Brooks wrote:

Seemed like a bad product, I have avoided it.

I avoided it because it set out its narrative stall with YOU KILLED HER DAD! I tried to av... BUT YOU KILLED HER DAD!

I reloaded my save twice in an effort not to, so that hammered home its choose-your-own-adventure-no-not-that-page nature. People said ‘Ah, but you don't control films — you just go along appreciating their writing’ (or mostly not), but the agency's appeal as a mechanism for reflection and reward has been at gaming's heart since year dot.

I need at least two choices for a game to ask me to feel good or bad about something I've done. Otherwise it's clearly exploiting time-honoured agency as an implied given, feeling itself as a horrorwank Dan Houser, and then slapping that down on our plates as a projection of something we didn't order wanting applause.

I DIDN'T KILL HER DAD!

I'm also annoyed by some of the choices that were made for me, but that's still a tick in the plus column. I did not want to be complicit in the majority of the final act, which added an extra layer of torture for the player. Stunning, says I.

That's just the sort of gif an Escape imposter would post!

Escape wrote:

Brooks wrote:

Seemed like a bad product, I have avoided it.

I avoided it because it set out its narrative stall with YOU KILLED HER DAD! I tried to av... BUT YOU KILLED HER DAD!

I reloaded my save twice in an effort not to, so that hammered home its choose-your-own-adventure-no-not-that-page nature. People said ‘Ah, but you don't control films — you just go along appreciating their writing’ (or mostly not), but the agency's appeal as a mechanism for reflection and reward has been at gaming's heart since year dot.

I need at least two choices for a game to ask me to feel good or bad about something I've done. Otherwise it's clearly exploiting time-honoured agency as an implied given, feeling itself as a horrorwank Dan Houser, and then slapping that down on our plates as a projection of something we didn't order wanting applause.

I DIDN'T KILL HER DAD!

I get some of this, but didn’t Abby’s Dad get killed in the first game by Joel?

You’re just seeing it from another viewpoint in Part 2.

This game just never ceases to amaze me. It's got the most cinematic combat scenarios I've ever seen in a game. Stunning...

https://www.reddit.com/r/thelastofus/comments/ihac3x/probably_the_smoothest_combat_sequence_ill_ever/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Gaaaaah its not the same. Joel killed Abby's dad nice n quick. The way Abby kills Joel is just too much. She was having a great old time.
That ruined so much of the story for me. Yet take it away and it would almost the story.
If I were Ellie Id have gone on the same revenge quest. TLOU 1 was brutal but there was nothing like the killing of Joel there, Abby did that for pleasure.

Had Abby just been a bit more merciful with the killing then Id be tut tuting Ellie for going so crazy looking for blood. I also would have had some empathy with Abby and maybe even taken a shine to her. Then if Ellie went on killing relentlessly Id not be on her side. But Abby went all in on her slow killing of Joel and throughout the game her sadistic streak is shown. I dont care if she slowly starts to turn around.
Also the relationship with  Abby and her father wasnt really fleshed out at all, so I didnt give a shit about that.

stonechalice wrote:

This game just never ceases to amaze me. It's got the most cinematic combat scenarios I've ever seen in a game. Stunning...

https://www.reddit.com/r/thelastofus/comments/ihac3x/probably_the_smoothest_combat_sequence_ill_ever/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

I certainly didn't play it that way ha ha ha

Everyone is a nasty piece of work in the last of us universe. Is that not the point?

Moot_Geeza wrote:

What was the controversy, out of interest?  It's a full Simon Bates [18] in terms of content, which is unusual for a videogame (usually a PEGI 18 is akin to a BBFC 15 but this went the extra mile).  With the fuss the Tomb Raider trailer created a few years ago I can easily imagine a furore about certain scenes in this, but was there more to it?  Or was it just a Mass Effect 3 WE DON'T LIKE YOUR ENDING OURS IS BETTER toys/pram thing?

Yeah it was a little ‘too violent’ + mostly toys pram, from memory.  Not sure if you remember but there were some video clips that leaked before the game came out + a rough outline of the plot?  One of the videos was Joel eating it.  Part of the plot was described as playing the 2nd half as Joel’s killer where you hunt down Ellie.  IE NEARLY what happens but not really.

A lot of people cracked the shits for all sorts of reasons EG Joel shouldn’t die like that/Neil Druckman is a hack/relies on shock value/hates TLOU fans/is woke etc etc.  I think it was mostly just one of those internet things where people whip themselves into a frenzy for a minute and then move on.

stonechalice wrote:

This game just never ceases to amaze me. It's got the most cinematic combat scenarios I've ever seen in a game. Stunning...

https://www.reddit.com/r/thelastofus/comments/ihac3x/probably_the_smoothest_combat_sequence_ill_ever/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

And yeah that gameplay. I never get tired of seeing these pop up in my you tube.

Cupatay wrote:

I do think the torture was a step to far that maybe wasn't needed but that doesn't mean I don't buy Abbies redemption. Yes your right about her saying good when she was about to kill a pregnant Dinah but again this is directly after all her close friends including a heavily pregnant one has been murdered, Christ even her dog had it from Ellie and Tommy. Other than the killing of Joel I didn't think she enjoyed killing any more than Ellie or Joel did in the lead up. I didn't notice it anyway. Remember she let Tommy and Ellie live early on and again at the end with Dina and Ellie. Her relationship with Lev and Levs story were also a high point for me.

Yeah that is true she didnt take out Tommy and Ellie.
Yeah all her buddies were dead but her wanting to kill a pregnant woman is not ok to make up for another being killed. 
Nawh I just hate Abbie. Didnt like what happened to her with the Rattlesnakes but still hate her.

I quite liked Abby.

*not doing the golf joke again*

Ellie became psychotic. Which I guess shows push the right buttons and anyone can become a bastard.

Really? Most of Ellie's decisions were beyond moronic.

SOMERSET, DAY THREE

Humanity was writ large in the first game to promote contemplation of loss. Here's some folk you might like. Yeah, well they're dead now! Decently handled, with some lovely apocalypse-calm levels. Dandy.

But Drucko's desired reaction relies on you indulging the forcefed murder of Abby's dad, where you're supposed to think Oh shit — I killed 'im!. So if you waded in with the flamethrower to cries of 'Ave it, ya bastards! you can enjoy whatever this game has to offer. Nothing wrong with that. But going back to my first line, at that stage of the game I just wanted to talk these surgeons...

GAMES WRITINGS

But really it's still DOOM. Only that had a neat story about hellbeasts coming to Mars. (I guess Venus would've been a busman's.)

DOOM didn't frame its events as consequence of an illusionary choice expecting me to praise, through feigned insertion, interactivity as the wind beneath its narrative wings.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Minnesänger wrote:

Can’t believe Escape killed her dad.