Last of Us: Let's Pick Some Nits!

[Mr Companion]

Ive got my own Nit.
Hay Joel! When I make you open a door please stand just to the side of it when I turn the handle, rather than standing stock still in front of it without a care in the world. I was bitching about this even before it became a problem but then it starts to effect gameplay when Joel almost gets headshotted by a random idiot because he stood in the door like a chump. Then later still Joel gets strung up by a trap just because he stood right in the doorway again! The game does such a job of drawing me in to the survivalist, lethal world that it perplexes me not being able to act safely.

 

[EyeReaper]

A better way is to always carry a brick. Select the brick as above. Then charge the guard and press melee. Joel will smash their head in with three hits. Lots of bricks around usually. The bottle will break after one hit, so it is just like a stun.

I watched my friend play the game, and this was literally the only thing he'd do. We nicknamed the game "Brick n'Stick" because of it, and we claimed that the brick was the true hero of the story.

little anecdote aside, my biggest nitpick is the listening, mostly because this is never explained in game how this ordinary man can hear (see) through walls at pinpoint locations.

 

[Bonk4licious]

That certainly is nitpicking.

You're right on every count (except the last one), but here's the thing: You are playing a videogame - Certain things need to be there to put the player in his/her place so they can't break the game, while others are in place to throw you a bone. Every survival horror game suffers from having to find a key or nonsensical gizmo to open a door, eventhough you've got a perfectly good shotgun or even grenade launcher to blow it open. And every game with a health system either has regenerating health or health packs which instantly heal you. Immersion broken?

As for your final point... The Listen mode is a big fat cheat button. Being the one thing actually making the game tedious, because it subconsciously has you turn every encounter into a waiting game. Without it, the combat feels way more natural, because it means Joel can fuck up. And it's those moments when the enemy encounters are at their strongest.

And you honestly didn't notice all those times Joel closed and barricaded a door throughout the game, cause he does it a lot.

It's hilarious he mentions that, because Hitman Absolution had that silly cheat button, too. What, did all these people playing current stealth games FORGET that they actually sucked at Hitman 2, and that developers realized that so they made these games easier? I hate how stealth games have these mechanics now, they had the same stuff in Far Cry 3 and no one complained a bit.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I love this game but I agree with all your points. (except the controls...running and aiming was always solid for me)

I would also like to add when so many aspects of the game strive for this harsh gritty realism, the ludonarrative dissonance of taking out an army of 12 guys by yourself ends up being more jarring then Uncharted. Also, some combat was forced and obvious pandering; in the 'Fall chapter' and the random sniper with spawning enemies).

I hated that, especially because I tried to just shoot at the sniper for like 20 minutes before I realized I was in SET PIECE LIMBO!

An ideal fix for me (obviously it's not a straight fix as setpieces, enemy layout would need to be redone to make it work)-
Half the enemies, reduce the amount they can shoot and the number of them that are armed. but make them smarter and more aggressive. lower Joel's health. Done. This also solves the problem of why they have a lack of ammo. Maybe the reduced number of them would make programming easier so Ellie isn't in their line of sight.

I guess when it comes to balancing difficulty, fun& pacing in a brand new IP, which isn't just a typical FPS or 3rdPS clone, then they are not going to get in completely right;
In TLOU there was new AI, unique combat, new stealth with companions, crafting & maintaining the illusion of limited supplies, a solid flushed out character driven story to balance out.

Balancing difficulty is always hard. Those are pretty good fixes, I don't like the idea of lowering Joel's health but instead make damage specific to body parts.
EG: Geting shot in the arm wold make him drop what he's holding, getting shot in the leg would make him fall over, getting shot in the body would make him generally slower and clunkier until he bleeds out or loses consciousness.

Compare this to Bioshock infinite's gameplay that is basically a 2 gun FPS skin..but with left hand vigor/plasmids that have already been trialled from the previous outings.- It's a lot easier to get right.

Speaking of Bioshock Infinite I always thought that those two games should have switched inventory systems.
With Joel in Last of Us running around with a full arsenal with (Was it 9 weapons by the end of the game?) in a world that's supposed to enforce a real scavenger mentality.

and Booker (They were voiced by the same guy) in Colombia having to scrounge around for weapons, where in the first Bioshock game Jack could carry his whole armory with him at all times.

It just seems counter intuitive to both games.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I really do hate when people complain about enemies not noticing Ellie when she's out in the open and Joel is sneaking around. That's the pettiest complaint of an amazing game I've ever heard, and if someone can't grasp why it's there, then their opinions probably aren't worth listening to anyway. "Oh, but they notice Ellie when I'm playing as her!" You seriously have to wonder why? The answer is right there in the question, because you're playing as her.

If Naughty Dog had gone the opposite route here and made enemies notice her, the entire game would pretty much be broken. I promise that way more people would complain about that.

That's not the pettiest complaint to be made of this game (It's not even the pettiest complaint in my list)
In a game that's so cinematic like this having my immersion tanked by a gameplay oversight takes away from my ability to enjoy the gameplay parts of an otherwise well told story.

I did mention that I'm nit picking right? At it's core the game is good, but all the little annoyances I mentioned piled up so not 5 minutes goes by where something doesn't kill the mood for me.

It's the uncanny valley! The closer something gets to realism the more the little things pop out.
If Naughty Dog expects me to lose my self in the world they created, they should take into account that 14 year olds visible.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I think the multiplayer is awesome. I dunno why you think its just tacked on, its very fun, probably the best multiplayer I've played in ages.

You picked Fireflies didn't you?

The MP is wickedly unbalanced to the point where playing Hunters isn't even fair.
Or maybe I just happened to play against people who had all the perks unlocked, either way it's not balanced.

It's not so much the quality of the MP it's the existence of it.
If you're going to do MP just do MP if you're going to do SP just do SP

Do one thing well instead of tacking extra shit on

I've played both sides through 12 weeks.

There is no difference in the teams, they are 99% the same. The ONLY differences are whats said by the voice work and the color of the nail bombs on the ground (blue or yellow). In fact, you can be fireflies and your friend can be hunters and you can play on the same team...its literally 100% cosmetic (sorta like TF2)

As I said, it doesn't feel tacked on to me at all, its very fun and tactical. You can outsmart an enemy if you're know what you're doing.

You might wanna, know what you're talking about before you nitpick something? Just a thought

If you're referring to the weapons being unbalanced, the only thing I find a bit too strong is the bow. However the bow is very hard to use in 1v1 situations. I prefer the semi-auto, silenced of course, thats pretty much a requirement.

So... the Fireflies don't start out with full body armor every round?
Every MP match I've played in the opposing team bought body armor? That is unlucky for me I guess...

And just for the record I wasn't nitpicking the quality of the MP I was nitpicking it's existence.
(Personally I think MP is cancer so my opinion on the quality of any game's MP is completely moot)

I'm sick of the notion that every triple A game needs MP to sell well. The only reason anyone thinks that is because publishers won't green light a triple A game that doesn't have multiplayer. So if all the games coming out have MP and some of them sell well the publishers just say "It's because of the multiplayer!"

It's a self replicating cycle of bullshit that will only stop once developers put their foot down and say no. And if not Last of Us (One of the most beautifully crafted narratives in the history of gaming) who then?

It doesn't matter if it's good, it's tacked on. they could have fixed some of the bugs I was complaining about instead of making two different team death-match modes.

(And don't give me that "Different teams do different jobs" bullshit. I've played Betas before, they're bug infested! MP bugs aren't that different from SP bugs! Sorry, that's a different argument I've got into on this site.)

 

[Mikeyfell]

Seriously without listen mode the game feels really good still. All you really have to do is check your corners and sneak past more encounters. On my survivor runs I only killed about one quarter what I did on hard.
You really think this mechanic is original? It's a re-skin of the old see through walls mechanic that slows you down instead of draining energy. It's not original and dropping the mechanic all together makes the experience more immersive.
Also clickers seem to glow slightly, so just look at their head and you'll find 'em.

There is a very high possibility that you are just better at this game then me. (I'm not that great at it)
But I played the game on normal and hard as if the inclusion of Listen mode was not a design oversight

Yes, some function that allows you to spot enemies isn't unheard of (Almost the exact same feature was in Arkham Asylum)
but compared to firing guns from cover and pre-animated one hit kill moves against unaware enemies, being able to hear through walls might as well be the Holy Grail

It is what (In my opinion) made Last of Us more than just Uncharted with a better story and a crafting mechanic.
(One of the things I forgot to mention was: How does fertilizer + broken glass automatically detonate when an enemy gets close to it?)

Dropping Listen mode doesn't make the game immersive, (Especially since I didn't play on Survivor difficulty first)
On my survivor run I felt like I was playing Alternate Reality Joel who's job before the zombie Apocalypse was playing lead guitar for a rock band and that's how he had damaged his hearing

And thanks for the tip, I'll look out for the glowing.

Now to go over your original points:
#1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10; all true but they were put into the game for a reason. The multiplayer is actually decent but has serious dick moves. I lost all my unlocks last night and had to restart from zero; because no one on my team got downed in three matches. DICK MOVE!

That sounds harsh. I played just long enough to get the trophy for 40 survivors in my colony and then I washed my hands of that nonsense. (I think I got it in week 4)

#11,12; that's really just you being bad with a dualshock 3. I've been using dualshock since the PS1 and the controllers are kick ass. I always felt that the Xbox controllers where over-sized and way to heavy because of the battery pack; but they still kick the shit out of the PS2 madcatz controllers I got, those things were fucking tiny.

I used the PS2 controller and loved it. (I even bought aftermarket adapters so I could use my PS2 controller on my Xbox and Gamecube. But the 360 controller is godly, it fits my hand like a glove.

And the Dualshock 3 had those weird mushy trigger buttons, and after playing with the 360 controller for so long I can't go back to having both thumb sticks on the same axis.

That's all just my own personal preference But they should at least let you re map the controls to something that makes more since for you (Is the takeaway I was hoping people would get from that)

#13 especially when you don't have a brick or bottle to use for melee instead. I really hated that.

I honestly did not know you could hit someone with a brick if you pushed the melee button.

#14 you can sneak past them. Though I noticed something strange on my survivor first play through; IT IS POSSIBLE TO PUNCH THEM TO DEATH! I was shocked when I found this. Bill got grabbed by a clicker and I didn't want to waste my ammo or have a melee weapon so I just punched it repeatedly, AND IT DIED! Then later I saw an AI partner (chapter 9) punch a clicker and then push it and when I went to stab it, it fell over dead.

I could be Scumbag Joel

Lets partner get grabbed so he doesn't have to waste a shiv

I did that as Ellie when ... what's his name... The Nolan North character got grabbed I killed a Clicker with Melee, but she had a knife so I thought that was it.

 

[sXeth]

My big nitpick (or maybe larger than) was the stealth system itself. From the blatant problem of not accounting for light at all (Shadows don't hide you from seeing enemies, and your whole magic flashlight that nobody can see), to a lack of feedback on your potential for detection. Even when you get into their custom sound-detection, you still had miscues like Clickers locking onto you indelibly for firing a gun, even if they were 80 feet away and you change position.

Secondarily would be the profusion of the "find board, move board" puzzle stuff. Almost a definition of busy work padding in a game.

 

[Zenn3k]

I think the multiplayer is awesome. I dunno why you think its just tacked on, its very fun, probably the best multiplayer I've played in ages.

You picked Fireflies didn't you?

The MP is wickedly unbalanced to the point where playing Hunters isn't even fair.
Or maybe I just happened to play against people who had all the perks unlocked, either way it's not balanced.

It's not so much the quality of the MP it's the existence of it.
If you're going to do MP just do MP if you're going to do SP just do SP

Do one thing well instead of tacking extra shit on

I've played both sides through 12 weeks.

There is no difference in the teams, they are 99% the same. The ONLY differences are whats said by the voice work and the color of the nail bombs on the ground (blue or yellow). In fact, you can be fireflies and your friend can be hunters and you can play on the same team...its literally 100% cosmetic (sorta like TF2)

As I said, it doesn't feel tacked on to me at all, its very fun and tactical. You can outsmart an enemy if you're know what you're doing.

You might wanna, know what you're talking about before you nitpick something? Just a thought

If you're referring to the weapons being unbalanced, the only thing I find a bit too strong is the bow. However the bow is very hard to use in 1v1 situations. I prefer the semi-auto, silenced of course, thats pretty much a requirement.

So... the Fireflies don't start out with full body armor every round?
Every MP match I've played in the opposing team bought body armor? That is unlucky for me I guess...

No, nobody starts with body armor, you buy it from the "store" mid-match. Its not super expensive, usually only takes like 3 downs to get afford it, give or take.

 

[Random Argument Man]

I think the multiplayer is awesome. I dunno why you think its just tacked on, its very fun, probably the best multiplayer I've played in ages.

You picked Fireflies didn't you?

The MP is wickedly unbalanced to the point where playing Hunters isn't even fair.
Or maybe I just happened to play against people who had all the perks unlocked, either way it's not balanced.

It's not so much the quality of the MP it's the existence of it.
If you're going to do MP just do MP if you're going to do SP just do SP

Do one thing well instead of tacking extra shit on

You were playing against players who unlocked perks. There are no perks who are exclusive to one side or the other.

I'm actually having fun with the multiplayer and I don't feel it's "tacked on". It's one of the few multiplayer games where playing as a team will guarantee more wins than going solo. ( I was going to say "Rambo". However, Rambo laid down some traps here and there which really helps in the multiplayer.) If there are nitpicks to bring to the multiplayer, they summarized themselves to two things: 1."A story mode" that punish the players who had a bad match and rewards those who dominated. 2. Teammates who run off by their own and then complain "Call of Duty" style when they lose.

It's a fun diversion, but I bought the game for Joel and Ellie's story. Although, I'm a bit disappointed that there's only 2 multiplayer mode. This kind of setting is screaming for a "horde mode".

 

[Mikeyfell]

You were playing against players who unlocked perks. There are no perks who are exclusive to one side or the other.

So, it's still wickedly unbalanced, just for a different reason.
Any game where being good at it lets you unlock perks to get better is broken.

It's not the quality of the MP it's the existence of it.
The single player story is EXTREMELY FAR from bug free (Ellie is invisible being the prime concern)

And instead of trying to fix that they decided it was a better use of time and resources to tack on the online mode.
I say "Tacked on" because Last of Us is a single player story driven game.

CoD is a multyplayer game with a tacked on SP (Battlefield, Halo you name it) In those games the single player is the extra bit and the MP gets all the love and attention. Which is perfectly fine, but single player games CAN NOT follow that model, otherwise single player will die and we'll just keep getting broad spectrum games that can't please anyone

It's a fun diversion, but I bought the game for Joel and Ellie's story. Although, I'm a bit disappointed that there's only 2 multiplayer mode. This kind of setting is screaming for a "horde mode".

DLC coming later down the line? Maybe... (I also thought that if they were going to tack something on, Co-Op would have made more sense)