MovieChat Forums > The Last of Us (2013) Discussion > Many cookbooks makes decent but unorigin...

Many cookbooks makes decent but unoriginal broth

posted 7 years ago by Picnic10
6 replies | jump to latest

Playing The Last of Us feels like every single part is infused with the DNA of some earlier videogame or movie. In some cases, it might be because a certain design choice has long become a staple of games in general but in other cases it either seems like open homage or borrowing from the best in the hope that it's not too obvious.

Playing the game, I was reminded of the following in certain design decisions:

Half Life 2
Silent Hill 3 (particularly in the DLC Left Behind- no doubt. A carousel and mannequins and a shopping centre)
Max Payne
Resident Evil
Alan Wake
Red Dead Redemption
I am Legend
Tomb Raider (maybe The Last of Us did hunting first in tense linear / wide linear adventure games)
(and, of course, Uncharted 2, for the ladder dropping but that's Naughty Dog's own game anyway)

[–] AtheistRevolution 7 years ago

It played more like the classic apocalypse movie mixed in with elements from movies like The Road.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

[–] Darth_Qaidous 7 years ago

Expecting 100% originality in a game is an impossible expectation.

It's all about execution. TLOU was mostly, if not completely, executed to perfection. In borrowing from other stories, regardless of media, TLOU played homage perfectly to those stories to make one of the best stories ever told in the video game medium.

[–] bakerstreetdozen 7 years ago

100% originality in any medium is a rarity. It is, as you say, in the execution, and this was beautifully done.

--
Why don't you take a pill, bake a cake, go read the encyclopaedia.

[–] Picnic10 7 years ago

Yes, the execution was brilliantly done. I also loved the multiplayer. But I feel that, gameplay wise, Naughty Dog are better at making multiplayer games than making single player games these days because they keep on letting the heaviness of the story dictate the action. Uncharted 4's single player, with its huge amounts of climbing and flashbacks to earlier times, is a case of character developing getting in the way of action. Uncharted 2 got the balance right.
I do love Uncharted 4's multiplayer though.

[–] stefanheikel 7 years ago

How could you forget Children of Men!?

[–] Towelie_Towel (1700) 2 years ago

And The Walking Dead video game, that came out a couple of years before.