The Last of Us Part 2 - Now updated for PS5 for at 60fps

[Lovelyman]

I'm struggling to get into this. 

 

Finding the combat a bit, I dunno, like when it all kicks off you don't have time to react and you inevitably just die and start again. 

 

Playing on normal - should I notch the difficulty down? I'm not a veteran of these games, just playing as I fancied something like it. 

[Popo]

@Horribleman it’s really hard to arrive in a new area without any understanding of the terrain (especially when it’s dark), where you can run, where you can hide, where it loops back on itself, etc. and successfully start capping fools without getting into trouble. I find it really helps to sneak about with the sole intention of just observing for a few minutes the enemy patrol patterns before unleashing righteous fury on them. It has the double effect of informing you where and when you can take one down without others seeing and, in a gamey sort of way, where you can and can’t walk/climb/swim. 
 

Some of the areas of the game are huge and packed with visual detail, it can be hard to work out what’s going on without that info. 

[Spacehost]

21 minutes ago, Horribleman said:

I'm struggling to get into this. 

 

Finding the combat a bit, I dunno, like when it all kicks off you don't have time to react and you inevitably just die and start again. 

 

Playing on normal - should I notch the difficulty down? I'm not a veteran of these games, just playing as I fancied something like it. 

Tweak the sliders a bit and see if it helps. FWIW, I'm playing it on Hard and it seems to be considerably easier than the first game, even if I do still die now and again.

[Down by Law]

I found the first game way harder on normal. I died loads of times but in this I probably only died twice in combat on normal, the rest of my deaths usually coming from faceplanting the ground at high speed after assuming I could make a jump I could not

 

One of the reasons I'm looking forward to my second playthrough in a few weeks is cranking up the difficulty and being really tested. The first game came into it's own on Survivor

[Gambit]

I'm part way through Seattle Day 3 (maybe near the end)

 

Oof. Why go to find Abby when she comes to find you! Now onto her flashback portion and I'm intrigued as to where this goes. Still not convinced it's all to do with Joel fucking up the cure, the look Abby gives Ellie when she mentions her being immune seems more surprised than anything. But maybe I'm overthinking things. Hoping to get it done by the weekend so I can head back into the fluffy jollys of Persona and Yakuza.

[MansizeRooster]

I'm quickly belting through the  new game+ campaign to get the two last trophies I need for the plat, I'm skipping all cut-scenes and making no attempt to collect or explore. As soon as those trophies pop I'll finish.

 

I'm saving my next proper play-through for when I get a new 4k telly with HDR.

[pledge]

I'm also doing the same, but pretty disappointed that the trophy list is almost exclusively just find everything. Was hoping for a few that were a bit more creative.

[Spacehost]

1 minute ago, pledge said:

I'm also doing the same, but pretty disappointed that the trophy list is almost exclusively just find everything. Was hoping for a few that were a bit more creative.

If I'd spent ten years labouring away putting washing machines in garages and old porno mags under bushes I'd force people to check every dusty corner of the game too.

[JoeK]

46 minutes ago, Gambit said:

I'm part way through Seattle Day 3 (maybe near the end)

 

 

  Hide contents

Oof. Why go to find Abby when she comes to find you! Now onto her flashback portion and I'm intrigued as to where this goes. Still not convinced it's all to do with Joel fucking up the cure, the look Abby gives Ellie when she mentions her being immune seems more surprised than anything. But maybe I'm overthinking things. Hoping to get it done by the weekend so I can head back into the fluffy jollys of Persona and Yakuza.

 

It’s great that we have to fidelity to even think about these things!

[Jamie John]

@Horribleman - if you look in the accessibility menus there's an option to enable slow motion every time you aim. To be honest, it makes the game too easy, but you might want to enable it for a bit until you get used to the combat. Are you being stealthy? The general idea, I think, is to be as stealthy as possible to begin with but then go full on Rambo as soon as the shit starts to hit the fan.

[BitterToad]

1 hour ago, Horribleman said:

I'm struggling to get into this. 

 

Finding the combat a bit, I dunno, like when it all kicks off you don't have time to react and you inevitably just die and start again. 

 

Playing on normal - should I notch the difficulty down? I'm not a veteran of these games, just playing as I fancied something like it. 

I kind of felt the same at first. I'd stick at normal and remember you're playing in big spaces and there's always room to run away. Part of the fun of the combat for me is when everything goes to shit. Remember enemies react to noise, so if you make some noise then move pretty quickly, the baddies wont be tracking you, they'll be tracking the last thing they heard. So use bottles/bricks/pipe bombs, hell even gunshots sometimes to make enemies move where you want them. Also don't hoard supplies too much, it might feel like you're always low on ammo but that's to encourage you to use different weapons/try different things, not to hoard and use nothing!

 

There's great fun to be had but it can take a little while to uhh... click.

[Vemsie]

A good tip is to craft a lot. Make sure you're always equiped with things like health kits and smoke bombs.

 

Always have bricks or bottles at hand, they're OP.

 

Make sure you reload weapons before a fight, so you have to do it less during a fight.

 

Upgrade magazine sizes of weapons when you get the chance. The less you need to reload, the better. Upgrade reload speed as well.

 

Run if you're discovered and switch to heavy weapons like the shotgun.

 

Places mines near door openings. 

 

Be aware that you often don't need to take out all enemies. You can bypass certain sections by crawling through grass and the like, or you can run for certain doors that Ellie will close off from the other side, so that you're safe.

 

Smoke bombs are great, they can stun groups. You can then pick them off, rush in for melee or throw a molotov at them.

 

Use the dodge mechanic.

 

If all else fails, craft

Spoiler

exploding arrows when you have the bow and use them. Makes most things go splat.

 

[Capwn]

Oh yeah, something I don't see mentioned much are the amazing loading times. I'm on a launch day PS4 and still, when I die it's like a 5 second wait and back in again. There are other AAA games where you can be waiting around 30 seconds.

[joemul]

So how do you do that backward slide?

[SqueakyG]

3 hours ago, Horribleman said:

I'm struggling to get into this. 

 

Finding the combat a bit, I dunno, like when it all kicks off you don't have time to react and you inevitably just die and start again. 

 

Playing on normal - should I notch the difficulty down? I'm not a veteran of these games, just playing as I fancied something like it. 

 

I must admit that I found combat to be frustrating, but I mostly blame my play style and competence. The trouble I found was: when stealth fails and all hell breaks loose, I just panic and hide behind a couch in a basement (or behind a counter in a shop, etc). So I get pinned there and have a terrible time trying to survive behind the couch, using all my ammo and health packs as enemies gang up on me. Then when I finally kill them all I emerge from behind my couch... and notice a giant open area that was clearly designed as my big playground of options. I also suddenly remember that I have some awesome weapons and bombs I forgot to use.

 

So I blame my panic and how I forget all my options and tactics and let myself get pinned. But I can't help blaming the game too, because I just walked into the area, so how the hell do I know where to go? Or what my environmental tactics options are?

 

I put the game on Easy, but felt bad about it.

[Vemsie]

The game wants you to improvise when things go south basically. Making a run for it is generally viable, as the design is so open that it's hard to completely work yourself into a corner. Breaking line of sight buys you time, meaning you can switch weapons, place traps, heal yourself, etc.

[Jamie John]

I'm a couple of hours into my NG+ run, and while I'm enjoying all the foreshadowing and nods to things that I know happen later, I think I'm going to leave it there; as much as I love the game, and I do, I feel like I'm going through the motions somewhat I don't want to get fatigued by it. Plus, I should probably play one of the other *checks list* 65 games I currently own but have yet to play 

 

I'll stick my copy in Trading, I think, and rebuy the inevitable PS5 remaster in a couple of years. Hopefully I'll have forgotten some of it by then.

 

Fantastic game! Best I've played since Breath of the Wild, I'd say.

[Stevie]

12 hours ago, Vemsie said:

 

 

Genuine question: have they turned this franchise into Max Payne? I was planning on getting a PS4 on sale after PS5 has launched so I could play it, but that gif makes me want to avoid it. The slow pacing and the story and atmosphere was what made me fall in love with the first game, but it now seems they added fast paced action and ultra violence.

[Vemsie]

4 minutes ago, Stevie said:

 

Genuine question: have they turned this franchise into Max Payne? I was planning on getting a PS4 on sale after PS5 has launched so I could play it, but that gif makes me want to avoid it. The slow pacing and the story and atmosphere was what made me fall in love with the first game, but it now seems they added fast paced action and ultra violence.

Not really. Sunhi just makes really cinematic gifs for everything. He keeps replaying sections to create the coolest looking clips possible, using all kinds of options at his disposal. I mean, you can do all those things in the game for sure and it is a violent game, but it is not how most people will play it.

[Jamie John]

5 minutes ago, Stevie said:

 

Genuine question: have they turned this franchise into Max Payne? I was planning on getting a PS4 on sale after PS5 has launched so I could play it, but that gif makes me want to avoid it. The slow pacing and the story and atmosphere was what made me fall in love with the first game, but it now seems they added fast paced action and ultra violence.

 

These gifs aren't representative of how you really play the game at all. The guy who's made them has obviously been through the game once already and made those gifs on a replay. He's tinkered with the difficulty settings and the accessibility options to enable the slow-mo and the snap-to headshots, etc. Really, having replayed the original game a few weeks ago, the gamplay in this is very similar to what it's like in 1, only better, and the slow-paced story and atmosphere is definitely in there. It is probably the most violent game I've ever played, but realistically so as opposed to gratuitously - that's what I imagine it would like if you lobbed a molotov cocktail at someone, or blew them up with a land mine. I wouldn't describe it as 'ultra-violent' as that suggests it revels in the violence it portrays.

 

Edit: what @Vemsie said 

[Spacehost]

10 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

I wouldn't describe it as 'ultra-violent' as that suggests it revels in the violence it portrays.

I dunno, there’s still a visceral thrill to watching some dog that has been stalling your progress for ten minutes turn into a cloud of mince. I’d say the violence is oppressive and realistic, but so far, it’s nothing that would make an average 80s movie flinch.

[JoeK]

To be honest, the bit that made me wince the most was shown in the first main trailer for the game. 
 

Hammer time.

 

 

[Down by Law]

1 hour ago, joemul said:

So how do you do that backward slide?

 

hold circle to go prone as you're moving backwards. You can also run forward, hold prone, then spin the camera 180 to jump and land on your back.

[dvdx2]

I am pretty much at the end and to be honest have probably had enough, as its starting to feel abit bloated now. Wasn’t a fan of the walking simulator bits and some hokum story elements, but the urban exploration, set pieces, gameplay mechanics and superb graphics/more than make up for it. Still would give it a 9/10.

Be interesting to see what they do with the ps5 version; I think there is huge scope for huge technical improvements- here’s hoping for a 4k (or as close to possible) presentation, 60 FPS, with more detail in draw distances/more FOV options. Infact I hope the extra grunt tidies up a few of the effects, as the some flowing water and foliage movement looked abit ropey at times, along with some lower res assets. I am beginning to think they insisted on the grain filter into try and disguise certain limitations.

[SqueakyG]

I'm trying to decide whether I should replay the first game, for the first time in 5 years. Finishing this incredibly impressive sequel makes me want to replay the first, but I'm not sure if the gameplay would feel like an irritating step backwards.

[Dave White]

Spent near enough a week thinking about the game after completion and think my main gripe is

Spoiler

 

some of the incredible moments between Dina and Ellie never seem to be replicated. It ends totally flat with no hint of where Ellie is going or the point of the whole journey.

 

Just some bit of optimism in a character who basically turned out to be quite a monster would have really changed my feelings, its basically a really depressing experience that never lets up.

 

 

[Raoull duke]

10 hours ago, Majora said:

I could understand someone preferring the story of the original but worse across the board? You'd have to work very hard to convince me that the original game has better combat or level design.

 

The combat is exactly the same warts and all (I'm counting this as a serious flaw as they haven't addressed any of the obvious issues that the first had, I could ignore them in the first game assuming time constraints or whatever but for a sequel seven years in the making not to address a single issue is not so easily explained away), my problem with the combat here is the pacing. One long relentless slog of a battle after another.

The first game had plenty of skirmishes that were super intense but they were all (nearly all) over relatively quickly. Also the set pieces in the first were infinitely better than in this. As for level design the world was beautifully realised, I'm not faulting it, it looked fucking amazing and was atmospheric as fuck, but relative to the first game it was incredibly limited, I think that's why that superfluous last section was tacked on (it wasn't great anyway). What part of it was better or even comparable to the winter section in the first? 

Spoiler

I suppose the bit with all the fires

It looked awesome but it didn't play anywhere near as well, nor was it as atmospheric. 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Raoull duke]

 

The best review of the first game. 

[Number 28]

"Since the game is so lengthy" he says...

 

P.S. I like Matthewmatosis videos and it's a good review.

[spanx]

Gah, I’ve hit a wall

 

Spoiler

Scars. They’re tearing me to pieces in seconds. It’s not fun