The Last Of Us Part 1 – did game or show do it better? (pic: Sony)
The Tuesday letters page thinks Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is underappreciated, as one reader has some suggestions for Resident Evil 9.
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Scene comparison
I watched the most recent episode of The Last Of Us last night and it was very good. Excellent dialogue and acting that is much better than the games and yet… am I the only one that thought it was less cinematic than the game? The whole ending, with the showdown with the main enemy (trying to avoid spoilers), was pretty blandly directed and visually uninteresting.
The use of fire in the game is much more exciting. It seemed almost out of place in the show, as it wasn’t always visible in shot, like they knew it had to be there but didn’t really have the time to build it up or make it a proper part of the scene.
In the game that whole section is very tense and stealthy, it always reminded me of the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park. In the show it’s over quickly and there’s very little sense of danger, because it’s obvious Ellie isn’t actually going to die. Except… in the game she could die. You could fail and if you never beat that section (which is unlikely, admittedly) she’d stay dead.
In some ways The Last Of Us is better as a TV show but I still think that even with a linear narrative like this video games are still intrinsically more interesting.
Tater
Star Souls
I know it wasn’t a straight clone and was pulling ideas from a number of different games, but I don’t feel Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order really gets enough credit for helping to popularise the Dark Souls style of game. It was a bit late to the party you could argue but it was a Star Wars game, so ultra mainstream and played by far more people than any From game up till that point (it did 20+ million by the end, according to Wikipedia, which is the same as Elden Ring).
It wasn’t super hard but it wasn’t easy either and I was impressed by the lack of hand-holding and the fact that it kind of left you to your own devices, to work out how to play and what was going on. Some of the steals, like the equivalents of bonfires, were a bit of a stretch but otherwise I think it’s one of the best Soulslikes around, especially for newcomers.
I really hope that Survivor doesn’t try to dumb any of that down. Fast travel is fine, even From games have that, but I’m all for it being harder than before, not easier.
Variable
Breath of the Metroid
Loving all the love for Metroid Prime at the moment but I still have no idea what to expect from Metroid Prime 4. We’ve never been any clue as far as I’m aware and considering the third game was on the Wii it just shows you how long ago it is since there’s been a new one. I do remember the developers talking about how they wanted to add more side quests and open world elements to 3 though and I’m interested to see if that will still be the case.
The obvious guess for any Nintendo sequel at the moment is that it’ll be open world – even Kirby kind of went there – so I don’t see that as much of a stretch for Metroid, even if it’s hard to reconcile that with a Metroidvania style design.
I do hope it’s as unique a take on the series as the original was but I worry that it will actually be quite conservative and trying to rerun the popular parts of Metroid Prime 1. We’ll see, but given how much of a downgrade even just Metroid Prime 2 was this is going to be a very difficult then to get right.
Tesla
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Second best
So last week I managed to 100% God Of War Ragnarök. Despite the many hours I was willing to put into the game I am surprised by the record number of BAFTAs it was nominated for. Although there are improvements on the first game (variety of enemies being a major one) I don’t consider it to be the superior entry. I feel the combat was a step backwards and I found myself less experimental when approaching enemy encounters.
My main gripe is with the storytelling. The dialogue is good throughout, but the cinematics (unskippable!) and slow sections broke up the pace of the game in a way that seemed unnatural and forced. My guess is Santa Monica wanted to emulate Naughty Dog and other developers in favouring an on-the-rails experience, sacrificing interaction for visual storytelling. Perhaps this might elicit the interest of TV producers but makes for a poor gaming experience.
ESS-DEE-95 (PSN ID)
GC: We agree.
Twin track Evil
I agree that there’s not much point remake Resident Evil 5 or any of the other games beyond 4, especially as they’ve already said they’re not doing CODE: Veronica. Maybe something could be done with Resident Evil 1 again but it really is impossible to make an action game, so I can only really see there being a point in VR, and yet the problem with that is that no only do you need the hardware but it’d probably be terrifying!
Rather than trying to keep the remake bandwagon rolling my suggestion would be to create two streams of games: one third person with the old characters and one first person with the new ones. You could have them interacting and part of the same universe but this would allow you to have the best of both worlds and not every new game would have to do everything that fans want at first.
I believe Capcom has said the next mainline game will be first person, but beyond that I don’t think we know anything. I hope there is a long term plan for the series. It doesn’t have to be mine but I believe Resident Evil now has the longest running story ever in gaming and I’d like to think that it was being built up to something in terms of both plot and gameplay, rather than just making things up in isolation for each sequel.
Ragu
Brown trousers
I’ve a bone to pick with GC. Why, when I last wrote in and mentioned that I was about to start Resident Evil Village in VR, and that I was going in blind, did you not feel inclined to advise me to wear a Huggies fully absorbent protective layer when going through the Beneviento House chapter?
Why didn’t you mention that I’m going to be hearing something most unpleasant and viewing something even more distasteful to the palette down in the bleak darkness? The OLED black levels didn’t help either. Part P.T., part Ring (Japanese one, not the rubbish American version) it’s a masterclass in tension building.
You know something is amiss but there’s no cheap shocks. It cranks up the fear factor through clever pacing. The VR aspect made it almost unplayable, especially as it fooled me into actually holding my breath whilst hiding in the cupboards.
There’s plenty of discussion about how movies still have better narratives, both in terms of structure and delivery, but one area where games easily top the movie industry is horror. Whilst there are numerous classic psychological horror movies that play on your nerves none ever gave me the volition to panic scream at a slow as molasses elevator door, ‘By ye gods will you opeeeennn!’
Thankfully I avoided dying, so was spared the game over scene (watch it on YouTube, should you wish to have nightmares) Great game in VR though.
Wonk
The Last of Mario
I thought the latest episode of The Last Of Us was absolutely superb, in my opinion the whole series has been the best bit of telly I’ve watched in a while.
Whilst it is a very different proposition, and was something I was not bothered about actually happening until I watched the trailer recently, I do hope The Super Mario Bros. Movie is up to similar quality in terms of what they are trying to achieve.
John Atkinson
GC: Until this moment it never occurred to us that the two would ever be compared.
Exception to the rule
Nintendo goes multiplatform I know, this is a stretch… Nintendo has never, ever, published a game outside of their own consoles, and this strategy works for them as a charm, to keep their ecosystem healthy and also sells hardware. But, I believe that they should break this rule, only for this one exception: Splatoon.
Hear me out. This has to be a game as a service and yes, I mean Splatoon on PC and maybe even on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S (this would be epic!). Splatoon is a franchise that has an enormous potential if it could grow out of the Switch. It’s a shooter that appeals to a big audience, that probably don’t like more ‘hardcore’ shooters like Call Of Duty. Nintendo could even dare build their own metaverse, as this is a game that also has a community interacting and doing stuff outside battles in the city; there are even some kind of parties on special occasions.
They could expand a lot more in this regard, and achieve a metaverse that could compete with Fortnite, and even make Mark Zuckerberg jealous. From a monetary perspective, I was saying before it should be a game as a service. Yes, the game should be free to play. Splatoon is a game that is very fashion forward, in general people like to look unique and cool… this is a no-brainer. This makes it perfect for having the game for free, and later charging astronomic amounts for cosmetics.
This has the potential of having a better profitability plan than it currently has, where they sell the game once for £50 in a closed ecosystem. Also, I believe Splatoon is a shooter that appeals to Gen Z and even younger ones. This is a perfect opportunity to capture a young audience at large global scale and get them to love Nintendo, and eventually getting them into their ecosystem.
I know, having a Nintendo game multiplatform is crazy but they should break this mould for once and dare to try new ways. Maybe, if this is too much for Nintendo to swallow, they could make it better by publishing Splatoon campaign games, more story driven, that further expands the lore of the franchise and make these games exclusive for their hardware.
A lot of game publishers try and fail miserably to create their games as a service and as I see it, Nintendo is sleeping on a very good opportunity with Splatoon; profitability-wise and also for expanding the brand to new horizons at epic scales. Come on! Go fly free Nintendo!
Anon
Inbox also-rans
Just a quick heads up, but that No Paper Switch game is available on the UK eShop under the name Give Me Toilet Paper. It’s £3.60 and my four-year-old thinks it’s the funniest thing he’s ever seen. Definitely has mad PS1 vibes about it.
Eiichihoba (PSN ID)
GC: So it is! Thanks for that, we’ve credited you in our story about it.
Just a note to people that probably won’t play it otherwise but Guilty Gear Strive is going on Game Pass on March 7. If you want to play an amazing looking fighting game that isn’t Street Fighter, Tekken, or Mortal Kombat I strongly recommend.
Cable
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was inspired by reader Xane, who asks what famous game or franchise have you never played?
Many video games may be considered all-time classics but which ones have never played yourself? Did you avoid the game on purpose or is it just something you never got round to – or were unable to play because it was on a format you didn’t own?
Do you make an effort to play critically acclaimed games even if they don’t seem quite your sort of thing? Have you ever been surprised by a classic game because it was something different to what you assumed?
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The small print
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The Tuesday letters page thinks Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is underappreciated, as one reader has some suggestions for Resident Evil 9.