I was so ready to dislike this game, just like I disliked the first game and almost everything else Naughty Dog had put out after CTR. Turns out, the game's pretty good.
It's a quantum leap from the first game. Granted, it's been 7 years, so improvements to the formula should be expected. But the word improvement does no properly describe how the gameplay went from boring slog to actual fucking video game.
You schmoove in this game, hard. Movement options have been expanded and feel good to use, the shooting mechanics are slick and perfectly complemented by the new arsenal. Crafting is actually interesting and engaging, holy shit. I personally hate crafting in almost any game, the whole concept just never clicked for me. In this game however, I like it. I'll need to play a little more of it to get exactly what the team did to make it work for me. Maybe it's the placement of the materials, maybe it's the level design which makes obtaining the resources for crafting fun and engaging, maybe it's the useful and fun to use items you can craft, or maybe it's all of the above. Point is, it works way better this time around. The stealth mechanics got a nice overhaul as well and work as expected, most of the time at least. I wanna give the permadeath game mode on the highest difficulty a spin to see how the mechanics operate when pushed to their breaking point. I can totally see the stealth suddenly taking a dive or falling damage getting calculated wrong and Ellie just drops dead. But during my time with the game so far, all of my deaths were firmly in the "my fault" camp. I'm the kinda guy who has the most fun when the gameplay is in full swing, and I'm able to utilize all mechanics to my heart's content. When the game pats me on the head and deems me worthy enough to experience it's mechanically engaging gameplay, I'm having a fantastic time. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
Naughty Dog subscribes to the ebb and flow style of "pacing" (Pacing in video games is, in my opinion, almost entirely subjective). Most chapters will provide a complete package of setup, build up, climax and aftermath. This way players who play around 2 hours a day will get a continuation of the narrative, character moments, tension, engaging gameplay with full reign over the mechanics and a little bow on top tying the chapter neatly together. Now on paper this design philosophy makes perfect sense and the cold harsh truth is, most people who bought this game played the game this way. This style of pacing can be a bit of a drag when you play 5 chapters in a row, like ya boy, aka me. I still think designing like this can have merit, but I can't help myself to wish for a speedrun mode. A mode that takes out most of the walking/talking sections and skips all cutscenes.
Okay, so no more fucking around, no more dancing around the subject. Let's talk about everyone's favorite topic, the narrative of this game. Get your comments ready, Gamerbros. Narrative, writing and pacing are way better in TLOU2 than in TLOU1 and I'm sorry if me having this opinion is somehow offensive to you. On that note, if you want well-thought-out stories with deep and thoughtful writing, I'd suggest picking up reading because we're playing video games here, son. The first game's narrative had 2 good aspects for me personally, the characters and the consequences their relationship and decisions have on the world they inhabit. The setting in both games is hot garbage and not really thought out as far as I'm concerned. I would also dare to say it's a little played out and doesn't do enough to distinguish itself. But that's fine, no biggie, there is nothing new under the sun after all. What really carried the narrative of TLOU1 are the characters, specifically Joel and Ellie. Their relationship is of course the driving force of that game's narrative and it all works quite fine. Frankly, despite the bleak setting TLOU1 feels like a comfy feel good road trip in comparison to its sequel.
I gotta take a moment here as someone who has consumed way and I mean waaaaaaay too much fiction in his life to tell every person that decides to read this:
Ellie being the player character and Joel dying in the sequel was completely obvious to me about 3 hours into the first game. If this is somehow the reason you dislike the narrative, I think you should reevaluate why you play video games or consume media in general.
So the narrative is alright. I really like that the writing staff took the themes they were going for so serious and crammed every nook and cranny of the game full of imagery, metaphors, dialogue and relations which correlate to its main theme. The cycle of violence. One act of violence begets another, but so does one act of kindness. It's not groundbreaking, it's been done a million times, but I feel this theme finds a nice comfy home in this medium. Violence in media is nothing new, but video games have a special relationship with the concept of violence since the player is not simply observing the happenings on screen, they actively take part in them. Especially, putting the player on both opposing sides of the narrative was a great way to get their point across. I really liked getting to know the characters which had been my enemies for the first half of the game. The characters in general worked pretty well for me. Ellie for example is just a terrible person in my opinion, but she is a well written terrible person because, it's still possible to relate to her. Shades of grey and all that.
The Setting is still wonky as far as I'm concerned, and the script could've done with some brushing up here and there. Some plot holes here, some weird stupid decision in order to get us to the next location and or plot point there. But that's video game writing for you. I'm not saying it's unnecessary to strive for better writing, I'm saying writing for a video game must be a nightmare. "Oh my god why did the gameplay director change this, now I gotta compensate for that in the script AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH". The gameplay and narrative being woven together the way they are is nothing short of a job well done.
Visuals, music and sound design are a slam dunk. The vocal performers are fucking killing it. Everybody pretty much agrees here. No need to drag this out any longer.
It's pretty good.
It's a quantum leap from the first game. Granted, it's been 7 years, so improvements to the formula should be expected. But the word improvement does no properly describe how the gameplay went from boring slog to actual fucking video game.
You schmoove in this game, hard. Movement options have been expanded and feel good to use, the shooting mechanics are slick and perfectly complemented by the new arsenal. Crafting is actually interesting and engaging, holy shit. I personally hate crafting in almost any game, the whole concept just never clicked for me. In this game however, I like it. I'll need to play a little more of it to get exactly what the team did to make it work for me. Maybe it's the placement of the materials, maybe it's the level design which makes obtaining the resources for crafting fun and engaging, maybe it's the useful and fun to use items you can craft, or maybe it's all of the above. Point is, it works way better this time around. The stealth mechanics got a nice overhaul as well and work as expected, most of the time at least. I wanna give the permadeath game mode on the highest difficulty a spin to see how the mechanics operate when pushed to their breaking point. I can totally see the stealth suddenly taking a dive or falling damage getting calculated wrong and Ellie just drops dead. But during my time with the game so far, all of my deaths were firmly in the "my fault" camp. I'm the kinda guy who has the most fun when the gameplay is in full swing, and I'm able to utilize all mechanics to my heart's content. When the game pats me on the head and deems me worthy enough to experience it's mechanically engaging gameplay, I'm having a fantastic time. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
Naughty Dog subscribes to the ebb and flow style of "pacing" (Pacing in video games is, in my opinion, almost entirely subjective). Most chapters will provide a complete package of setup, build up, climax and aftermath. This way players who play around 2 hours a day will get a continuation of the narrative, character moments, tension, engaging gameplay with full reign over the mechanics and a little bow on top tying the chapter neatly together. Now on paper this design philosophy makes perfect sense and the cold harsh truth is, most people who bought this game played the game this way. This style of pacing can be a bit of a drag when you play 5 chapters in a row, like ya boy, aka me. I still think designing like this can have merit, but I can't help myself to wish for a speedrun mode. A mode that takes out most of the walking/talking sections and skips all cutscenes.
Okay, so no more fucking around, no more dancing around the subject. Let's talk about everyone's favorite topic, the narrative of this game. Get your comments ready, Gamerbros. Narrative, writing and pacing are way better in TLOU2 than in TLOU1 and I'm sorry if me having this opinion is somehow offensive to you. On that note, if you want well-thought-out stories with deep and thoughtful writing, I'd suggest picking up reading because we're playing video games here, son. The first game's narrative had 2 good aspects for me personally, the characters and the consequences their relationship and decisions have on the world they inhabit. The setting in both games is hot garbage and not really thought out as far as I'm concerned. I would also dare to say it's a little played out and doesn't do enough to distinguish itself. But that's fine, no biggie, there is nothing new under the sun after all. What really carried the narrative of TLOU1 are the characters, specifically Joel and Ellie. Their relationship is of course the driving force of that game's narrative and it all works quite fine. Frankly, despite the bleak setting TLOU1 feels like a comfy feel good road trip in comparison to its sequel.
I gotta take a moment here as someone who has consumed way and I mean waaaaaaay too much fiction in his life to tell every person that decides to read this:
Ellie being the player character and Joel dying in the sequel was completely obvious to me about 3 hours into the first game. If this is somehow the reason you dislike the narrative, I think you should reevaluate why you play video games or consume media in general.
So the narrative is alright. I really like that the writing staff took the themes they were going for so serious and crammed every nook and cranny of the game full of imagery, metaphors, dialogue and relations which correlate to its main theme. The cycle of violence. One act of violence begets another, but so does one act of kindness. It's not groundbreaking, it's been done a million times, but I feel this theme finds a nice comfy home in this medium. Violence in media is nothing new, but video games have a special relationship with the concept of violence since the player is not simply observing the happenings on screen, they actively take part in them. Especially, putting the player on both opposing sides of the narrative was a great way to get their point across. I really liked getting to know the characters which had been my enemies for the first half of the game. The characters in general worked pretty well for me. Ellie for example is just a terrible person in my opinion, but she is a well written terrible person because, it's still possible to relate to her. Shades of grey and all that.
The Setting is still wonky as far as I'm concerned, and the script could've done with some brushing up here and there. Some plot holes here, some weird stupid decision in order to get us to the next location and or plot point there. But that's video game writing for you. I'm not saying it's unnecessary to strive for better writing, I'm saying writing for a video game must be a nightmare. "Oh my god why did the gameplay director change this, now I gotta compensate for that in the script AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH". The gameplay and narrative being woven together the way they are is nothing short of a job well done.
Visuals, music and sound design are a slam dunk. The vocal performers are fucking killing it. Everybody pretty much agrees here. No need to drag this out any longer.
It's pretty good.