The Last of Us - Why can't I...?

[Mikeyfell]

I picked up, The Last of Us, and, well, I'm not amused. Friend after friend has raved about how great this game is, but I can't help but notice the things in it that drive me nuts. A bit of background: I'm not that good at the "sneaky-aroundy" games. That being said, I was told that, for the most part, you could blast your way through. And here's where I ran into a couple issues.

1) 20 rounds of ammo? Really? Only 20? I've got a giant backpack, yet I can only carry this much? Ok, fair enough...

2) Do I have MS? I understand making targeting harder, but good lord, I felt like Michael J. Fox in the game.

3) How many times do I need to shoot a cop/military/thug in the head before they die?

4) (Probably the thing that pissed me off most) Why oh why can't I steal ammo when I kill a guy who has a gun, with anything other than a gun? If I shiv him, no ammo. Strangle him, again, no ammo. Shoot him and cause a giant ruckus, ammo. Is this just a major design flaw? If so, I would have thought they could have patched it to fix it, otherwise, I'd say it's a poor design choice.

5) Will my hand be held the entire time I play this game? I mean, I feel like I almost have zero agency here, that this entire game is just one big round of hide and seek.

I do, however, think that my frustrations aside, this appears to be a really well made game...perhaps just not one that's in my wheelhouse, so to speak.

Have any of you experienced/feel the same as I have?

Complaining about difficulty and handholding in the same comment?

But I thought Last of US was highly over rated. It was centered so strongly on story (And it was a really well told story) but all the gameplay was wonky.

The worst part for me was that Ellie was invisible to the bad guys.
I would have rather had a Resident Evil 4 style escort mission than that constant immersion breaking bullshit just destroying the atmosphere the game tries so hard to maintain

It was also the bad kind of stealth where if one guy saw you all the guys knew exactly where you were and then the game turns from hide and seek to Whack-a-mole

If you're on the highest difficulty the mechanics are stripped down to the bare bones and it just gets boring

I really wanted to like Last of Us but there are so many nits to pick that once they're all gone there's nothing left (Except a very well told story... which is usually enough for me)


And pro tip never use guns on anything but clickers. melee is infinity more effective even against enemies armed with guns

 

[00slash00]

The shooting in that game is fucking awful. Ruined the game for me. The game is good when it just lets you sneak past enemies. Unfortunately, the game keeps getting bored of stealth and throws you in to sections where you can't move on until you shoot all the enemies

 

[ghalleon0915]

Interesting, I have heard/read many complaints regarding the controls in the game ( most notably from TB and Jesse Cox ) and I've never had an issue with them ( except for the part where you are dangling upside down, but then again you are dangling upside down..). I guess it's one of those YMMV deals, but I also spent a vast majority of my time shivving/choking my way through except when fighting things that you have to explode/shoot. Consequently, I didn't have much problems with ammo and I had a lot of materials to use for crafting other useful stuff, since I'm one of those guys who explores everywhere. I never did get the hang of the bow though.

As for the hype...I thought it was a good game. The prologue really sucked me in, with Joel's daughter and how that played out, and the intervening 20 years can definitely make anyone be a Joel. I could definitely empathize with a lot of his decisions. It is survival ad you do what you have to do. Meeting that crazy s.o.b Bill was awesome, as was watching out for clickers and shivving them when possible. I did enjoy the part as Ellie, and I grimaced in pain as Joel hurts himself on a pointy stick. The end was a bit of a letdown, well perhaps anti-climactic is more accurate but that is more because of my expectations.

I agree with some of the posts ere, that at the end, Joel is a sad old man. A worn down, stripped of everything shell of what he used to be. Which actually made me wonder what directions the DLC's were going to take ( which we know by now).

 

[verdant monkai]

Have any of you experienced/feel the same as I have?

Nice avatar man

I couldn't deal with the last of us. The character Ellie made me rage quit twice. Whenever I wanted to do the smart thing and run past the zombies as there is nothing to be gained from confrontations, she would either refuse or get caught by the xombies as she follows you but usually she is about 5 miles behind you.

The thing that stressed me out the most was the fact you cannot leave an area until Joel and Ellie have murdered everything in sight. The violence in this game is simply gratuitous in a survival game I should be allowed to avoid combat if I choose, especially since as you said the amount of ammo you can carry is a piss take.

Spoiler

Also fuck Ellie crack that bitches head open and rip the cure of her sarcastic ass brain

Ellie is on my list of least favourite game characters. And you know what? they could have avoided a lot of the bollocks they went through if Joel taught that cretin to swim. Its not hard and they had plenty of shallow water to practice.

The graphics were great though.

 

[chikusho]

I couldn't deal with the last of us. The character Ellie made me rage quit twice. Whenever I wanted to do the smart thing and run past the zombies as there is nothing to be gained from confrontations, she would either refuse or get caught by the xombies as she follows you but usually she is about 5 miles behind you.

That's impossible, since all characters in the game except for Joel are functionally invisible to enemies. Until Joel gets caught.

 

[Zhukov]

I couldn't deal with the last of us. The character Ellie made me rage quit twice. Whenever I wanted to do the smart thing and run past the zombies as there is nothing to be gained from confrontations, she would either refuse or get caught by the xombies as she follows you but usually she is about 5 miles behind you.

That's impossible, since all characters in the game except for Joel are functionally invisible to enemies. Until Joel gets caught.

No it isn't.

Clickers and infected will attack her every now and again.

You then get about six seconds to shoot or knock them off her before she dies. Really, you'd have to be spectacularly inept to get her killed.

 

[verdant monkai]

That's impossible, since all characters in the game except for Joel are functionally invisible to enemies. Until Joel gets caught.

Well thats weird mate! because Ellie got grabbed a number of times! and so did the woman at the start! and the crazy cannibal guy! In fact I think everyone was functionally visible.

Maybe my game was programmed differently.

 

[BoogieManFL]

I agree the base aiming was freaking terrible. There is no way an experienced fighter like Joel would have such a shaky wobbly aim. I hate it when there are upgrades there to fix something that shouldn't exist in the first place.

The game had a good story, visuals, settings, and acting. But the gameplay itself was the weakest point.

That's impossible, since all characters in the game except for Joel are functionally invisible to enemies. Until Joel gets caught.

Well thats weird mate! because Ellie got grabbed a number of times! and so did the woman at the start! and the crazy cannibal guy! In fact I think everyone was functionally visible.

Maybe my game was programmed differently.

Ellie could run right in front of enemies and not be noticed. I saw it time, and time, and time again. It's been verified by many other players, it's a fact. Unless scripted, there is almost no chance they will get detected by enemies even when they run in open view.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

3) How many times do I need to shoot a cop/military/thug in the head before they die?

Yup, I hated this too. There is no excuse.

 

[Schadrach]

The thing that stressed me out the most was the fact you cannot leave an area until Joel and Ellie have murdered everything in sight.

Uhhh, no. There are some places where some and/or mass murder might be the easiest (or rarely only) way through, but there were more than a few places where I crept through without drawing any attention or only dropping the occasional inconvenient enemy from stealth.

A great early game example was there was a house with *way* too many clickers to shiv that I prowled through without issue. They were all clickers though, and clickers are blind so as long as you didn't actually touch any of them and were slow and deliberate in your movements it wasn't an issue.

I don't want to think how much of a pain that must have been if you thought you had to fight them all. Then again, I had full ammo for all my weapons for the majority of the game, because I almost never used them.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It was also the bad kind of stealth where if one guy saw you all the guys knew exactly where you were and then the game turns from hide and seek to Whack-a-mole.

Wouldn't it make sense for an enemy dude to inform other enemy dudes of your position though? And unlike most stealth games, it's quite easy to lose the "alert" status in TLoU. Enemies weren't intune to your exact presence during alert. Not even the Clickers could keep track of you if you kept moving. As soon as someone saw you all you had to do was run away and hide somewhere else. This was a very effective means of luring enemies out, since they would investigate your last known position, giving you the oppertunity to sneak up on them.

TLoU probably had the best stealth I've played in any game, since it wasn't an immediate game over or sucking your thumb while the alert died down. It made for intense guerilla action, where I'd wait for one guy to get seperated, strike him fast with whatever I had handy, and then quickly retreat behind cover to assess my next move. Not to mention the way the game allows you to corpse pile.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I mean 4/5 of those things have to do with the design choice to make guns a tool rather than your primary manner of combat.

As for the hand holding I don't recall the game having a lot of that. I don't really know how much agency you expect from a linear game though. I mean it's definitely more on the straightforward side but it's a about the story and presentation mainly. The objective of the gameplay is to lead you through the sequences they want you to experience rather than making choices or open ended approaches.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

It's set what, 10-20 years after the outbreak (been a while, can't remember)? No one is making bullets any more. They would be fucking scarce. Especially when you consider that the various groups would have been hoarding whatever they could find. 20 rounds too little? I say it's way too much.

Bullets are not hard to make bro.

 

[chikusho]

No it isn't.

Clickers and infected will attack her every now and again.

You then get about six seconds to shoot or knock them off her before she dies. Really, you'd have to be spectacularly inept to get her killed.

Well thats weird mate! because Ellie got grabbed a number of times! and so did the woman at the start! and the crazy cannibal guy! In fact I think everyone was functionally visible.

Maybe my game was programmed differently.

Let's try this again..

That's impossible, since all characters in the game except for Joel are functionally invisible to enemies. Until Joel gets caught.

This is an intentional design choice to make sure that Ellie never alerts any enemy to your position. She can be attacked if you are in combat, sure. But otherwise, no.

 

[Avaholic03]

2) Do I have MS? I understand making targeting harder, but good lord, I felt like Michael J. Fox in the game.

Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's, not MS.

But regardless, the mechanics in Last of Us don't resemble either of those disorders. They do resemble what an actual human would be like in those situations, rather than a nerves-of-steel super-soldier bad-ass that sounds like what you were expecting to play. Clearly the game is not for you if you didn't enjoy it. I've never understood some people's compulsion to complain when they don't like something. Just move on and get over it. Surely this isn't the first time you've been disappointed in a game right?

As for the ammo, as far as I can tell the ammo drop rate is dependent on how much you have in your inventory. It caps out at around 20ish if you are really conserving ammo. But if you use your gun a lot, you will find more ammo in the world. The game at least somewhat adapts to your play style. It's never going to give you 100s of rounds for each gun, but it will also never let you run completely out of weapons so you're stuck.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

3) How many times do I need to shoot a cop/military/thug in the head before they die?

Well THIS is validating. Thank you.

I made this thread a while back: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.834943-The-Last-of-Us-When-Does-it-Get-Better

I had the exact same issue as you with the headshots. And a lot of other issues beside. Motherfuckers be all "He was wearing a helmet, yo", like I can't tell the difference between a helmet and a fucking head.

The game has some janky hit detection. I still think it's a good game because of its strong story, but it has the same "strong story/shit game play" divergence that other strong storied titles got pilloried for.

But regardless, the mechanics in Last of Us don't resemble either of those disorders. They do resemble what an actual human would be like in those situations, rather than a nerves-of-steel super-soldier bad-ass that sounds like what you were expecting to play.

I've heard this explanation given for the game's wobbly shooting mechanics before, and I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, it does make Joel more vulnerable, and the game consequentially more "dangerous" (as dangerous as a save/reload checkpoint game can ever truly be, anyway), and thus potentially leave you feeling more vulnerable and "human". On the flip side, it also feels like spongy, shitty controls. If you WERE playing a run of the mill man-shoot and these were your shooting controls, the first thing you'd do is say "Controls are shit, 3/10". I'm not sure why they get a pass for rubbish shooting on the grounds that it is some kind of subtle story mechanic. It's still bad. It's still frustrating. It's still a reasonable complaint. It's a game that it feels bad to shoot in. They could have simulated tetanus or blood poisoning as well, and it wouldn't have made the game significantly more enjoyable to PLAY. Notably, I felt vulnerable and human in STALKER, and I never needed to have wobbly/jittery shooting to accomplish that. They just used atmosphere, and threat.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I've heard this explanation given for the game's wobbly shooting mechanics before, and I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, it does make Joel more vulnerable, and the game consequentially more "dangerous" (as dangerous as a save/reload checkpoint game can ever truly be, anyway), and thus potentially leave you feeling more vulnerable and "human". On the flip side, it also feels like spongy, shitty controls. If you WERE playing a run of the mill man-shoot and these were your shooting controls, the first thing you'd do is say "Controls are shit, 3/10". I'm not sure why they get a pass for rubbish shooting on the grounds that it is some kind of subtle story mechanic. It's still bad. It's still frustrating. It's still a reasonable complaint. It's a game that it feels bad to shoot in. They could have simulated tetanus or blood poisoning as well, and it wouldn't have made the game significantly more enjoyable to PLAY. Notably, I felt vulnerable and human in STALKER, and I never needed to have wobbly/jittery shooting to accomplish that. They just used atmosphere, and threat.

You could say the same about Resident Evil 4 though. There you can't walk while aiming and shooting, and were those controls in any regular shooting game you'd likely drop it in a minute. And there's a good amount of weapon sway present there as well. You also don't have a 360 degree control of the camera either, only of Leon's peripheral vision.

This helps to create a more grounded sensation, which you either go for or you don't.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

where are they going to get a constant supply of gun powder? I know it seems rather trivial trying to find salt peter, charcoal and sulphur in a world run by convenience shopping. But with no infrastructure at all, You're going to find it difficult to come by sufficient quantities of atleast one of those. It's not like we see any kind of trade system that could transfer a surplus of one commodity for trade at places with a shortage.

Everywhere is more or less isolated. That's why Joel and Ellie's journey was so remarkable.

.... Bro.

Mankind has made gunpowder since the 1000's brah, a post apocalyptic world "today" would still have more engineers than there were when humanity first started making gunpowder. Theres also so much ammunition that exists so ammo being rare is not very realistic.

Did you know that in 2013 Homeland Security alone bought 1.6 billion rounds?

http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml


People who claim that lack of ammo is realistic dont know much breh, Afghanistan is pretty much post apocalyptic and if theres anything they dont lack its guns and ammo, breh,