I personally don’t like the direction Naughty Dog have taken for the past decade or so because their games have become less “game-y” (for lack of a better term). Yes the shooting/traversal is mechanically competent and the story is well directed, but I think that they are hewing much more closely to a long-form television show format. The fact that Last of Us was able to be adapted into a tv show so seamlessly also suggests this is the case.
The colourful worlds of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter were Rare-esque and much more to my personal taste. This isn’t because they are aimed at younger audiences per se; games can aim at adult demographics without aping another medium. Some personal favourites would be series like Souls, Resident Evil and God of War.
I have a Jak and Daxter sized hole in my heart. Love those games. Been playing them on the Steam Deck a bit.
Bold implication he had any in him in the first place
Lmao good. Maybe he can get his ass out of the way and let someone competent make games instead
Not my genre, so I’m unfamiliar. Wasn’t last of us a critical hit?
Yes. And the TV adaptation of The Last of Us has been good too.
They’re both masterpieces. Unfortunately a bunch of whiny children dislike the second one for whiny childish reasons. Its only real issue is pacing.
No not the only one. The disconnect between gameplay and the main theme, murdering a lot of people while preaching a revenge through murder is bad story.
A similar problem had Max Payne 3. Cut scenes showed Max walling in pain and alcohol, because he is a dirty cop murderer. Gameplay was mowing some people in slow mo.
Last of Us 2 has some problems, but still is in my top games ever. Especially the story and character focused list.
You don’t think the body count reinforces revenge being bad? With the looks of terror on their faces as Ellie slices their throat, the cries of “Sheila!” or whatever when you blow Sheila or whatever up, the dogs whining at their dead owners’ sides, seems to me that all of this feeds into revenge being bad. You see the cost of those actions too, whole settlement aflame as Ellie hunts down Abby, slaughtering everyone in her way whilst Abby is trying to walk away from it.
You’re a killing machine in that game, but everywhere you go the violence is always extremely messy, upsetting, and visceral, and Ellie has pretty severe reactions to it as well in cutscenes. Both Ellie and Abby even say hateful and petty things under her breath whilst you’re taking them out, hardly presenting them in the best light whilst they’re slaughtering people in their pursuit of revenge. Enemies beg for their life when you grab them, Ellie has to be talked down from murdering a pregnant woman. At one point she tortured, brutally, a woman who looks a bit like Dina. I’m not sure the ludo-narrative dissonance argument applies here, surprisingly, despite basically being Rambo from a gameplay perspective.
Now Uncharted? I love those games, but you destroy legions worth of bad guys, it’s ridiculous, and in a serious narrative Drake’s charming affableness whilst doing it would have to be a cover for a full on psychopath or something. There aren’t many action games, especially shooting, where this argument doesn’t apply really. It’s just somewhere you need to suspend your disbelief. That or only play games where you kill a reasonable amount of people? What would that be? 15? Even that seems high, but 12 hour game a game where you only defeat 15 people isn’t an action game.
Sure what is your point?
Pretty clear that I was directly answering what you said.
There are some real complaints to be had. I think not liking the more realistic/explicit presentation of violence is fair. I think the visceral behaviour of games does make it a different experience to the same violence you’d see in a movie.
I also think disliking Neil Druckmann as a person is valid, he has some quotes that seem snobby.
Not enjoying cinematics games in general could also be an avenue for complaints but I think none of these are explicit complaints about tLoU2
I mean personal preference is one thing, whilst issues are another. It doesn’t aim to not be violent or not use plenty of cutscenes.
Yeah, Druckmann is a visionary creator, they all sound like that, just gotta put up with it really.
Not all directors come across that way but signalling them as a visionary suggests some slight bias.
I also don’t really understand what your trying to say above, isolating “preference” and “issues” doesn’t really make sense since issues form from preference and art is not objective.
I didn’t say all directors come across that way, I said visionary creators do.
First one was.
Yeah, but wasn’t without drama. Druckmann left a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouthes when Amy Henig got pushed out and tossed out her Uncharted 4 after TLoU success. Hes always given me Jared Leto God vibes ngl
For some fucking reason
What was bad about it? I hadn’t heard any criticism before this
The story is what a middle schooler thinks constitutes “deep writing”, and the gameplay felt like a tacked on mess made by someone who saw a video game on the internet once without a single clue of what makes them good
What is ‘deep writing’ to you? It’s a character driven narrative focused on two characters’ relationship to each other and their survivors guilt. It doesn’t have to be ‘deep’ to be compelling. It might not be ‘the greatest story ever told in a video game’ as it’s been lauded, but it’s not bad by any means.
Gameplay is w/e I’ll give you that one.
It doesn’t have to be ‘deep’ to be compelling
Sure. But it still fucking sucked
Seeing you specifically talk about how bad the game is finally pushed me towards being a fan of it. Now I can’t wait to play it. Thanks!
Enjoy your garbage
Cya cuckman
Does that mean we don’t need to pander to adult themes and we can have silly games like Jak and Daxter now?
Do you mean like ratchet and clank? Sackboy? Spiderman? Astrobot?
Are we just mad that games that “pander” to “adult themes” exist at all?
These damn film directors, too! Every movie should be PG because if everyone can’t enjoy it, nobody should!!
No, you see everyone not making something I like is taking stuff away from me personally and that’s what matters above all
I hate when others express themselves artistically without consulting with me, their only audience, first
He pretty clearly meant Naughty Dog, hence Jak and Daxter
Except Naughty dog when asked specially said they weren’t doing to make “childrens” games anymore like it’s something beneath them. I quite liked/like those games.
Maybe saying that is as dumb as saying “pandering adult themes”
Probably but I don’t have a fanbase
We can see why.
