Jump to content
passwords have all been force reset. please recover password to reset ×
MFGamers

The Last of Us Part I


DisturbedSwan
 Share

Recommended Posts

There's a famous saying 'never meet your heroes', which I was incredibly aware of and worried about going in to this. For how much I absolutely love the OG TLOU I have never once replayed it (I don't usually replay games as you all may know) so whilst I was excited to go back to one of my favourite games of all time I was also a bit apprehensive at what I'd find once I got back into that world. 

 

Thankfully, what I've encountered going back in and playing through it again has made me appreciate it all the more. It's kind of a strange juxtaposition though, a game that looks so current-gen and astounds you pretty much at every turn coupled with a game that is structurally made in the last throngs of the PS3 generation of systems. Back when I played it in 2013 I absolutely adored the combat, I tended to agree back then that Uncharted's gunplay was one of its downfalls but throughout TLOU I never had that issue and always loved the tense stealth gameplay during the clicker/runner sections and the somewhat Uncharted-esque segments where human foes are involved. All tied together in this gritty semi-realistic way, making you craft things out of bandages, scissors, alcohol, cloth and other rudimentary materials you find dotted about the many derelict abandoned buildings you come across.

 

So needless to say, the way it plays doesn't 100% hold up in 2022 which is a shame, TLOUPII just blows it out the water in that regard and ruins this somewhat as a result. That level of experimentation, problem solving and mobility to the combat segments in particular are just missing in this and after awhile you go into a pattern - particularly in the stealth segments - of carefully sneaking up to each enemy, strangling them all to clear out the room then moving onto the next room and sometimes doing the same thing again. I will say it does vary up the stealth segments with the human segments and the set pieces very well so you never get too much of one at the same time, but even so at the point I'm into the game now (just entered Fall) at 12 hours in the way it plays is a little more stale than I remember it ever being in the original. As for improvements, the animations are much improved along with the enemy AI who now flank like hawks (?) even on the 'moderate' difficulty I'm playing on, gunplay also feels tighter but because of my memory I can't notice too many differences from the original in terms of the combat and stealth segments.

 

I'm still absolutely besotted with it though, the story is as incredible as I remember it being, there's little nods in there to things that I don't ever remember being in there like a moment quite early into the game where Tess tells Joel to move on when Ellie enquires about Joel's past, likewise there's a poster in Pittsburgh of a Twilight-like romcom, Joel comments that it's the last film he saw before the Pandemic and Ellie says something like 'why would you go to that, it's for people my age' and Joel deflects the question and they both move on, with you, the player fully knowing why. It's still incredibly moving and I've cried twice so far with more heart-breaking moments to come. I never noticed it before but you can see Joel get more and more attached to Ellie as the game goes on, he has his guard up at the beginning and doesn't want to open up but the more time they spend together the more fond of her he gets which you can tell by some of his replies to certain things she says.

 

Should go without saying really but graphically it’s a real showpiece for the system. I think the lighting and reflections are perhaps the most impressive aspects but the level of facial detail in the characters along with the crazy detailed new textures in buildings, materials and everything else on your adventures.

 

I can't tell you how happy (maybe that's the wrong word? lol) it makes me feel to play this game again, like slipping into your favourite pair of old worn slippers first thing on a Winters day, it's just cosy. Going back to something you've got such vivid, fond memories of and it being every bit of the game you can remember and then some (well, mostly) is just such a nice feeling to have. I'm quite lucky too that my memory is so bad that I've forgotten vast swathes of the game, whole areas of Boston and Pittsburgh I'd completely forgotten, the whole opening chapter with Tess I hardly remembered at all either. 

 

So yeah, sometimes it's great to meet your heroes and hang out with them again.

 

Pics:

 

 

590AF2D1-D026-47F9-914F-8271AE19BB89.jpeg
 

086F6FCD-EE8A-431B-8BF8-552243767BFF.jpeg

 

E190D4F4-0039-4233-8C45-1D902E40974E.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 26/09/2022 at 17:05, DisturbedSwan said:

So needless to say, the way it plays doesn't 100% hold up in 2022 which is a shame, TLOUPII just blows it out the water in that regard and ruins this somewhat as a result.

I'm not sure I agree. I played the remaster after 2 and, apart from that weird thing where the enemy can't see your clearly visible companions, it felt very good as a stealther.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, bellow said:

I'm not sure I agree. I played the remaster after 2 and, apart from that weird thing where the enemy can't see your clearly visible companions, it felt very good as a stealther.

 

I agree it's very good, just not 100% as good as I remember it being is all, its aged a bit is what I mean. It's not bad in the slightest just a little more mundane than it was when i originally played it. The companion AI has been fixed now so Ellie doesn't run in front of clickers and things like that though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, DisturbedSwan said:

The companion AI has been fixed now so Ellie doesn't run in front of clickers and things like that though.

 

I read they hadn't fixed that, which made me laugh as it was the game's only real flaw.

 

I might do a chronological playthru next year. I can't see myself splurging on this remake tho. Still seems as unnecessary as when Vince Vaughn put on his dead mother's clothes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, bellow said:

 

I read they hadn't fixed that, which made me laugh as it was the game's only real flaw.

 

I might do a chronological playthru next year. I can't see myself splurging on this remake tho. Still seems as unnecessary as when Vince Vaughn put on his dead mother's clothes.

 

Well, can only speak from my experience 15 hours into the game and it hasn't happened once. Overall, the companion and enemy AI is a huge noticeable improvement from the original (I've not played the Remaster aside from Left Behind). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Finished and Platted this last weekend.

 

Nothing really more to say than my first post covered but I loved it from start to finish again, the way it plays doesn't hold up, especially the more you experience it throughout the game to the point I wasn't liking it all that much towards the end but the phenomenal story and unforgettable characters pull the game through. 

 

I will say as well that the second half of the game is weaker than the first half, which I don't think I noticed before. I never liked the whole bit in Winter with David and the blizzard all that much, in this its a little better and less annoying but I still didn't really enjoy it too much, the whole University bit I actually enjoyed a whole lot more than the original too and there was a lot more time spent on that horse than I remember in the original and a whole scene that has either been added or I completely forgot from the OG. 

 

The University changes I'm on about (or my bad memory):

Spoiler

From what I remember of the OG the second Joel falls from the balcony at the University it cuts to black and then you wake up with Ellie in the Winter not knowing if Joel has survived or not whereas in this you play as Ellie and help him back to his horse avoiding the Hunters and shooting them all the way.

 

But yeah, still an absolutely magnificent masterpiece of a game. The graphical overhaul is extensive and improves things significantly from the OG I played back in 2013. It's one of my favourite games of all time and this playthrough has done nothing to shake that, I will say that this has made me appreciate Left Behind more than I did originally though, what a fantastic piece of DLC.

 

For all the fuss made of the price tag, I had this bought for me as a present but it cost the Wife £55, I then sold it on for £49 so it cost us £6 lol.

 

Pics:
 

Spoiler

A58197FD-4CCD-469A-84A0-C055DD598126.jpeg

 

2455AC18-2A08-43F3-86DB-465385088AD1.jpeg

 

D65415FA-388C-48D9-A824-0D37A846D177.jpeg

 

2C16EC08-51AB-450F-A1E2-BA44FE82581F.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I played a bit of this last night, all I can say really is it's a mistake to play this and then play the RE4 demo cause there's such a gulf between these titles when it comes to updating a game to feel mostly the same, but massively improved in lots of different ways that prevent it from feeling completely redundant. Guess which one is which

 

I want to replay it though and see if my memory that the game is a better version of this story than the show is accurate. Off the top tho there's a few things that stand out, even tho this is a ps5 game it could not be more evident that these are PS3 characters with PS3 animation data. On the other hand, the dynamic lighting is excellent. But I think this adds up to a fairly jarring aesthetic.

 

Taking my time in any event. I picked Grounded, so uh this might be a short lived experiment cause it's unbelievably stingy with ammo. Think I've fought as many dudes as I have seen bullets so far

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...