Well, fuck you, The Last of Us

[bandit0802]

This is nothing new. LoU is definitely not the first game to pull that shit. I remember playing DmC thinking, "Ok, I know I'm not good enough to get 100% of all the side stuff, but I'd like to get as much as possible. Wait, that was the way forward? I thought it was the other door! I was just exploring, dammit!" And I'm sure I've had that with a few other games. At the very least, an objective marker would be nice.

 

[EeviStev]

Thank you for making it impossible to explore the environment. [snip]

I found the levels to be designed well enough as to make it apparent where you had to go next, and so never had a problem exploring.

With possible exceptions, NPCs tend to walk towards your destination, so don't follow them until you've searched everywhere else. Another sign you're heading towards the next "no way back" area is if an NPC says something, meaning you're advancing through the script. Other than that, if a room beyond a door you just opened has no obvious exits, it's safe to explore.

 

[The_Scrivener]

I have no idea why post merged with someone else's posts. Sorry for the double post, but what the hell happened?

You quoted the guy, then wrote your post in the middle of his post between the quote tags. Had you done it correctly it would have looked like this:

Spoiler

Thank you for making it impossible to explore the environment.

Hmmm, shall I take the left door or the right door? I'll go left... *surprise* Door slams shut and no way to look what's behind door number 2. Well, no problem. I'll just reload the game. Oh wait, the game gets auto-saved every minute in 1 save slot without backup[footnote]yes, you can save in another slot, but it takes ages[/footnote]. This hasn't happened once or twice... it's happened a lot.

I am not scared of an (infected) ambush, I am not scared I am going the wrong way... I am scared I am going the right way and miss out on stuff. So, I am extra careful when navigating through the environment because it might be a one way trip. Those big falls are pretty obvious. But then I went through a window, because nothing can go wrong (besides another event were I get *****-slapped around). Except when I turn around the window is suddenly closed and I am unable to return. And auto-save of course raped my progress.

Well, fuck you, The Last of Us. Thanks for ruining my game.

Normally I wouldn't care much, but it's such a shame for an otherwise good game.

Exploration and fun? Why have that when there's so much SEWIOUS DWAMA to get through? Why give a shit about how the player feels as long as you impress some kind of invisible video game oscar council?

I avoided the last of us. Don't care how good the story is, it looks like another gritty and depressing slog. I'm tired of those.

Invisible Oscar Game Council? You mean, a popular consensus that the game is well-above average quality? I hear more about this game Oscar-bating than anything else ever. It's the damnedest thing. I swear I thought we'd gone past the era of ubiquitous irony addicts who are so bent on avoiding whatever being a hipster is to the point they've come full circle around the idea to the point they're epitomizing the arbitrary thing they're trying to avoid.

Spoiler alert: If you want to criticize a game, you have to do better than "lots of people like it." There is no video game Oscars. There is no context for your point of view. Either present your opinion in a vacuum based on what's actually happening with your controller and on your TV screen or shut up. The reason it's acclaimed is because it's human and it plays fine. If it doesn't line up with your personal tastes, that's fine. It isn't my favorite game ever, but using bullshit middle school rhetoric by intentionally misspelling words makes you look retarded.

Thanks! Sorry to derail the topic.

 

[4RM3D]

Its a linear narrative game with mild exploration thats rewarded generally with more supplies.

I can't picture the point in the game you're referring too...but maybe you shouldn't be expecting an OPEN WORLD game when you didn't buy one?

You misunderstood me. I wasn't expecting an open world. But it would be nice to be able to backtrack to a certain extent. When I was in the hotel exploring, I suddenly was unable to return to the first floor. There was no logical reason I should not be able to return. The game probably hit the limit in memory and had to close off an area to save memory. Hardware limitations. Al the more reason it's time for a PS4.

So far I've found the arbitrary, unfair clickers to be much more of a problem. Seriously, I have bought nothing but sensory upgrades for Joel, I spend several minutes scouting each room, counting enemy types, watching patterns, looking for weak points -- and the motherfucking clickers STILL appear right behind me as soon as I engage my first target.

It's not a stealth game unless attentiveness and planning are rewarded. In The Last of Us, they're a complete waste of time. The first few times, the be-perfect-or-die nature of this game adds tension. After the fiftieth reload, it's just old. It smacks of old-school side-scrollers, games that offered knuckle-biting difficulty because they had nothing else.

I haven't cared all that much about searching for extra gear. That's telling, considering I normally check every corner in games like this. It's probably because I know it isn't going to do any good. No amount of gear can make even the slightest difference, so why bother?

Those clickers were only an issue when I lacked fire power. But even then I managed. They run straight for you, so it's easy to hit them. What I hated was the weapon swing, which made it difficult to aim properly. Thus my first upgrade went into a more stable aim.

The game starts off slow with only a few enemies. But after a while you start fighting hoards of enemies. It's not that they are particularly difficult (except a few boss-like types). It's just that there are so many and I only have a few bullets. So it's more about saving bullets and inventory management. All the more reason to find as much stuff as possible.

 

[PBMcNair]

Sorry to derail the topic.

Don't worry, in Escapist terms thats not even close to a derail.

To add something more OT: I never minded the lack of backtracking, because it usually makes some kind of sense. Its too dangerous or the route is blocked somehow. And as much as I had wished I had more supplies when I hit the finale, finally slipping through with those limited resources made it that much more satisfying.