Ghost's Angry Reviews: Pokemon X and Y PART 1

This is your standard spoiler warning.  If you don't want Pokémon X and Y spoiled then I suggest you read with caution or just simply walk away.

Note: This review has been split into two parts due to it's massive length


Ghost here, thanks for joining!

Knock Knock - Who's there?

IT'S POKEMON TIME AGAIN!

That's right ladies and gentlemen on October 12, 2013 Nintendo released it's latest in a long line of Pokémon games with the brand new Pokémon X and Y version for the 3DS.  Being such a fanatical nerd I had to get the new title even though that meant purchasing a 3DS which I had held off doing.  Nevertheless I bought my 3DS and my Y version and began playing.  Every version just like every game has it's ups and downs and this was no different.  Game Freak took several risks this time around which is refreshing to see.  Some of them pay off while others... not so much.  So which parts soar like Ho-oh and which parts stink like the underside of a Bidoof?   Let's dive right in and see as I review...

Pokémon X and Y

Pokémon X and Y has quite a few unique qualities about it.  It has several brand new features, it's the first handheld game to utilize the Pokémon Colosseum fighting sequences, it's the first Pokémon game in 3D, and it's got a brand new region that is 100% completely original that is in no way inspired by anythi...

Or it's just France... whatever

But rather than wander aimlessly through the french riviera... let's take this game in categories shall we?

The Characters

You can't play a role playing game without first having a character to play as.  Just as every game since Pokémon Crystal version you can choose the gender of your character.  However in X and Y you can also choose your gender... sort of.  After you pick your gender you get to select between three looks; light skin with blonde hair, light skin with black hair, and dark skin with dark hair. 

Now, I do realize this leaves those among us with a more "in between" skin tone left to choose between one or the other... I think this is a step in the right direction.  I've always wanted customization of my character and we're finally getting it.. Pokémon as a whole is moving in a more diverse direction and seeing as how they only in last generation even acklnoweldged the existance of people with dark skin then I'd say we're moving towards a good goal.  I'm sure here in a few games we may even have a full range of customization cause Pokémon as a whole isn't one to be racially insensitive or succumb to stereotypes right?

RIGHT??

The main character's name are Calem and Serena... Don't even get me started on "Calem" cause that's quite easily one of the dumbest names I've heard in awhile.  It's on par with someone naming their child "Ashelee" just cause they don't want it to be spelled "Ashley"... but I digress.   I won't really go into anything else about our mains cause they are basically nothing more than a grab bag of previous generations lumped into one. 

So instead let's look at some of the other characters briefly.

Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor

I'm calling it now... the fat one is going to be a joke

Shauna, Tierno and Trevor start their journey with you and your rival at the exact same time and help you along the way by fighting the villains, giving you stuff, or just having slightly sentimental moments like walking across into your first route with wild pokemon all together. 

Shauna is the girl who desperately needs some longer shorts.  I sure wouldn't let my 10 year old out the door wearing that!  She is the more helpful of the three as she partakes in the main story line a bit, helps you get the pokeflute, and is just a generalized best friend/love interest in the story.  She's just glad to be along for the ride and is loving every second of being on a grand adventure.

Trevor is the short kid with the helmet hair.  His goal is to fill his pokedex and... that's about it.  I really don't know why he was included in the bunch cause he was so forgettable I had to look up his name. 

Tierno is the rotund child.  He doesn't really care that much about pokémon battles whatsoever.  He just wants to dance and show off his sweet moves.....  I...   Oh alright go ahead and play it.

Shauna is the only one of the group who is honestly worth the effort spent on them.  Forgettable Kid and Truffle Shuffle should have been left on the cutting room floor.

Professor Sycamore

I'll cut straight to the point.  Professor Sycamore is kind of a douchebag. He's easily my least favorite professor and that's saying something since my dislike for lazy frat-boy Professor Birch is fairly high.  I understand wanting to change the formula just a bit from the constant set up by Red and Blue but when you change a character into someone the players can't stand, you've changed too much.

First he doesn't even show up to give you your starter or your pokedex.  Now I realize Juniper didn't either, but she wasn't as annoying as the rest of what this guy does.  You don't end up meeting this guy till around the half-way point towards your 2nd gym badge and when he first sees you he fights you with 3 starters from another region.  WUT?  He does give you one of those starters but then he mostly minds his own business till after you've defeated the villains.  He then fights you again with the fully evolved versions of the Kanto starters and says that he has a treasure hidden in the town he fights you in.  A treasure huh?  Maybe it's another mega stone or something really awesome for your journey.  NOPE instead you find in the train station where his younger self had VANDALIZED THE WALL with a message to his future self asking if his dreams had come true and he had a good life. 

.... I don't have words for this level of douchebaggery.  Treasure??!!  PSSSHH

but wait there's more!!  Throughout the gameplay Sycamore keeps hanging out with this guy called Lysandre.  A tall menacing dude who dresses sharply, talks about ideas that Team Flare keeps holding dear to them, keeps being mysterious and openly voicing opinions that are a bit dangerous.

Obvious villain is obvious

Yet for some reason Sycamore can't put 2 and 2 together to realize that he's the head of Team Flare and his encouragement of Lysandre may have prompted him to continue with is plan.

The Story

 Obviously the "story" of any Pokémon game is a kid going on an adventure defeating 8 gym leaders and becoming the most powerful trainer in the region.  That's a simply copy/paste that all handheld Pokémon games will have.  Any story that presents itself that one can actually talk about is completely centered around the villainous team which this time is Team Flare. 

When you first meet Team Flare they are hanging out in Glittering Cave which is right around the time you get your second gym badge.  What sort of dastardly thing are they doing?  They're just sort of minding their own business trying to get fossils to collect/revive/use.  Yes they're being massive douchefaces with their bad attitude but they aren't really harming much of anyone just telling people they want to do what they want to do and if you want to stop them from minding their own business then you'll have a battle on your hands.

Which... If you think about it isn't exactly that far off from what YOU are doing throughout the game.  You're just doing whatever you want to do you just aren't having a bad attitude about it.  Just think of the number of children and elderly people you've met along your way that you've crushed their little friends just to progress on to being the top trainer in the world.  Think of all the poor little feinted pokémon out there lying in the grass just to give you experience.  After clearing out Team Flare from this cave and beating the Champion you too were back in this cave finding fossils yourself.  Who's to say what's really good and bad here and

PIKA PIKA PIIIKAAA  (Translation: Get on with it!)

 ... nevermind that then moving hastily along


Not long after that you meet Team Flare again on route 10  examining some ancient stones that are sticking up from the ground.  And if they find the hole in the center of the stones by avoiding the bears and cave men then they get to go an a trippy adventure through the lair of a bunch of aliens and..

oh wait.. .wrong game my bad... where was I?

Earlier in the game you noticed the town of Lumiose City (A.K.A. Paris) has had a large electrical outage.  Well it turns out that Team Flare is in charge of that so you go to the power plant to see the admins discussing that it was powering some sort of device but leave promptly when you defeat them restoring power to the rest of the city.  It's only now that you've met them for the 3rd time are they actually doing anything that would be seen as villainous and it's only now that they get mildly interesting.

The next place you meet them is something I'm honestly surprised we haven't seen before now.  Team Flare has taken over the PokeBall Factory in order to steal as many pokeballs as possible to capture lots and lots of pokémon.  After navigating the factory you send them packing despite them having already stolen as many as they need.

Jump forward a couple of cities and we reach the Frost Cavern where Team Flare is doing something incredibly odd.  A team mostly ruling with Fire and Poison types an admin wishes to catch the Abomasnow (a grass/ice type) which was guarding the cavern because he was "brimming with energy"  whatever that means.  After you defeat her, she leaves the Abomasnow alone and leaves the cavern entirely.

They are then silent for awhile before the final confrontation happens.  Inside Lumiose City is a secret door to Lysandre Labs, the home of Team Flare.  After battling your way through you'll come across someone standing in a jail cell who asks you to listen to his story.

This man's name is Az.  He explains that 3,000 years ago there was a King who loved his pokémon very much.  There was a war however and the pokémon died.  Being so distraught with grief the King commanded that a machine be built to overcome death.  And so such a machine was built.  Using the life force of hundreds of living pokémon, the pokémon came back to life and as such the machine became a weapon which could destroy all life force around it granting life once more. The pokémon left the King out of shame for his actions and the King began wandering the world in search for the pokémon and for meaning to life.  Az explained the he was in fact that King.  

----------------------------------------------

Now wait a minute... this sounds really familiar.  Where have I heard of this before?  An ancient man with apparent immortality running around the world thanks to some sort of circular machine/device that stole the souls of those around them to power it up.  HMMMM OH THAT'S RIGHT

This is directly ripped off of Hoenheim's story from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.  Which... doesn't bother me anywhere near as much as I figured it would. Brotherhood is one of the greatest television shows ever created and if you haven't given it a chance then I highly suggest you do so.  It's long been my philosophy that if you're going to rip something off, don't rip off something you've already done, and rip off something that is great, so maybe some of its greatness will build your product up.  In this case it payed off.

The Team Flare storyline as a whole is very haphazard and random.  Nothing really builds too greatly off the other and nothing is terribly important or interesting.  If they hadn't tapped into Fullmetal, then this would have easily been the worst and most ridiculous team of villains to date.  Even WITH the help of Fullmetal it's weak at best because the only real interesting things that come out of this story are all ripped straight from Hoenheim... but anyway back to the story

---------------------------------------------

After listening to Az, you get a choice to destroy the weapon or to fire the weapon and survive with Team Flare.  However once you get there you ultimately don't have a choice.  If you turn on the weapon you still have to go defeat Lysandre and stop the weapon from destroying the world and if you turn off the weapon then it gets turned on anyway by... the love child of King Kai and Dr. Eggman apparently.

 

Next stop is Genosage town where Stonehenge was sitting to find a new device in the middle of the town and the rocks that were previously there now holding a door.  Keep battling your way down to the bottom and defeat all the admins to rescue the legendary pokémon of your game being used to power the machine.  After capturing it Lysandre....

Who apparently has turned into Doctor Octopus for no reason whatsoever... challenges you to a final battle.  Defeating him causes him to turn on the machine with its remaining power to, in turn, destroy both the machine and himself.

This story is... weak really.  I know I stated this before but the stuff with Hoenhei..er... I mean Az is about the only interesting bits of the encounters with the villains.  The rest of their actions seem kinda disjointed and random.  Black and White put such a focus on the story that this one just falls flat.  Not to mention that Xerneas or Yveltal... you know THE GUYS ON THE COVER OF THE GAMES are just sorta shoved in at the last second.  Nothing really to build up that they would be of any use.. no mystery to their existence like that of Palkia or Dialgia.  They are basically glorified Electrode powering the Team Rocket base.

BULLCRAP!

Well enough about those shenanigans..  let's get to what everybody wants to talk about 

The New Pokémon

With each new version we get several brand new creatures to collect, love and battle.  Generally this number is anywhere between 100 and 160.  So how many new guys did we see this round? 

70

Well...that's not terrible I guess...

Let's take a look at some of these new guys shall we?

- Well it's no wonder the Moulin Rouge is closing with this type of thing walking around.  I've literally refused to learn the name of this creature and just call it "Diaper Bird"

 - Rita Repulsa called... she's missing one of her monsters to fight the Power Rangers

 - Geez can those eyes get any more creepy??!!  It's burning a hole in my very existence

 - Yes because that's JUST what we needed.  Another Pikachu

 - THAT IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING

 - Well it's nice to see that Jack Black still has a career with Nacho Libre 2

- YES why that's exactly what we needed as well.  Something ELSE ripping off Princess Mononoke

But at least this one doesn't have Kristen Stewart in it...

*shudders*  Let's not even talk about that

- BAHAHAHA  Those are probably some of the dumbest looking things I've seen in awhile and I remember stunfisk quite vividly.  Look at that evolution.  What on earth were they thinking??!!  Surely this is some sort of joke!  What does this turn into?  Some sort of Grass type snorlax??

ummm... nevermind then

Overall, the inclusions this time are actually not that bad.  There were some very unique ideas out there and all of these truly feel like they are creatures that would belong in this universe unlike previous versions

AHEM

They chose to go for quality instead of quantity this time around and that's OK by me. With very few exceptions such as Carbink who honestly looks like it should have an evolution they just didn't get around to creating... this generation actually surprised me with the level of quality and genuine feel to the time and care they took with these guys.  However I haven't yet discussed the biggest change with the pokémon yet and that was something they haven't done since the second generation.. introduce a new type.

Now before I start my griping session I'd just like to say that... I actually don't mind the addition of a new type.  It has shaken things up for the first time in a decade with all us older people now on almost the same playing field as new character with us having to learn the ins and outs of a new type.  I don't even mind the fact that the type is "fairy"  it fits for the universe.   It's the execution of this new typing that I dislike.  Let me explain.

Fairy types in this generation are walking a fine line that I honestly thought was impossible.  They are teetering on the edge of being completely inconsequential and overlooked while also teetering on the edge of being massively overpowered.  They are acting very similar to how psychic types reacted in Gen 1.  The weak ones were all over in the wild, very few people in-game actually had one but when you finally encountered a gym full of them they have so expertly covered their weaknesses that it becomes quite difficult.

I'll speak from personal experience on this.  Since Fairies are weak to Poison and Steel I decided to train up a Crobat because he's my favorite poison type.  Finally got him evolved and leveled up.  Since fairy types are weak to poison, having a Crobat should make chump change of these guys right?

LOLNOPE

Everywhere I turned there were electric type moves to destroy my flying type bat... or there were steel/fairies such as the case with klefki and mawile.  So I decided to box up my Crobat and use Aegislash's Iron Head attack since they are weak to Steel type attacks

LOLIDIOT

Oh that's right.  Steel/Fairies everywhere.   So while I realize that they have Fire and Ground type weaknesses I basically had to make sure I was using something that WASN'T strong against the type of the gym whatsoever but instead played off the weaknesses of their secondary type. 

And that right there is where the Overpowered comes from too.  It's silly to attempt to plan for fighting a fairy type because their weaknesses are covered so well all around.  It's not prudent to attempt to have something that can combat them... but then when someone shows up with a Clefable or Gardevior they will rape face with them cause you didn't have anything to combat them because they are too tricky to figure out a defense for especially when they resist fighting and dark type moves (which are often strong against their other type) and they are strong against Ghost, Dragon and Fighting.

OH and speaking of dragon...

Fairy Types take no damage from Dragon Attacks

Yup you heard me right.  Fairy types take no damage at all from dragons.  You know.. the usual saviors of competitive play are now kinda useless against things such as Marril or Jigglypuff.... which honestly has started some rather hilarious shenanigans online

While I agree that dragons were probably a little overpowered before but they were easily enough gotten around for the most part but this is just silly. 

Maybe Fairies will grow on me more as time passes and maybe next generation will balance them out a little better but for right now they're either barely seen or bothered with... or they're absolutely destroying you.  Very little middle ground.

In addition to new pokémon we have a new type of evolution as well....

Mega Evolutions

Yup, there's a brand new type of evolution for these games.  the "Mega Evolution".   What is a mega evolution you say?   Well it's a temporary evolution that only certain pokémon can do.  Each trainer has a Mega Ring that they can use to activate the evolution.  The pokémon in question must be holding a certain stone and then during battle only for the duration of that battle they will achieve a new more powerful level.  Sometimes this changes their typing, their stats, their abilities, or just makes them even more awesome.  After defeating the Elite 4 you can travel all around Kalos to find new stones for a (as of yet) grand total of 26 pokemon that reach their "Mega" form. 

Wait .... so there are items scattered all around the continent that you have to find in order to evolve your partner to the next level during a battle so that they can more easily defeat their enemy.  This evolution happens only for a short period of time and it changes their name to add "Mega" to the beginning of it?  HMM... wouldn't happen to be something like THIS WOULD IT???!!

Have you no shame, Pokémon, have you no shame?  I mean ripping off Fullmetal Alchemist is one thing but taking an idea from what was at one time one of your biggest competitors and utilizing their idea?  That's just...wrong.

Despite now having turned pokémon into digimon now... these mega evolutions are kind of awesome, but I have to question what they were thinking with some of them.   The choices of who gets a mega evolution and who doesn't seems arbitrary at best.  The logic behind the chosen ones makes no sense.  I can understand if you are wanting to make sure certain lesser used pokemon finally get a chance at the spotlight that would be great! Like these examples....

However when already overused creatures get mega evolutions such as THESE

... you just start wondering...   Why did they pick the ones that they picked to get Mega Evolutions??

Well that's it for Part 1 of this review cause I'm sure your patience is more than empty at this point with me having rambled for so long.  Look forward to seeing you in Part 2 but till then ...

This is Ghost fading into the darkness.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you want to see my other Video Game discussions and reviews, click here!

Ghost's Angry Reviews: The Last of Us

This is your standard spoiler warning.  If you don't want The Last of Us spoiled then tread carefully through this review.

This is Ghost, thanks for joining.

It's been awhile since I've done one of these.  Been a bit busy causing large amounts of havoc on my friend Solid.

Yeah that didn't turn out exactly how I had planned... don't ask

So I'm back and probably worse than ever before, but if I don't torture you with terribly written reviews then you'll have to go elsewhere for something that might even be worse so here we go!

----------------------------------------------------------------

I'd all but put the video game reviews to rest. Why?  Video Game Reviews take a very long time to prepare for and write because while a movie may take 2 hours to watch (or 5 if you're talking about Return of the King Extended Edition), a video game can take anywhere from 10 - 90 hours to play through, level up, and see everything to give an entirely honest opinion about the game as a whole.  So, not only is it time consuming but you have to have the skill to beat the game itself.  There's no use reviewing a game that you can't get past the 3rd level to save your life, unless you're doing a list of games that are too difficult to complete.

So I had pretty much for the sake of time and my life have put video game reviews down.  To get me back into reviews, it would take either something to send me into a fanboy rage...

or something so beautifully created that it leaves you breathless and wanting more

OK WHO'S BEEN MESSING WITH MY PICTURE ILLUSTRATIONS??!!!

Can't trust anyone... anyway moving briskly along.  I just so happened to find one of each within a month's time period so it looks like I've got at least two more in my back pocket and this time.  So without further ado, let's get into the review properly now.  Is this the happy one or the angry one?  Only one way to find out...

----------------------------------------------------------------

"The world's been hard on us... hard on him.  Joel's done some terrible things.  He tells me that on this journey you either hang on to your morals and die or do whatever it takes to survive.  Guess I'll find out."

Bennet the Sage said it best "The Last of Us. It's fantastic.  I know that sounds pretty short and I'm not usually this straightforward, but that's all my review would amount to.  It's fantastic!  And considering every single media outlet's stepping over themselves to find the correct adjective to properly convey how good this game is, my review would probably be drowned in a sea of 10-dollar words."

He's not joking either.  Usually when things are too good to be true they usually are.  This suspicion increases when you realize the The Last of Us is a Sony exclusive.  It's not even available for PC... it's one game available for one system.  Now I don't want to make any assumptions on Sony's practices especially after their specifically excellent trolling of Microsoft in the last few months but you kind of have to wonder if professional reviewers aren't getting a little side action to make such good remarks.   I mean look at all this.

Gaming's Citizen Kane Moment ???  That's a pretty bold and almost pretentious statement you've got on your hands there.  Can all this really be true?  That's when I turn to the fan community for advice because something like this can't possibly be this good.

Yet it was.  Independent Internet Reviewers were giving their praises.  Social Media was going crazy over this game.  People basically had nothing but praise to give this game so I just had to check it out for myself to see if it was up to all this hype and love.

The Story
We open on a young girl, Sarah having fallen asleep on the couch waiting for her father Joel to come home so she can give him his birthday present.  After he carries her to bed she wakes up because of a commotion downstairs.  Eventually seeing her father shoot the next door neighbor who was "sick" they get in a car with Joel's brother Tommy and attempt to escape the town.  After finding a roadblock and crashing they car they find themselves in the middle of a disaster as the town is full of zombies

...umm... I mean "infected" people who become that way because of fungal spores that they breathe in that travels to the brain causing them to lose their humanity and attack/bite others thus also transferring the fungal infection into their body and...

They're zombies!! Just come out and say it already!!  Stop pussyfooting around it!

Joel, Tommy, and Sarah make it out of the infected zone only to have a soldier be ordered to kill them.  He takes his shot but received swift retribution to the head from Tommy.  Unfortunately Sarah doesn't make it and we go into the title sequence as twenty years pass.

Over the past 20 years Joel has made his living in Boston's quarantine zone as a smuggler of drugs and weapons with his partner Tess.  While getting revenge on a fellow smuggler who has been sending people to kill them they run across a lady who works with the Fireflies, a group of people attempting to not only find a cure for the infection but also to overthrow the oppressive government.  She asks Joel and Tess to smuggle something out of the city for her.  A girl.

Eventually they agree and attempt to smuggle the girl out of they city.  Her name is Juno MacGuff  er.. I mean Ellie.

Seriously?  Can't even make her first name that different from the actress she looks like??  The creator of the game says that they didn't rip off Ellen Page's likeness but...
just look at that picture and name...

Not long after their escape Tess and Joel learn that Ellie has been infected but unlike others who turn within a day or two, she has had this bite for three weeks and is immune to the infection.  The Fireflies wanted to use her immunity to find a cure for the remainder of mankind.  They get to the drop-off point but only find the bodies of the Fireflies.  Remembering that Tommy was with the Fireflies at one point, Joel decides they need to find him, however Tess reveals she has been bitten as soldiers come after them.  Tess sacrifices herself fighting off the soldiers as Joel and Ellie make a run for it.

Joel realizes it would be so much easier if they had a car to travel the full distance to Jackson Missouri where he believes his brother still is, so they track down an acquaintance of Joel's who owes him a favor, Bill.  Bill  is..

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT EVERY ASPECT OF THE STORY ARE YOU???!!!  JUST DO HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FREAKING STORY AND GET ON WITH IT... AND REVIEW MOTHER 3 LIKE YOU SAID!

I............ ok

After getting the car, Bill goes back to his solitary life.  After a bit of a journey, the pair run into a gang in Pittsburgh who cause their car to crash.  They barely escape with their lives with the aid of two brothers Henry and Sam.  Unfortunately Sam gets infected and attacks Ellie one morning.  Henry shoots his brother and then commits suicide out of grief of what he had to do.   The Fall season hits when they find Tommy at a power plant outside of Jackson trying to restore power to the town.  Tommy agrees to take Ellie on to the Fireflies but Ellie realizes Joel is just trying to get rid of her.  Joel says she'll be safer with Tommy but eventually has a change of heart and sends Tommy back to his wife as they attempt to find the Fireflies in a nearby college.

As you can probably guess the Fireflies are dead or vacated the premises because the infection spread to some monkeys they were working on.  They get ambushed by some men and Joel lands on some debris which pierces through his stomach.  Winter rolls around and he has survived thanks to Ellie hiding him in a cabin home and hunting for food and tending his wounds.  She meets up with some men and trades deer for medicine, but it turns out the man she traded with, David, was looking for Joel to kill him.  Ellie eventually gets captured by David's men who are cannibals and almost kills/rapes her (we're not exactly sure what his motivation was)  but thanks to the medicine, Joel was able to get up and rescue her.

Eventually they make it to Salt Lake City where the Fireflies are working on a cure but not before stopping to make sure the IMGUR community loves this game.

They find the Fireflies and Ellie goes into surgery to start the process for getting them a cure when Joel figures out the plan.  The fungal infection grows on the brain so they were going to kill her by removing her brain.  Not about to let this happen, Joel kills many of the fireflies guarding the surgery ward to get to her, kills the surgeon and everyone in his path to save her life and take her back to Jackson to live a normal life.

When she wakes up Joel lies to her and says that the Fireflies have stopped looking for a cure because others have been immune and nothing has worked.  Once they get back to Jackson, Ellie explains that her best friend was infected at the same time as her and how she wished that she had died with her friend.  She asks Joel to swear that what he said about the Fireflies was true... he lies once again and swears leaving Ellie accepting his answer but still doubting.

The Gameplay

The Last of Us has what seems to be a grab bag of not only logical gameplay mechanics but some of my favorite things... for the most part.  The camera is in the third person for the whole of the game which is a massive plus for me.  I'm getting more used to first person thanks to Fallout and Team Fortress 2, but I still prefer third person so you can see if something is coming up behind you.

The environment is perfectly crafted to make your playing experience the best it can be.  Here's why.  There are no quest markers (unless you turn on hints which only appear after several minutes of you being in the same area and not progressing) so while you aren't sure exactly where you should be going next it allows you to use your brain and figure it out but there's also not that many options so you'll eventually come to the right conclusion after coming face to face with several roadblocks or other dead ends.  This gives it the feel that you are making your own way without being easily lost.

What also makes this so great is that with a semi-linear gameplay it has tons of auto-save points.  You don't even know when they appear and you basically don't ever HAVE to save the game yourself.  This has often been the bane of gamers world wide.

But not here... the game secretly autosaves at what I can guess is every other room or section of the game.  Anywhere that you would encounter more than one lone enemy it auto-saves right before so when you die.. (not if... you WILL die in this game)  it starts you off right outside the room you just died in so you never have to backtrack and do an hours worth of gameplay all over again.

There is a large element of stealth in this game.  Opponent AI only pays attention to you when crouched in stealth.  From a logic standpoint that doesn't make a lot of sense as I've seen Tess, Ellie, and Bill all 3 walk right in front of an enemy and they don't react whatsoever.  This comic from I AM ARG! fairly accurately represents this.

However once YOU get out of stealth not only can the enemies see you and warn other enemies but they keep looking for you if you go out of sight which DOES make logical sense.  So stay to the shadows and use those bricks and empty bottles as distraction techniques.

Actual combat can be handled in many ways.  You can run in with a melee weapon for a good old button mashing festival.  You can sit behind a barrier and use various handguns or rifles.  You can stealthily suffocate or shiv someone while hidden to avoid others detecting you.  Or if you're wanting to be especially crafty and can pull it off, toss a bottle or brick to get people to go toward a single direction then toss a nail bomb taking out the whole group.  However if your option is throwing a brick at someone or throwing a smoke bomb, throw the brick.  Smoke bombs are fairly useless and work about as well as this...

 

The game also makes your resources just scarce enough but not too rare.  You can't hoard up ammunition or ingredients to craft healing packs or nail bombs to make your gameplay a breeze, but I never found myself in a situation (other than the very last level) having difficulty finding enough equipment and ammunition to keep my head above water.  I don't know how they found that perfect spot of having just enough and not too much but they did it. 

Nitpick Corner

There is no such thing as a perfect game/movie/etc.  The comparison to Citizen Kane is actually a very good one.  Citizen Kane is considered to be one of the best films ever made yet it has a massive plot hole.  The whole movie is about them trying to figure out what his dying word "Rosebud" is, but there's nobody in the room when he dies.  How did they know that was his dying word?  No one noticed it or cared enough about this to make a comment on it till they really had to sit down and think about it.  

The Last of Us is very similar.  Nothing that I am about to say negative about it are game breaking or lessened my enjoyment of this game in any manner.  It keeps you so invested in the characters and story that unless you really sit down and think about them you won't even notice them.

For example, melee weapons and shivs break after use.  Now we gamers are used to the idea of equipment deteriorating after use and the logic and lack of logic thereof...

but... while I understand a wooden 2X4 would break after a few uses to an enemy's face, I fail to understand how a lead pipe or katana will break after being used five times.   I also fail to understand how if you stab someone in the neck with a shiv you lose the shiv.  JUST PULL IT OUT OF THEIR NECK AND USE IT AGAIN!!   All of this...yet NONE of the guns wear down or break... they stay just as perfect as if they were never shot.  WUT?

The only other thing I can really nitpick is how predictable the story can be.  It's been said that there are no new stories to tell.  Everything's been told already it's just a matter of the little details around this.  The Last of Us is no exception to this.  Most of the time when something happened on screen I'd say what I figured would happen next or eventually and this was pretty much no exception.  

I'm starting the game as Sarah?  She's gonna die isn't she?  - CORRECT

The girl is important?  I bet she's immune to the infection.  - CORRECT

Bill said not to steal stuff... I bet Ellie is gonna be shown later with some of Bill's stuff - CORRECT

Just met two brothers?  At least one of them is going to die right? - CORRECT

Joel wants rid of Ellie and doesn't want to talk about his past?  I bet he's gonna warm up to her, love her, open up, and protect her no matter what right?  - CORRECT

The Fireflies are going to do something Joel will refuse to agree with concerning Ellie - CORRECT

The ending is going to leave me bittersweet - CORRECT

That's not to say the writing is bad.  It's quite the contrary.  If you can make me so emotionally invested in these characters that I cry at the death of a character I've literally known for 14 minutes.. you know what you're doing!

Final Thoughts.
This is not a game that will leave you with happiness or a wonderful feeling at the end.  It stirs up a lot of emotions and few of them are positive.  Sadness over multiple deaths and sacrifices, the lead weight in my stomach as Henry commits suicide out of grief over killing his zombified brother.  Seeing Ellie's doubt and almost desire to die.  It's a lot of heavy stuff and I wouldn't suggest trying to play through this game in a single sitting.

Other than that, once again as Sage said "it's fantastic."   I opened with that and I can only close with that because it's true.  It lives up to the hype and the praise.  The gameplay is fun and great, the difficulty is right in that sweet spot where it should be, the puzzles are there but not overly challenging, and the environments are absolutely gorgeous!  It's truly a masterpiece of a game and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to play such a wonderful game.  If you're on the fence about getting this then just take the plunge.  You won't regret it.

This is Ghost fading into the darkness.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you want to see my other Video Game discussions and reviews, click here!