The Last of Us: Factions 2 - Some call it a Boat Bedroom, Others Call it a Wharf

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Last of Us: Factions 2 - Some call it a Boat Bedroom, Others Call it a Wharf

Dapper_Swindler: Feb 14, 2012; Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

my copy arrved in the mail and is installing, i am curious how i will feel.

Sycophantry posted:

I have enjoyed the combat/gameplay in every Uncharted and Last of Us game so I guess I'm just weird. Though I do think that the encounters in UC4 and Last of Us 2 could be shaved down a bit. There's plenty of cool fights and set-pieces but they do drag on longer than they really need to.

i am a weird person, so i will probably like the fact that their is more combat sequences.

Cardiovorax posted:

There is and they get shat on massively, which is pretty much the only real representation other than a horrid, stereotypical mockery of a real person that transpeople ever seem to get in videogames, or really much of popular fiction in general. I may be annoyed with what developers tend to do with gay men when it comes to that kind of thing, but trans folks get shafted in a way I really wouldn't wish on anyone. Can't have a trans person who's just kind of there and living a normal life alongside the rest of the characters, nope.

agreed but they are trying to escape a life living in a backwards ludite hosed up reactionary cult that disembowels and tortures folks for anything and everything. they dont seem down on Lev living at all.

Dewgy posted:

I haven't gotten to the bulk of their story yet, but I'm not gonna lie, as someone who isn't trans, Lev getting deadnamed by random Scars in the woods hunting for him filled me with this intense sense of dread, like if they caught up with us some seriously bad poo poo was gonna happen to my new buddy. In a game where everyone involved in the plot is getting poo poo on constantly in every way, that was an intensely personal way of making the enemies feel menacing, and it speaks enormous volumes about their culture and ideals while simultaneously gutting any semblance of them actually being a misunderstood force for good. I do kind of get that it'd be nice to get some kind of more normalized representation, but admittedly you'd probably just end up with someone else who gets randomly shot in the face.

I guess I get that as a trope it gets tiring, but it seems to work really well in the context of this specific story.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2020 23:18

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 19:13

Dapper_Swindler: Feb 14, 2012; Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

BeanpolePeckerwood posted:

It's arguable enought that I'll happily argue it for you right now. The window dressing of TLOU's thematic platform presents a bleak prospect for anyone who hold's Human Civilization in high regard, but as you've probably seen even in the absence of civilization humanity didn't die out, it adapted and lived on, and nature returned and was brought back towards a sort of balance that predated the Anthropocene. So sure, the title flirts with apocalyptic dystopian sentiment and the devastating measures humans are willing to take to assert control over one another, but really it's a push-pull argument about what is more important hold onto and what ultimately defines our species: Human Civilization or Human Morality, and I'm of the opinion that the devs were tangentially familiar enough with anarcho-primitivist writing (despite some of its contradictions) to side with the latter.

yeah. it has cynicism in it, but i view last of us more inline with Metro series type of apocalypses. societies are still around and operate as they did before but on a smaller scale and with idiologies and poo poo still being held over from the old world and poo poo but their is hope for humanity, somewhat.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2020 06:27

Dapper_Swindler: Feb 14, 2012; Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

Aphex- posted:

So I read the first page of the spoiler thread and lmao it said that Joel AND Ellie AND Dina die so I'm assuming the rest of the thread/leaks are just filled with more dumb misinformation.

Non spoiler thread discussion but actual story spoiler talk - I don't really get why a vaccine is all that important, places like Jackson seem to be rebuilding just fine. They all have gas masks so as long as they don't inhale spores or get bitten, there's no issue. Yeah it would be better with a vaccine but the lack of one isn't stopping society from rebuilding and humanity slowly recovering.

Also, in the flashback to the doctor and Marlene discussing the surgery, the doctor was talking about Ellie being the 'host' for what's in her brain that they need to extract which I found interesting. Maybe it's some kind of parasite that has the immunity?

if you have a vaccine and are able to spread it around it means the virus will eventually die out theoretically and it makes it easier to whip out nests. it would also make the fireflies an actual power. also cordcyps is a parasite fugi. thats its whole thing. its just her case didnt go all the way.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2020 19:10

Dapper_Swindler: Feb 14, 2012; Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C5F9uCifD4

ellies theme for the game basicaly.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2020 05:37

Dapper_Swindler: Feb 14, 2012; Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

a new study bible! posted:

Short list:

I think that it's obvious that Abby is the character that they player is supposed to empathize with the most. Problem is she's a war criminal. Abby shows no qualms about being a happy and productive member of an apartheid state, using hidden explosives to kill civilians, or unquestioningly taking orders from a torturer.

Abby is only forced to come to terms with her engagement in these activities in the lightest possible method. She is never directly confronted by Lev or Owen. She never has to actually confront Isaac. The light bit of introspection she does with regards to this only comes because she personally meets and interacts with a Seraphite, and she only does that because she wants to steal Owen from Mel. Naughty Dog is taking all these efforts to justify how Abby isn't some monstrous psycho who was just killing Joel for fun, but she kills lots of people for fun everyday.

On that topic, the game justifies Abby by showing us scenes of her dad and what a good guy he was. Except that he still was prepared to murder an unconscious teenager. Ellie never consented to be killed to make a cure, so the whole zoo flashback fell completely flat. Why do I care that he is going to free a zebra when he is prepared to murder a child? In the flashback Abby says that she would want to sacrifice herself, but that isn't Abby's decision to make. This is important because it cuts the legs from under how the game wants to justify Abby- her father wasn't murdered by Joel. Joel was literally defending an unconscious child from death.

Despite being a story about two women who are bent on destroying each other, almost all of the complication and plot is still driven forward by men. Part of this is the game's obsession with motherhood and crafting parallels with Abby and Ellie.

both ellie and abby are both super broken people in a hell world. none of them are really good people and are flawed as gently caress and dont act rationally. i dont think that makes it a chud game though.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 01:05

Dapper_Swindler: Feb 14, 2012; Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

a new study bible! posted:

I don't think it's a chud game at all! Sorry to give that impression. I was really responding to the uninformed chud comments that call this game SJW propaganda. It's pretty neoliberal.

its generic liberal poo poo. why care about what the chuds thing. they legit believe the stupids poo poo they see repeated on image boards by trolls who themselves believe the dumb poo poo. i never went into the game thinking it would be some super far left thing.

veni veni veni posted:

I think you are missing the forest for the trees here by expecting a character to be wholly good in a series that entirely revolves extremely flawed characters. Much like Ellie and Joel, Abby has done some poo poo, and you can still empathize with her and want her to get got for the things she has done at the same time. Which I think is pretty much the point of her whole character. Not "see the bad guys aren't actually bad". The point is that it's complicated

that too.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 01:13

Dapper_Swindler: Feb 14, 2012; Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

a new study bible! posted:

I dig what you are saying. I have been thinking all day about how to express why I am upset by this game, and part of my specific trouble is that I think there's a meta-commentary to be made regarding the specific decisions that ND made with both characters, where they live, and how they fit into their respective societies. That's why I mentioned that it matters whether ND favors a specific character.

This is separate from my story criticism, but also once you get into meta poo poo it all becomes blended. Apologies.

Authorial intent doesn't matter. I'd read your thesis.

i mean no offense but you can just not like it. there are plenty of things i didnt like because of the story or characters and such and i dont need to put a critical political lense of it to justify my dislike. like i dont like ozark the show because i find the characters to be too iredeably lovely and awful and i just want them to die. i am weird when it comes to how bad a character in media i consume is. i also have less tolerance for it in shows and movies than i do in games and books. anyway my point is people can just not like something. no offense.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 06:31

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 19:13

Dapper_Swindler: Feb 14, 2012; Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

a new study bible! posted:

I can agree that I would have liked this story to take a more defined position. Back in the day, I thought that TLOU was the best game I had ever played specifically because of the ending, but I never really considered it to be very ambiguous. I just always kind of assumed that Ellie immediately sniffed out Joel's bullshit but also recognized that going back was impossible. I appreciated that the game didn't need to say it. I think that this game lacks a lot of that subtlety, but I also haven't replayed TLOU, so maybe I'm just remembering it differently.

i agree with you there. i like part 2 alot but it doesnt have as much "unsaid" at times.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 06:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Last of Us: Factions 2 - Some call it a Boat Bedroom, Others Call it a Wharf