(No narrative spoilers here - just moaning about game mechanics and some vague stuff about structure)
So I finished playing The Last of Us Part 2.
Eventually.
I thought I'd finished it several hours before I actually did. I got to a lovely point where the story had come to a natural end, after many, many hours of play. And all the narrative threads were satisfyingly dealt with. And there was a lovely last scene, and a perfect final shot. And the screen went to black, and I thought, "Well, that was a really good way to end..."
And then it kept going! Like a drunk who hasn't realised that it's way past midnight, and everyone else has gone home. And they starts telling you more stories, that are just the same stories they have been telling all evening. And they might suddenly veer from being your best mate to unexpectedly trying to slap you in the face.
I'm not alone, I don't think, in having found the running time of LOU2 somewhere on the problematic side. It's an odd thing to complain about, in some respects. The gameplay is really enjoyable, so it's hard not to want more of it. And the last few areas are a real delight to play. It just all felt a bit superfluous.
Anyway, I'm a massive hypocrite, because straight after finishing LOU2, I started playing Part One again. Yes, my throat was still sore from shouting "For the love of God would you just FINISH you stupid game?!" and here I was, downloading the first game, because I wanted to carry on.
It's a much better game, isn't it? Part One. Better.
I'm not very far into my replay, but here are some quick observations on the two games, as they have occured to me. They are, exclusively, about things that should and could have been better.
Reward me for being clever!
The stealth in both games is really great. Levels are designed to maximise opportunities for choice and improvisation. The enemy AI is generally pretty good, with enemies who give a real impression that they are hunting you, and responding to your movements.
The second game scores a little more highly on this front, which makes sense. The villains are less predictable, and spend significantly less time walking up to to walls and staring at the brickwork, as if desperate for you to creep up behind them and murder them in the neck.
However. Given all the cool systems in place to create realistic stealth mechanics, it really annoys me that the game will sometimes spring a surprise on you, no matter how smart and stealthy you've been. In Part 2, I lost count of how often I would get suddenly jumped on by guys who came out of absolutely nowhere.
I was using stealth! I carefully employed the 'listening' mechanic, to check if anyone was there. There wasn't. I threw a bottle down into the street, so it would make a noise, and the enemies would reveal themselves by scampering excitedly after it. There was no response. I was being clever!
And then when I moved forward, bang! I'm hauled into a cutscene, where previously unseen characters leap out and ambush me.
Don't give me stealth mechanics and then cheat on them, Naughty Dog. If I've beaten your guys, then play the scenario out accordingly.
Deus Ex would never do this to me.
What if I don't want to go through that door?
If I behaved in real life like I do in computer games, I would be very unpopular. "Are you coming, Rob?"
"No, first I have to rub myself up against every single part of this room, in case there's some kind of glowing prize that I've missed, like a level up pill or some cloth."
I love it. I want to find everything. Power ups. Ammunition. Books that inexplicably make me better at firing arrows into people's faces. Bits of junk that will help me totally redesign my weapons. Every little thing I find brings me extreme pleasure.
And, conversely, the thought that I might have missed something fills me with great anxiety. The playing time for TLOU2 is meant to be about 30 hours, but I spent way over 40 on my playthrough. Because I have to go into every room at least twice, to check for presents.
How great is my anger, then, when I open a door and - whoosh - I'm suddenly in a little cutscene. Apparently I decided to walk through the door, and close it behind me forever. Because that's how doors work in this universe, apparently.
The number of times I shouted "I wasn't done searching that room!" is far too many, The Last of Us, and you need to sort that out.
Stop telling me when there's danger
Narrative issues aside, TLOU2 is a generally superior game, mechanically, to TLOU1. There's breaking glass, and there's creeping about, and there's crawling around in the grass right next to people who might see you any minute, which is brilliant and terrifying. Best of all, Ellie seems to have realised that you can stab things with a knife more than once, and don't need to build a whole new shiv every time.
But playing Part One again has shown me one way in which the original is far superior.
Whenever a combat scenario approaches, in Part Two, the game lets you know. Your weapon and ammo HUD fades into view. The music shifts to a heavy, percussive beat. Sometimes your character says things like, "Oh no, some people are here and now I have to do some combat on them."
I get why this is a decent feedback system in most games. But part of the joy of the world of TLOU is that it's creepy. This is a world where silent, decaying monsters might lurk in every abandoned house. Exploring spaces should be fraught with apprehension.
Part One gets this exactly right. The advent of enemies is rarely heralded by a change in music. You just suddenly become aware that there are two clickers, gently swaying in the middle of the next room. And you nearly rushed into them! Phew.
That's the way to do it, Part Two. Stop signalling your surprises.
Where's His Gun Gone?
If someone has been shooting at me, with his gun, which is full of bullets, then I expect to be able to get some bullets from his gun when it's lying on the floor, inches from his recently murdered body.
Ammunition is a rare commidity in the world of The Last of Us. So if I've damned my soul to hell by taking the life of another, I'm going to expect to be able to steal their ammunition. Got it?
Or are you expecting me to believe that the last shot fired at me just happened to be the last bit of ammo this guy had? And that this is the case for everyone I meet? That's one hell of a coincidence.
And sometimes I get to them before they've even had chance to shoot. And still no ammo. What was happening there? Were they just pretending, and hoping - as they advanced towards me, screaming "I will kill you!" - that I wouldn't call their bluff? That's some confidence. You, sir, are wasted in the Cannibal Bandit trade. You should have gone into marketing.
Anyway. Part Two does this better, and there often is ammo. Which is good, because I need it, for all the endless murder the game seems to require.
So there we are. I liked Part Two quite a lot, and I'll play it again. But playing through Part One has reminded me of how good the original is, and so I'm retrospectively annoyed with it.
It's not easy being me.
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