The Last of Us™ Remastered PS4 Part 2: YTF Can't I Carry Two Bricks?
0SPOILER ALERT: Ellie doesn't die in this video.
Hooray for Hollywood horror games. Where players slog through dank exposition-dumping corridors while holding "Up" on the control stick for 20 hours.
The Last of Us is disturbing, but not in the way you’re thinking.
Last of Us is a pretentious content tour made by obviously skilled video game artisans who wanted to make a “prestige” television series. Like Grand Theft Auto’s 3D games, Red Dead Redemption 2, Metal Gear Solid, and so many other AAA “Hollywood Games”, Last of Us is a vanity project by people who were gifted a massive budget to tell an ambitious story, but were forced to make a video game instead.
Like many modern AAA games, it is a long winding corridor where characters are forced to creep slowly forward while unskippable cutscenes play out through dialogue. The lack of control during these extended sequences is disturbing.
Sometimes, a button prompt will appear on screen, as in Dragon’s Lair, where the player has to Press The Button To Not Die. The lack of strategy and creativity allowed during these sequences is disturbing.
Other times, you are given a wider corridor to explore, where sandbox gameplay occurs in self-contained areas. You have more freedom here, but the mechanics are still remarkably limiting.
You cannot carry two separate melee weapons simultaneously. If you are carrying a brick, and see a bottle, you must put down the brick, in order to pick up the bottle. You also cannot carry two bricks or bottles at once. You also cannot order your companion to carry extra bricks and bottle for you. You may only grab bricks from designated areas, which are conservatively laid out. You are surrounded by crumbling buildings, by the way. Did I mention that the melee weapons break after being used only a few times? This inane level of survival horror restriction is disturbing.
You also cannot hoard bullets, if you choose to conserve your ammunition. I managed to subdue dozens of armed enemies in the first 4 hours of the game, yet none of them yielded a single bullet or gun. More disturbing resource famine, baked in the game’s design.
I can be charitable, however. Some of the dialogue and performances are quite good. The developers clearly had a king’s budget available to their artists and animators. The blockbuster machinima they have made is worthy of note. It is an achievement of scale, shoved into the claustrophobic confines of a forward-scrolling survival horror corridor parade where pushing the invisible walls of the navigational mesh sometimes leads to a fail state. (Don’t drift too far from the gas station escape path during the prologue!) Phenomenal capitalist power, in an itty bitty gaming space. Gaming’s prettiest prison. Disturbingly detailed dungeoneering.
But I said I would be charitable. Not every blockbuster needs to be some open-world vacation, like Skyrim, Just Cause 2, Far Cry 3, or No Man’s Sky. Sometimes, a roller coaster of a haunted house is enough to make an impression. Lots of art in about being taken for the ride, and artfully using the restrictions of the medium to great effect. Great movies are “trapped” by their passive storytelling and static camera movement. Great music is “trapped” by the limits of audio engineering, along with lesser quality of their audience’s playback technology. Great literature is “trapped” by the limits of the printed word, and the audience’s reading comprehension speed.
But sheesh… can I at least carry TWO fragile bricks in this crumbling wasteland? Where armed humans can’t be reliably looted for ammo?
In a video game world of John Wicks, Last of Us is Oscar Bait, like The Queen. Or V: The Final Battle. Or maybe that episode of Transformers where the benevolent robots get an attitude adjustment and become wrecking machines (“Attack of the Autobots”).
XBox One games played offline (installed from the disc; no Internet connection required):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6fa9TXHnIAoleBaTeiTRlA/search?query=xb1
NES Classic games played on original hardware and the NES Classic Mini:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdMQF6K4ZBXMaPO0pCTwJwPalw-rOq8tc
SNES Classic games played on original hardware and the SNES Classic Mini:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGf_v9CgybQ&list=PLdMQF6K4ZBXN2OBhDGU0rYkjd_VlFDA1E
My collection of videos from Sega Genesis and Megadrive games, from the Genesis Mini and other official collections:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdMQF6K4ZBXN8RUdo0HoYsJJ6V_9PRfLO
My videos from the TurboGrafx-16 Mini (also known as the PC Engine Mini):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdMQF6K4ZBXMYcqrL4sukUxba6ax1VgKh
60 fps HD content captured via HDMI with the AverMedia Portable Plus 2:
https://www.amazon.com/AVerMedia-Portable-Pass-Through-Playstation-GC513/dp/B0763TFZWT