rt4l]

Easily one of the best games I've ever played. The Winter chapter is god tier.

My man...

 

[omonimo]

[..]

I can definitely admit it's a gorgeous game, and well made in some ways. But I wouldn't ever rate it as GOTY, and when people do, it makes me a little sad because the game doesn't do much to actually further gameplay in any way, and is far behind RE4, which came out in 2005, in terms of actual gameplay and was one of the first highly influential TPS/stealth/horror games on consoles. The gameplay isn't even better than Tomb Raider.

A good post completely ruined to the final sentence. Say it's worst of Tomb Raider (seriously) it's just... terrible. TLoU did what CD promised (sentence like "you want to protect her" are more appropriate for game like this). Furthermore, what GOTY exactly do so much to the gameplay in any way this generation? Delight us, please, because I don't remember unfortunately.

 

[Snakeyes]

Disappointing news for me. This game stands for almost everything I dislike in modern game design, and it getting so many awards ensures that every studio will attempt to copy it in the PSBone generation.

Good for ND and those who enjoy cinematic gaming, I guess.

 

[Orayn]

As someone who tends not to like "cinematic" games and who can't look past mechanical shortcomings because of a "great" story, I feel inclined to say grumpy things about this game despite never having played it. I still want to give it a fair shake so my criticisms can at least be well-informed even if I hate it, but I don't have a PS3 yet and probably won't get one for a while.

I don't even know any more.

 

[FloweryMarston]

My man...

as much as I liked winter. i think that my favorite parts were during the pittsburgh and outskirts sections. lots of different encounters and scenarios, it also showed some backstory in what people went through(the ish storyline, people's notes in these neighbourhoods, really lovely (and kind of sad) to see an abandoned kid's room, with a naughty dog mousepad, and lots of toys =)

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Definitely my favorite game from last year. It's an experience that has really stuck with me, and I'd love to play it again if they put out a PS4 version.

It seems like a lot of people disliked the gameplay (systems, mechanics), but I really enjoyed just about every minute I played.

 

[Hubb]

Disappointing news for me. This game stands for almost everything I dislike in modern game design, and it getting so many awards ensures that every studio will attempt to copy it in the PSBone generation.

Good for ND and those who enjoy cinematic gaming, I guess.

Don't worry you still have Nintendo, so there is that. But where were all, and I mean all, the studios copying UC2 after it's success. There are plenty of people that chase the CoD model, but not all studios do it.

You know, why am I trying, this is obvious hyperbole.

 

[Pain]

Wow. GOTY edition incoming?
Naughty Dog has been SO slow putting out DLC though.

 

[Aiustis]

Disappointing news for me. This game stands for almost everything I dislike in modern game design, and it getting so many awards ensures that every studio will attempt to copy it in the PSBone generation.

Good for ND and those who enjoy cinematic gaming, I guess.

Pretty much how I feel. I think I lasted an hour before I stopped; wading through cutscenes is pretty much my least favorite thing in games. Good for those who like it though.

 

[javac]

Hopefully this means we'll get more new, risky and exciting IP from ND. Getting something like this at the end of a generation was fresh and I hope they continue. Was it my game of the year? Hard to say. I think it comes close. Top 5 for sure. I still think about the ending so it obviously effected me more than I expected. Congrats ND.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Wow. GOTY edition incoming?
Naughty Dog has been SO slow putting out DLC though.

They said we will get new news on Left Behind this month.

 

[breakfuss]

Why is it that everything with you is about some perceived unfairness about the community and you?

Relax, breakfuss. There is no conspiracy. There are a finite number of mods and they cannot get to every grievance. They're a capable bunch and know what they're doing. It's also possible you're simply wrong and you're seeing shadows where there are none because you're too emotionally involved with a platform of choice. Just lean back and relax

Oh, HAI

. It was merely a hypothetical. No perceived unfair treatment over here. I just think that if I came in calling people fanboys for liking the game, hell would break loose. Somehow, though, it's permissible to call someone (not me, necessarily) a "Playstation hater" and salty for having a few issues with it. Didn't mean for that to come off as an indictment of the mods. Neither warrants a ban IMO, but obviously one insult is perceived as more inflammatory than the other. Wonder whyyyy that is?!

And LOL @ "too emotionally involved with a platform of choice". My friend, you've read me totally wrong. My vita should be allllll the pass I need. And besides, I only criticize what I care enough to pay attention to.

 

[Trickster]

Brilliant post

Pretty much how I feel about the game as well

 

[ALBOFIGHTER]

Thank goodness they are getting the recognition they deserve. They have worked too hard not too. Ps2 generation hit them and they were able to turn it around for ps3. I do miss jak and crash but at least we have one developer to count on for solid games next gen.

For ps4, I hope Japanese games make a return.

 

[omonimo]

As someone who tends not to like "cinematic" games and who can't look past mechanical shortcomings because of a "great" story, I feel inclined to say grumpy things about this game despite never having played it. I still want to give it a fair shake so my criticisms can at least be well-informed even if I hate it, but I don't have a PS3 yet and probably won't get one for a while.

I don't even know any more.

Honestly I don't find TLoU even so cinematic. There aren't so many 'spectacular scene' at all in the game. Yeah, there are some parts of the game with QTE, but it's far away to be cinematic in the whole sense of the word (like COD or even Uncharted). Not sure what means people for cinematic.

 

[Hubb]

They said we will get new news on Left Behind this month.

Release date is still end of march though right? Or is that a placeholder? I'm not sure either way, I want it now, but my birthday is end of March so it would be a nice present.

Honestly I don't find TLoU even so cinematic. There aren't so many 'spectacular scene' at all in the game. Yeah, there are some parts of the game with QTE, but it's far away to be cinematic in the whole sense of the word (like COD or even Uncharted). Not sure what means people for cinematic.

People who only play the prologue like this guy.

Pretty much how I feel. I think I lasted an hour before I stopped; wading through cutscenes is pretty much my least favorite thing in games. Good for those who like it though.

 

[Vizzeh]

This game stands for almost everything I dislike in modern game design, and it getting so many awards ensures that every studio will attempt to copy it in the upcoming gen.

Good for ND and those who enjoy cinematic gaming, I guess.

ND had their direction, it was perfect for the Story/Gameplay they envisioned. It wasnt supposed to be all out horror, or all out Action. Its a blend of all with an epic story packed with emotion and survival. This was GOTY based on their efforts to attain the style of game that "they" set out to achieve. They done it with flying colours.

I get the fact the other people "love" other ideas in what their favorite game entails and if this game does not match up to it, people try their hardest to shit on it by the fear of it, that every game company will copy it. There can be an awesome game in every Genre type, perhaps the one you guys love will have it next year.

Naughty Dog deserve the credit for what they achieved. No need to try and pull it down because it does not align with your view point. Its called opinion and those who went into this game with a general open mind/Not tailored to a favorite genre seemed to love it and 200+ GoTY's will hold testament to its success, regardless you agree with it or not. There will be other GTA's + Other Darksouls, all of which I loved.

Appreciate other game developers design style, especially when they deserve it. They poured their heart and soul into this.

 

[N.Domixis]

One thing I noticed around the internet is that Naughty dog really knows how to make forums salty. lol

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Release date is still end of march though right? Or is that a placeholder? I'm not sure either way, I want it now, but my birthday is end of March so it would be a nice present.



People who only play the prologue like this guy.

The last i heard is early 2014.

 

[daviyoung]

One thing I noticed around the internet is that Naughty dog really knows how to make forums salty. lol

Another thing is forum posters misusing the word salty

 

[Nibel]

.

"RE4 will be forgotten"? In which dimension?

 

[TheKastorian]

This game is so good it deserves to get every single award.

 

[Uno Venova]

Disappointing news for me. This game stands for almost everything I dislike in modern game design, and it getting so many awards ensures that every studio will attempt to copy it in the PSBone generation.

Good for ND and those who enjoy cinematic gaming, I guess.

I would love for devs to take inspiration for making combat sections in games more meaningful and less gallery-esque, some games like infinite could have really benefited from that.

 

[Gestault]

I wouldn't compare it to a Telltale game either. But I do think the gameplay is actually quite poor.

I was writing up a post to the other thread that just got closed about why I personally think it has poor gameplay, but it got locked. Since it seems kinda on topic here, I'll post it. Maybe someone out there agrees with me.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think the gameplay in The Last of Us is pretty terrible, so I can give you my reasons at least.

1) The stealth is more basic than Tenchu Z. You basically just crouch and creep around, and the game puts more focus on sound detection. Despite that, jumping over cover spots, dropping down from elevated areas don't seem to make any additional noise. The stealth takedowns are very basic, and mostly are just a rear choke-hold.

2) The enemies are very poorly designed.

Clickers are horribly designed for the gameplay systems in place. Clickers are blind, and they are difficult to fight in open combat. So your main strategy is to focus on stealth. However, with no sight capabilities, this means that all you have to do is just walk slow and you will never have any trouble from a clicker. The main way to take them down with stealth hits is to use a shiv. However, killing a clicker doesn't reward you with anything as far as I remember, xp or ammo wise. So the rational choice every single time is to simply walk past the clickers and not burn your shivs, because they are limited, and they're used to open locked doors or for your emergency melee counters.

So, every time I saw clickers, instead of feeling anything like fear or heightened tension, I instead knew that it meant that I simply had to walk slowly for a long time. Every time I saw a large area with clickers, I would of course still have to explore everything for items and materials I could scavenge. Only now I had to explore it in slow motion. Every time I got to an area like that, it was so mind numbing that I wanted to turn off the game. I don't enjoy 30 minutes of just walking slowly and not doing anything else. And the entire game's storyline was hanging on the clickers, and how well they worked. These are the key element of their version of the apocalypse; these are their new zombies. I wasn't sold on it at all.

Clickers also bother me because once they're alerted, they fucking sprint at you at an unbelievable speed and instantly one hit kill you. And in addition to that, this game makes sure that you bob and weave when aiming, so you're not likely to ever routinely defend yourself from a clicker attack. And you can't run because that screws up your aiming even more, even though the enemies are exceptionally mobile and fast.

A better example of how to make enemies scary, unique, and make them work well with the gameplay systems you have is Resident Evil 4. By comparing clickers to the many, many enemies in RE4, it becomes a lot easier to see how inferior TLoU really is. Look at the chainsaw guys. Their sound effects were a lot more terrifying to me than the clickers were. Both developers wanted you to know these guys were there to drum up the fear, so RE4 had the constant humming of the chainsaw rumbling behind you getting louder and louder, as well as the guy's high pitched screams and wails. TLoU had ... clicking. Yes, it makes sense for sonar detection, but it's not scary. The chainsaw guys also could one hit kill you, and that was the main reason people were scared of them. But, the chainsaw guys were slower than you, and their aim was not perfect. Even with these limitations on their killing ability, they were still terrifying, and still managed to one shot you many times in the game, but they actually made the gameplay systems work. You could stop and aim and get some shots in because they were slower than you, but at some point they would just barrel right through you regardless. TLoU has enemies just sprint right at you and instant kill you, which doesn't enhance the gameplay, it just leads you to a retry screen. Or look at the Regenerators in RE4. These guys were even slower, and could absolutely be outrun if the player wanted to run away. However, they were perfectly designed to enhance a gameplay system that wanted you to stop and aim carefully. You used your thermal sniper rifle scope to find their weak spots and hit them, or else they were invincible. And despite this, they were still completely terrifying. But they managed to make the gameplay better, and make the stop and aim system work better, instead of creating contradictory designs that just lead to a restart screen. And RE has tons more enemies like this, like the blind wolverine with claws that relies on sound (much like the clickers, but still better, and they have you manipulating sound in the environments during gameplay, hitting weak spots on his back, and he can still one hit kill you but not every time, and his aim isn't perfect because he's fucking blind).

Where RE4 had tons and tons of enemies and bosses that worked flawlessly, TLoU had one enemy to get right, and they totally, completely blew it.

Perhaps the only enemy worse than that is the "newly turned," which just literally sit there and do nothing, waiting to be killed. That's possibly the most pointless enemy of this entire generation.

3) The first 4 hours of the game might as well have been a cutscene, because you basically just followed an NPC down a narrow road and watched cutscenes. I love FFXIII, and TLoU's intro was so scripted and linear that even I felt suffocated.

4) There is very little verticality allowed in the stealth, or the level design. In one of the first missions I was with Tess going to get the guns from the guy who double crossed them. They showed that we were sneaking into a large area and were greatly outnumbered. There were gigantic metal shipping crates stacked all over, with smaller wooden crates next to them making natural stairs. Being a stealth focused game (and a Naughty Dog game) I naturally assumed you could at least do limited platforming to climb a couple boxes and get a better perspective to see the enemy patterns, but you can't at all. Instead of having level design that helps make stealth gameplay organic, they instead had to add x-ray vision for Joel.

5) The partner AI ruins the game's main strength, presentation and immersion. Everyone is aware of this one. You're sneaking around a clicker and Ellie just goes barreling right past them, jumping and talking to you full volume and no one notices. You remember how frustrating I said it was to be forced to walk slowly for 30 minutes? It's even worse when Ellie is able to just run all over and you have to watch.

6) It's a game about two people and the 2nd person is basically non-existent as far as gameplay systems design is concerned. RE4 has you protecting Ashley from damage, sneaking around as Ashley, strategically hiding her in dumpsters instead of making her invisible and invincible. TLoU basically just doesn't even try to make this work.

7) The game's "puzzles" and platforming were very bad. Moving around crates and dumpsters felt like a Dreamcast-era box puzzle, something I thought was officially gone from gaming in 2013, let alone a big budget game like this. Moving planks around was equally cumbersome and simplistic. Moving Ellie on a raft is basically another box puzzle, but with water physics added (barely). People trash the tombs in Tomb Raider, but TLoU makes them look like master class puzzles.

8) The crafting system being real time doesn't really add much to the gameplay in my opinion, and it doesn't make as much of a difference as the earlier trailers made it seem like it would. If some of you guys liked it, cool. I really didn't think it added anything.

9) The game has very, very weak level up abilities that don't add a lot to gameplay, and can probably be skipped if you want. The counter is probably the best one.

10) I didn't like the handling and the feel of the bow. It might be because Tomb Raider came out in the very same year, and they're kind of similar games. But the handling and feel of the bow in TR was just so much better.

11) For a game focusing on story and presentation over gameplay, I thought it was a really weird decision to have such trial and error gameplay that demanded frequent restarts. It took me out of the experience that they tried so hard to prioritize. Just broadly speaking, the gameplay systems don't really further the telling of the story, or the immersion for me. It's a very, very limited trial and error stealth TPS chopped up and grafted onto a story.

And I didn't think the story was strong enough to carry the poor gameplay. The intro was supposed to be the watershed moment, when

Spoiler

his child dies. But I didn't see why this was better than the intro in Splinter Cell Conviction, or the intro in Mass Effect 3, which people criticized heavily. It's the same weak story hook. A little kid dies, and we only care for the sole reason that its a little kid and that is supposed to be shocking. In Mass Effect 3 I remember laughing at how obvious and transparent the attempt to force emotional content was, and it was a very similar intro for TLoU. We know nothing about this girl, and yet her death is the driving force for the entire story? The intro's only real gameplay was walking around in the house, suspecting a break in or something gone wrong. I thought that this was also extremely similar to the intro to Splinter Cell Conviction, with Sam protecting his daughter from a home burglary attempt. At least in that game, they use that as not just a story intro, but a tutorial to set up the Mark and Execute system, while TLoU feels content with not letting the gameplay start for hours.

Then shortly after that,

Spoiler

you have to go "get your guns back" with Tess. Okay, what are the guns for? They never say. Why is it worth it to take on a suicide mission escorting Ellie for "guns" when they have guns already? They never say. Literally the entire story is hanging on their desire to get these guns. Tess dies because she wants these guns. For a game focusing so much on story, I don't think it even really has a great one.

I can probably think of some more, but that's just off the top of my head.

I can definitely admit it's a gorgeous game, and well made in some ways. But I wouldn't ever rate it as GOTY, and when people do, it makes me a little sad because the game doesn't do much to actually further gameplay in any way, and is far behind RE4, which came out in 2005, in terms of actual gameplay and was one of the first highly influential TPS/stealth/horror games on consoles. The gameplay isn't even better than Tomb Raider.

I don't agree with everything in here, but I absolutely follow the reasoning. Great post.

 

[omonimo]

ND had their direction, it was perfect for the Story/Gameplay they envisioned. It wasnt supposed to be all out horror, or all out Action. Its a blend of all with an epic story packed with emotion and survival. This was GOTY based on their efforts to attain the style of game that "they" set out to achieve. They done it with flying colours.

I get the fact the other people "love" other ideas in what their favorite game entails and if this game does not match up to it, people try their hardest to shit on it by the fear of it, that every game company will copy it. There can be an awesome game in every Genre type, perhaps the one you guys love will have it next year.

Naughty Dog deserve the credit for what they achieved. No need to try and pull it down because it does not align with your view point. Its called opinion and those who went into this game with a general open mind/Not tailored to a favorite genre seemed to love it and 200+ GoTY's will hold testament to its success, regardless you agree with it or not. There will be other GTA's + Other Darksouls, all of which I loved.

Appreciate other game developers design style, especially when they deserve it. They poured their heart and soul into this.

I can't say better

 

[Amir0x]

Disappointing news for me. This game stands for almost everything I dislike in modern game design, and it getting so many awards ensures that every studio will attempt to copy it in the PSBone generation.

Good for ND and those who enjoy cinematic gaming, I guess.

Last of Us is just really beloved by game fans everywhere, don't you think? I mean, it's not my top choice for game of the year (Antichamber is my GOTY), but I definitely do not think it is a posterchild for everything that's wrong with cinematic games either. I think it demonstrates Naughty Dog is really capable of learning and improving over past efforts. I think the game relied far less on cinematics than its Uncharted brother. And its core gameplay system, surrounding scavenging and 'every bullet counts' mechanics, would actually be pretty positive forward momentum for cinematic games anyway.

Oh, HAI

. It was merely a hypothetical. No perceived unfair treatment over here. I just think that if I came in calling people fanboys for liking the game, hell would break loose. Somehow, though, it's permissible to call someone (not me, necessarily) a "Playstation hater" and salty for having a few issues with it. Didn't mean for that to come off as an indictment of the mods. Neither warrants a ban IMO, but obviously one insult is perceived as more inflammatory than the other. Wonder whyyyy that is?!

And LOL @ "too emotionally involved with a platform of choice". My friend, you've read me totally wrong. My vita should be allllll the pass I need. And besides, I only criticize what I care enough to pay attention to.

I guess it's just I got back and the past few days I just see you implying there is something wrong with the community (SonyGAF, this comment) so it feels like you think you're being slighted or something

I love NeoGAF, great people here. I've never seen any widespread unfairness or bias from the community or staff. Individual acts of course done by imperfect human beings, perhaps, but nothing large scale.

 

[UnObtainium17]

I still haven't play TLOU but I got a feelings that after I play it I still think U2 is still a better game.

Right After beating TLOU, I thought U2 was still a better game because of reasons I can't say as you have not played the game. I was salty about what happened in the game lol.. then after like a week, dust has settled down, I weighed in the things those games did great and bad. From that point on, I believe TLOU surpases U2 in every way.

 

[CharminUltra]

Game had some great writing (even if the story is just a string of zombie apocalypse cliches), VO, presentation, and probably my favorite crafting system to date. Having said that, I have to concur with others that its gameplay was pretty average. Infected were a bore to fight.

 

[Hitokiri03]

This puts a lot of pressure on the Uncharted team

and I like it.

 

[inm8num2]

That's more than double the number of GOTY awards The Walking Dead won.

 

[Shinta]

A good post completely ruined to the final sentence. Say it's worst of Tomb Raider (seriously) it's just... terrible. TLoU did what CD promised (sentence like "you want to protect her" are more appropriate for game like this). Furthermore, what GOTY exactly do so much to the gameplay in any way this generation? Delight us, please, because I don't remember unfortunately.

Well, I said the gameplay isn't better than Tomb Raider's gameplay, and my post was basically entirely about the gameplay alone. I don't think TR has a good story either. If I compared the two games just on story alone, I'd probably give it to TLoU. However, I really enjoyed the gameplay in TR, and for a AAA action/platformer, I thought it was fun and well made, and gorgeous.

Being 100% honest, I really don't have a GOTY pick nailed down for 2013.

Games that were in the running for me entirely because of their gameplay were Mario 3D World, Legend of Zelda: ALBW, Luigi's Mansion 2, Pikmin 3, Fire Emblem Awakening. I'm not a Nintendo fanboy; I just got a 3DS and Wii U this year. But really, they had a fantastic 2013. I also really enjoyed Dragon's Dogma: DA, but since the original came out last year I wouldn't vote for it. One of my very favorite games of the year was Splinter Cell: Blacklist, but that has a crappy story.

Even then, I really can't decide on a GOTY. I don't have a pick yet, and I own several games I still need to play.

If you're talking about games that elevate gameplay "this entire generation," I'd put Ninja Gaiden 2 at the top. The list of other games out with fantastic gameplay is too long to really discuss here. Valkyria Chronicles is also another criminally underrated one. X-Com gets praised, but VC did it years earlier, and it was better and more original. Mixing TPS and SRPG that seamlessly was brilliant, and new. Vanquish is another. Controversial choice, but I'd also list RE6 for the many innovations to TPS combat that it brought. Uncharted 2 probably deserves a nod for basically creating its own new sub-genre. There's tons more I'm sure, and it could be its own entire thread.

 

[Hypereides]

Can't wait for the inevitable GOTY+DLC edition with all 200 awards plastered on the cover.

 

[Naked Snake]

MGS 4 won goty, and now I see many posts about how it's stupid and shitty and the worst MGS.

Bolded for truth.

I never miss a chance to shit on MGS4.

 

[Artex]

I think it currently stands as my favorite game of all time.

 

[Pryce]

Sony will, in TLOU PS4 edition.

pls naughty dog.