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 Slarg232 wrote:
If, for no other reason, to be able to say "Difficulty doesn't sell? Then why did Dark Souls?"

But isn't Dark Souls less difficult than Demon Souls and Dark Souls II less difficult than Dark Souls? (Not a rhetorical question; I checked out after Demon Souls proved to be a nutcracker of a game.)

 SkavenLord wrote:
It's that feeling of superiority that personally draws me to playing it.

On a related note, one of the most common criticisms of Skyrim is that after accomplishing all of this incredibly important stuff and becoming extremely powerful socially/physically/magically, guards STILL taunt you about sweet rolls.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

Each "brand" of gun does something different as well. One brand has a "teleport grenade on reload" feature where, the fewer rounds you've shot, the bigger the boom on the far end of your "throw" is. Some guns do elemental damage, so extra fire, cold (IIRC?), electricity, acid and the like, and each behaves differently and will work better on some enemies over another.

This is OT.

I'm assuming you talk about tediore guns in BL2.

A) You throw the gun on reload, they don't teleport. They have an arc and you can see the gun in mid air.
B) Thrown gun does more if there are more bullets in the magazine. Less bullets=less dmg, more bullets=more dmg.
C) No cold dmg atleast in BL2 (presequel apparently does). Elemements are fire(good against non armoured enemeis), corrosion(good against armoured enemies), eletricity(good against shields), explosive(jack of all trades, master of none) and slag(slagged enemies take 3 times more dmg fron non-slag weapons).

Gunslinger gets a whole new meaning in BL2.

 illuknisaa wrote:
Gunslinger gets a whole new meaning in BL2.

LOL, well played.

I think the cell-shaded style helps BL. Never underestimate how presentation can sell/bury game play features.

 illuknisaa wrote:

B) Thrown gun does more if there are more bullets in the magazine. Less bullets=less dmg, more bullets=more dmg.

That's basically what I said I said the less you've shot, the more dmg the gun does when you reload as in, the fewer times you have pulled the trigger, the bigger the boom

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 illuknisaa wrote:

B) Thrown gun does more if there are more bullets in the magazine. Less bullets=less dmg, more bullets=more dmg.

That's basically what I said I said the less you've shot, the more dmg the gun does when you reload as in, the fewer times you have pulled the trigger, the bigger the boom

Yeah you are right. I apparently read shot as got. My bad

Alrighty time to shift gears towards more interesting things such as the horror genre. I think we have talked about quite enough of the skyrim bits and pieces and what was wrong with it.

IT is a much better game with mods.

Title of Game: Home
Publisher and Game Development Studio: Steam/Unknown/ N/A
Orginal Creator: Benjamin Rivers
Platform: PC
Genre Action-Adventure-Horror
Rating : M
Player Mode: Single Player
Time Interval - Real Time

Introduction:

The night has grown wild and dark and something has happened. You wake up in a house not your own, and there is body near you. You have no idea how you got there. What is your name…. What are you even doing here? And… Why is he dead?

This is going to be a much shorter review because I felt like ever since it is such a short game (Two hours long). That I might go over it. This is one of the few games that I have trouble coming up with bad things about it. And I have come up to it objectively. But its problems are hidden in the mist and I cannot find them.

Yes its what I would deem a great game. There are some problems but really it is nitpicking but ever since that is what I am supposed to do. I will do it anyway.

Now this is a very intriguing game as it has to be played in order to see it. Ever since the halloween is coming up I thought we should do a themed game. Also you can pick this game up on steam, but I suggest waiting for the big sale.

Things I thought that worked:

Gameplay

Now this game is an intriguing game as it is very much felt like it is very much a point and click adventure horror game. I was half right. Except it isn’t. Infact you use your spacebar instead whenever you find the item. The most interesting thing is if you go up to an item it asks you. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

It is a very different feeling, at first I ignored it but over time I started to discover something change every time I picked up an item.

This minimal amount of gameplay adds quite a bit depth. That which is lacking in most horror games of today. Depth adds something to a game, and the game is not complex.

There are some puzzles to be found in the game and as the game moves forward it has less and less puzzles to find.

This game has simply no mechanics, this is one of the few games to use mechanics as metaphor or mechanics as literal interpretations of a character. Where the mechanics say a lot about what is going on. This not only adds depth into the games story, but also interest.

This game rewards you…. Wait sorry. Punishes you for exploring sometimes. If you explore the more of the mystery starts to unravel.

For better or for worse it seems this happens.

This game feels empty and gives us a sense of loneliness that the characters is undoubtedly feeling in that moment. It is one of the few times where I had to sit back and think.

This game eventually gets to you and you start to see things. Or sometimes hear things.

Story

Okay this is probably no surprise but the story in this game is so confusing and so jumbled it actually makes sense. You write your own story, every item you pick up changes what happens in the story. The character changes as you pick up items. The more he realizes or less realizes, that maybe he is the killer.

This confusing mess actually adds to the games theme and background and just gives it this feeling of complete disparity and chaos. Which is only reinforced by what is going on.

And as the game goes on, he is only confused only further. In truth I have gotten four endings. Four completely different endings. And I have to say well. “I never expected that.”

This game surprises you from start to finish. I couldn’t ask for a game that felt like it gave me agency…. But at the same time I didn’t feel like I was in control, it was the character. The character drove the story. I always asked the question to myself while I played the game. “Am I really the one in control?”

This game can be interpreted in many ways but being light on the subject matter is probably not in their etique.

I found it beyond interesting what began to happen to my character over time. He became darker. He interacted with me. And in the end I could only blame myself for trying to find out what happened.

Let me be really clear right now.

There is no GOOD ending. All the endings are depressing and Lovecraft in origin. Where the horror is unknown and the character is slowly turning insane or is just a shadow of their former selves.

This journey you go on, just gets more depressing as time goes on. It reminded me quite a bit of the Crooked Man. (one of my all time favorite horror games).

But it gives its message as clear as day at the end. What you think that message is. Is up to you.

It is an open ended idea.

And one that I will never forget.

Sound

I will tell any game developer or designer that the most important part of any horror game. Is the sound. The sound is the most key part of any horror game. This game succeeds in this manner. The sound is empty. and echos with every movement you have.

There are sometimes drops of water and sometimes walking of footsteps behind you. Making you feel like you are not alone.

This just adds to the games pressure upon you. Giving you this much needed breath of oh god what is going on..

What I didn’t like:

Theme

This game was not scary. If anything I came around this game intrigue, but not really scared. This game has no jump scares, it didn’t have any scary moments just an overall feeling of horror. One that made me go to bed with bad thoughts. Staying on me, like a bad taste in my mouth that won’t go away. I don’t know if this is a weakness or a strength. It still preplexes me.

The theme though is quite cliched where the character has amnesia or wakes up somewhere with no memory of previous moments or how they go there. This is another problem I saw as I saw a dead body next to him and said. “Yep I know where this is going.”

Either the designer knew about this or wanted to prey on us.

This is something though that many will probably dislike about the game. It is not scary and they are promised a scary experience. Even with my expectations at the lowest I still didn't find it scary.

Only depressive thoughts came from this game.

But then I remember quite a bit that maybe that is the point of the game.

To make you feel depressed.

Though I will probably disagree quite a bit with the actions put into this game. The thought processes behind it were quite on course and made you think long and hard.

Lack of Variety

At the end of the day as I came across more and more bodies, I felt like my character just stood there and just monologues too much. The dialogue needs to be spot on for this bit.

Sometimes he repeats phrases and sometimes they don’t make a lick of sense if taken out of context.

This game needed to be more scary. But it wasn’t scary. It just felt empty.

If they added one jump scare in there, or a big realization or a scream in the distance it would of made the game feel like a horror game.

I came across this game from a recommendation. And I didn’t come into it with many expectations.

Though this a great attempt at making a horror game. And it is a horror game, but it is not a a scary horror game.

There is no enemy in the game. Which kind of makes it not really as interesting there is no risk, there is no purpose for me to be driven forward apart from the mystery. Just adding something that might threaten the player and the player character might do wonders. Such as the darkness begins to grow or you see eyes behind you and footsteps running towards you telling you to hide.

Music:

I cannot for the life of me remember the music for this game, probably because it was not memorable. A game’s music is quite important as it adds a great many depthness that games need. Hotline Miami (don’t remind I will review this game next) for example would of been a horrible game if not for its music. This game suffers like many indie games that there is not enough polish and balance between all of its elements to be considered good.

It has very strong elements in it but the music is very needed for the game to be good, you can’t just add it to the game randomly. In the game lone survivior they added it as a very creepy theme that played to tell you. “Yeah you are safe here.” or “You are SCREWED”

Music is one of the most crucial parts of a game. If you skip over the game’s music you might as well tell players to turn off the sound.

This is very disheartening to see in many games.

Score/Review:

Now it has come to the point where I talk about what whether I recommend it or do I not recommend it. I recommend it. It is a fascinating experience to say the least but many times I felt like there should of been more. There should've been more of a threat. More of a problem to face.

I score this game according to its musical talents, story telling ability, characters, enjoyment, game mechanics, and variety. I give it a 7.7

Now this game lacks a variety of things but thats are just nitpicks. It is still a great game. And I recommend it to anyone that wants to be spooked out for the rest of the day.


What things should horror games focus on?

What should horror games do?

What makes a good horror game?

Has anyone played this game or should I review outlast?

Next week I will start a discussion on Hotline Miami and the importance of music in games and their relationship that makes the game greater.

Anyone wanna discuss this or no?

I mean I am interested in opinions on horror games in general.

 Asherian Command wrote:
Anyone wanna discuss this or no?

I mean I am interested in opinions on horror games in general.

I honestly can't give much opinion on "horror games" as the only one I've really played was Dead Space (2, I think it was... but I dont remember) it's never really been my genre of game.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
Anyone wanna discuss this or no?

I mean I am interested in opinions on horror games in general.

I honestly can't give much opinion on "horror games" as the only one I've really played was Dead Space (2, I think it was... but I dont remember) it's never really been my genre of game.

I take it you didn't like it?

I mean the genre takes a good game to get into it.

 Asherian Command wrote:

I take it you didn't like it?

I mean the genre takes a good game to get into it.

Nope.. it was about as boring to me as any of the recent CoD games (which is to say, a standard FPS game)

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:

I take it you didn't like it?

I mean the genre takes a good game to get into it.

Nope.. it was about as boring to me as any of the recent CoD games (which is to say, a standard FPS game)

I am not surprised it wasn't a true horror game.

Seemed like one to me.

 Cheesecat wrote:
Seemed like one to me.

Play Outlast, Home, Silent Hill 2.

It maybe a type of a horror game but it is not a really good one.

And I consider it a very mainstream one that is poorly attempted. I never jumped at all because I reminded myself. "oh yeah I have a big gun."

Horror games are about dis-empowerment

That is their shtick.

It is also about empowerment and dis-empowerment at the same time.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
Anyone wanna discuss this or no?

I mean I am interested in opinions on horror games in general.

I honestly can't give much opinion on "horror games" as the only one I've really played was Dead Space (2, I think it was... but I dont remember) it's never really been my genre of game.

Dead space has some neat bits. It is just that none of them are about being scary.

nomotog wrote:

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
Anyone wanna discuss this or no?

I mean I am interested in opinions on horror games in general.

I honestly can't give much opinion on "horror games" as the only one I've really played was Dead Space (2, I think it was... but I dont remember) it's never really been my genre of game.

Dead space has some neat bits. It is just that none of them are about being scary.

Hmm.

Play this game

http://www.vgperson.com/games/crookedman.htm

or this game

http://www.vgperson.com/games/madfather.htm

or this game

http://www.vgperson.com/games/witchhouse.htm

or this game

http://www.vgperson.com/games/hellohello.htm

All of them are free and are considered to be horror games. Hello hello is probably the shortest of them and could probably be beaten in an hour.

And don't forget.

WEAR HEADPHONES YOU SISSIES.

Only real men play horror games with headphones on.

I personally love horror games so I rarely get a true one. One that scares me! But sometimes it could just disturb me (spec ops the line).

 Manchu wrote:

 Slarg232 wrote:
If, for no other reason, to be able to say "Difficulty doesn't sell? Then why did Dark Souls?"

But isn't Dark Souls less difficult than Demon Souls and Dark Souls II less difficult than Dark Souls? (Not a rhetorical question; I checked out after Demon Souls proved to be a nutcracker of a game.)

Not.... entirely.

Demons's Souls has Grass which you eat and gain health, with no upper limit on how many you can have; if you can buy 99 Grass, you can heal 99 times in one attempt. While this means you can run out of Grass and have no healing items, it also means you can farm them.

Dark Souls uses the Estus Flask system that you can upgrade; 5 Estus (Before upgrades), then no more until you hit a checkpoint; either walk back or keep pressing forward. While you never really run out of them, you do have only a handful of uses before you run out on your attempt.

Dark Souls 2, however, uses both systems; You start with 1 Estus and 10 Stones, Estus come back at the checkpoints, but Stones can only be used once; however, you can easily get 3 Estus upon leaving the first area and it's not difficult to farm up 99 Stones, meaning you have healing items up the ass.

The core game of DkS2 isn't any less difficult than Dark or Demons's, but due to the availability and ease of finding the healing items (There is even a class that starts with 30+ healing items at level 1), DkS 2 is a lot more accessible early on.

What really pisses a lot of people off about DkS2 is that you have to play through multiple times to get certain types of gear (Butterfly set isn't available fully until NG+2, Onion Armor isn't fully available until NG+5), weapons and armor disintegrate like mad (When it disintegrates, it disintegrates! *Swing twice* well what do you know, it disintegrated), Soul Level is meaningless for online play anymore, and the levels are far more streamlined (Though that last one was fixed in the DLC).

 Slarg232 wrote:

 Manchu wrote:

 Slarg232 wrote:
If, for no other reason, to be able to say "Difficulty doesn't sell? Then why did Dark Souls?"

But isn't Dark Souls less difficult than Demon Souls and Dark Souls II less difficult than Dark Souls? (Not a rhetorical question; I checked out after Demon Souls proved to be a nutcracker of a game.)

Not.... entirely.

Demons's Souls has Grass which you eat and gain health, with no upper limit on how many you can have; if you can buy 99 Grass, you can heal 99 times in one attempt. While this means you can run out of Grass and have no healing items, it also means you can farm them.

Dark Souls uses the Estus Flask system that you can upgrade; 5 Estus (Before upgrades), then no more until you hit a checkpoint; either walk back or keep pressing forward. While you never really run out of them, you do have only a handful of uses before you run out on your attempt.

Dark Souls 2, however, uses both systems; You start with 1 Estus and 10 Stones, Estus come back at the checkpoints, but Stones can only be used once; however, you can easily get 3 Estus upon leaving the first area and it's not difficult to farm up 99 Stones, meaning you have healing items up the ass.

The core game of DkS2 isn't any less difficult than Dark or Demons's, but due to the availability and ease of finding the healing items (There is even a class that starts with 30+ healing items at level 1), DkS 2 is a lot more accessible early on.

What really pisses a lot of people off about DkS2 is that you have to play through multiple times to get certain types of gear (Butterfly set isn't available fully until NG+2, Onion Armor isn't fully available until NG+5), weapons and armor disintegrate like mad (When it disintegrates, it disintegrates! *Swing twice* well what do you know, it disintegrated), Soul Level is meaningless for online play anymore, and the levels are far more streamlined (Though that last one was fixed in the DLC).

Dark souls 2 was not as good as it's beta there is a big difference between the two. Dark souls 2 was lacking certain things that it's beta had. It seemed like quite a jump


Also....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UEM98Rf7yk

Since this is a discussion on design, I don't think you should leave the discussion as "It was different"

 Slarg232 wrote:
Since this is a discussion on design, I don't think you should leave the discussion as "It was different"

It was different, But I can't point to it because I haven't played the dark soul series.

I don't enjoy those types of games.

 Asherian Command wrote:

nomotog wrote:

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
Anyone wanna discuss this or no?

I mean I am interested in opinions on horror games in general.

I honestly can't give much opinion on "horror games" as the only one I've really played was Dead Space (2, I think it was... but I dont remember) it's never really been my genre of game.

Dead space has some neat bits. It is just that none of them are about being scary.

Hmm.

Play this game

http://www.vgperson.com/games/crookedman.htm

or this game

http://www.vgperson.com/games/madfather.htm

or this game

http://www.vgperson.com/games/witchhouse.htm

or this game

http://www.vgperson.com/games/hellohello.htm

All of them are free and are considered to be horror games. Hello hello is probably the shortest of them and could probably be beaten in an hour.

And don't forget.

WEAR HEADPHONES YOU SISSIES.

Only real men play horror games with headphones on.

I personally love horror games so I rarely get a true one. One that scares me! But sometimes it could just disturb me (spec ops the line).

I'm not too into horror games. I simply don't like to be scared. You know not unless I have someone to grab onto, but the controller gets in the way. The last horror game I played was amnesia. Most memorial part of that game was the talking head. They are so nice and pleasant answering any questions my might have explaining the entire plot. It totally saps all the horror and mystery out of the game. It's like a huge miss step in a game that was up till then so scary I had to cheat to get through.

I'm not too into horror games. I simply don't like to be scared. You know not unless I have someone to grab onto, but the controller gets in the way. The last horror game I played was amnesia. Most memorial part of that game was the talking head. They are so nice and pleasant answering any questions my might have explaining the entire plot. It totally saps all the horror and mystery out of the game. It's like a huge miss step in a game that was up till then so scary I had to cheat to get through.

Memorable*

I can see that Amensia the dark descent is meant to be played in the dark and with head phones. I think that is the point, but if you can pass the point maybe you try a different tactic.

Ahh I was looking forward to people talking about horror games by the looks of it I will move on seeing it is not a popular subject. Instead we will move onto a fun subject.......

Starting with.....

Terraria vs Minecraft (Which one is superior?)

It should be an interesting exploration seeing as I have played both and invested time into it.

Why not both?

Insert meme jpg.

Literally though. Both are fine.

Terraria arguably has more in the way of traditional adventuring, exploration, and stuff to do and find. But, with 2D maps and limited world size, you can eventually "beat" a world. You're also much more limited in what you can construct.

Minecraft, without mods, is much more sandbox and its third dimension allows players to build more interesting things. Sure, there's monsters and an endgame dragon, but it's all kind of tacked on to the overall building gameplay.

 Vertrucio wrote:
Why not both?

Insert meme jpg.

Literally though. Both are fine.

Terraria arguably has more in the way of traditional adventuring, exploration, and stuff to do and find. But, with 2D maps and limited world size, you can eventually "beat" a world. You're also much more limited in what you can construct.

Minecraft, without mods, is much more sandbox and its third dimension allows players to build more interesting things. Sure, there's monsters and an endgame dragon, but it's all kind of tacked on to the overall building gameplay.

Yeah minecraft is more endless and the one I am more or less building fanatic in while, terraria has the whole old feel of being an adventure game. That and also there are mulitdudes of enemies and the game is constantly updated with new bosses. I think what it makes up with its small map is its large supply of loot drops and game modes to play. (like survival horde modes, and the extremely difficult bosses)

Though bosses are defeated quite easily if you are simply above them in terms of armor and weaponry.

The best thing though is probably that there is a lot to do. With mods terraria becomes even better. But minecraft has a ton of mod support especially when compared to Terraria.

I think my only beef with terraria is that you are usually just stuck waiting for new content, while in minecraft you can just build to your hearts content.

If they added a leveling system or more of a loot system, then it would be a completely different game.

Minecraft's adventure gameplay would still be terrible if they had levels and loot. The reality is that minecraft was not built to make that interesting in the same way terraria was.

I think the next advance in the "blocky craft" style games is to start implementing more interesting combat and adventure features besides enemy types that just charge at you spitting random projectiles.

I'd like to see someone start combining the overworld and simulation aspects of say, Dwarf Fortress or its successors like Gnomoria, Rimworld, etc.

Minecraft couldn't handle that due to its engine limitations, it's written in java and there's just a lot that it can't do efficiently with that programming language. But if someone makes a successor to minecraft, with the same simulations of DF and its clones, they'd have the next million seller.

 Vertrucio wrote:
Minecraft's adventure gameplay would still be terrible if they had levels and loot. The reality is that minecraft was not built to make that interesting in the same way terraria was.

I think the next advance in the "blocky craft" style games is to start implementing more interesting combat and adventure features besides enemy types that just charge at you spitting random projectiles.

I'd like to see someone start combining the overworld and simulation aspects of say, Dwarf Fortress or its successors like Gnomoria, Rimworld, etc.

Minecraft couldn't handle that due to its engine limitations, it's written in java and there's just a lot that it can't do efficiently with that programming language. But if someone makes a successor to minecraft, with the same simulations of DF and its clones, they'd have the next million seller.

I think terraria has better combat.

It would be interesting if they made it skyrim esque. And more or less better because of that.

They need better combat and more interesting AI which I agree with.

Lets hope minecraft 2 is written in a better a language.

Let us begin....

Terraria vs Minecraft?

Often I think to myself which is the better idea. Adventure and grandeur? Or building for endless hours?

For someone who deeply loves progression. I love adventure and building. So I am split in the middle.

Now this is an abnormal review. I will not score it. As I think both games are.......

God damn it. These are perfect games. I can find nothing wrong with the two. Both are my favorites and I can never choose between the two. Which one do I play more? Both... I love both of them they are equal and on par with each other both use simple mechanics and beautiful things sprout from it. One is limited, one is not.

Both have become pretty awesome things as both are updated quite regularly and improved significantly. I recommend one for its adventure (Terraria), and the other for building anything you want (Minecraft)

What are your thoughts? Anyone like the survival genre?

The Last of Us

It may come as no surprise that I decided to play the 'greatest game of all time'. Apparently it is also a zombie game. If you haven't gotten the hint yet I am talking about what people call a 'perfect' game.

Like many who enjoy games, I came upon enthusiastically, thinking and feeling that the game itself would give me a great story and great exploration of character development, and the Zombie genre itself. Yet I find myself severely disliking the game. Joel and Ellie though they appeared to be well thought out and having very good characterizing moments.

For those who don't know what this game is about it is about surviviors or 'the last of us', you are Joel and you are taking your in the midst of a zombie outbreak, you and your brother take your daughter (Sally), and try and get away. You are unforunately gotten into a car crash, and you have to run. Later on down the way after encountering the 'zombie' infection. I use the word zombie quite loosely, as it is more of a fungal spore, these creatures are called clickers, they use echo location to find their prey. One bite and you turn into them, when I mean they are sort of not zombies is that zombies in most terms means living dead, these are quite literally living creatures. They just have a host body which is no longer alive. Joel and Sally come upon a soldier. The Soldier looks at you and calls to his superior and then... Well. Shoots Joel and Joel's daughter. Joel's brother comes in and saves Joel, but sally dies in Joel's arms. With that was the end of the prologue. At first when I first saw this I sat back and had a long think. Thinking was this effective? Yes. It was quite effective, I thought it was actually one of the highlights of the entire game. It gave the game quite proper context and fueled the character. Is this a very effective beginning. Like most games the first 15 minutes are the most crucial and I have to say, a combination of game-play and cinematic really does show the game pretty well. Does the rest of the game live up to this.. No.... It doesn't. The game seems to be stuck on repeat.

The game seems to know certain things, characters drive plot, which is good. I was entertained by it and I thought to myself it was quite interesting that the characters in this game were moving the plot. There was very little plot conveniences and most of the characters were well rounded. I kept playing the game I had this irking in the back of my mind. Like I had seen this before. I then realized.

"Wait a second. I recognize this plot." I said aloud enthusiastically. I ran to my computer turned on my online DVD player and started playing Children of Men and realized it was basically the same plot, same characters, as the Last of Us. . I stepped back for a bit and started laughing my ass off. Apparently this game didn't learn from Spec Ops: The Line. Use the basic idea. but use your own characters, and do not follow its beats. You can use it differently. Basically this was the same thing as the movie I had watched. Its actually scary how similar. Except instead of a pregnant lady we have a girl. Who for the purposes of this thread I will spoil:



The game often went on trying to characterize its characters and trying to make me to feel for the characters. All I felt was just "This people are horrible people." At least in Spec Ops: The Line Captain walker knew he was doing wrong, you could see it in his face half the bloody time, in this there was a massive disconnect from gameplay and story. Gameplay played out like most third person shooters, where I would continue to play till a cinematic, there was some dialogue mind you, but none of it told me much about what the characters felt. In Spec Ops: The Line, they taught the story through character interactions in real time, where if you listened behind corners you could hear people talking to each other. In this it felt like I was facing mindless drone 56. Even though human kind was basically extinct. Though the most interesting thing in my opinion is the ending, which was quite lack luster compared to other endings. By that point I just wanted to quit the game and never look back. For many reasons I found it contrived and extremely predictable. But for the effort I applaud it, for its characterizing moments and deep character interactions.

The dialogue also being quite a strong suite in this game. The characters being rather interesting lost their graces and my liking immedately when they went against their title the "The Last of Us". Which had very little meaning to the story. The characters by the end were no better than the people they were killing and at the end I thought it was going to go all Spec Ops: The Line on me, but I waited and it never came. Though it has some strong points, it doesn't feel like it came full circle, like there was something missing in terms of story and gameplay. In terms of gameplay it felt very much like Uncharted, where it used the cover combat system, and the use of stealth, and the extremely stupid instant killa zombies running around. The AI is nothing interesting, though a bit random in terms of them randomly run out of cover, as if they forgot they had guns in the first place.

Graphical wise I think the game is quite beautiful, having very large aesthtically pleasing and sometimes using the environment to try and pressure you into feeling cornered. Or sometimes using the terrain to make you feel like you were in a city. There is also the smaller sections of the game that felt quite linear, but I highly cared for it because it made sense. I was a tunnel. Of course its going to be linear. There was also telling of small stories through the environment.

Do I think it is a great game? I Think it is, it is in no way perfect nor is it gameplay the greatest thing ever. Do I think it is among my greatest games of all time list. Hahaha. No. This game has many great moments, but then it felt dispersed by the gameplay. The gameplay hindered it. Though for me, I would rather watch Children of Men, this does not mean in anyway it is a bad game. I just didn't enjoy The Last of Us as many other people did.

There are many times when as a critic it is hard to think of reasons to like the game, I mean I enjoyed it, it had great cinematics, very realistic characters, an okay story, and it was pretty to look at. Though it does not mean this is a fantastic or perfect game, as many people have often done. The game feels unfinished with its final ending. Though personally it might be my dislike of the entire Zombie Genre, and another reason as to why I didn't enjoy the Walking Dead Games or the Last of Us. Though I probably know this will be controversal in some state, as anyone that sees a negative score on this game usually starts a gak storm.

What are your thoughts on the Last of Us? Is it really the Citizen Kane of Video Games?

Do you think that the gameplay should of told more of the story? How would of you executed the game? Do you think it should of had more originality in terms of organization? Do you also think there should be more player and character interaction, meaning a connection between the player and the characters on screen? Do you think this game might of been better for having more interesting gameplay and less focus on killing human beings?

I'll agree on the point of it not being the most original of games when it comes to the plot, but it does IMO do a good job of investing yourself into the characters particularly as Joel and Ellie's relationship develops throughout the story. In this regard, I generally found the gameplay to be quite engaging with the story itself since you can't really go guns-ablazing like in Uncharted or CoD without seriously wounding yourself or depleting your precious ammo. Did you play on Survivor or at least Hard mode? That's when I find it to be really intense, especially since you really have to plan ahead when there are multiple clickers, or worse, like in the basement level of the hotel where you have to turn on the generator. It's also in these harder modes that gathering and searching for resources becomes that much more vital for upgrading weapons so you can actually survive the later waves of guys you have to face. I also liked the change to Ellie's point of view since it legitimately gives you a different perspective as you both feel more fragile and sneaky compared to when you play the more gung-ho Joel.

In regards to the ending, personally I felt it was more realistic in the sense that it wasn't a happy ending, with the world "fixed" with the martyrdom of Ellie to save mankind. I think it would have felt a little too clichéd and it reflects the selfishness of human nature that we have in the end, this is even shown by the Fireflies' attempt to justify killing Ellie for the cure even though its hinted in the audio tapes that their attempts before had failed, especially since she was never explicitly asked for consent to the operation (nor was she aware it would be fatal). Plus even if they were to get the cure I feel that it wouldn't be distributed evenly anyways since they would try and use it for their own political gains versus the military.

The part of the gameplay that I did feel ultimately slowed down the pace of the game was the repetitive "find the garbage bin to jump onto" thing or finding ladders (moar the like the Ladders of Us amirite?) I felt they could have kinda skipped those parts since it artificially extended the game. The only other thing that I found that broke my immersion with the game was how the NPCs following you would often run around like crazy but still not grab the attention of clickers/runners, they definitely need to work out them following you more stealthily next time around.

Also I think you neglected to mention the multiplayer which is an unsung part of this game since it turns out to have been more enjoyable in some cases than in the campaign since the hearing mechanic versus players brings out a whole new form of combat than it is versus more predictable AI, especially with things like smoke bombs and getting shivved from behind. It really emphasizes group play and teamwork which ties in with the whole "Last of Us" title since you really can't try and solo a group like in CoD.

Overall I think it'd be better if there were more situations where you have to face both infected and other humans at the same time and try to lead one to the other (which they had a short segment of in the Left Behind DLC but was still very underutilized which is a shame from how fun it was) and a cut-down on the artificial lengtheners in the game as previously mentioned with better AI when it comes to pathing.

I have to say much of its praise is justified, but I do find the 10/10's a bit silly given that there is no such thing as a perfect game, I would have given it a 9/10 at most. Overall though, definitely one of the better polished games in 2013.

The last of us is the kind of game that I like more and more the longer it's been since last I played. When I first fished it, I hated, hated it. Then after awhile I thought oh boy that was a neat game I would try it again. Played it for 5 bits and hated it again. It's was navigation. The looking for ladders and "exploring" inside the levels. You don't actually have the freedom to really explore, so your kind of just knocking around till you find the right away or more often your looking specifically for the wrong way because that way leads to treasure. (It's got to be some kind of psychosis that every time I find the right direction, I want to turn around and go the other way.) I have grown very tired of exploring in this way.

I want to praise and then condemn the last of us for it's crafting system. It's neat in that game. It gives you a nice scavenger feeling without being too boggy and even has some meaningful choices in picking what to craft. But I hate the system in almost every other game that has it now. Stop it! It's not fun anymore.

One thing I have heard said about the last of us is that it is the game. As in the game most representative of games in general because it tries to execute everything. Fighting, stealth, forced fighting, forced stealth, Upgrade system, Story, wants to be a movie, wants to be a game. It tries to do everything and be everything as many games are now fond of doing. (I am thinking of calling this the ubsoft template.)

I liked the segment where you played as Ellie the best.

I find the game use of sexual orientation to be a interesting thing.

Like almost every game I play, I would have liked an open world version of it.