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since sony has gotten off their high horse of taking down anything relating to the game, this is a thread discussing the long awaited release of the last of us part 2, a sequel of the critically acclaimed last of us, both of which are developed by naughty dog.
i will try my best not to spoil anything, but you have been warned. this is free discussion, and if you want to play the game and see first for yourself, i recommend doing so before venturing any farther.
disclaimer: i have not purchased, nor played, the game for myself. in the past month or so, i have seen around 6 hours of both gameplay and story leaks. from what i witnessed, i decided to save my money, and if you're reading this far, then i implore you to do the same.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
soiled it.
naughty dog soiled it.
the last of us, the original 2013 game, remains in my top three of all time. it has lackluster and repetitive gameplay, but this is compensated for with beautiful visuals, believable voice performances, and a heartfelt story that had me invested the entire way through. i fucking loved it.
and then naughty dog decided to butcher its legacy by making a sequel.
this is probably the first time i've seen ND blunder so badly. it's a mess. it's horrible. i cannot express both the sorrow and pain it brings me to say that the last of us 2, in my personal opinion, is a complete and utter dumpster fire.
the gameplay was cut and pasted from the first game with animation improvements. it flows better, but stealth remains the same: crouch walk around obstacles in a set, linear area and distract enemies with bricks and bottles (yes, it's still just bricks and bottles). cue ten second long stealth kill animation.
the graphics are beautiful, i admit that much. no doubt the best thus far, and the benchmark was set very high after uncharted 4. in some instances, i'm not sure if i'm looking at a movie or a video game. every frame could be a screensaver.
but where it falls apart? well, what people loved the first game so much for, of course:
THE STORY
the story manages to disregard, trample, and spit all over the themes and characters that the first game set up. if you loved the story of the first game, then you'll probably hate the story of this game. it's a cookie-cutter 25 hour long revenge plot with no actual payoff, and during all twenty five hours, it's just constant violence. it's constant, unrelenting, misery porn. there's so much needless violence and death that you become desensitized from it.
neil cuckman said the first game was about love, and this game is about hate, which i agree wholeheartedly. i loved the first game, i hate this game.
there's no nuance or subtlety, it's just an Aesop's Fable "Killing Is Bad" that comes at the expense of every character you may have held close to your heart in the first game. it doesn't set up any additional characters that are memorable (or stay around) in the slightest, and instead resorts to just kicking the beloveds until they're dead.
oh, and there are animated sex scenes with full nudity. i can't describe the true horror of the storyline without spoiling it, which i shall refrain from doing so (at least for this post) but it's... macabre.
and don't get me started on the reviews. one look at metacritic and you'll start to see two sides of the fence very clearly: i believe the critic average is around 95 or so, while the user average settles around 3. i think that speaks for itself, and i can tell you right now, the outrage is justified.
how could it end up like this? i don't understand how it managed to go from 100 to 0 so quickly. a polar opposite in writing and direction. it feels like a fever dream.
i apologize for the rant.
TL;DR - the story sucks ass and ruins everything from the first game. the only thing that has taken a big shift forward are the graphics, visuals, and animations. i am heart broken by the atrocity of which i bear witness to.
i will try my best not to spoil anything, but you have been warned. this is free discussion, and if you want to play the game and see first for yourself, i recommend doing so before venturing any farther.
disclaimer: i have not purchased, nor played, the game for myself. in the past month or so, i have seen around 6 hours of both gameplay and story leaks. from what i witnessed, i decided to save my money, and if you're reading this far, then i implore you to do the same.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
soiled it.
naughty dog soiled it.
the last of us, the original 2013 game, remains in my top three of all time. it has lackluster and repetitive gameplay, but this is compensated for with beautiful visuals, believable voice performances, and a heartfelt story that had me invested the entire way through. i fucking loved it.
and then naughty dog decided to butcher its legacy by making a sequel.
this is probably the first time i've seen ND blunder so badly. it's a mess. it's horrible. i cannot express both the sorrow and pain it brings me to say that the last of us 2, in my personal opinion, is a complete and utter dumpster fire.
the gameplay was cut and pasted from the first game with animation improvements. it flows better, but stealth remains the same: crouch walk around obstacles in a set, linear area and distract enemies with bricks and bottles (yes, it's still just bricks and bottles). cue ten second long stealth kill animation.
the graphics are beautiful, i admit that much. no doubt the best thus far, and the benchmark was set very high after uncharted 4. in some instances, i'm not sure if i'm looking at a movie or a video game. every frame could be a screensaver.
but where it falls apart? well, what people loved the first game so much for, of course:
THE STORY
the story manages to disregard, trample, and spit all over the themes and characters that the first game set up. if you loved the story of the first game, then you'll probably hate the story of this game. it's a cookie-cutter 25 hour long revenge plot with no actual payoff, and during all twenty five hours, it's just constant violence. it's constant, unrelenting, misery porn. there's so much needless violence and death that you become desensitized from it.
neil cuckman said the first game was about love, and this game is about hate, which i agree wholeheartedly. i loved the first game, i hate this game.
there's no nuance or subtlety, it's just an Aesop's Fable "Killing Is Bad" that comes at the expense of every character you may have held close to your heart in the first game. it doesn't set up any additional characters that are memorable (or stay around) in the slightest, and instead resorts to just kicking the beloveds until they're dead.
oh, and there are animated sex scenes with full nudity. i can't describe the true horror of the storyline without spoiling it, which i shall refrain from doing so (at least for this post) but it's... macabre.
and don't get me started on the reviews. one look at metacritic and you'll start to see two sides of the fence very clearly: i believe the critic average is around 95 or so, while the user average settles around 3. i think that speaks for itself, and i can tell you right now, the outrage is justified.
how could it end up like this? i don't understand how it managed to go from 100 to 0 so quickly. a polar opposite in writing and direction. it feels like a fever dream.
i apologize for the rant.
TL;DR - the story sucks ass and ruins everything from the first game. the only thing that has taken a big shift forward are the graphics, visuals, and animations. i am heart broken by the atrocity of which i bear witness to.
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