Just finished The Last of Us

"mcseanerson" (mcseanerson) 07/27/2015 at 09:14 • Filed to: None

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Spoilers below - duh. Also if you care about the game being spoiled, have gone this long without it being spoiled, and still haven’t beaten it then you already know better then to click on this.

Damn. Just damn. That game is exhausting and I just need some people to talk to. Honestly I think this just took Metal Gear Solid on PSX’s spot as my favorite game of all time. I absolutely love games that are so focused on a narrative and a cinematic experience.

I really liked the Uncharted series and still do appreciate it but The Last of Us is a much better example of how to make a game that is all about the plot and to do it so well. The difference between the two is that while Uncharted’s cut scenes and slower moments only slow the pacing and let the momentum fall is just an unavoidable downside the same elements in The Last of Us are used to ease you back from the tension so they can crank it back up to full effect when the action picks back up. The Last of Us uses this rhythm perfectly.

From what I’ve heard people consider the ending controversial but the fact that I don’t only goes to show how much I agree with Joel’s decision. Also Nathan Drake tried to murder/rape Ellie! wtf.

Flavien Vidal > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 09:29

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Simply the very best game I’ve ever played... Finished it twice already. Perfect and simply awesome. I have yet to do the DLC though.

mcseanerson > Flavien Vidal 07/27/2015 at 09:37

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Finally! Someone who feels the same way I do. Everyone else I’ve been talking to has been saying it’s overhyped BS and it’s like they’re breaking my heart because this just became my favorite game ever. I don’t change position easily either as up until last night was Metal Gear Solid on PSX.

Flavien Vidal > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 09:45

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Change friends, they have bad taste :)

On a similar note, if you liked Last of Us this much, you will love The Walking Dead by Telltale. It’s available on ps3 and ps4 and damn is it worth your time too.

Believe me, if you loved LOU, this will become your second best game.

mcseanerson > Flavien Vidal 07/27/2015 at 09:55

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I have that game but I’ve always kind of hated the point and click style adventure games. I always get stuck on some dumb part because I can’t figure out the next step and I don’t find their narratives as involving as games like Uncharted or The Last of Us where you take a more active role in the gameplay.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 10:14

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The recent Telltale offerings aren’t really very point-and-click in the traditional sense - it’s very hard to get stuck, because usually it’s a sort of “poke everything in this area until the plot advances” sort of thing. Not really any figuring out which weird item in which place is needed in another place, or screwing yourself over hugely because you missed a thing hidden behind another thing. That means that *gameplay* as such can be fairly limited to area explorations and QTEs and such, but story choice stuff is fairly frequent and ongoing.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 10:15

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Haven’t finished it yet. Started playing it a little over a year ago but had to take a break because it was so intense. Haven’t picked it back up yet because I got distracted by Skyrim and the Borderlands series. BTW the MGS collection (with everything from VR missions to #4) was the first thing I bought for my PS3, which I didn’t get until Christmas 2013.

Racescort666 > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 07/27/2015 at 10:20

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Borderlands kicks so much ass! I love the Borderlands games, I need to convince some of my friends to buy Pre-Sequel so I’ve people to play with again.

Flavien Vidal > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 10:22

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You won’t get stucked on this one I promise you... And you have to forget it’s a game. See it as a movie that allows you to take decisions. It’s not just a point and click also. Plenty of action scenes to deal with.

Really, believe me on that, you will live it if you have enjoyed LoU :)

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 10:24

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The game is fantastic, and hard, and tense, and has a great story and pacing... I too just recently finished it...

I have to say I thought Joel really lost perspective. I wanted to save the world... maybe that makes me a bad person, becuase I thought Joel threw it away... I mean I liked Ellie, but the one thing I really got out of the game was how incredibly awful the world was and how the cordyceps had helped make it that way...

damnit, I wanted a cure! Even if it meant sacrifice...

mcseanerson > Flavien Vidal 07/27/2015 at 10:24

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I have played it and I like it but last time I played I was stuck in the pharmacy.

mcseanerson > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 07/27/2015 at 10:25

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Oh my gosh it is so intense. I felt physically exhausted by the end. You should avoid these kinds of posts if you haven’t finished it yet though.

Bairclaw > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 10:25

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Easily my favorite game, and also the best game I’ve played. I play alot of games and a decently large variety of them, but I’ve never been so attached to characters. I think since the cut scenes were so perfect with the gameplay it really made you feel for the Joel and Ellie. I remember my first time playing. I got up to the point when you first encounter clickers and I couldn’t figure out how to get around and kill them. Getting frustrated I eventually stopped playing for a week or two. Picked It back up and finished in three days. It was the first time I was actually upset I beat a game because at that point I had nothing left to play. I have it on my ps4 and it comes with Ellie’s DLC which is phenomenal as well. I really recommend that too. It give you a look at her life before Joel as well as defending herself trying to keep him alive when he was injured. As far as uncharted goes, that is probably 2 or 3 on my list. It’s more fun oriented. Kind of The last of us done by Michael bay, more guns, explosions, and just action. But still a great series. With great characters and an addicting story. I cannot wait for uncharted 4. It looks like naughty dog is doing uncharted with a bit of the last of us. And I for one am not upset that they pushed the release a full year. The people Naughty dog know what they’re doing.

mcseanerson > Racescort666 07/27/2015 at 10:26

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Borderlands is so good! I was playing BL2 for the 3rd time through before I decided to finish The Last of Us.

jkm7680 > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 10:28

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Really good game, the ending was a little fucked up though.

SVTyler > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 10:31

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You just feel lost, right? I’m like you, I really get invested in story-driven, emotional games like TLoU so the entire journey was like you said, exhausting. There were about five or six moments during the storyline I had to actually take a break and walk around my house to gather my thoughts and digest what just happened. I played the ending with my mouth open, just in absolute shock. No game has ever hit harder than The Last of Us.

Speaking of the ending, it was the only logical conclusion to the game. Sure, it was absolutely shocking while you were playing it, but once you took some time to think about the whole thing Joel’s decision made perfect sense: he wasn’t going to lose another daughter and the world was already too far gone to make the vaccine a realistic option anyways (if you want to rationalize it). The lie at the very end is what really bothered me, such a perfect way to end the story*.

I think that’s the best thing about the game, though, it’s so subversive in regards to other AAA titles: it’s so dark and crushingly morose, there is no hero of the game, you don’t win (not really), and there’s no real resolution to the story (ask five people about Ellie’s “ok” and you get five different interpretations). Yeah, it’s a zombie game with so-so combat but story-wise it dares to do something so completely different and unique that it’s literally a game-changer.

I don’t think anyone’s going to top The Last of Us anytime soon as far as atmosphere and storyline goes. I’ve played the game all the way through eight times now and while it loses a bit of its emotional heft it doesn’t lose any of its brilliance. It’s an absolute masterpiece of not just video games but digital entertainment in general and is for my money, at least, the high watermark of what the medium can be.

If you can’t tell I really, really love this game lol. Nice to see other people feel the same way as well, most of my friends didn’t really get into it.

Also play the Left Behind DLC. It’s by far and away one of the best DLC’s I’ve ever played and gives so much background to Ellie’s motivations and mindset during the main campaign, plus it only takes like two hours to complete.

*Apparently Nolan North’s been running his mouth about a second Last of Us game already in production. Whether or not it’s about Joel and Ellie remains to be seen, though.

Bairclaw > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t 07/27/2015 at 10:32

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I think through out the game everyone was on board with the save the world idea. But by the end Ellie was almost a daughter to Joel. Since we saw him lose his daughter in the beginning. And losing tess as well, Ellie was forced upon him but also there for him.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Bairclaw 07/27/2015 at 10:49

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I saw that. I felt that. what I wanted was for Joel to realize that even his pain and loss was nothing in comparison to the pain and loss the ENTIRE WORLD had suffered. the notes, the houses, the sewer, the evidence of lives destroyed that was constantly encountered, the rise of those willing to do immoral things for survival... all of it. The world needed a chance at being saved.

He didn’t have to be happy about it, he just had to let it happen... and he didn’t.

I had to walk away and come back a day later to finish the end of the game because I was so mad -no maybe not mad, exasperated? confused? hurt?- at Joel.

Racescort666 > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 10:51

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You kind of need to play it on multiplayer to beat it on the third round. The weapons just don’t do enough damage on the later playthroughs.

mcseanerson > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t 07/27/2015 at 11:00

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The problem I have with that is there is no guarantee that killing Ellie would have fixed the world. First you’d have to assume that it is possible to make a vaccine. Then you’d have to assume those doctors with that equipment are competent enough to develop the vaccine. Then you’d have to take into account their ability to distribute a vaccine. Then you’d have to account for the fact that the only people you should want to survive are non-bandits and non-infected and consider what few of those people that are left are already getting by just fine without a vaccine and how much difference would one make for them anyways.

That was just to many ifs for me to allow people to kill Ellie without her’s or Joel’s consent and without letting them say goodbye and treating Joel like a criminal.

mcseanerson > jkm7680 07/27/2015 at 11:03

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I liked the ending.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 11:06

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ARHG! but SO MANY RUINED LIVES!

I can’t even, I’m getting worked up just thinking about this. Ellie WANTED TO SAVE THE WORLD!

That list of Ifs are are all better than near-certain death at the hands of either an over-powering hoard of bloaters or a band of mad, immoral canibals!

to quote Spock: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”

I have to walk away from this.

FKA-RacecaR > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 11:16

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I just can’t seem to get into it.
I would like to give it another try though. But I’m more of a pick up the controller, play for a bit, then quit.

And it seems the things you liked about it, are what ruined it for me. I didn’t really like all the dialogue. It seemed like the game was just walking/running around.

But I continue to hear great things about it, so maybe I’ll give it another shot.

mcseanerson > SVTyler 07/27/2015 at 11:21

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Pretty much everything you just said I completely agree with. The fact that this has taken a spot held by metal gear solid on the original playstation as my favorite game ever for the last 17 years should say a lot.

Speaking of the ending, it was the only logical conclusion to the game. Sure, it was absolutely shocking while you were playing it, but once you took some time to think about the whole thing Joel’s decision made perfect sense: he wasn’t going to lose another daughter and the world was already too far gone to make the vaccine a realistic option anyways (if you want to rationalize it). The lie at the very end is what really bothered me, such a perfect way to end the story*.

Completely agree. I don’t know who the vaccine would help. Those already infected are already gone. Bandits aren’t worth saving. Groups like Tommy’s don’t need a vaccine to survive.

Honestly I felt the fireflies forced Joel’s hand and left him with no other choice. If they had tried to see what they could figure out as much as possible without killing Ellie and wouldn’t kill her without her consent and let Joel and Ellie say goodbye it would be a very different ending.

I heard about Nolan North talking about The Last of Us 2. I hope it’s different characters or something because I can’t see expanding that storyline without tearing down the first one at least a little bit.

jkm7680 > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 11:21

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It was just so strange. It felt wrong, but right. The kid wanted to give herself up to save humanity, but Joel became really close to her to the point of where she took the place of his daughter before she died.

Really tight storyline, 10/10 IGN.

mcseanerson > Racescort666 07/27/2015 at 11:22

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Yeah, I’m starting to find that out getting my ass kicked all the time.

mcseanerson > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t 07/27/2015 at 11:25

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The end does not justify the means and good works can not be accomplished via evil. There’s no guarantee that Ellie and Joel would die out on their own considering how much they survived just to get there. Also just because they develop a vaccine it doesn’t mean the world will be saved.

StingrayJake > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 11:29

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I’d add that the game play is superior to Uncharted in several ways. The formula of Uncharted was climb here, enter this room where you’ll have to kill a bunch of guys, and then climb to another room where you’ll have to killa bunch of guys... with a few nice set pieces mixed in.

Last of Us was much smarter about the way you had to deal with the kill rooms. Stealth was a viable option and you weren’t forced to hide behind a wall for 30 minutes picking off bad guys.

mcseanerson > FKA-RacecaR 07/27/2015 at 11:29

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It’s all a matter of what you like. I love games that I feel elevate gaming as an art form and do the most to really show what a game with the most cinematic experience can be.

I understand there are people out there who don’t really care for a narrative in their games and that’s fine and for those people I understand that the last of us was not that good of a game.

mcseanerson > jkm7680 07/27/2015 at 11:33

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The way I see it no matter what Ellie’s choice would not be her own because she’d have the fireflies trying to force her to do it and Joel refusing to let her do it. It’s something that I think would take more maturity for her to make a proper choice and I can understand a parent lying to their child to protect them for that reason.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 11:36

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and what about the (potentially hundreds, depending on how you played) people Joel and Ellie killed in order to make it to the fireflies? What about Joel’s lie to Ellie? How are those justified? Survival is a strong instinct, and I’m not for one minute going to claim that I would just roll over and let myself be killed instead of another, but there was an opportunity to have made those deaths worth MORE than just the survival of two people, and instead, MORE DEATHS!

FKA-RacecaR > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 11:48

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Well that’s why I want to give it another try, because I keep hearing it’s a good game. I can appreciate a game for the work that went into it. When I started playing it, I was blown away. It went from cinematic scene straight into game play. I had never seen a game like. I literally sat there for about a minute waiting for something to happen. Then my wife was like “Try and move...I think you can move her...”

mcseanerson > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t 07/27/2015 at 12:04

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My reasoning came down to how the fireflies handled it. I think they should have done as much research as possible while Ellie was still alive and let Ellie make that decision herself and let her and Joel say goodbye. Even if you justify Ellie dying you can’t justify how they went about it.

bhardoin > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 12:19

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Favorite game, ever.

Racescort666 > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 12:46

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My PSN handle is the same as my Kinja handle if you want to add me. I wouldn’t mind getting back into BL2 for a bit.

mcseanerson > Racescort666 07/27/2015 at 13:02

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I only use PS3 for Uncharted, Gran Turismo, and the last of us. Everything else is on PC.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Racescort666 07/27/2015 at 16:07

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Pre-sequal is my favorite! I love the lack of gravity and slamming bad guys! Not to mention seeing Jack’s spiral into evil insanity.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 16:08

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No worries on spoilers. All my friends have beaten it already. And I’ll forget anyways.

SlickMcRick > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 17:52

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Never played the game but I literally blew away a Saturday watching a walk through with all the cut scenes. That thing should be a movie. Rumor has it that they are seriously considering a sequel. I LOVE a solid single player game. Sometimes I want to fly solo and I want a decent story with it.

mcseanerson > SlickMcRick 07/27/2015 at 17:59

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I was going to have my wife watch while I play but I’m going to actually have her play because you’re so much more involved when you are actually playing it. You should play it as well.

SVTyler > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 23:29

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I think Joel wasn’t leaving the hospital without Ellie (said so himself right after that awesome giraffe scene) regardless of what the Fireflies did. They saw Ellie as a means to an end, nothing more, while Joel saw her as his surrogate daughter and someone he had to protect at all costs, and he wasn’t about to lose another daughter (actually, if you watch the ending it’s an exact mirror of the beginning but in reverse: Joel’s daughter dying (or about to be killed) -> Joel carrying her to safety -> them having a conversation -> closeup of the girl’s face). It’s such a great bookend to the game.

With regards to a second game I don’t know where you would go with Joel’s story but there’s definitely untapped potential in Ellie’s future (being 14 vs 50ish like Joel) and I think she’s too interesting of a person to confine to one game. That being said that’s just me being selfish and wanting more time with Ellie (who I argue is one of the most developed and nuanced characters of any video game) and to see where her story takes her, definitely get the argument that her and Joel’s story arc should end with this The Last of Us. It was so perfectly done that anything else would, like you said, detract from the original.

Nauraushaun > mcseanerson 07/27/2015 at 23:40

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Agree. Loved it. Occasionally I think about scenes in the game that were important. The very beginning, the start of Winter when Joel is injured, the end of Winter when Joel finally finds Ellie after everything she’s been through, and more. I think they stuck with me because they felt so significant in the game, the story was so strong.

Awesome

mcseanerson > SVTyler 07/28/2015 at 07:04

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While I agree they could do more with Ellie it definitely makes me worry they might mess it up. On the other hand there were plenty of other characters for them to explore from the first game plus a great universe they’ve built they could introduce an all new plot to.

On the other hand maybe we fast forward twenty years and Tommy’s camp is gone and all that’s left is Ellie and Tommy’s son and she is sworn to protect him.

SVTyler > mcseanerson 07/29/2015 at 00:31

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Ooh, that’d be interesting, like a reversal of her and Joel’s situation. I think what made the game so truly great was that parent-child dynamic but if they do go that route again I hope they find some way to refresh the storyline instead of just rehashing the original. Personally I like the idea that someone on the subreddit suggested where (following the collapse the Jackson community and Joel’s death) a lone-wolf Ellie sets off in search of a new home and it’s more introspective and quiet game instead of crushingly bleak like the first.

The world itself definitely has a lot of potential and if a sequel is truly in the works I completely trust Naughty Dog to do right by the first game regardless of the protagonists, especially since the main writer (Neil Druckmann if you’re interested, fascinating dude to hear speak about the game during interviews and panels) spent fifteen years developing the storyline with multiple iterations of various media. Can’t imagine he (or anyone at ND) would mail in a sequel as a quick cash-grab with all the work and heart that went into its predecessor. Either way it’ll be interesting to see what they do in the next few years; with talent like ND has they’ll surely continue to churn out fantastic games regardless of what they are.