The Last of Us Part II – June 19, 2020

[djb5f]

No multiplayer after all of this time developing?  Shocking and disappointing but the single player will be enough I suppose.  

 

Last of Us multiplayer was a lot of fun and trophies earned naturally which is always a positive unlike the debacle of Uncharted 2 and 3.

[PSNP is crap i left]

Fuck man. MP was my favorite thing about the first game even though it's something that most people disliked for some reason. Hopefully they'll add MP as free DLC later.

[EcoShifter]

No online multiplayer is utterly terrible. Naughty Dog's modern games have relatively little replay-value single player wise during and after beating the campaign. This is easily a wait for a sale. Can't justify paying full retail price for a relatively short, linear story driven third person shooter game that's never going to top playtime I have in many other (single & multiplayer) games. Even a hypothetical 10/10 narrative experience won't justify full retail price for TLOU:PII, because replay-value—the incentive that keeps one coming back after finishing the campaign—and playtime—the total time I spends with the game, that has to at least match the money I spent for it—are far more important with a game like this than a mere engaging telling of a narrow and simple story. This isn't an interactive drama, and while ND's games are typically strong in narrative, the single player content isn't.

 

If I want to play games for their strong narratives while either not caring or barely caring for the gameplay, that's why the walking simulators and the interactive drama genres literally exist for. Naughty Dog's "story-driven games" (which logically always justifies a laugh every-time that's mentioned for all of their games after Uncharted Drake's Fortune containing whole online modes, with extended and superior-to story-focused post launch support for it, except TLOU2, which is a legitimately special case) when you seriously think about it overall, stupidly get way too much praise and hype for being entirely scripted to play out the same way each playthrough, having no alternative branching paths, and being immensely inferior in length to stories told in for example RPGs, not to mention having very generic storylines that are merely just told well . (Story and story-telling are two completely different things.) 

Dying Light 2 definitely has this beat, based on the much larger and important innovations and revolutions in game design, regardless of how the events will inevitably and irrationally play out in TLOU:PII's favor (being developed by ND and being a sequel to TLOU will do more than enough as is). Players are also even guaranteed to not see the same exact story threads, characters, and cutscenes play out, in addition to having extremely strong—superior—(zombie) gameplay. Strong graphic fidelity, good linear narrative, and competent physics doesn't mean much in action-based (once again non-interactive drama) video games, which both these games are under the genres of.

 

On 9/26/2019 at 1:17 PM, NoiizeR- said:

So, a simple 10h game and then scratch it. Nice Naughty dog.

 

Why did I preorder?

 

Was going to mention this to you after I found out.

 

Reasons like this is why I didn't preorder. Naughty Dog are no exception, at least not currently. People shouldn't be blindly preordering the game simply because it looks promising and the designers behind the game alone.

Edited March 19, 2020 by EcoShifter

[hsn963]

No MP, that settles it, im pre-ordering.

And hopfully they wont add any  in future update, or at least they wont assign trophies to them.

[Rick_Sanchez]

Glad to hear there's no multiplayer. Hype is going up a little.

[Nemesis_WM]

 

guess there will be an spinoff battle royale in the future lol

[djb5f]

12 minutes ago, Nemesis_WM said:

 

guess there will be an spinoff battle royale in the future lol

 

Interesting, does not look like free or paid expansion but something entirely separate.  Color me surprised.

[Charizarzar]

18 minutes ago, Nemesis_WM said:

 

guess there will be an spinoff battle royale in the future lol

 

Still a bit disappointed it won’t be included but excited to see what they give us in the future. 

[TrophyChief]

4 hours ago, EcoShifter said:

No online multiplayer is utterly terrible. Naughty Dog games have next to no replay-value single player wise after beating the campaign (even with the in-game store content stuff), like about any similarly designed non-open-world game. This is easily a wait for a sale. Can't justify paying full retail price for a linear story driven game under 15hrs (especially considering their "hard" efforts or in other words their massive padding elements in the "relatively long" Uncharted 4 game—those overly abundant climbing, sliding, and crate sections are pitiful) that's never going to top playtime I have in games from series like Far Cry, Just Cause, Borderlands, Yakuza, Read Dead Redemption, Uncharted because of Mp (ironically), etc, and honestly indies, which are typically strong on gameplay by nature. Even a hypothetical 10/10 narrative experience won't justify full retail price for TLOU:PII, because replayvalue and playtime are far more important than a mere engaging telling of a story when you're spending $60 on a video game (let alone $70-250+ on the special editions), especially in an action/adventure third person one, not an interactive drama... which ND's games never are and ever will be. ND's games are good for being story driven, not for or and having good single player content as well.

 

 If I want to play games for their rich narratives while either not caring or barely caring for the gameplay, that's why walking simulators and the interactive drama genre literally exist for. Naughty Dog's "story driven games" ironically or stupidly get way too much praise and hype for being entirely scripted, having no branching paths, and being immensely inferior in length to stories told in for example RPGs, not to mention having very generic storylines that are merely just told well. (Story and story-telling are two completely different things.) Dying Light 2 definitely has this beat in truth, regardless of how the events will inevitably and irrationally play out in TLOU:PII's favor, as at least in the case for the former not everyone is guaranteed to see the same exact story threads, characters, and cutscenes play out, in addition to having unrivaled top tier gameplay. Strong graphic fidelity, good linear narrative, and competent physics in no way triumphs any off that when it comes down to action-based video games.

 

 

Was going to mention this to you after I found out.

 

Reasons like this is why I didn't preorder. Naughty Dog are no exception, at all. People shouldn't be blindly preordering the game simply because it looks promising and the designers behind the game alone.

 

You are entitled to your opinion but I would say the majority would beg to differ on your assessment of Naughty Dog games. Let's wait and see what the metacritic score is for this game. Judging by naughty dog's track record they are doing pretty good by the scores.

 

The Last of Us Remastered - 95

Uncharted 4 - 93

Uncharted the Nathan Drake Collection - 86

Uncharted the Lost Legacy - 84

 

And didn't a couple of Naughty Dog games win game of the year and nominated for other awards? I think it achieved commercial and critic success. Sure, their games are not perfect but according to fans and the industry at large they would disagree with your thoughts.

 

 

[ShadowReplicant]

Thank god for no MP. It felt out of place as hell in the first game and was a massive chore to sit through for the trophies. Good to see Naughty Dog go back to their single player roots, at least for now.

[ARH65512]

On 9/25/2019 at 9:50 AM, Fr_0zt said:

 

Make this your 100th! Special game for special time.  

 

How is Yakuza Kiwami? I've been wanting to jump on that but heard it's very tedious. 

It's very hard, but more in a grindy way. Getting 95 in Haruka's song was actual tough. A lot of people will tell you the car chase on Legend will watch out, so I highly suggest you change it to Hard when you get to that chapter for the first time. I surprisingly got it first time, but then again, I'm good at rail shooters like Time Crisis. 

[igs63]

I'm also glad about no MP. It wasn't bad I guess, but I only hopped on to boost and get it done before they shut it down on PS3. I plan to give the PS4 version a go and maybe that'll change my perspective, considering it should actually have some populated servers playing normal matches.

 

Can't wait for Part 2 though. Already preordered the collector's. Super keen!

[EcoShifter]

Ignoring the irrelevant prior "counter"argument...

 

8 hours ago, MrTrofyHuntr said:

 

You are entitled to your opinion but I would say the majority would beg to differ on your assessment of Naughty Dog games.

 

Let's wait and see what the metacritic score is for this game. Judging by naughty dog's track record they are doing pretty good by the scores.

 

The Last of Us Remastered - 95

Uncharted 4 - 93

Uncharted the Nathan Drake Collection - 86

Uncharted the Lost Legacy - 84

 

And didn't a couple of Naughty Dog games win game of the year and nominated for other awards? I think it achieved commercial and critic success. Sure, their games are not perfect but according to fans and the industry at large they would disagree with your thoughts.

 

 

 

This wont end well. The majority doesn't matter, and anyone telling me otherwise is a hypocrite. There's a collection of games that are underrated (no not because of things like little advertisement or being overshadowed by other popular games releasing closely; some good games do bad or underwhelming even when the stars are aligned) and overrated thanks to the flawed ways of the human race, including their double standards. Outside the gaming industry, there's also a... majority of people... who do immorally wrong things and support unhealthy habits/hobbies/practices and, so this "majority card" that people play is utterly embarrassing and needs to stop. "My assessments" only come down to one specific subject that I primarily choose to write about, given the topic of this topic. Now, Naughty Dog's games are usually well made and deserve some of the praise they get, but there's also some praise that it doesn't deserve and is far overblown. For your own perspective, keep in mind they designed an IP that is my favorite game franchise of all time, and one of their games because of its mp (which was sadly shutdown 3 weeks ago) happens to be in my top 5 favorite games with mp on a Sony console.

 

Metacritic isn't a source of true and objective reasoning, it's a collective medium of people's primarily subjective views and biased opinions on the games they've played, some of which includes reviewers who don't even finish the games they review, completely disregard other major components of the game to give the game an irrationally positive or also negative rating, some who are at the very least paid or pressured (and maybe even threatened) into giving positive ratings, and more. Citing Metacritic in instances like these is simply idiotic, no offense to you personally, but that needs to be said. Many games on the site don't deserve some of the score ranges they're in, be it positive or negative, so again there are various reasons why people need to stop citing Metacritic to determine or argue a game's quality. That's without mentioning that when it comes down to cite it for particular other games, people then want to downplay and dismiss it because it doesn't line up with their views on the game (yet it's somehow fine to do so when it supports their narrative), hence my argument that it should be ignored entirely in arguments discussing game's quality. (Metacritic is literally, simultaneously gamers' best and worse friend for having a range of scores that people agree with and disagree with.)

 

That said, i'm well aware of the scores on that website. I keep track of that stuff for information and knowledge sake.

 

They sure did, but being nominated and winning doesn't mean they actually deserved those things, it just mean they won it. Not the same rational in comparison to physical events where people physically earn their awards 100% fair and square (vitamins aside for the people who do that) through their efforts that blatantly triumph those of others. I have no problem acknowledging the company's awards, because reality cannot be ignored, but i'm not going to ignorantly and naively claim or believe that all of it is non-arguably justified. Again with my thoughts on the game; that is primarily about the lack of or little value in the single player gameplay part of the games they make (which is especially true in Uncharted's series), especially in explicit comparison to other similar style games. Other games in the same genre of both TLOU and Uncharted gameplay wise outclass them, especially when ND fail to properly design elements of gameplay, such as stealth, and offer far less "player agency" because they'd rather have things being scripted and simplistic as possible, like the watered down combat in U4. It's the narrative in the Uncharteds and TLOUs that are typically better in comparison, which is no surprise because that's where ND put their most efforts in outside technology. There is no way in hell Naughty Dog excel and do the best at narrative, story, graphics, technology, music, and gameplay, or to make it less complicated narrative, story, graphics (since people still tend to hold that to such contradicting high regard), and gameplay.

[Stardroid]

I think it's refreshing that there is no multiplayer, as I'm pretty sure in that interview they said that just the scale of the story and game alone is so vast that it just was their primary focus. I wish we could go back to just good story driven games with excellent gameplay that you are immersed in. You know, the kind of games that didn't have to suffer so some half assed multiplayer mode could be crammed in there. Not saying that TLoU multiplayer is bad, seems like quite a few people love it, but if they drop multiplayer to expand further on what was one of the most amazing stories I have ever played through in any video game, I can't say I'm upset by that. 

Edited September 27, 2019 by STARLOVE

[UlvenFenrir]

no multiplayer at launch, two blu ray discs and longest naughty dog game yet... 30-40 hours story? possible? would be sweet af if true. i cant wait to stealth through the game.

[The Alchemist]

On 26/09/2019 at 11:44 PM, kdogg_gamer_ said:

Man I just realized that in the trailer when the gunshot goes off and Ellie screams no.....that's probably Joel's death. Heartbreaker.

 

It's actually Dina, or so we're led to believe. Could very well be smoke and mirrors. Naughty Dog aren't the type to give anything away regarding plot. But if Joel does die in the game.. goddamn I don't think I'll ever get over it

[kdogg_gamer_]

16 hours ago, The Alchemist said:

 

It's actually Dina, or so we're led to believe. Could very well be smoke and mirrors. Naughty Dog aren't the type to give anything away regarding plot. But if Joel does die in the game.. goddamn I don't think I'll ever get over it

It’s smoke and mirrors they wouldn’t have two trailers with Dina in it as a big part then basically show her death. The way Ellie screams I believe it’s Joel and I’ll go even further and say Dina is working with the Fireflies and is the big bad.

[Solid-Fisch]

2 hours ago, kdogg_gamer_ said:

It’s smoke and mirrors they wouldn’t have two trailers with Dina in it as a big part then basically show her death. The way Ellie screams I believe it’s Joel and I’ll go even further and say Dina is working with the Fireflies and is the big bad.

Dina the bad girl? I like that. I just had an idea that was even more powerful. So the game is about revenge yes? Ok we all know Ellie is into girls but this doesn't mean she could not have a baby. Let's just imagine for a moment she had one. And someone killed it. That would be the PERFECT revenge theme.

[kdogg_gamer_]

5 minutes ago, Solid-Fisch said:

Dina the bad girl? I like that. I just had an idea that was even more powerful. So the game is about revenge yes? Ok we all know Ellie is into girls but this doesn't mean she could not have a baby. Let's just imagine for a moment she had one. And someone killed it. That would be the PERFECT revenge theme.

TLOU was dark, but you think they could go THAT dark?!

[Solid-Fisch]

10 hours ago, kdogg_gamer_ said:

TLOU was dark, but you think they could go THAT dark?!

I'd love it that dark.

[EcoShifter]

The extremely unfortunate lack of online multiplayer aside, even though Naughty Dog have sucked at multiplayer design and balancing which also includes their large presence of microtransactions (U3, TLOU, U4/UTTL) and pay to win element (TLOU, and U4 iirc), some of the new gameplay bits are interesting (even though many outlets are claiming the game isn't innovating to the extent sequels do and instead feels more like an expansion on TLOU)...

 

Some stuff on gameplay, which is so big of a topic i'm only bringing up few things... The way Naughty Dog are taking advantage of her youth to introduce certain gameplay mechanics is by no means something new developers haven't done.. but still moderately interesting (outside the seeming absence of fisticuffs and choke-holds, just like Left Behind :\). Some things that have been labeled as "new" by the press has been blatantly incorrect, as well. 

 

One, new thing to the series, I like are the dogs, as it adds more variety to the otherwise little groups of enemies in that of humans and infected, and it makes stealth more interesting than otherwise for their ability to pick up on your scent (and prevent one from just being able to run away from a disadvantage position by being able to catch up to you in running speed). There better be a feature to remove your scent in exchange, though (for obvious reasons). Dying Light has it for zombies, Tomb Raider apparently has it for wildlife or whatever in her games, Far Cry also has it for wild animals, etc.

 

According to ND the infected enemy runners can be dismembered (by legs anyway) and still go on fighting, like Necromorphs in Dead Space's series... If true that's cool and something I wanted in the first game (along with horde mode in MP). Outside concept, hopefully the gameplay aspect of that is actually fun rather than moreso acting like an immersive attention to detail that doesn't heighten the gameplay.

 

The other claim by them that full on stealth, avoiding confrontation throughout the entire game (very unlike the case in TLOU), is possible now is also great. However, not only do I doubt that, but what is said about gameplay by them or people for that matter is ultimately futile until the full game is out, regardless of what videos shows preceding release. The few of us are actually aware of the deception Naughty Dog created with the original TLOU (and U4 but not to as great an extent) when it failed to implement many of the things they both spoke about and showed at E3 (e.g., balance of power system, some stuff with A.I, multiple gameplay mechanics, etc) and then tried to shut people up about when they were called out for it or had nothing to say. This is part of multiple reasons why i'm very critical and cynical on/of Naughty Dog, especially gameplay wise.

 

They better actually bring back the infected vs human encounters they introduced in Left Behind, as well, which hasn't been mentioned anywhere yet. Goes without saying how fun that concept is.

 

It's also worth considering with how much they're talking about and lauding their attention to realism (once again) if it'll finally match what they were going for in the original TLOU but failed to do, which resulted in the remastered version being that more disappointing when it utterly failed to take the opportunity to make more meaningful improvements such as that (, removing the pay to win element in online faction,) and more. From the multitude of developer videos and gameplay videos, it seems the A.I., specifically, is in-between TLOU and E3-TLOU.

 

Now, one huge gameplay related thing im concerned about is the potential inclusion again (TLOU) of the immersion breaking invisible companion(s) to enemies (which would logically be a bigger complaint in this game considering its 1. a sequel, 2. on new hardware with superior technology, 3. a major complaint from the first game... 4. with Neil's statements regarding their staple of using companions in games and how they've "taken it to the next level in this game", and more).

 

Overall, some of what has been said and shown so far looks good in terms of a sequel. As I said before, multiple people who had hands on are saying it's not really innovative (which is decently bad news for me, especially when combined with confirmation of no online factions), but the game still needs to do enough unique things that other games aren't doing too often or haven't done, to stand out more in the gameplay space. Dogs, breaking windows, manual prone, and dodges, while all legit, aren't anything new or uncommon at all.

 

 

Edited October 10, 2019 by EcoShifter

[ziggypossum]

 

[TheBloodOfKatana]

TRAILER Look like cool and graphics & open world In this part it became a radical change like Red Dead Redemption 2, in the first part the story was fun but the road to Platinum is very bad because of (Online) 

[ziggypossum]

 

[Dreakon13]

If I were a disappointed fan that the game won't have multiplayer, I'd be pretty confident that a standalone version of factions/multiplayer was coming after the games launch.  Just my gut on it based on everything I've heard/read.

 

 

EDIT: Side note, the graphics aren't impressing me terribly for a developer with such pedigree for a "wow" factor in their games.  Granted TLOU's setting lends itself to appearing more drab than the likes of Uncharted, but still.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Dreakon13