The Last of Us

[gravedigger]

. How'd you like the tunnel in Spring?

Here's the one skirmish I hated.

And I hope your drinks/reflection bring you around on the ending, Rob. I think it's a great ending both in general but in particular for Joel. I felt Naughty Dog stayed true to the character even though doing so makes for a... downer(?) ending for the world as a whole.

[Captain Russ]

I air guitar'd my own leg when I saw those assholes blow up in my master ruse of placing every combustable material in between myself and the gathering mob.

[Abraham Smashington]

The tunnel and subsequent hospital was easy as fuck. I flew through those parts like it wasn't shit. Granted I was playing normal, but at that point I had so many molotives and my pimp flamethrower that nothing fazed me. It was quite easy by the end.

[BillyG]

Yeah, the part that was really tough for me was the college dorm, when you drop in the room and there's one of those boomers and like 5 more enemies around him. Eventually I got two nail bombs to hit perfectly and kill like 2 clickers and almost drop the boomer.

[Abraham Smashington]

And I hope your drinks/reflection bring you around on the ending, Rob. I think it's a great ending both in general but in particular for Joel. I felt Naughty Dog stayed true to the character even though doing so makes for a... downer(?) ending for the world as a whole.

I still feel as if it's not an ending at all. Yes it's perfect for Joel's character but I was hoping for a bit more of closure as I definitely do not want a sequel.

[Nathan]

Yeah I'm still kinda underwhelmed by the ending.

[Abraham Smashington]

that's because it was underwhelming as fuck.

[Nathan]

The walking dead totally nailed the genre video game wise.

[Abraham Smashington]

The ending to that was much more satisfying while staying true to the characters and making me sad as fuck than The Last of Us. The Last of Us basically has a "NEXT TIME ON" ending which is fucking infuriating.

[Captain Russ]

I felt complicit in carrying that big of a lie on my shoulders as Joel. It's a disturbing sort of transference and manipulation that goes on to force that reaction, but there it is.

Underwhelming? Hardly.

[Abraham Smashington]

Underwhelming from a "IT'S OVER" stance. Especially with the fact that they have mentioned that this is more than likely an one and done type of deal.

His answer was definitely gut punching but it seemed like there was shit cut out from the ending in my opinion.

[Captain Russ]

What else did you want?

[Abraham Smashington]

That's my problem. I don't know. I just did not feel satisfied beyond the standard "yay, another game beat."

Nate brings up a good point about The Walking Dead end game. Both kind of reside in the same boat in that regards. You kind of knew what was coming in both but The Walking Dead pulled it off better IMO.

I definitely cared about Ellie and Joel or else I wouldn't be so bummed about the abrupt ending. I dunno, I just felt bummed after all the work I put into caring about the characters and not have a complete resolution. But then again, like I said earlier, I'm not quite sure what I would have liked. I just know this didn't fully work for me.

[BillyG]

It's the ultimate "ITS OVER" because the world's hope is fucking gone.

[Captain Russ]

With WD it was a different beast, what with the episodic releases and the design of the gameplay tailored to player choice. It manipulated the player in a different way, and in the end, allowed the experience to resonate differently according to play style and the illusion of choice.

LoU had none of that, with a clear goal of where everything would end regardless of player intent.

I love them both for different reasons, but they each handled the dread and desperate struggle of their respective settings very differently.

Also: downtown Savannah does not look like that at all, goddammit.