Hey folks, so I picked up The Last of Us yesterday and have been steadily playing through it (just reached the first zombie stealth section after finding Ellie) and, not to come off as whiny, i'm really having a hard time getting into it. While the game was advertised as being fairly open and it being crucial to think about combat vs stealth and the resource management game, it really plays like doing anything but stealthing your way through everywhere is the worst idea ever (especially when a certain enemy type literally kills you in a single hit). This also ends up making most of the resources i'm carrying seem totally useless since they make noise. AI spotting you feels broken, as zombies will spot me from the other end of a long hallway in total darkness crouching still. Even the story is frustrating me, so far almost entirely disconnected from gameplay and kept in neat-but-might-as-well-be-a-movie cutscenes.

It's bumming me out because i've heard so many great things and really want to like this game, but as I find myself stuck and not particularly compelled to make it through this stealth section, i'd really like to know if it gets better as it goes on.

Just keep at it. Its a little hard to get into at first. I got stuck on the first few Clickers for a while but once you get used to how the game works it easier. Also the storyline really gets good a little way through.

It was great within the first five minutes. You don't enjoy the game so to answer your question, "no"

Yeah I had similar impressions. I thought it was more about stealth and survival. It plays better as an action game though. Just think of the stealth as a way to flank and evade dudes while you murder them. That said, once I realized that I pretty much just rushed through the game play to enjoy the narrative.

The first five minutes that consisted of walking to a car and then looking around in a car? Sure, it looked cool, but again it might as well have just been a movie.

@lackingsaint:

It took me a while to get into it too. I also had a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around the mechanics. Just keep at it. I don't remember exactly when my impression of the game switched but it did and now it might be my personal GOTY. It still has some jank and the gameplay was never as good as I wanted it to be but it is serviceable most of the time and it can be really intense. But the story is what to play the game for.

@lackingsaint: -_-

I did not enjoy the first 3 hours or so. I thought it was very limiting with the lack of options you have, and it felt like I was forced to play a bad stealth game since making noise will get you killed most of the time. Once you get to a certain area, start to find some more weapons, and remove the annoying weapon sway I feel like the game really opens up and becomes very fun to play.

You definately need to keep playing - you will reach a point where you can start out each section using stealth and when you probably get caught it is actually viable and enjoyable to fight back.

Also, you can kill clickers using the brick as melee - I wish I had known this (it makes noise though).

I started playing earlier this week and i felt exactly the same way as you. I didn't enjoy it at all up to a little way past the section you are at. Now ive gotten a little further and got to grips with it though im loving it. Keep at it.

Do you have anything to say or are you just being an ass?

Happy to hear other comments saying that things pick up, i'll try to push through the current section and see how I feel.

I'm about 1/2 way done I think, I have killed everything I've seen and I'm full on most ammo at all times other than arrows and shivs; I'm playing on normal.

I have been stealth killing anything I can with most of my shivs and arrows ending up in clicker heads.

You are literally at the only part in the game where stealth is the only option.

Don't assume the rest of the game is the same.

@lackingsaint: The user who said he liked it in the first 5 mins is obviously talking about the prologue and the events which take place not "walking to a car it should be a movie" as you put it . also dont call me an ass.

That section you are describing was a pain. I promise you if you get passed it the game will open up more and you have options.

I would suggest you bump it up to hard. Did that, and the lack of resources etc does make a difference to the feel of the game.

Really? Because during the whole section with the guys looking for you out past curfew whenever they saw me they converged and shot me to pieces in a few seconds. I'm also not assuming anything, I made this thread asking people if it changes.

Yes, the prologue, which is exactly what i'm talking about. It isn't a great show of the game at all because nothing you do in that segment plays on any of the mechanics of the game; it's just a cutscene in which you happen to be moving the camera. Calling that a "great section of the game" is like saying something is a great song because you like the music video for it. I also called you an ass because you were choosing to act like a snob and look down at your nose rather than just explain your perspective like a reasonable person. Comment with content if you have something of value to say, you're bringing nothing to the conversation with "-_-".

Again, appreciate the helpful comments. I just got out of the stealth section and am looking forward to being as enthused as most of you are!

@lackingsaint I don't know what to tell you. I loved it throughout. The animations, the credibility of the situation, how your aiming is shit unless you upgrade it and so forth. I loved to get one-shot killed; it made me so much better at the game.

Stealth isn't really mandatory, because in a lot of sections, you can just sprint through and get the fuck out. Unless, of course, you have to '' clear '' the area for Ellie and whomever accompanies you. Once you get the molotovs, no stealth section against clickers will ever block you. Throw one bottle in the middle, throw a molotov = every clicker in the area dead. If there's some left-overs, rinse and repeat. As long as you don't move, then won't ever spot you. Same goes for the normal zombies. They'll dash right towards the bottle you've thrown, and they're not really hard to kill.

Don't go all stealth, every time I had a lot of fun with an encounter was when when I tried to stealth and things went south. Its way more fun to get by the skin of your teeth through a fight. I also played on Hard right out the get go. It made everything more tense because you never have enough ammo.

Thanks for the tip! The Molotov I got towards the end of the segment did save my butt, i'll make sure to keep it in mind for the future.

One of the first upgrades you should do to yourself with meds is "Shiv Master", it allows you to hit triangle when one grabs you and you can kill it.

Otherwise when they grab you, you are done.

@lackingsaint: If people call the prologue a great piece in the game then that's their own opinion so i don't really understand your analogy because most people certainly enjoy a music video instead of the music just like people enjoying games and movies just for the soundtrack so i don't understand where you are coming from.

That molotov trick will make some of the early clicker encounters much less aggravating. If the clickers, or other infected for that matter, are too spread out you can also try to bring them closer together with a brick or bottle first, then molotov the group. As far as upgrades go, improve your aim and get rid of that stupid sway first. After that boosting Joel's listening skills is handy. The rest are whatever. Health was never a real issue if you stealth kill most of the enemies and don't just charge into fights.

I'll say that I loved the prologue, great set up. Then I was on the verge of quitting and never touching the game again for the next several hours. Joel is hard to like at first until you get to spend some time with Ellie. She brings out more personality in him. I really didn't care for Tess at all. The first survivor you meet out in the wilderness/wasteland area, is where I turned around on the game. You've probably seen in the pre-view footage (I'll spoiler tag it just in case) where Joel is hanging upside down shooting infected? Right after that set piece is where things started getting more enjoyable for me.

I enjoy fighting one enemy type and start to hate the game when I fight a different enemy type.

Aside from the prologue, I really didn't enjoy the game's opening too much. A lot of walking and listening followed by stressful stealth/combat sections.

It picks up in Bill's Town and then gets fantastic when the hunters become more prominent. After that point I think it's incredible.

It may be a mindset thing, as the characters and storytelling will have a hard time "getting to you" if you bring preconceptions to the table.

The "it'll pick up" may just be your brain allowing itself to enjoy what a landmark experience this product is.

However, if you don't enjoy it by the end - I would love to read why. ^_^

@lackingsaint: I was in the same boat. I really wasnt impressed. Once I got a bit further then you are, I got into it a lot more. It gets better imo after you reach the area you are currently trying to get to. Actually on my 3rd play through. The game is still overrated, but it is very well done.

I didn't enjoy that part either. Although, once I got to Fall... I REALLY started to enjoy the game. Once you get to Fall, expect greatness.

@lackingsaint: Just a tip for combat. Those bottles and bricks you find lying around can be use to throw at and stunning enemy, which then can be kill in one hit if you have a melee weapon on hand. In one room, I go around chucking bricks at bandits/clickers and instant killing them one by one.

If you get caught, depending on where you are running away is a very viable options. Bandits spotted you? Fall back and lay down a nail trap in wait for closing enemies. I advise you to power through it even if you don't enjoy the combat, the character and story are great.

Pretty much the way most of the game works is attempt stealth, fail, fight your way out. It is definitely possible to stealth your way through the whole game, but it's pretty tough. I ended up trying to stealthily kill as many people as possible before blowing my cover, which I thought was pretty fun.

The first few hours are pretty linear, so keep at it.

If you're not enjoying the gameplay and want to stop playing, I do recommend watching a youtube playthrough to at least get the story part of it. Story is really good in the last third of the game.

I usually don't play what I don't like.

I enjoyed it when I got a few upgrades and I felt like I could survive a fight. I played with the mechanics until I figured out what I like, and realized that I am way into going through these big environments, setting up traps, and doing a whole lot of stealth and shiv kills. I barely used the guns.

Also, bottling a dude, and then running up to him and strangling him was super effective. Pittsburg turned into me smashing some bricks.

It picks up around Bill's Town/Pittsburg.

Yeah, i want to love this game but having a hard time getting into it as well. Love the characters and atmosphere though.

I find that stealth is terrible though, i ended up just killing everything I could since half the time when you try and stealth you get seen and have to kill everything anyway. A cover system would have been nice, and smarter companion AI. Shotgun,shivs, molotof and nail grenades seem the most useful but obviously small supply makes it rougher, which wouldn't be bad if stealth was better.

i dont blame you ultimately, as while i think the game is excellent, people overhyped the hell out of it (i dunno about best game of the generation). and i dunno

, i thought walking dead had a bigger emotional punch

It was literally, hold 'up' the entire time. Stop trying to defend a point that doesn't exist. The prologue, while a nice set piece, was little more than a ploy to pull at your emotions and really had very little to do with the game. While it may very well have been his opinion, posting the comment the way he did, about the game getting going 5 minutes in seemed more trolling than anything else.

Personally I had an issue getting into this game at first. The aiming, while intentional, still sucks, the sonar type hearing mechanic seems overpowered on both the side of the player and the AI and the first encounter with the clickers is 10x harder than any other time in the game. That said, if you can get through it, it's a pretty good game, probably won't live up to the hype you expect, but it's definitely a game worth playing. If you can't get through it, I think someone put a video up that shows all the important plot points and the cutscenes involved. While I still say play it for your own experience, it's an alternative. The best parts of this game seem to come from the unique ways you find to defeat a situation, whether that be, to cautiously go from point a to point b to point c or to carefully take out each guard, just to smash the last one in the face with a bottle and then curb stomp his head into the ground.

Your at the first encounter with the infected, which is also one of the only fights in the game which is mandatory to succeed. There will be plenty of opportunities later on to choose between stealth or action.

i was going through another play-through on hard and was not look forward to this part. anyways thing that happened is the horde noticed me after a couple stealth kills and then had to try to shoot my way out. So I dropped a couple roamers then the clicker was getting 2 close so put more than enough bullets in it to drop it, yet it kept coming till it got me... then game goes on yet everyone was now invisable, like ellie and tess did there whole thing and moved the desk to prop door open yet they where not visable... odd i just waited till next save and reloaded and they came back... lame glitch but actually only made me kill 2 roamers plus the clicker?! dumb bugs...

Watching Day9 play through the game I'm noticing that even on hard, enemies seem to be much more generous with the ammo if you're breaking stealth often. In sections that I stealthed through and saw no ammo drops, he was shooting his way through and walking away sometimes with more bullets than he started with.

So if you're really hating the stealth, try shooting more. Also punching.

speaking of punching its almost a tactic you have to learn on survivor, as your more than likely going to run into a section where your out off bullets and weapons and have then on your ass. good tactic is the sprint then try to get as many hits in before the other roamers/ clicker gets you than try the same thing. lol not pretty but works.

Yeah, the opening couple of hours didn't blow my mind, either. (the prologue was fantastic,though)

There are several fights in the game which require you to kill everyone to proceed. Leaving the hotel for instance, and that was like 10 armed guys.

The AI is broken, but that aside make sure you play on hard and it's pretty great.

This is how I feel about the last of us:

Okay

The first encounter is probably the most difficult part of the game.

I'm at the start of teh journey with Ellie and on my third or fourth Clicker test...It makes me hate teh game. I just got past some damn Clickers and as a reward they trap me in YET ANOTHER room of them? WTF?

I don't get anything out of this game, so far the whole thing has been a chore. I don't find any satisfaction from completing the Clicker parts and I never will. I don't even see the point of those parts to the narrative? Obstacles? What crossing a river couldn't be an obstacle. Reading a map to find the proper road out of town could be an obstacle? Findings rooms that don't have Clickers could have been an obstacle? What they hell Naughty Dog? What sort of violence hard on do you have where 90% of the obstacles have to be one hit kill monsters?

ASSHOLES!!

What a total let down this game is to play.

@monkeyking1969: Unfortunately, I agree. The gameplay is extremely frustrating. The spot your referring with the Clickers is a first of many of these "clear out the enemies to advance" scenarios. However, I would say push through. Its TOTALLY worth it. I'm playing on hard and have died about three dozen times in some areas, I could bump down the difficulty but I'm near the end of the game so I will stubbornly finish. The story beats have been absolutely phenomenal, justifies all the frustration. If there was ever a game that needs to have less combat its this one.

Drop it down to normal or easy, pull up a FAQ for the frequent times you get lost in the level design, and run past enemy encounters when you have to. Ten hours well spent.

funny i was feeling that frustration, almost wishing there was an alternate path you could take that would avoid all that combat. but on the other hand they do throw a lot of just exploring and dialog at you which almost made me crave the action. i think they reached a nice balance but would be fresh to see a game that lets you skip the tediousness of combat which has pretty much been the norm for games since we where jumping on turtles and goombas in mario... I was thinking maybe they should implement a puzzle type of scenario just for challange where you need to find a map, certain supplies etc allowing you to bypass some of the combat. could be intresting?

again like he said if its getting to much for you just put it on easy. god knows its no fun to just lose over and over again. you really have to have a mind set of overcoming a challange. funny how hard multiplayer games are and yet we still run into it head long yet lose our shit when its single player. Id play Left For Dead 1 and 2 on expert PUBS almost knowing i wouldnt make it to the end yet would not play a single player game with nearly the same difficulty, sometimes we just want the story. Makes sense i guess since games are now such a cinematic experiance, its like playing a movie.

This game really isnt that hard. Survivor would have been hard if I didnt already know where the enemies were and the paths they take, but I knew them from the first play through. I stealth kill everything I can, melee the rest, and shoot out if I have to. Few spots you run.