The Last of US Remastered PS4 review [no spoilers]

[dvdx2]

Didn't want to have to be 'that guy', but I tried the first hour having not played the PS3 version and I can't help but feel this has been overhyped beyond belief. Yep it looks pretty, but I didn't find the opening anywhere near as powerful as some clearly did, I'm already bored with all of the awkward 'walk and talk' bits, irritated by constant moving ladders / crates etc, and whilst not awful, the combat is certainly nothing new or exciting. I should probably push on through, as I'm certain it's not a bad game, but unless there's some radical changes to come I am really going to struggle to understand the reception it's had.

I mostly agree with you as I felt like that when playing the ps3 version for the first time. Revisiting it again hasn't changed much, although i'm enjoying it more this time. The story does improve, so its worth sticking with if you like zombie/desperation type yarns.

Combat gets good when you build up your arsenal. There are quite a few whiffs of half life 2 latter on (maybe that will give you incentive to play)!

[wakka]

Having played the game to completion on release, I agree with you Fuse - as it goes on and particularly once you'll finish it I'm sure you'll have at least a partial understanding of why the game is so exceptionally highly praised (that partial understanding is all I ended up with, anyway).

Personally I think it's a pretty average stealth action game married to some very well executed cutscenes. There are some exciting twists and turns in the plot too, which does enhance the experience immeasurably. The actual shooting, clicker stabbing and crafting I can take or leave quite frankly. I mean the 'crafting' - so hyped, yet amounted to basically the same thing that Resi was doing with herbs in 1996.

Still it's a good title and I don't want to come in here and crap all over everybody's good time. It's not a 10/10 stunner for me though.

['Press Start']

Didn't want to have to be 'that guy', but I tried the first hour having not played the PS3 version and I can't help but feel this has been overhyped beyond belief. Yep it looks pretty, but I didn't find the opening anywhere near as powerful as some clearly did, I'm already bored with all of the awkward 'walk and talk' bits, irritated by constant moving ladders / crates etc, and whilst not awful, the combat is certainly nothing new or exciting. I should probably push on through, as I'm certain it's not a bad game, but unless there's some radical changes to come I am really going to struggle to understand the reception it's had.

I would not rate it has highly as others either. Push through though, the narrative might sucker you in.

edit: 100% agree with Wakka's post.

[Family Fry]

I'll sum up last of us with this nugget.
Looks amazeballs, plays like balls.

Story, characters, acting, music and production are through the roof but looking on the cover and seeing "over 200 game of the year awards" makes me think 2013 must have been a **** year for games, because as a game and to play it, it's pretty average.

[H-Man]

I'll sum up last of us with this nugget.
Looks amazeballs, plays like balls.

A little harsh. I dislike most stealth games, but was glued to TLoU. It's one of those games that's more than the sum of it's parts - everything comes together so nicely. The way the story is told via conversations as you play, the sheer brutality of the combat - it's ****ing brutal! - the setting, the characters, the attention to detail. I loved upgrading weapons and filling up the backpack as you play. Other games have done this, none that I've played as well. The way you interact with the backpack on it's own is great. And the look of it in motion - it may be clunky at times but they're moments when combat pans out as well as any choreographed movie scene. Infact that's how I play the game - restarting each encounter until it comes out just so. There is no other game that has come close to allowing this - at least not that I've seen/played. And it's genuinely touching. There are just three games that I consider to be great examples of a story told well - Half Life, Planescape Torment and now The Last of Us.

The multiplayer is the bollocks too and shows just how well, with it's perks and crafting, this type of gameplay would lend itself to an open world mmo type affair. That would be the end of my social life.

but unless there's some radical changes to come I am really going to struggle to understand the reception it's had.

I felt the same when playing TLoU for the first time on the PS3. The start didn't blow me away at all. Oddly enough I found it more affecting second time round on the PS4 - probably because I knew more about Joel and what was to come. There was a clear point when the game opened up for me tho and the gameplay clicked. From then on it was like controlling a good movie. More than anything this is where TLoU succeeds. Over the years I've hated how games have tried to be more cinematic in their approach - cutscenes breaking up gameplay and unconvincingly triggered set pieces (see CoD). TLoU might be the best example of how a game can play like a movie and be all the better for it.

[Dogg Thang]

It's one of those games that's more than the sum of it's parts - everything comes together so nicely.

For me the problem in a nutshell is that I found it didn't come together for me. It was like a game of entirely separate departments, each one not communicating with each other. The cut scene department. The horror stealth department. The Nathan Drake versus pirates department (the biggest department). And lastly the Walking Dead Telltale Intro department, who did a stellar job and I wish they had been more involved in the rest of it.

I did love the atmosphere and generally liked the story except it lost me at the end because Joel neglected to ask the obvious question right at the start and looked like a total idiot as a result. When the main premise was revealed in the game, the very first thing I thought of was (SPOILER, do not read if you have not completed it)

->Open Spoiler<-

won't they have to cut her open to get anything?

I also disliked the Winter chapter as it felt completely out of place to me, which does not seem to match with the experiences of others. Actually in the PS3 thread, I felt I was pretty alone with some of this but it seems the game didn't grab some others too.

[nakamura]

The funny thing is, LoU is better in almost all departments than Uncharted yet that series gets universal praise. It's nothing more than an average cover shooter with high production values.

[dvdx2]

The funny thing is, LoU is better in almost all departments than Uncharted yet that series gets universal praise. It's nothing more than an average cover shooter with high production values.

hmm - not as good as UC2 in my book....

[fuse]

For what it's worth, I've only played Uncharted 2 and the Vita one, and I didn't rate either of those particularly highly also. Didn't even finish U2.

[wakka]

The funny thing is, LoU is better in almost all departments than Uncharted yet that series gets universal praise. It's nothing more than an average cover shooter with high production values.

Do you think the praise for Uncharted exceeds the praise for LoU? LoU was treated as the second coming when it came out last year!

And yes, Uncharted is an average cover shooter with hilarious dissonance between cutscenes and gameplay, much like the Tomb Raider reboot. You see Nathan Drake kill about 400 men in cold blood, then he jogs off into the distance with a joke for Sulley and a wink for the girl. The actions of a total psychopath!

I do enjoy ND's games but they are style over substance in my opinion. The core gameplay is never really compelling, merely solid and workable. I went back to Jak & Daxter recently and found the same thing, too.

[H-Man]

For me the problem in a nutshell is that I found it didn't come together for me. It was like a game of entirely separate departments, each one not communicating with each other. The cut scene department. The horror stealth department. The Nathan Drake versus pirates department (the biggest department). And lastly the Walking Dead Telltale Intro department, who did a stellar job and I wish they had been more involved in the rest of it.

I did love the atmosphere and generally liked the story except it lost me at the end because Joel neglected to ask the obvious question right at the start and looked like a total idiot as a result. When the main premise was revealed in the game, the very first thing I thought of was (SPOILER, do not read if you have not completed it)

->Open Spoiler<-

won't they have to cut her open to get anything?

I also disliked the Winter chapter as it felt completely out of place to me, which does not seem to match with the experiences of others. Actually in the PS3 thread, I felt I was pretty alone with some of this but it seems the game didn't grab some others too.

It's interesting how much tastes can differ. I really liked how TLoU married sections vs infected with sections vs bandits. It all made sense in my head. The snow chapter is actually my fave and was the moment unconditional love for TLoU set in.

->Open Spoiler<-

What's happened to Joel?! ****, I'm a little girl now in this god awful world! I loved Ellie's character and getting to play as her after looking after her up to that point was great

[Dogg Thang]

I just found it too much of a detour. The central narrative was very focused, to the game's credit, up until that point. It's the one chapter that could be plucked out without affecting the story in any way. After that chapter, it's like "And now back to our story". The chapter also commits a heinous gaming crime in my opinion, by

->Open Spoiler<-

making you play through a level where you're trying to get away from a guy and success is rewarded with a cut scene of you getting caught. Failure results in game over when it should lead to the same result. For me a cut scene should not undermine the aims you are presented with in the game.

But you're right, it shows how much tastes differ - a lot of people seem to have loved that chapter. It does seem to be a favourite with many people. But, in contrast with you, it's the point I really realised the game wasn't for me.

[112]

I'm still trying to convince myself to go for this remastered version.

Having purchased the PS3 version and only getting about 45% of the way into the game and losing interest... I just got bored of the combat in the game, as it mostly consisted of me retrying over and over again when I died (i died a lot in this game). I really enjoyed the story line, and wanted to see more character building, in fact it was only the parts where you got to know the characters, that I was mostly interested in, but these only appeared after an set amount of fighting in the game. It felt like a cycle of fight, story, level up, and then repeat till the end... Well that is the impression I got for 45% of the game.

In comparison to Uncharted, I really enjoyed all three versions on the PS3, I think it felt easier and more relaxed to play as the Last of Us had a very foreboding and intense atmosphere, which was to some respects exhausting to play... Uncharted was more forgiving and inviting.

If i do choose to revisit this game again and finally complete the sodding thing, it will be when I can pick up a retail copy at a lower price tag.

112

[dvdx2]

I'm still trying to convince myself to go for this remastered version.

Having purchased the PS3 version and only getting about 45% of the way into the game and losing interest... I just got bored of the combat in the game, as it mostly consisted of me retrying over and over again when I died (i died a lot in this game). I really enjoyed the story line, and wanted to see more character building, in fact it was only the parts where you got to know the characters, that I was mostly interested in, but these only appeared after an set amount of fighting in the game. It felt like a cycle of fight, story, level up, and then repeat till the end... Well that is the impression I got for 45% of the game.

In comparison to Uncharted, I really enjoyed all three versions on the PS3, I think it felt easier and more relaxed to play as the Last of Us had a very foreboding and intense atmosphere, which was to some respects exhausting to play... Uncharted was more forgiving and inviting.

If i do choose to revisit this game again and finally complete the sodding thing, it will be when I can pick up a retail copy at a lower price tag.

112

if you feel like that, you'd be in for more of the same with the ps4 version. To be fair they have tidied the technical aspects up quite nicely, but not ?35-40 nicely, if you have rinsed the game on the ps3.

[Neon Ignition]

I think that's part of the issue. Uncharteds gameplay isn't perfect but it is exaggerated as is the world the game is placed in focusing on spectacle and high action. LoU gameplay is exactly the same only with some aspects gimped. Its main deviation being the pacman stealth around the popcorn heads which is incredibly choresome as the game progresses. I find the combat options very limited and crafting consists purely of holding X over a preset so might as well not exist.

For all the details in the game I have to say I find there's little sense that the characters involved have had to fight to survive for twenty years. It's a compendium of zombie cliche's which I think is why the narrative praise surprises, the ending obvious before you even meet up with Ellie. Don't get me wrong, its a very polished product. Just gives me less joy than all 3 UC's let alone comparing to none ND releases