Board 8 > The Last of Us Part II is f***ing amazing.*Spoilers

(+) Yeah! (+)

Seriously screw the ridiculous hate. My goodness this has the be the worst and most toxic overreaction from fans in the history of any media.

I'm still on my rocking chair staring at the credits with tears streaming down my eyes. What a beautiful game that was.

Sure it pandered to PC culture and feminism in some ways and Abby looking unrealistically buff (or juiced) in a post apocalyptic world but that is about the only bad thing I can point out about the game .

All the characters have very believable motivations and Joel death being the way it was, was necessary for the game to have the emotional impact it otherwise wouldn't have delivered.

This might have dethroned Uncharted 2 as my favorite Naughty Dog game. It has definitely surpassed the original in every conceivable way.

Neil Druckmann and team gets all my praise for one of the most intriguing experiences I've had in any media for a while.

Screw the haters. Jesus Christ.

you game on a rocking chair? damn dude.

colliding posted...

you game on a rocking chair? damn dude.

It rocks dude

I don't think Abby was particularly unrealistic. She's a trained soldier and they had, like, an NFL gym in there. Also genetics.

But regardless yes it is outstanding. Not perfect, I think it might be a hair below the original but not sure. Either way, excellent

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I've cooled down on a lot of my initial reactions and am now firmly in the stance of just not wanting to play something this depressing right now.

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The initial reaction was without a doubt too much, but it doesn't mean the game doesn't have flaws.

I did enjoy the game overall, but I don't think it gets close to the first one, which I found pretty good, but not fantastic.

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Okay rocking chair gaming sounds pretty good.

I loved the game, I absolutely think its Naughty Dogs best. Its not perfect though, and the more I sit on it the more I think the final section was a bit unnecessary for that story. They either needed to dramatically shorten or outright cut it, or expand it into a full act. As it is it introduced some pacing issues and just served as a reiteration of what the game had already said.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I've cooled down on a lot of my initial reactions and am now firmly in the stance of just not wanting to play something this depressing right now.

I feel how depressing it is has been overstated. Its unrelentingly grim, but doesnt really get miserable until the last few hours which is actually a pretty small part of the game. It depends on what youre sensitive to though.

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I say depressing, but what I really mean is, like...gruesome? I guess it's hard to word it.

Like I don't want to see people getting realistically maimed right now.

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Yeah, I'm not really a fan of over the top gore either, so I get what you're saying.

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My lack of interest in this type of game at the moment definitely impacted my stance when the first topics were coming out, so I do have to apologize for whatever wonkiness of was saying in those. I don't think I ever got too extreme, but still.

There's always the issues at Naughty Dog's working environment and conditions, too, of course....which is hard for me to ignore as well, but still. Seeing the screen caps pop up recently of how some people are acting towards the creators and voice actors made me very uncomfortable that I was ever on their side.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

My lack of interest in this type of game at the moment definitely impacted my stance when the first topics were coming out, so I do have to apologize for whatever wonkiness of was saying in those. I don't think I ever got too extreme, but still.

There's always the issues at Naughty Dog's working environment and conditions, too, of course....which is hard for me to ignore as well, but still. Seeing the screen caps pop up recently of how some people are acting towards the creators and voice actors made me very uncomfortable that I was ever on their side.

No. You aren't on "their side" if that's the attitude they had. Sharing a similar opinion on something with someone doesn't mean you have to take ownership of their behaviors. For sure. I've read a lot of these topics, and I don't think you ever reached that level of diatribe.

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I thought I was in an actual epilogue and going to be able to read and post in these topics soon.

I imagine it will still be soon.

But they tricked me good.

Also yes, I very quickly scrolled to the bottom of this page to post. I wasn't sure what topic would be safe to click on but the one with the least amount of posts seemed ideal.

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Anyway, I really liked the game.

I was fucking horrified at a lot of the things the game made me do. Hell horrified at some of the things I'd already done that the game made me do.

It was a very unique experience.

Also thought the level and gameplay design was a decent improvement from the first game. The first game I very much felt compelled to just fight and run from everything. Whereas this game it was always readily apparent that no matter the situation, I had multiple appealing options on how to approach getting through. Hell I felt compelled to murder everything(Usually via stealth), but I bet there are some pretty good almost pure pacifist options.

May they never bring dogs back though.

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Also I am exceedingly tired of open world game and the early section with Ellie with the map made me fear this was going to turn into a series of near-open world experience.

Instead it was a very welcome temporary variation of gameplay. Granted, that felt like forever ago by the time I finished the game.

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The dogs were a terrible idea. I liked the game as a whole. I didn't really like the overall story that much, even if it wasn't the point, the majority of the narrative is just revenge and it isn't that interesting a plot point.

We've also already explored a lot the idea of "all these people are really just humans" and the murkiness of good and evil , and I didn't really feel like it was necessary for this game to go to the depth it did to prove that point. I was like "ok yeah I get it" like 5 minutes into Seattle Day 1 ... uh, 2.

Even though it wasn't necessary though, it was still done well, on a small scale. I like the characters interactions with each other. I was never fully able to be on Abby's side, and while that was part of the point, it didn't fully feel like that was the point. I like the idea of switching it up. I didn't feel great having to start from scratch with weapons/upgrades from a gameplay point of view but I guess that was unavoidable.

Going into that crab door with Abby was a truly tense moment, even knowing exactly what was going to happen. They did a great job with that. I also found it sort of interesting but not that great from a story POV that Abby had no idea Ellie was involved in any of this until the very end. I think it would've been a little more impactful if she heard a description of the girl and had reason to believe before arriving at the theater that it may have been Ellie responsible for most of her friends being killed.

The best part of the game was the fucking Rat King or whatever that thing is, what a badass. The true final boss (the final final confrontation was really well done itself though).

Best gameplay feel is breaking windows. And rope physics.

Also everyone is a goddamn moron that writes their safe code down on paper 100 feet from a safe, or makes it stupid easy to figure out.

I don't really like open-section on a big scale (though i thought UC: Lost Legacy did it well), and I think that it was the perfect amount here. Maybe some areas felt a little daunting.

Why did like 20 states get the quarter screwjob

Also in general, the gameplay felt good. Better than the first. I played on hard. Combat felt balanced enough. My only real issue there was the crafting materials were very excessive on Hard and should've been more scarce. I know you have the option to adjust it to whatever level you like, but come on, that's not my job - I'm not a game designer, don't leave it up to me to figure out a good balance.

Anyway, I need to go through and plat it and get all the stuff I missed, but considering I need to play like 75% of the game to get full upgrades for both Ellie and Abby, I dunno if I'm ready for a replay anytime soon

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WiggumFan267 posted...

Why did like 20 states get the quarter screwjob

Seriously, what the hell.

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WiggumFan267 posted...

The dogs were a terrible idea.

Playing fetch with Alice near the end was just fucking torture.

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