dsheinem wrote:TLOU is probably the best PS3 game, period.
I have about 100 PS3 games, and have played like 5% of them. However, from what I've played, I lean towards
Demon's Souls being the best PS3 game. I say that as someone who is currently playing through The Last of Us.
dsheinem wrote:Most people’s favorite classic/retrogames were the AAA titles of their time.
There is some truth to that. Although contrasting yesteryear's AAA titles' ethos, to today's AAA titles' ethos, isn't such a clean analog IMO.
dsheinem wrote:Yes, AAA devs sometimes offer safe cash-grab titles...but TLOU was anything but that. An opinion that it is “typical AAA ‘cinematic’ crap” with “mediocre gameplay and poor AI” is not really one that can be substantiated in any reasonable way.
So I'm about eight hours into The Last of Us at this point. At this point in time, I find myself thinking TLoU is a 7.5/10, overall. Granted my opinion may change by the end. Now it's true TLoU has very technically accomplished graphics, portraying a realistic aesthetic in a convincing manner. This game also has excellent voice acting, and above average plot execution. However, the base gameplay is often noticeably repetitive, with similar scenario designs being recycled too often for my taste. One can only move ladders and push pallets around so many times, before that starts to feel stale. As for the combat, I have mixed feelings. The cover shooting gun play is very vanilla, you can't even do something as basic as blindfire or slide into cover. However, the melee combat is extremely visceral, Naughty Dog did a great job on close combat.
What bugs me about TLoU though, is how contrived its scenario designs often are. A perfect example is when Joel is hanging by a rope attached to his leg, while Ellie is trying to cut said rope free, and Joel has to shoot fungus zombies upside down to keep them off Ellie. What's dumb about this, is the player can clearly see the rope, and could realistically target and shoot the rope on their own. Or, since Joel has a shiv, cut the rope free with it. Instead, the design refuses to acknowledge common sense like this, and pretends the rope is only destructible by Ellie. Another example is when a truck is blocking an alleyway, and Joel has to move a big file cabinet to the side of it, so he and Ellie can climb over it. Meanwhile, there's clearly enough room under the truck to simply crawl beneath it. "It's just a game dude." Yeah I know, but when you're playing a game which attempts to exude gritty realism as hard as TLoU does, but then pulls contrived scenario designs all the time, doing so betrays the core experience attempting to be passed on to the player. Or at least it does if the player is paying attention to the details.
That said, I found myself enjoying TLoU last night, more than I had been previously. I think it's because the environment changed. For most of the first half of TLoU, you spend all your time in dilapidated urban areas. I found that particular setting to have grown repetitive and boring after so long. But last night we went through a little forest, a nice river shore, sewers, and now into some suburbs. The vista changes have been appreciated.
But also to say that even the stuff we want to generalize about might be unfair to do so.)
