Spoiler coming up. Don’t read if you haven’t finished.
I’m almost done, around 97%. Several hours of play before I got to this point it dawned on me what would happen when I brought Ellie to the Fireflies and sure enough it did. Logic says to let the operation continue since it may save humanity but damn that would be a hard thing to do.
Winter was brutal. After having a partner for so long, I felt more nervous playing as a solo character. It seemed like they really ratcheted up the tension. Since having a son 7 years ago, I’m so much more susceptible to these methods of story telling - trying to keep a kid safe and watching a kid having to get through brutal conditions. I both loved winter and hated it.
I’m glad I picked up my PS several weeks ago, mainly so I could play this. I’ve also enjoyed MLB The Show. I’m thinking of playing some of the Uncharted games too at some point.
Their Uncharted games were the best spectacles on the PS3, but had the emotional depth (and replay value) of a flaming bag of doggy doo. TLOU, to me, is a landmark game.
I just finished it. Shit. I rarely get this feeling anymore with games, books, or movies. The feeling that I need to keep playing, reading, or watching to see what’s going to happen next - and then when it’s over feel sad that there is no more. This is clearly one of my favorite games. Since it hinges so much on the story I can’t see myself playing again, but I grew to like the gameplay more as I went. Scarcity of ammo forces you to try different guns, meaningful crafting. I like the stealth and cover aspects too, even though there were times the AI reacted very slowly or wasn’t observant as one would expect.
Character-wise, I think Clementine and Lee are still my favorite duo, but The Last of Us was a much better game.
If anyone has an extra key for the DLC Left Behind, I’d be willing to pay $5 for it via Paypal.
and now to specifics
At the end, even though I know sacrificing Ellie is really for the good of humanity I was hoping that Joel would save her. I don’t think I could ever sacrifice my loved one like that even though logically it makes sense. I was torn whether I wanted Joel to tell her the truth or not. Lying might bring her peace, but I hate lying to my son - even when it comes to things like Santa Claus. I always try to answer in a way I’m not technically lying. I know its silly.
My thoughts mostly echo’d yours, rob, when I beat the game the first time. Especially the part about being a father - some of those story beats (particularly that opening prologue) hit particularly hard. However, I actually DID play it a second time (on the PS4, the remastered version - and it was a year or whatever after I’d beaten it) and not only fell in love all over again, but couldn’t get enough of it and played it through to the end, just super engaged the entire time, and played that Left Behind DLC after I beat the game and IT is also just absolutely amazing. Just my two cents!
I’m definitely going to get that DLC if it ever goes on sale. I just have a hard time paying $15 for a game that will be 3 hours or so. I only go to about 3 movies per decade or so, so I don;t spend much money on that either. I’m also a very slow reader so I get my monies worth from a book!
I hear that - I’ve been reading book 7 of the Malazan series for 6 months now, and that’s at about 3 hours a week. It’s absolutely amazing, so I’m in no rush to finish it (best $10 I spent last year, I bet).
Ah crap, just remembered you were playing this on the PS3 instead of the remastered version on PS4. Well there’s always the 2nd playthrough later on! I keep seeing the remastered version for $20 or less on sale so clearly you’d save money by just getting a PS4 instead of shelling out $15 for the DLC. Hopefully you get a chance to play it soon - really adds to the story.
Folks who replayed it, what difficulty did/are you playing on? I started replaying the remastered version but, on hard, I’m worried I’ll get sick of replaying portions of the game, hurting the pace and the story in the process. Maybe I’ll drop it back to medium.
Oh hey, for some reason this thread never came back into my view after my last post. I’ll have to read your spoilered responses when I have some free time.
The only reason I didn’t vote for The Last of Us as my game of the decade is because of Dark Souls.
Yes. Tim Rogers’ epic 3 hour review of The Last of Us is up. I’ve only seen the first 40 minutes so far, and I’m going to have to play Another World now.
