Quick Look: The Last of Us Part II

Maybe I'll be in the mood to finish the first game, but it hasn't happened in the last 7 years, I guess. I've always liked the honest dialogue and emotion in the game, but the rest of what's going on just never interested me. With Uncharted and these games, I always feel like the games run their courses halfway through, but I have to push to finish them.

Anyone else bummed that every quick look is solo?

Ben and Matt did a Quick Look together literally yesterday.

@villainfb43: incredibly so

especially for this one

@bluelander: literally the first one out of like the past 10

Very. There hasn't been any solo quick look that has been worth watching. Quick Looks are interesting for the conversation between the people recording it. When that is absent, then so is my reason to watch the video.

I understand that the current situation is special, but honestly, it would be preferable to not have a quicklook of a game if it is to be a solo one.

@onlineatron: Okay? Does that make "every quick look is solo" a true statement?

We did two actually! There'll be plenty more TLOU stuff coming up on the site soon, I believe.

As a quick history lesson, the first Quick Looks on GB were all solo. That lasted for a month or two before they switched to having multiple people.

Depends. I'll take a solo QL over a multi-person QL with wildly varying volume levels and audio dropouts any day. If they don't have time to trade local recordings and mix it all together, solo is fine.

Eh, not 4 me.

Another one of those "I'll just watch this on YouTube" games.

very good stuff brad, thanks.

@astrophyle: Just watch a story compilation on youtube of the cutscenes and interactions. You won't miss much.

@bluelander: sentiment’s the same bud

Kill them all Ellie! They all deserve to die!

I'm sooo ready for this game, I luv ppl. dying when they done you wrong.

I'm sure I understand this game right...

Where's Joel?

"The best game ever made", huh.

Ain't saying the game seems bad, but pretty sure all the other websites out there hawking that as a headline is just clickbaiting you with conjecture and/or ostentatious bullshit.

I liked the first Last of Us and have completed most of the Uncharted games (Lost Legacy being the most recent), but I think I've given up on Naughty Dog's gameplay itself. And even the writing, it's nothing special once you veer outside the gaming medium, but neither is it terrible and admittedly probably near the top execution-wise if you like these sort of stories. But I've personally grown out of them and just don't find the characters or world all that interesting or relatable. They're like a greatest hits of whatever narrative-heavy genre Naughty Dog is attempting, good and bad. I watched Eurogamer play the first two hours of this one and it's definitely not for me. The combat looked dull and the dialogue was so predictable (and often really lame, and possibly not in an intentional way) that I started picking up my Switch every few minutes.

In a normal QL the people riding shotgun ask questions, keep the conversation going, get a lot of information out of the person playing. Without people asking questions, a solo QLer sometimes forgets to talk for minutes at a time because they have nothing to say. Honestly, I'd be better off watching a Twitch streamer, because they answer questions from chat to keep things going.

In this case it might've been better to save the Last of Us 2 QL for tomorrow, or cancelled a random liveshow in order to get a second person for the QL.

@villainfb43: I think all things including game playthroughs should have at least two people. You need that banter.

In some cases it might be clickbaiting.

But I truly believe it's this weird thing called opinions that most people are basing their statements on.

@toxicantidote: While I truly don't disagree that those writers and/or websites are absolutely freely entitled to their positive opinions about the game, I also truly believe that I'm allowed to think their positive opinions are overblown and/or silly - just as you're allowed to believe that in regards to the commentary I've supplied.

Also, at the time of my writing of this post, and having at least watched the Giant Bombcast this week - I think it's a disappointment that there was no extended conversation about Naughty Dog's worker mistreatment and incessant crunch culture that looms large over this game.

@astrophyle: I just replayed through the first game and I agree with your sentiment. The plot and characters all work, even through cliche moments, but the gameplay is just kind of eh. With that, it sounds like most of the negatives have been removed, like pallet swimming and what, but it sounds like the other aspects were just cranked higher on the dial. Left Behind though has been one of my favorite experiences.

@villainfb43: yes

@heatdrive88: I think most people don’t think about it at all tbh

30 hours? Good lord.

I miss Naughty Dog's 8-10 hour games. They just can't maintain momentum for that long. Maybe this one nails the pacing but I have my doubts.

Maybe it's the capture quality but the game looks really flat.

Weird ass question i know, but does anyone know of a place I can just rent a PS4 pro for a couple weeks? I had a PS4 awhile ago and got rid of it. I really want to play this game, but I have no desire in playing any other PS4 games, I thought about just buying a used one on ebay, and selling it, but I hate their new seller fee's and paypal's cut.

With all that is going on, I kinda feel bad that ND (despite controversy) still had to release this game despite holding it off until things got better.

I look forward to playing this despite disliking a few of the mechanics on the first.

Please no more pallet moving.

Video games for sad dads to feel sad to.

yay, perfect for fathersday!

Because they realized that solo QLs suck ass. But now apparently they've forgotten.

@villainfb43: It's not every one, but yes I agree. Solo quick looks lose something. Je ne sais quoi.

But, you know, they do what they can in these trying times. We have to remain strong.

Last 30 seconds of gameplay pretty well encapsulates why I'm not interested in this. Like - if you want to do a Tarintino-Meets-Rambo action sequence then do that don't let me... judge your life - just don't expect people to take you seriously when you try to tell them 'Violence is bad'.

Brad is great and I'm happy to watch him stream whatever he's into at the moment, but for QLs I always prefer 2+ GB folks. Production values be damned, I'm here to hear the video games people talk to each other about the video games (and Anime). I'm not saying I don't appreciate all the work the production team does, but I'm happy to live with any issues that may arise that I can't articulate because I know nothing about production or internet videos.

Overall, I think the GB crew has been killing it during this lockdown and I'll keep watching because they're better than anything else out there.

Here we go again.

I hope this game has more to say than “violence is bad actually”.

Because as recent events have demonstrated violence is a useful tool of the oppressed. There is no come together kumbaya moment, no amount of peace, love and understanding that’ll get the boot off your neck.

Sometimes to break the cycle you have to break the fucking cycle.

@99bajakid: I'd recommend looking at Facebook marketplace (if you have one), Craigslist, or possibly even a pawn shop. The latter often have some pretty great deals on random things because they simply don't know (or care) what the actual value is. I got a basically brand new Persona Q edition 3DS XL from one years ago for $40. Still use it occasionally and even now those go for much higher than that.

Love the multiple cuts of different scenarios. Not just one non-stop playthrough

@onlineatron: so much this. I don't want to play a game that's entire point is that "violence only begets violence" while...all this is happening around us.

Granted that's just me and people can by all means play it if they want, no judgement. Btw, I for one always like solo Brad stuff he does a good job giving impressions.

While I enjoyed the first game, this looks like more of the same.

And I must forgotten the specifics of the first one, but I recall it being pretty conclusive and satisfying after my plathrough.

I dunno if this is as cool as what they were showing from the first E3 reveal ... like It isn't a downgrade but maybe there is less violence, or that was just all scripted to show case the extreme levels of violence but I'm just like eh this is nothing for video games. Soldier of Fortune did better to make me feel for a person who was getting auto shottied to death. This just feels like ... its missing something to actually feel impactful. Considering how people are all up in arms about the violence I just don't see it.

I was hoping this would satiate my video game bloodlust since nothing has really done it since Assassins Creed Syndicate but it just looks kinda boring to play.

I wonder if this game is going to sell well. I know it's been getting 10s from many outlets but online I see hate comment after hate comment after hate comment (justified or otherwise). Good ones are few and far between. Unless people who are looking forward to this are fed up of the relentless vitriol and are staying off comments sections, I don't know.

Alright, but do I have to shake a PS4 controller when my flashlight starts flickering?

Whenever I see a game that involves you and your partner character opening a roller door together I think of Blood on the Sand. If Tony Yayo was in this game it would be an instant buy!