Speaking of the glory period from the late Sony PS3 to the PS4, Naughty Dog's "Uncharted" and "The Last Survivor" are absolutely indispensable. Released in 2013, "The Last survivor" at first glance inherits all the characteristics and shortcomings of naughty dogs, but as long as you take the time to savor, you will find that the game's appeal and staying power are very strong. Therefore, it is not surprising that after the release of this work, it has won various awards, and the sales volume has also been a long hit, including the subsequent PS4 version, which has reached 20 million copies.
After the news of the sequel development was announced, the players were naturally very much looking forward to it, and even frantically studied the clues in the trailer. However, under such expectations, Director Neil Druckmann has brought us a second generation of divergent opinions with his personal ideological aesthetic and persistence. Although almost two years have passed, I am still unhappy with the second generation, and this time we will talk about this game series that combines praise and controversy.
Apocalyptic human group portrait drama
From the extremely entertaining duo performance of "Uncharted Sea", it can be known that this piece is the strongest feature of Naughty Dog's gameplay, so what if it is changed to a deep apocalyptic script? "The Last of Us" is a good use of duo cooperation and character dialogue.
The worldview substitution at the beginning of the game and the performance of the outbreak of the epidemic have a good and shocking fusion with the two-player propulsion mode they are good at, so that players will be deeply attracted to the game in less than ten minutes. The shock of the outbreak of the epidemic at the beginning of "The Last Survivor" and Sarah's death immediately made people think deeply about the ugly evil of human nature in the end times and began to look forward to the subsequent development, and the appeal of this performance was also seriously lacking in the "Resident Evil" series with similar themes. As the story progresses, more and more apocalyptic chaos and human entanglements are presented in front of the players' eyes, whether it is Ellie's defense when she first met Joel or the sacrifice of Tess, or Joel's brother's refusal to help lead the way from the beginning to the later promise, as well as Ellie's move with david, the leader of the cannibal tribe, etc., all of which make the player deeply appreciate the horror of you fighting for each other and human self-interest in the end of the world.
As the journey reaches the end, the core question of the story is: Should Ellie sacrifice herself to save humanity? Also moved to the player, Joel from the beginning of the simple interests, task considerations to the later support, but also gradually overlapped Ellie and his beloved daughter Sarah, so as to choose to save Ellie at the end of the game, even if the liar's hands are stained with blood. While players are still curious about what the ending will be, the game ends with a more subtle, seemingly open performance, and this design is also talked about, because there is a lot of room for imagination and a lot of staying power. The above pulls the player from a bystander role into the world created by the naughty dog, and even makes people naturally take the initiative to integrate into the plot and characters, so as to make choices and deep thinking.
Naughty Dog's ancestral minimalism and gameplay
Players who have played the Naughty Dog works in depth should not be able to deny that whether it is "Uncharted" or "The Last Survivor" is relatively simple in terms of gameplay and system, "Uncharted Sea" not only does not have too many interfaces and options, players need to pay attention to relatively little information in battle puzzles, and the game itself plays like a luxurious upgraded version of a large arcade game. At this point, "The Last Survivor" has more things than "Uncharted" because of the different themes, but it is only a basic system of material collection and prop making. Players don't need or spend too much effort on the game's extra systems or interfaces, they just need to enjoy the story, battle, and sound and light experience that the game brings to the player.
But on the other hand, players who like to delve into collocation may feel that such a gameplay system is slightly monotonous, which will also lead to the inability to repeat the game many times, which greatly reduces the freshness of gameplay. So when it came to "The Last Survivor 2" and "Uncharted 4", Naughty Dog added some exploration collections such as semi-open maps, or stealth and strategic experiences with rich terrain of levels, but in essence, it is still very simple compared to other works in the industry, so Naughty Dog is really a matter of opinion in the system gameplay, and each has its own good.
Neil Druckmann's personal ideology and controversial practices
Neil was just beginning to develop at the time of the first part of The Last of Us, and if you are willing to check more information, you can also learn about the evolution and behind-the-scenes gossip of "The Last survivor 1" to DLC and then "Uncharted 4". All in all, Neil's voice in the first generation was not very large, but in the second generation, it was not so, he began to release himself, truly visualized his inner thoughts, and it was this indulgence that created the controversy of "The Last Survivor 2".
So the opening one-hour game experience in the second generation is full of all kinds of developments that make players uproar, whether it is the experienced and regular patrol of the Joel brothers who have been on patrol for many years to suddenly let down their guard against strangerSby and beat him up, or the LGBT performance that evolved from a generation of DLC, which is full of doubts. As the game's plot progresses, more bizarre developments are presented in front of the players' eyes, such as in order to use the dichotomy to forcibly set off Ellie's extremely hateful and unreasonable, Seattle killed the gods all the way and even killed pregnant women.
Abby, on the other hand, is full of human brilliance and tolerance after the opening revenge joel, or the middle of the game begins to deliberately force into Abby's chapter, while replacing and discrediting the performance of the generation ending, and deliberately beautifying Abby's journey, and Neil's attempt to make the player feel guilty about manipulating Ellie to kill Abby's friends. There are too many such artificial and deliberate manipulations of the script in the work, which is a typical way of putting the characters at the service of the script and personal preferences, and it is hard to believe that this situation will occur in this extremely deep series.
At the same time, the messy erotic exchanges in Abby's article are not only confusing, but also don't see how it helps the character development. The fan's performance is even more embarrassing because of the somewhat deformed values that Neil insists on, and the situation in Ellie's chapter is also very similar, not only can't see the purpose of Jesse's existence, but also in the chapter Between Ellie and Abby each added an eight-point file of a triangular relationship, I really can't see what's the point? In addition to the shock of the Jolf ball at the beginning of the game and the farewell performance before leaving town, there is no longer any motivation or performance enough for the player to experience the reluctance of the partners for Joel, and the little friends resolutely set out with Ellie to go to Seattle to take revenge, knowing that this is a high-risk action that may be sacrificed at any time, but did not try to lay out joel's weight in the hearts of the people, because Neil wants to share the emotions with Abby and her friends.
Then the other passages are somewhat bizarre, such as Tommy's emotional blackmail of Ellie's continued revenge after the disaster, Ellie's excessive blame for Joel's deception of her, etc., the whole game is filled with various crime and punishment consciousness and the dark side of human nature that Neil wants to create, but it seems too deliberate to be powerless.
At the end of the game, it is even more difficult to understand Neil's values of living in her own world, Ellie abandons human morality for the things she cherishes, and even loses her family, as a result, Neil finally inserts a memory of Joel playing guitar, and she suddenly puts down the butcher knife? If this were the case, Ellie would not have listened to Tommy's emotional blackmail, and the mental traumatic performance of the Jolf Ball was really only a black question mark.
At the same time, the game's pre- and post-release publicity and social media responses were also full of controversy and ridicule, from which it was completely inconceivable that Neil was in line with the friendly and kind image he was trying to create, and the player only saw all kinds of consumption Joel and Ellie, and then pushed his female spokesperson Abby. Whether it's the trailer or joel's toast on social media, or the information that abbey and her friends never mentioned before the release that Abby and her friends are actually important protagonists who occupy half of the game's length, all kinds of words and deeds only make people think that Neil is a strato-stratozoic hypocrite with different appearances.
Once a work reaches this level, it is no longer a question of whether the creator can be fully trusted in one-sided views, as long as there is normal logic, it can be clearly seen that Neil himself is the irrational and ideological refusal to communicate. Players don't think that Joel and Ellie's past behavior can be forgiven or forgiven, but in such a chaotic background, they deliberately use the dichotomy to shape the in-game wind direction to explore the so-called axiomatic justice and forgiveness, is it too superficial and ridiculous?
Therefore, under the creator's too deliberate bias, players not only have difficulty identifying with and understanding Abby, but will feel that Joel and Ellie are ruined, and in the case of the general direction, "The Last Survivor 2" can definitely become a new era work that is higher up, and can bring shock and reflection to players, but under Neil's obstinate behavior and self-intoxication, it can only become a farce in the end.
On the entertaining and technical aspects of The Last of Us 2
Leaving aside the many controversies in the plot, purely in terms of entertainment and technology, I am still willing to give "The Last of Us 2" a thumbs up. Naughty Dog's efforts in this area are really nothing to say, the animation and action of various characters and the exquisite art, make the game's combat and stealth become very interesting, even if the Naughty Dog's gameplay and system are very ordinary. Among them, Abby's Rat King Battle is what the Resident Evil series has so far lacked: that atmosphere is created and oppressed, and at the same time, the second generation has strengthened dodging and creeping on the basis of a generation of stealth hand-to-hand props, etc., in a very entertaining visual enjoyment and a wide variety of level terrain, perfectly matched and disguised the naughty dog's simple system, closely integrating stealth ambush, prop production and long-distance combat.
conclusion
As a player who came all the way from "The Last survivor" and "Uncharted Sea", it is really emotional to see the ending of this series. Not only is there no follow-up news for three days and four million that players still talk about, but there is also an abnormal lack of DLC plans, as a first-party masterpiece that Sony and Naughty Dog have spent a lot of time to build, such a fate is very ironic. At the same time, Neil's undisguised personal strong subjective likes and dislikes also make players less interested in the news of the future HBO's EPAGA adaptation, combined with the recent generation of remakes and other rumors, I believe that it is only Neil's intention to cover up, from a generation to fully improve his ideal forgiveness and Abby as the heroine.