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The Last of Us: Part II - Min åsikt (Spoilerfri)

The Last of Us: Part II - Min åsikt (Spoilerfri)

Skrivet av Peddi93 den 20 juni 2020 kl 12:11
This post is tagged as: The Last of Us 2, Recension

(Föredrar alltid att skriva på engelska).

Somehow Naughty Dog is able to tackle a story that feels impossible and crazy on paper, yet is fully functional and brave beyond measure. This is largely due to the flawless execution of fantastic narrative and storytelling. While the gameplay, visuals, sound design and music are all in their own league: I have never felt more emotionally exhausted by any form of entertainment, as I have with this game.

I have laughed, cussed, trembled and cried more tears than I can count. Tears of despair yes, but also tears of joy. There were times when I expected the game to stop, but it simply kept on going even against my own wishes.

It takes a lot of guts to do what Naughty Dog has done here and I feel truly fortunate enough to say that their efforts have not been in vain. While I do fear that there likely will be others who might not share my experience:
This review ultimately boils down to what I felt about this game and its lasting impact on me.

The Last of Us: Part II is now my game of the generation and I thank Naughty Dog for having the confidence to craft such an honest story and a worthy sequel that lives up to the quality of the original game. While I could write more extensively about this game, I just don't feel like I can do it enough justice. The writer, Neil Druckmann said it best:
It's a videogame. You have to play it.

10/10

HQ
Uncharted 4 - Min åsikt (Spoilerfri)

Uncharted 4 - Min åsikt (Spoilerfri)

Skrivet av Peddi93 den 12 maj 2016 kl 19:20
This post is tagged as: Recension, Uncharted 4

This review consists of no spoilers at all and is based on one playthrough:

I played it on Moderate difficulty until the last half where I dropped it to Light.
It took me roughly 14 hours to finish.

I had aim assist off, auto aim off, vehicle camera assist on and I had turned off the "highlight enemy" option.
______________________________________

At last, the long awaited journey is here. Does Uncharted 4 deliver? Does it stack up to what we have come to expect from Naughty Dog? Let us find out!


The story:

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is the most well written story in the Uncharted franchise. As we follow Nathan Drake for one last adventure: The characters and especially Nate himself instantly come across as more real and relatable. There is a certain level of maturity behind every character. Naughty Dog does not hold back when it comes to showing just where Nathan and Elena have ended up after the events of prior games. The first three hours of the game are almost flawless. The pacing, the story that is being told and the merging of gameplay around this is just a marvel to experience.

Once the initial hours end, the game opens up more than any game in the franchise ever has. And so begins our hunt for the lost treasure of the pirate king, Henry Every. The game does a superb job in balancing the story between the adventure and the characters that we have grown to care for. While I personally find the character interactions and development more interesting than the overall adventure plot, I would be selling the adventure short if I did not remark on just how exceptionally well it is written and told.

My only real minor nitpick is that I feel that the game has too much platforming. It makes me consider the possibility that the game might have actually been better if it had an hour less of platforming. It can simply get too much at times. However this is quite a minor issue when you take the overall experience into account. The story is excellent and it does a perfect job when it comes to ending the Uncharted franchise.


The visuals:

No words can quite describe this. I would honestly be making a huge disservice even attempting to explain just how gorgeous Uncharted 4 looks. So try to bare with me...

Expect to be awestruck and shocked at the sheer fidelity on the screen but also the remarkable attention to detail, physics, character models, hit reactions, particles and the overall scale of it all. The strongest aspect is without a doubt the animation and lighting system. Uncharted 4 is a benchmark for all future games to follow when it comes to visual fidelity. I have never seen a game look this good and it honestly has plenty of moments where it looks better than real life thanks to the art style. Certain areas are like paintings that come to life.


The sound:

I played this game with the official playstation gold headset. The first thing I did was tweak the sound by slightly lowering everything other than the music simply because it felt toned down when compared to the effects. I told my friend this earlier but I accidentally pulled the trigger once and Drake fired his gun which in turn led to my heart skipping a beat. The gun sounds are absolutely phenomenal. The punching, the environment, objects in the world, everything in this game from a sound design standpoint is absolutely incredible.

The voice acting is stellar as well. Practically everyone gives their best performance yet. However the person who stood out the most to me was actually Emily Rose as Elena. Her range evoked so many emotional reactions from me. I would also like to mention that Warren Kole as Rafe also really surprised me in that his performance was spot on for the character he was trying to portray. Yet this is not to neglect the rest of the cast, because as I said: they all do a fantastic job as well.

The soundtrack this time around is composed by Henry Jackman and there are quite a few strong tracks that I find myself relistening to. The music in general in the Uncharted franchise has always helped to immerse you into the situations that Drake and his friends find themselves in. The soundtrack for Uncharted 4 is no different. Henry Jackman delivers a great soundtrack that does infact rival the soundtracks from the prior games.


The gameplay:

Right off the bat, the most significant difference between Uncharted 4 and its predecessors is the actual gameplay. Yes on paper, you are still shooting and platforming yet the way you perform these actions are so vastly improved that it makes the past games look and feel incredibly dated. The game is so much more open. The word Naughty Dog calls it is "wide linear", yet The Last of Us was also described as such. However in Uncharted 4, it almost feels on the very edge of a sandbox world. The platforming, gunplay, stealth, character movement and AI has been so vastly improved that it probably stands as one of the best third person action games out there as of now.

There are clear inspirations from The Last of Us in this game and I for one could not be more than happy to see that. If The Last of Us is a natural evolution of the Uncharted series, then Uncharted 4 continues the trend by evolving what a future The Last of Us game could be. The encounter design, the enemy AI but also the friendly AI, the option of being able to go in and out of stealth and the melee combat are all aspects that shine so clearly that together with the platforming and shooting makes this game such a joy to play.

Combat scenarios are not quite as common as prior games and you get plenty of time to breathe in most areas which in turn means that they never overstay their welcome. Infact I am left wanting more rather than less which is always a good thing. The puzzles are just the right difficulty and are spread out evenly with the possible exception of one or two being rather challenging.

Lastly the addition of the grappling hook makes platforming much more interesting. I did not end up using it quite as much for combat as I would have liked to. There were a few instances but it was not ultimately something that I was looking for. This could be due to the fact that I tend to adopt a run and gun with melee sprinkles, kind of playstyle. This is also the main reason as to why I dropped the difficulty. I do not enjoy playing Uncharted as a cover shooter. I feel that on harder difficulties, this is almost a must.


The lasting appeal:

This is a Naughty Dog game. It is an experience that you will show to all of your friends. It also comes with Multiplayer which is truly amazing. It is a little barebones when it comes to modes but given the future multiplayer content that is to come (free I might add) along with a short singleplayer story DLC, this is a game you must have. This is the game that makes adopting this generation, worth it.


Overall:

Uncharted 4 is not a perfect game, no game ever is.

It has its faults, but these faults are insignificant for me when compared to the overall experience that this game offers. I said it before and I will say it again. Uncharted 4, very much alike Uncharted 3 is the reason that I play videogames. Naughty Dog truly are in a league of their own. I for one cannot wait for their upcoming story DLC and their next game.

Is it the best game that I have ever played?
No, that would still be The Last of Us.

But as of right now:
This is the best game of the current generation.


Final Verdict:
(not a representation of the final score)
Story: 10/10
Visuals: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Lasting Appeal: 10/10

Overall: 10/10 - "Masterpiece"

HQ
En ytterst tråkig generation...

En ytterst tråkig generation...

Skrivet av Peddi93 den 10 december 2015 kl 01:53

Jag har inget årets spel 2014. Inte heller har jag ett för året 2015 (ännu). Denna generation har varit katastrofalt dålig för min del, än så länge. Varför? Eftersom att det inte finns ett enda spel jag har spelat under dessa två år som jag skulle tilldela ett högre betyg än max 8/10. "Vad i helvete babblar snubben om?" tänker du.

Ja, jag lider väl av något problem. Jag är nämligen inte den typ som kan spela vilket spel som helst och bli kär i det. Det kanske skulle vara en överdrift att säga detta men jag spelar nästan enbart spel bara för linjära, välregisserade spel där storyn lever i symbios med spelbarheten. Detta tillsammans med ett genomtänkt tempo och en eftersmak som skriker "oförglömlig upplevelse". Det är ett spel som jag håller kärt i år framöver. Detta kanske låter konstigt för många.
"Vill du inte köra runt i en värld i 100 timmar istället för att enbart spela i 10-20 timmar?"
Nej, det vill jag nödvändigtvis inte.

För mig så kvittar längden på ett spel när det gäller siffror. Tiden jag spelar spelet handlar mer om upplevelsen som jag får. Journey som släpptes år 2012 är ett klart mästerverk och det spelet tog slut på mindre än 2 (!) timmar för min del. Längden är relativ gentemot vad spelet försöker berätta. Så känner jag. Missförstå mig inte här. Jag ber inte om en världsklass nivå på själva berättandet i spel. Visst håller jag spel som The Last of Us och Uncharted som det allra bästa jag har upplevt, men jag älskar också spel som de klassiska Metal Gear Solid spelen (här inkluderas absolut inte Phantom Pain och Peacewalker) samt God of War. Ett annat exempel är Bioshock Infinite.

Det finns ett till exempel på ett spel som jag har börjat uppskatta ytterst mycket nu i efterhand... jag tänker på Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Ett fantastiskt spel som lyckades kombinera en mer öppen hub liknande värld fast fortfarande bibehålla sitt narrativ genom spelets gång. Var finns dessa spel denna generation?

Metal Gear Solid V sålde sin själ och tog sig an en öppen värld som är så tom och usel, för att inte tala kring narrativet som i sin tur lider som in i helvete. Karaktärerna känns inte ens som sig själva men det är en helt annan diskussion som jag inte behöver gå in på.

The Witcher 3 kunde jag dessvärre inte sätta mig in i. Jag har försökt.. O ja, jag har försökt. Men jag gråter när jag styr den jobbiga hästen genom världen och inte bättre blir det när jag börjar slåss. Dialogerna är alldeles för sega och ointressanta, kanske för att jag inte har spelet de tidigare spelen. Mycket av tiden känns helt onödigt och bidrar inte till någon större del av storyn. Det är inte Metal Gear Sold nivå på berättandet gentemot handligen utan även om konversationerna är långa i båda spelen så är vissa helt irrelevanta för den större delen av handligen i The Witcher 3. Att rädda någons get i början och något kring ett dött spädbarn som nu är en ande var bara för mycket för min del. Jag har dessutom försökt spela igenom spel som Bloodborne, Assassins Creed Syndicate med flera men jag klarar mig inte längre än några timmar.

Sedan finns det spel som försöker just det som jag önskar. Until Dawn och The Order: 1886. Jag tycker om dessa spel men dessvärre så försvinner mycket av själva spelandet här. Jag uppskattar verkligen vissa moment men det räcker inte hela vägen.

Och så sitter man här, nu. År två i denna generation. En generation som sägs vara kortare än den förra. Alltså är vi nästan halvvägs igenom generationen och jag har ännu inte fått uppleva något spel som jag verkligen älskar. Kan det vara så att The Last of Us har förstört mig? Enda sedan jag upplevde Naughty Dogs epos så känns det nästan som att någonting gick sönder inom mig... Allt jag vet är att denna generation suger, för min del.

Jag hoppas innerligt att Uncharted 4 samt det nya Deus Ex levererar. Visst finns det spel jag ännu inte har spelat, till exempel Fallout 4 och Just Cause men jag håller inte andan tills vidare...

Uncharted 4: Heist Videoklipp

Uncharted 4: Heist Videoklipp

Skrivet av Peddi93 den 7 december 2015 kl 04:48
This post is tagged as: Uncharted 4

Det skulle inte förvåna mig om detta klipp missades av många. Klippet visades upp under en intervju med Naughty Dog under PSX. Ta en titt om du inte redan gjort det för det ser helt absurt bra ut.

Länk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jfs4yzKnaw&hd=1

Ha i åtanke att kvalitén på klippet är rätt uselt dessutom.

Uncharted 4 - Enastående Multiplayer

Uncharted 4 - Enastående Multiplayer

Skrivet av Peddi93 den 3 december 2015 kl 21:49
This post is tagged as: Uncharted 4

Betan är igång nu, servrarna tar stryk medan detta skrivs men med tålamod lyckas man ta sig in och får då spela några omgångar.

Än så länge så dreglar jag på hur otroligt roligt det är. Personligen älskade jag Uncharted 3s multiplayer (rankade det som mitt tredje favorit multiplayerspel av förra generationen. Det enda multiplayern som jag anser var bättre var då The Last of Us (och till viss del Killzone 2).

(Läs om mina favorit multiplayerspel här) =>
#0 https://www.gamereactor.se/blog/peddi93/805334/
#1 https://www.gamereactor.se/blog/peddi93/805324/
#2 https://www.gamereactor.se/blog/peddi93/805234/
#3 https://www.gamereactor.se/blog/peddi93/804954/
#4 https://www.gamereactor.se/blog/peddi93/804884/
#5 https://www.gamereactor.se/blog/peddi93/804734/

Uncharted 4 är en mästerlig kombination av just dessa spel och resultatet är helt underbart!!!

Kolla in hur härlig repet är i spelet => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDJMfyq_-f0&t=3m30s&hd=1