The Last of Us

[denkigrve]

Ugh. So damn good!

Discuss! Please use spoiler tags where necessary.

[Vmax911]

I'm still here! Wait, what are you talking about?

[Nevermore]

I just finished playing it for the night, pretty tense game. I never have been a fan of survival horror, but I like Naughty Dog so I'm trying it out and love it. Great game. Intense too.

[wheelhaus]

Just picked it up and got through about an hour.. Pretty intense, and it just oozes with quality from the overall visuals and character movement and interaction. I am impress...

[Mango22]

I've been playing "the last of us" for two days and I'm not sure it's really "scary"

On the other hand, Condemned is, the freak me out, scariest game I have ever played. I remember telling my brother about Condemned and he laughed at me until I sent him down to the family room with just the flat screen on and the surround sound on and he was a mess within minutes of playing Condemned. He now swears its the most intense game he has ever played. I knew he was done when my wife slammed the dryer door closed in the laundry room and he literally jumped out of his seat and dropped the controller and his face became contorted and he yelled, " what the fu€k was that!". LMAO...

I'm referring to Condemned 1, Criminal Origins.

[wheelhaus]

Condemned is definitely one of the scarier games I've played, lots of jump moments and generally creepy... Personally, Silent Hill 2 left the biggest mark on me. I remember getting wave after wave of chills playing that game...

I don't believe The Last of Us is meant to be super scary as a primary mechanic, its meant to tell a story and build tension by using stealth and survival tactics, with some frightening moments, all combined to make the world feel palpable and real. As games in general progress, it's impossible to constantly "out-do" what's been done, but we see sparks of brilliant new ideas here and there while overall quality improves. TLoU doesn't feel like it really does anything particularly new or groundbreaking, (third person, zombie-ish outbreak, stealth, survival, crafting systems, AI teammate to whom you develop an emotional attachment, cinematic in-engine cutscenes, solid voice acting and facial/body animations, witty dialogue, shocking story twists, etc etc) ...but it combines those key elements and executes them really, really, really well as a cohesive world that makes you want to turn the page...

To me it's the little details that make a game like this exceptional; the character animations must be believable, the voice acting must be superb, the facial animations must depict intricate emotions and expressions of thought, how the character's "weight" moves throughout the world (for instance, I have a pet peeve when I see a character walking up stairs with the same animation used to walk on flat ground), etc. No visual glitches, clipping, or other immersion-breaking errors. I can even deal with a really cheesy story so long as the world and characters are believable.

For instance, the way the daughter Sarah in the opening scene moves, she feels heavy and tired and drags her weight as she turns... Or the way Joel moves down stairs, you can feel the weight of his shoulders coming down on each step. As he turns walking around normally you feel that he's weathered and weighted...

Anyways, these are some of the details that (so far) set TLoU apart from nearly every other game I've played. I can see why it's receiving such high marks.

[fatoni]

im really early in the game but i really like it. i think that they did a great job developing the overall tone and the authenticity of the characters. i do think its an over rated game (i guess playing the other 80% of the game may change that) but a very remarkable one none the less.

[Bones36]

Originally Posted by fatoni

im really early in the game but i really like it. i think that they did a great job developing the overall tone and the authenticity of the characters. i do think its an over rated game (i guess playing the other 80% of the game may change that) but a very remarkable one none the less.

It gets better and better. I'm 60% through the game and shit just got real

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by Bones36

It gets better and better. I'm 60% through the game and shit just got real

good to know. i was pretty sure the story is going to be crazy. its just the game mechanics dont feel very good. its not at all why i bought this game. i hate zombie games or dark games in general but it looked like a developer actually thought about character development and having a story. its odd that its so rare to find that in a game today. i cant wait.

[cfusionpm]

Originally Posted by fatoni

good to know. i was pretty sure the story is going to be crazy. its just the game mechanics dont feel very good. its not at all why i bought this game. i hate zombie games or dark games in general but it looked like a developer actually thought about character development and having a story. its odd that its so rare to find that in a game today. i cant wait.

Have you played the Mass Effect series?

[BlueSTaR]

Originally Posted by cfusionpm

Have you played the Mass Effect series?

Mass Effect 1 is my favorite game of all time.

Mass Effect 2 dumped the RPG roots and became a segue to Mass Effect 3, and left a lot to be desired. However, had one of my favorite gaming moments maybe of all time (Archangel).

Mass Effect 3 kinda let me down. I wasn't very intimidated by the reapers, more annoyed. Fucking Banshees on Insanity on the missile level... Also 2 and 3 felt much like they were on rails. But 1 set the bar so high, it felt kinda like Matrix to me. Waiting in line for 2 I was worried I would be let down

[Sketch575]

scariest games i have played are any of the three F.E.A.R games. i played them in the middle of the day with the lights on. good stuff though'

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by cfusionpm

Have you played the Mass Effect series?

no i have not. i really wanted to and still might. it had a couple strikes for me with what seemed like a pretty pedantic game style and maybe a little dark seeming for my taste and then my friend got drunk and became a total bean spiller. i will probably get it some time down the line but once i forget how mad that made me i will probably buy the bundle on the cheap.

[cfusionpm]

Originally Posted by BlueSTaR

Mass Effect 1 is my favorite game of all time.

Mass Effect 2 dumped the RPG roots and became a segue to Mass Effect 3, and left a lot to be desired. However, had one of my favorite gaming moments maybe of all time (Archangel).

Mass Effect 3 kinda let me down. I wasn't very intimidated by the reapers, more annoyed. Fucking Banshees on Insanity on the missile level... Also 2 and 3 felt much like they were on rails. But 1 set the bar so high, it felt kinda like Matrix to me. Waiting in line for 2 I was worried I would be let down

Agreed. 1 is by far the best, but it's also the most clunky to actually play. It didn't stop me from doing four playthroughs tho. 2 felt like a series of fetch quests for spin off characters that I could never really care about. Luckily a few returning faces helped a lot. 3 had amazingddepth into the cultures, home worlds, and history behind pretty much every race. Much of the info is available by reading various codecs in 1 and 2 but I thought it was presented well. Reapers were definitely not as scary compared to previous games (vermire monolog still gives me chills) but they take a somewhat realistic approach to how they destroy all organic life. Probably my favorite series of all time. Also have all four comics and first three novels (4th is garbage).

Back on Last of Us, it looks amazing. My roomie works for Sony and will be getting a copy for ua free or cheap, she's just at the mercy of when devs ship employee copies. Looking forward to it. Looks very very good!