Current Events > Started TLoU2 tonight *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Man it feels amazing to kill people in this game. I know tons of spoilers (including a pretty good picture of the ending) and I gotta say I doubt I'll ever feel guilty for killing these people. They made it too fun. But we'll see lol.

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I got some bad news for Leah LMAO

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"No not Gavin!"

Is that the dude I lit on fire or the guy who got his arms blown off?

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fantastic game with a great story, characters, and gameplay; builds upon and expands from the first game so well

would have been my GotY if it wasn't for Hades

DavidZ2844 posted...

fantastic game with a great story, characters, and gameplay; builds upon and expands from the first game so well

would have been my GotY if it wasn't for Hades

The game play really is on another level compared to the first. I don't think I'll feel guilty, but when watching the story I'll understand why Ellie is. It's hard for me to feel bad about anything unless the MC is a self insert. Then I feel bad about EVERYTHING bad I do lol.

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idk if you have to beat the game first, but you can unlock unlimited ammo, melee, crafting items, and that can be pretty fun.

I also like the different filters you can unlock.

watercolor is probably my favorite.

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g0ldie posted...

idk if you have to beat the game first, but you can unlock unlimited ammo, melee, crafting items, and that can be pretty fun.

I also like the different filters you can unlock.

watercolor is probably my favorite.

That's pretty cool. I probably won't replay this game until I get a PS5, though. I enjoy the resource management aspect. It's one of the things I like about Days Gone as well.

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kewldude475 posted...

Well, all the enemies in TLoU 2 are trying to kill you. Even if they beg for mercy and you leave them alone, they will try to kill you after you turn your back, so killing people is entirely self-defense in TLoU 2 lol.

And it feels great. This game brings out the sadist in me that I haven't felt since I played GTA:VC when I was a child.

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you should check out extras in the menu just in case to see if you have enough points to unlock stuff

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Leaving behind notes seems like an ineffective communication method in the list apocalypse

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Got a feeling Chad Jesse isn't going to make it.

Honestly the dodge and prone mechanics add so much to the game play. Dodge made a boss that I found insufferable in the first game (those big ramming fatties, whatever they're called) into something very fun and intense. Prone grass hiding gives the developers a lot more room to make outdoor environments more realistic and more engaging to the game play. The movement system makes exploration more intuitive, fun, and immersive than the first. And the AI and environment design make getting discovered and then back into stealth something that makes sense and actually exciting (thanks to the aforementioned movement and stealth systems).

Edit: I also think the resource limit is well balanced to encourage you to actually use your stuff. I'm using more options in fights simply to free up inventory space for the next exploration segment.

A league above the first imo in terms of game play. Story remains to be seen, but it's certainly more ambitious than the first I think.

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there's this part that made stealthing through the grass feel so tense and fun, I almost wanna play through it again right now

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Gameplay is much better, but story is risky since it doesn't meet what the fans wanted, they tried something new. It's a hit or miss, personally I had issues with it but did like it in the end
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its a good game, there are some valid criticisms but once you play it you'll see most of the complaints are coming from ppl who never actually played the game. my favorite part are the little exploration parts between combat encounters, plus there is a really good boss at the end of the game i wont spoil

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Also something that was in a loading screen explained why I hated the clicker stealth in the first game: I never realized they're using echo location when they stand there and click and you need to be behind something. The whole time I thought the "deaf" system just sucked ass but nope. I was missing critical game play information lol.

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This game also reminds me a lot of MGSV. With more bells and whistles dedicated to solely the human combat, I think you could have an MGS style game.

Romulox28 posted...

its a good game, there are some valid criticisms but once you play it you'll see most of the complaints are coming from ppl who never actually played the game. my favorite part are the little exploration parts between combat encounters, plus there is a really good boss at the end of the game i wont spoil

I think right now for me it's: 1) human combat, 2) exploration, 3) clicker/zombie stuff. Not that I don't enjoy the mushroom heads, but I find the tactical (espionage) action to be my favorite part. And they break each other up nicely.

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if you haven't already, you should get the quick stealth kill upgrade, if you're mostly playing stealthily.

the difference is really noticable.

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g0ldie posted...

if you haven't already, you should get the quick stealth kill upgrade, if you're mostly playing stealthily.

the difference is really noticable.

Yeah I got it for prone and eagle vision. Right now I usually just blow my cover to kill dogs if I haven't got a good mine in place. Stealth and aim stability are my currency sinks rn.

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Kill everyone.

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Wow I have 9 hours in this game already. I would have guessed like 5 lol

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Been degen gaming hard. Currently near the beginning of Abby's day 2. My opinions are basically the same as before.

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I ended up really liking that section.

but going back to the part I posted about Ellie's stealth earlier, since you already passed it, one of my favorite sections to stealth through was around that parking garage when you first encounter the Seraphites.

I felt like Rambo.

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My favorite section so far was probably around when they introduced dogs as an enemy. Some really good stuff there.

My synapses are starting to fire on this story too. It's seems like Isaac embodies everything this game speaks against, but I'll hold my comments until I'm done.

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Story thoughts: (still at the part where I just left to get hospital supplies)

I'll say the obvious right now in that it is likely that the breakdown of the Seraphite/WLF truce (and maybe the war in he first place) may have looked a lot like what is happening in the game between Ellie and Abby. If everything wasn't about to be fucked up by the WLF invasion (I assume), WLF would probably end up in a war with Jackson due to a very personal vendetta from the past. Beyond violence begets violence and revenge being counterproductive, it seems the main idea here is actions have unforeseen consequences because when you hurt one person, you (almost) always hurt many in their family/community. Killing Joel very early in the game was important; he has no active presence in the current day, but something he did would cause a chain of events that could spiral into a much greater conflict.

And Seattle is the "end game", especially when everything is fucked (I am currently guessing) by the attempted WLF invasion. In documents, it seems that Isaac is the one that escalated the violence output from WLF (executing prisoners and whatnot) after the two original leaders were killed. Abby mentions that he got the green light from her because he believed in "justice" (which the writers clearly meant to mean retribution).

There's, of course, the idea that Ellie and Abby would have been better off if they had just stayed home. Or at least fewer people they cared about would die. Jesse is dead and I figure when I'm Abby at the showdown I'm gonna mash square to break Tommy's neck. And from what I know of the spoilers, it's clear that what they really needed was closure and healing, revenge was empty, and that's generally true for good, normal people. Normal stuff there.

It's the parallels to the macro story I find interesting and pretty cool. At the start of Abby's story, they're not even sure exactly why the truce was broken. It's not hard to imagine a future where they're attacking Jackson and some other soldiers are asking "Why did these guys attack us? Something about Fireflies?"

I also like how much Ellie's campaign seems to be about environmental storytelling as it concerns the current state of Seattle. I might be mistaken, but Abby's story seems to be much more about the "here and now" of the current conflict, whereas Ellie's is a lot more about finding remnants of the FEDRA/WLF conflict (which of course is there to feed into all of this). Idk, I think it's good stuff for a video game.

I know some people have some logical objections with the story, like Mel going out while pregnant (and being more athletic than I thought pregnant women were). But I don't really mind these things. With Mel in particular, the writers wanted her to be pregnant to parallel with Dina and Mel needed some bonding time with Abby in an action game. So the characters expected the ride to be uneventful and safe. I'm okay with fudging a bit on things like this, especially when you have to adhere to a gameplay loop.

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what part are you on?

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g0ldie posted...

what part are you on?

I edited that into the first line. But basically I just set out to find medical supplies to try to save Yara. I got to a point where there were mushroom heads and called it a night.

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thanks, it's helping me better follow along.

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I think a big takeaway I hear about is that the game is trying to guilt you for stuff, but I don't necessarily think that's the case. It's just showing how many people are connected to each individual. And killing them is kind of like putting a drop or two of blood (or food coloring) in a glass of water. The aftermath is messy and unpredictable, and some real thought should be considered before doing stuff. I also don't think this game really condemns Joel as much as other people or the spoilers alone make it seem.

Edit: I will agree with the ludo narrative dissonance here with killing random enemies with no remorse. I can accept this as part of suspension of disbelief, but there's a school of thought where gameplay should be the most important story telling mechanism, not cinematics. This is a view I can understand, but I do think games with a lot of cinematics can still be stories, and the ludo narrative dissonance is a sacrifice you will typically have when using this style. So basically it's a weakness I'm okay with.

Of course the problem is that this game does intend to reinforce the story with the game play, and it sort of doesn't do that all that well imo. But I'm just kind of okay with it lol.

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The game is a TON of fun to play, but the story and characters are trash tier. I want to play it again just for the gameplay, but yikes at the story.

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When you're done, I recommend watching Nathan Zed and Celly's video on the game.

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Kaldrenthebold posted...

The game is a TON of fun to play, but the story and characters are trash tier. I want to play it again just for the gameplay, but yikes at the story.

I think it's pretty good. But honestly I'm much more interested in the macro story in the background than the personal story in the foreground. Besides, my boy Chad Jesse (RIP) is a character we can all get behind.

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I should mention that Yara/Lev seem to have some intentional parallels with Joel/Tommy (both in story and game scenarios where Abby is introduced to them) but I'll hold my thoughts.

I also think why Abby is completely after Ellie's campaign has to do with the fact that Abby is further along in her revenge "arc" than Ellie. It is the a logical order of events from that standpoint. But again, I don't go too far until I'm further on.

Edit: One thing to note for later: a lack of closure for loss is a theme that carries over from the first game, and is why Joel killed all those people for Ellie in the first place. If you really want to go that far back, this all stems from a guy shooting Sarah in the outbreak.

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Jabodie posted...

my boy Chad Jesse (RIP) is a character we can all get behind.

he was a real bro

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Jabodie posted...

I think it's pretty good. But honestly I'm much more interested in the macro story in the background than the personal story in the foreground. Besides, my boy Chad Jesse (RIP) is a character we can all get behind.

I think it was just told astronomically poorly. I didn't particularly care about Abby or her band of friends, like at all. I get what they were going for, but it just did not work for me in the slightest. Half the game was wonderful, then the second half happens and it feels like it all takes a step backwards. And then the ending...

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Kaldrenthebold posted...

I think it was just told astronomically poorly. I didn't particularly care about Abby or her band of friends, like at all. I get what they were going for, but it just did not work for me in the slightest. Half the game was wonderful, then the second half happens and it feels like it all takes a step backwards. And then the ending...

Eh, when it comes to video game stories I rarely care about the characters these days. I definitely didn't for the first TLoU. There are a handful of exceptions though, like RDR1/2, (only) BJ in the new Wolf games, (only) Peter in Spider Man. That's all I can really think of from this generation looking at my game shelf. Games like God of War, Nier Automata, Death Stranding, and TLoU (and probably this one) I appreciate from a more academic perspective (and I would not say Wolf or Spider Man had better stories than any of those other games I mentioned, despite really looking the main characters). Tbh how much I like or care about characters rarely has to do with my enjoyment of the story. This is probably why Hemingway books are some of my favorites lol. Now this is making me wonder if this game takes any inspiration from A Farewell to Arms.

Anyway, I pretty much have about as much emotional attachment to Ellie and co as I do to Abby and co, which isn't that much. I still relate to them from a general human empathy perspective, though.

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https://youtu.be/T-3ZqEiNcZI

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Whats your current total play time looking like TC? It took me 39 hours to beat the entire game, which I dont think was normal at all but Im curious to see how long others took to compare.

DavidZ2844 posted...

Whats your current total play time looking like TC? It took me 39 hours to beat the entire game, which I dont think was normal at all but Im curious to see how long others took to compare.

When I left off I was right at the beginning of Abby Day 3 just shy of 20 hours. Based on the spoilers I know I figure I have another 10 hours or so left.

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Jabodie posted...

Man it feels amazing to kill people in this game. I know tons of spoilers (including a pretty good picture of the ending) and I gotta say I doubt I'll ever feel guilty for killing these people. They made it too fun. But we'll see lol.

As someone who went in blind, I didn't feel guilty. Don't let spoilers paint a picture for you

sLaCkEr408___RJ posted...

As someone who went in blind, I didn't feel guilty. Don't let spoilers paint a picture for you

I mentioned in a later post I didn't really feel the game was trying to guilt you. A lot of reviewers did though. I can't deny the writers may have intended that, but I don't think so.

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Jabodie posted...

I mentioned in a later post I didn't really feel the game was trying to guilt you. A lot of reviewers did though. I can't deny the writers may have intended that, but I don't think so.

I mean the capacity for guilt is there, but it was not beaten over our heads like some reviews make it seem.

Can't say I like this Ellie fight

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How hard is this compared to the first?

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Killmonger posted...

How hard is this compared to the first?

I don't really remember. Overall I think it's a fairly balanced challenge.

So what am I supposed to be doing in phase 3 of this fight? I was doing a combo on her to get through the first phases but of I go for a second punch now I get the machete. I tried one lunch then dodge and I got the machete. What's the gimmick here?

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Oh I think I just wasn't tapping square fast enough. Spammed it instead of pressure one tap per hit like I usually do.

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Tommy LIVED?!

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@Killmonger Killmonger posted...

How hard is this compared to the first?

Definitely more challenging than the first, they added a lot more variety of enemies that can counter your use of stealth. Bosses are more difficult too, and human enemies seem a lot smarter.

DavidZ2844 posted...

@Killmonger
Definitely more challenging than the first, they added a lot more variety of enemies that can counter your use of stealth. Bosses are more difficult too, and human enemies seem a lot smarter.

But your options are more diverse and effective, so it offsets it. I suppose you have to play smarter. I felt the game had a very nice difficulty balance.

Anyway, credits are rolling. My opinions remain mostly unchanged. Really good game imo. Might have more discussion later when I digest it all a little more. I'm curious if they have any ideas for a TLoU3.

And I like Abby. Haters gonna hate

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