For nearly every game I've play I'm usually able to deal with the violence that is put on display, whether it be just the sheer audacity with which they present it all or from the sheer scale of it all in which many things can get lost or be forgotten. Yet something about The Last of Us' demo struck a chord with me. Make no doubts about it, I think this game looks fucking stellar and will surely be looking for the means to get a PS3 and it, but the violence disturbed me to an extent I wasn't expecting. The intimacy of its violence, the honest emotion of a man pleading for his life, and the main guy choking that man out it was all sorta fucked. It certainly helps to make a statement about the desperate and lawless nature of the world though. So, what did you guys think of it all? Am I just being far too sensitive or did you find it a bit surprising as well?

Nope. It's a video game.

I think it is AWESOME.

I think it's completely reasonable for you to feel that way about the violence. I am really excited for it because of how realistic and human it looks, and isn't just mindless killing. If the tone of the e3 demo stays throughout the game it seems there will be genuine moments where you the player question whether or not to kill someone and the morality involved in it. I have also loved every game Naughty Dog has put out since Crash so maybe I'm a little bias.

No, because I don't have a heart.

I actually love the animations in this game, making it more realistic it makes me want to play this game. I want to explore this game and see what kind of details they will add to this world. We are going to get more games like this, and it makes me happy. Remember this is just a video game, it's not real.

@luchadeer797 said:

For nearly every game I've play I'm usually able to deal with the violence that is put on display, whether it be just the sheer audacity with which they present it all or from the sheer scale of it all in which many things can get lost or be forgotten. Yet something about The Last of Us' demo struck a chord with me. Make no doubts about it, I think this game looks fucking stellar and will surely be looking for the means to get a PS3 and it, but the violence disturbed me to an extent I wasn't expecting. The intimacy of its violence, the honest emotion of a man pleading for his life, and the main guy choking that man out it was all sorta fucked. It certainly helps to make a statement about the desperate and lawless nature of the world though. So, what did you guys think of it all? Am I just being far too sensitive or did you find it a bit surprising as well?

If you're uncomfortable with what's on display then the developers have achieved their goal. The game seems to be focusing on trying to add some genuine impact to your actions in the game, and that's a good thing. I'm genuinely excited about idea of a game trying to add some level of emotional impact to the onscreen violence that is normally portrayed as little more than a mindless means to an end (don't get me wrong, that stuff still has a place).

Still what was going on there didn't hit me quite as hard as "The Finger Scene" in Heavy Rain.

Was this the same demo I saw, were a few seconds earlier that guy was going to shoot you and your daughter?

@Korwin: I replayed that Finger scene so many times.

It should disturb you. It's disturbing stuff.

I don't like how he just blasted the guy in the face at the end. I hope there is a choice to not kill the guy if he is begging not to die.

Yes, like Alex said, somebody finally made melee combat look painful.

Kill or be killed, its supposed to evoke the survival instinct I guess.
 
But taking that shot to the heart and him shaking it off kinda pushed me out of it.

@Wes899 said:

@Korwin: I replayed that Finger scene so many times.

@49th said:

I don't like how he just blasted the guy in the face at the end. I hope there is a choice to not kill the guy if he is begging not to die.

I bet there will be a way to just beat dudes into unconsciousness if you are feeling soft.

But really, these guys were just talking about hunting "tourists" before shit got crazy. You probably don't want to leave anyone like that alive.

@Wes899 said:

@Korwin: I replayed that Finger scene so many times.

So I'm not the only one who wasn't all squicky about that part? The acting seemed too phony and nothing was shown. Didn't hit me at all.

The violence here disturbed me in a way that I like. Everything felt brutal, and the violence itself is what shook me.

Other games shown at some press conferences disturbed me in a way that I don't like. Everything was nonchalant, things like running up and executing dudes with a knife to the neck seemed as casual as taking cover.

@FoolishChaos said:

@49th said:

I don't like how he just blasted the guy in the face at the end. I hope there is a choice to not kill the guy if he is begging not to die.

But really, these guys were just talking about hunting "tourists" before shit got crazy. You probably don't want to leave anyone like that alive.

I want the option to join their gang and kill the little girl as proof of my alliance.

The violence and the faces of the enemies when they were struggling with the player was one of my favorite things about it. Also I really liked the talking between the 2 charcaters as they went from encounter to encounter. It makes me wonder how many different ways each encounter can go. That demo blew my mind in the same way the bioshock infinite stuff has. Thank god for those 2 games because I think they will keep me interested in playing games.

@CL60 said:

Nope. It's a video game.

It was gruesome but i think that was the point to have that fighting and killing not be all fun and games ironic i know. I think gears and other crazy games have done much worse, i just think it cool because this has more of a human element which make it brutal on a mental level.

The violence is supposed to look painful and real.

Unlike the Splinter Cell demo which I took issue with, the level of violence in The Last of Us helps create a realistic atmosphere and paint the characters as desperate human beings who have been driven to the point of murdering each other for food, water, and bullets.

I loved that it felt so real. I really hope there's a point where you have to take someones life in a very intimate way. And by that I mean, like it drags on and you see him/her kind of "go" in front of your eyes. Not because I'd enjoy that moment, but because I think it would definitely affect lots of people and that seems to be what this is going for. That being said, the dude killed less than 10 guys in that whole demo which is extremely low compared to almost every other game demo (even Ellen Page in Beyond presumably kills an assload of dudes).

Not really. I'd read about the violence before seeing it, though, so maybe my expectations were a bit too lofty.

It's better portrayed than violence in other games, though, and it did feel more human thanks to the fact that in a few little lines the bad guys got at least a little bit of characterization. All in all, it was indeed pretty brutal, it just didn't make me avert my eyes or grimace much at all.

@49th said:

I don't like how he just blasted the guy in the face at the end. I hope there is a choice to not kill the guy if he is begging not to die.

If you're feeling like a humanitarian, the option might be nice. For me, though, I think about what repercussions might come along. The man that took a shotgun to the face was most likely a morally depraved killer. There may be the chance that sparing him might change his ways, but that isn't likely. If I were in that world and in that situation in real life I would have done the same. In such an uncivilized world, there just isn't room for second chances and changing ways.

That main character is a fucking maniac... even the little girl was thrown by it.

Was this the same demo I saw, were a few seconds earlier that guy was going to shoot you and your daughter?

@MiniPato said:

The violence is supposed to look painful and real.

Unlike the Splinter Cell demo which I took issue with, the level of violence in The Last of Us helps create a realistic atmosphere and paint the characters as desperate human beings who have been driven to the point of murdering each other for food, water, and bullets.

I totally agree.

Violence is ugly, and it's no joke. If a game is going to feature violence in that kind of setting, I'd almost rather it made you stop and think about what you're doing.

Shooting that guy in the face is a heat of the moment thing. You're in the middle of this combat scenario, and as a gamer it's almost an instinctual thing to pull the trigger on your controller the second that guy's head is in your crosshairs. They go and throw in that "Wait! Don't--" and it makes you think about what you actually did in the context of the game. You just ended that man's life. Yeah, he probably did some pretty horrible shit based on the dialog you hear when you first sneak up on the group, but that guy is fucking dead and it's because of what you did.

Nope, not disturbed. Looked great though

I didn't find it disturbing. I found it awesome. Looked incredibly satisfying and I can't wait to play it for myself.

I'm more disturbed by the fact that you actually thought that was disturbing.

I think it's great that grounded violence can have an impression on a gamer. I've shot, slit necks, decapitated, set fire and so on to 10's of thousands of dudes in my gaming life time, and it almost never phases me. But The Last of Us makes this shit intense and realistic. For the first time EVER I realized how fucking savage it is when you use a human shield. the melee looks brutal as well, when Joel slammed that guys face into the desk it looked painful. "Holy Fuck, you just lit that guy on fire, thats dark" I thought. And then at the end, you blow a guys face off who's begging for his life.

It's good that you're not killing a thousand people in this game, and seeing just 3 is a serious issue. If you were mowing down 15 guys a fight the impact of the violence wouldn't work.

And I'm excited to see how that plays into the story. ND has said they're playing with AI, they make enemies have personalities, so when you savagely execute an enemy, his friend will get pissed. I like that Joel is not a hero, he's kind of an asshole that murdered before the apocalypse. I'm excited, that's for sure.

Yeah. It SHOULD be. Frankly seeing some actual consequences from violence could make that violence all the more impactful and make you think about what you're actually doing. Not with all games, mind you, I think there's plenty of room for more Expendables or Rambo-style violence, but it's nice to see a couple of devs actually say "Hey, what if we treated this more like something you must do rather than something you're happy to do?"

@Mercer said:

@Dagbiker: @Dagbiker said:

Was this the same demo I saw, were a few seconds earlier that guy was going to shoot you and your daughter?

I don't think those guys would just have murdering the girl in mind, that's one of the things that interest me about the game, because in that kind of situation, he alone may have gotten away or talked his way out of it. However, a man traveling with a girl in the post-Apocalypse his entire situation changes if he is concerned with protecting the girl in anyway. and i dont think they are Father-daughter, i think he just finds her while he's out surviving

I read in the gameinformer story when it was first announced that no they aren't related. It was something along the lines of Joels' friend asked him, or hired him to take her across the country, and from the sounds of the beginning of the game, there are small pockets of civilization.

I kind of want to know what happens if you don't pull the trigger.

But yeah, some of the most well executed, realistic, and ugly violence I have ever seen. Can't wait!

@Mercer said:

@Dagbiker: @Dagbiker said:

Was this the same demo I saw, were a few seconds earlier that guy was going to shoot you and your daughter?

I don't think those guys would just have murdering the girl in mind, that's one of the things that interest me about the game, because in that kind of situation, he alone may have gotten away or talked his way out of it. However, a man traveling with a girl in the post-Apocalypse his entire situation changes if he is concerned with protecting the girl in anyway. and i dont think they are Father-daughter, i think he just finds her while he's out surviving

Yah, once i got done writing i thought the same thing. Also i didn't know that about her not being his daughter.

@Korwin said:

Still what was going on there didn't hit me quite as hard as "The Finger Scene" in Heavy Rain.

Agreed that was quite shocking, although oddly entertaining. Infact I found most the stuff in Heavy Rain as hammy as it was at times to be very engaging. Say what you like about the 'gameplay' but the game had it's moments

As for The Last of Us, I didnt find it that shocking, mainly because i've seen Nathan Drake do similerish moves, albeit less gritty and more exaggerated. That and I cant stop comparing this to "The Road" which was in a field of it's own when it comes to shocking moments.

I'm intrigued that Naughty Dog seems to be going all the fucking way with the violence. Paradoxically, it might be the most effective way to make the violence itself less trivial.

I'm only disturbed by the news not video game gore, people eat peoples faces these days I hear bathsalt is all the rage.

I was okay up until the shotgun blast to the face. I know it's the post-apocalypse blah blah survival blah blah, but I would want my character to have some restraint in how he kills people. Knocking him out or tying him up in a closet would've been better than destroying a dude's face after he was defenseless. At least have some sense of humanity.

Unless the character is a total sociopath, then okay...

@Dallas_Raines said:

Yes, like Alex said, somebody finally made melee combat look painful.

Condemned?

@49th said:

I don't like how he just blasted the guy in the face at the end.

I agree. Not that I think there'd be much reason to leave him alive in a tense moment like that, but "point blank shotgun blast to the face" feels like ND pandering to the same bloodlust it's trying to make you question. Trying to have its violence cake and eat it too.

That said, I'm sure there will be other ways to deal with the situation and the game looks great.

@MikeGosot said:

I think it is AWESOME.

I agree with this.

They are in a pretty fucked up situation, I would think mercy is for the dead in that scenario.

You are overly sensitive, but that's not a bad thing. You felt what he developer's want you to feel about it.

You will also find that really sad stories or movies will make you cry. Don't feel alarmed, it's totally natural.

I think thats the point of the game. To be in your face and make you uncomfortable.

It's kind of disappointing to read the occasional rag on the people who find the violence to be intense and brutal as, as others have stated, that seems to be the point. It's no Blood Meridian, but I'm pretty sure the violence is supposed to feel necessary and intense though not seductive.

@stise: @will_leisure:

I kind of agree, though I would get it as a heat of the moment kind of thing. It was weird to me, though, that the girl was basically unfazed--minus one "holy shit, Joel!"--by all the crazy violence around her. Perhaps it's later in the game, and in earlier parts she's much more affected by it. It'd be nice to see the violence actually contribute to the characters' arcs and generate real reactions. Because, while I get that violence becomes necessary in this world, it's the reluctance and resistance to the total depravity that allows one to maintain his/her humanity (a l The Road) rather than become a monster too (a la Blood Meridian). It really looks like they have a chance to cover some thematic territory flashier stuff like Uncharted has just glossed over.

Not at all , looking foward to it and see if it really plays more "non directed" than other games ... if it is just a bunch of QTE I´ll be very dissapointed

Good. That's the point of violence in a game like this. I can't wait to play it, personally. It didn't disturb me as much as excite me that violence will actually feel VIOLENT. Plus, they're trying to kill you... it's pretty justified. That being said, the violence also lends to more tension (for me at least) because it also seems like getting shot/hit is much more violent than in other games. It seems like a great thing.

I think it was supposed to make you feel a little disturbed. It's a pretty brutal game.

I have to laugh at the people who are all like, "Nope, you're crazy. Videogame, blah blah." Yeah, we get it, you're very manly.

But they were aiming for brutal and intense, and obviously they had that effect on people, me and OP included.

@JJOR64 said:

@CL60 said:

Nope. It's a video game.

Masdisturbedated.

So... the hundreds or characters in other third person or even first person action games that kill thousands of people on their way to the end are totally ok right? because this is a thing that I've been noting only in the recent Naughty Dog tittles (people complaining about Drake being the good guy even though he kills a lot of mercs on his way) , I think this is great by the way because it speaks to fidelity in Naughty Dog's presentation and their writting wich is pretty good, their characters feel so grounded and "real" to us that seems disturbing for some people seeing videogame characters kill other videogame characters , would the situation be any different if Joel and Ellie where attacked by those guys just like that recent trailer they showed? Joel would still show the same relentless assault on those guys until he's sure that he and Ellie are safe , cannot wait to see more of this game really I'm kinda bummed that apparently won't come out this year.