I'm almost done with my playthrough of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us Part 1. Though the PS5 remake is reminding me of all the reasons Naughty Dog's cinematic stealth game is one of my all-time favorites, revisiting Joel and Ellie's adventure is also illuminating the ways that the 2013 classic fell into one annoying trend. It committed the cardinal sin of having its characters complain about gameplay.
If it's been a while since you took the journey to escort Ellie to the Fireflies, you may have forgotten that Ellie can't swim. So, whenever your path has a body of water in the way, Joel needs to hop in, find a makeshift raft, swim it over to Ellie, then ferry her across the stream. For a game that has some of the best storytelling the medium has ever seen, great stealth-action gameplay, satisfying exploration, and boundary-pushing graphics, these raft sections have always been a relative low point.
Naughty Dog seemed to know that too, because after this happens the first time, every time you encounter one of these tasks Ellie comments on how annoying it is. “Oh, this again,” she says the second time. “I know, step on the fucking palett,” she complains the third time. Naughty Dog has used this technique to paper over repetitive gameplay in other games, too. In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Uncharted 4, Nathan and Sam Drake comment on how irritating it is that they have to keep sliding down gravel-covered hills on their butts. Those sliding sections are significantly more fun than pushing pallets, but the role of the dialogue seems to be the same: to let players know that the developers are aware that, maybe, there's a bit too much of it.
It's an understandable choice for a developer to make. Game design is a long, difficult process and these moments feel like the writers and voice actors compensating for the moments that the developers know are a little weak but don’t have time to change. When Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us do this, Naughty Dog is attempting to pull a punch that it still has to throw.
It's also, more positively, an attempt by the developer to bridge the gap between the player and the character, merging the (presumed) annoyance of the player at having to do a task repeatedly with the stated annoyance of the character. But, instead of providing harmony, it contributes a different kind of dissonance. The character might be annoyed at the world, the universe, or God for throwing this irritating problem their way. But, as the player, we know that the developer is the higher power in question. So, while the character can only shout at the sky, we know where to aim our annoyance.
Over time, Naughty Dog has gotten better at this. The Last of Us Part 2 mostly subtracts this kind of busy work and, as a result, the need for the characters to comment on it. When Ellie and Dina arrive in Seattle, the simple act of opening a gate becomes a thrilling set piece in miniature. I haven't played that game since it came out, so I may be forgetting some examples. But, in general, it seemed to take this criticism to heart. Here's hoping games, as a whole, can learn the same lesson.