The Last of Us Part I (2022)

this popped up on ps+ extra and my takeaway was that i was glad not to have paid for it, but not because it's not worth the cash, but because i think the ps4 version remains quite serviceable. the main addition i think is that there are tiny quality of life touches that make the game feel better for audiences that didn't play this on ps3 and perhaps don't have the patience to play it that way, but i was struck by how much it plays like a ps3 game still and how much that infects the feel despite the graphics being significantly better. the real dissonance however is that even in fidelity mode, the game alternates between what feel like extremely high quality models and others that are much less tight, which makes the game feel a bit stiff.

but in terms of 'remasters' this is i think probably the ideal: it's a game that looks how you remember it looking after playing part 2, but that is obviously much nicer than the original was. i think if anything the remake exposes how some of the earlier missions are a bit game-ey and don't really fit narratively or make sense in the scope of the world, whereas in part 2 the missions largely feel like they drive the narrative of the game.

a real question for me however when i think about parts 1 and 2 is how well this kind of narrative fits within the modern lexicon of gameplay. i don't think there's anything wrong with telling a story and sort of dictating that the player make that happen, but a lot of what wears about both part 1 and 2 is the sensation that you're really on rails most of the game even if the story is compelling. what does this game look like if there's a bit more downtime and a bit more player agency to drive the narrative?

probably the most interesting portion of part 2 is the uncharted: lost legacy moment where you're kind of on your own to drive a series of tasks in a sandbox. but it makes me wonder what a proper Reimagining of Part 1 could be like. to some extent, the two games and the hbo series have crystalized a sort of mythology about the story that it'll be interesting to see if a more loosely structured version fits better with adapting the series or if that's even possible.

I started The Last Of US 1 today and I am not sure what to make of it.

I did not expect it to be so linear and the combat so scripted that there is little choice of how to resolve a situation. Often it feels more like a puzzle to be solved and as a stealth lover I have not warmed up with the stealth in this game.

The characters are interesting, the world building good and the graphics amazing.

I have made it outside and a bit into the city, so I am not too far into the game yet.

I'm also struggling with the PC controls and can't remember how to switch weapons or anything like that. It is strange because other games have simple solutions for this and I find it overly complicated and weird here, but I am not in the best headspace so maybe I am just too stupid at the moment.

I also did not expect the game to be so brutal and to show so much violence against uninfected people and in such detail.

Still, I am hooked enough to keep going, but I may have to go through all the tutorials again, step by step, to get a handle on the controls.

I want this game soooo bad. I bought the original on PS3, the Left Behind DLC, the remaster on PS4, and the remaster on PS4 for my friend. But the tards at Sony didn't put Firefly edition up for sale again*, and $70 for a redoing of the graphics just doesn't seem worth it.

* I know the Firefly edition came back up yesterday, but PushSquare reports many people on Twitter complaining of damaged boxes for the game in the thin bubble mailer Sony ships it in.

After watching coverage of this game, as someone who couldn't get into it on the PS3 because of the gameplay, I'm a bit more inclined to consider playing the remake. While the gameplay has not been redone, there seems to be a gigantic list of options to customize it. You could make the game harder and more grounded-feeling than the original, more stealthy, more action-focused, but I expect most players using these options will do so to generally smooth out the experience or just skip over parts they don't like.

I guess there's a question to be asked about if a game is truly better for letting you bypass its flaws rather than fixing them. Not to mention many fans out there don't see these as big flaws, though they can choose not to use the options if they don't want to. If every game had this, I'd suppose there'd be a risk of ironing out interesting gameplay ideas that the devs maybe should be planting their foot down on.

But in a case like this, it's a story-focused game with a lot of dated design ideas. I would imagine a player like me, just looking to experience the story and world, will have a dramatically better experience with this new version, and the alternative is just not to play it at all. Kinda like playing an old game with some cheats turned on, but instead of just removing challenge, you can decide to remove some parts of the challenge, the systems, and the level / objective design that you don't want specifically. I certainly wish my playthrough of the Uncharted saga had this stuff.