Grounded Mode is a poorly designed difficulty

[steel6burgh]

It's not even that hard and the parts that are are fun to keep trying at until you get it.  Last of us is probably my favorite game of all time and tbh grounded was a major part in that.  It certainly isn't of poor design.

[Montyzu]

TLOU grounded mode is kindergarden compared to uncharted brutal.

[kaltezhan]

I did the glitch to unlock grounded+, and played it following a speedrun from Anthony Caliber. Honestly, I thought it was pretty fuckin fun. I watched him do something, and I was like "no way I can pull that". Two, three failed attempts, and I did managed. My face when I first shot the bloater's ankle during Winter was pure bliss.

 

Now, Uncharted on brutal just suck. Takes away the whole fun of the game.

[ObsceneSociopath]

1 hour ago, PhyrxianLibrarin said:

I'm up to the high school escape, and to be honest, it's not terrible. The lack of HUD and indicators about your current status just means you play a lot more stealthy and cautious. I find myself sneaking throughout the entire game, using bricks and bottles for distractions, and leaving most enemies alive. The bow is really really good and can one-shot all non-armor-wearing enemies while making no noise, and most of the time you get the arrow back!

 

In the rare cases you can't stealth a section, the pattern seems to be:

 

- Run around and find a brick

- Use it to kill a runner

- Repeat until all runners are dead

- Run away from clickers until they lose track of you

- That's it!

 

It's a lot of trial and error to figure out the "correct" way to beat a section, which is why I agree the lack of checkpoints is pretty bad. I was stuck in the capitol building for a long time killing the same hallway of guards for an entire night because I couldn't figure out the second part. I think this is developers trying to be more like Dark Souls in their checkpoint usage, not realizing how DS's checkpoint system is built into the gameplay itself. Having to replay the same narrative section and listen to the same line readings over and over isn't fun for anyone.

On top of that, in some sections where you are forced to fight, if you have an AI partner like Bill, you can effectively clear the entire section without ever firing a shot, just kite the enemies around while Bill kills them for you , you just need to help him if he gets grabbed. Here's an example:

 

 

[Shenka]

28 minutes ago, kaltezhan said:

I did the glitch to unlock grounded+, and played it following a speedrun from Anthony Caliber. Honestly, I thought it was pretty fuckin fun. I watched him do something, and I was like "no way I can pull that". Two, three failed attempts, and I did managed. My face when I first shot the bloater's ankle during Winter was pure bliss.

 

Now, Uncharted on brutal just suck. Takes away the whole fun of the game.

 

Whats the ankle thing with the bloater?

[PhyrxianLibrarin]

3 hours ago, kaltezhan said:

I did the glitch to unlock grounded+, and played it following a speedrun from Anthony Caliber. Honestly, I thought it was pretty fuckin fun. I watched him do something, and I was like "no way I can pull that". Two, three failed attempts, and I did managed. My face when I first shot the bloater's ankle during Winter was pure bliss.

 

Now, Uncharted on brutal just suck. Takes away the whole fun of the game.

 

Just looked this up and holy crap! I knew there was a mechanic where the game will drop ammo if you literally have no ammo. I didn't realize you could pivot that into what looks like infinite shotgun ammo.

 

2 hours ago, Shenka said:

 

Whats the ankle thing with the bloater?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-TClTsrPOA

 

Go to about 2:22:00 to see part of the fight with Ellie & David vs. the infected. It looks like he shoots the bloater once in the foot before it drops into the room, and that kills it for good?

 

Edit 2: This guy actually has an incredible section-by-section speedrun guide on every single way to exploit glitches and enemy AI, I found my new favorite playlist. I assume it's on version 1.00, but still.

Edited July 30, 2020 by PhyrxianLibrarin

[da-Noob123]

I really enjoyed the challenge of grounded mode. My first playthrough was on hard so I really got a good grip on all of game mechanics and all enemy locations. Then I  did it on Survivor and fine tuned all my paths. Grounded was released shortly thereafter and I had no issues with it really as I knew exactly what I needed to do. Those who did easy and then took advantage of the NG+ exploit would definitely have a rough time of it. 

 

Now God of War 2018, I started on hard and had to go down to normal because it was too much for me and I was not enjoying the experience. Thank God it had no difficulty trophies. Give me god of war would have broke me I think.

 

Edit: I also had a lot more time on my hands when TLOU first came to out to learn it compared to GoW 2018.  Adulting sucks.

Edited July 30, 2020 by da-Noob123