The Last of Us EP20: Suck Less

By Shamus Posted Thursday Nov 13, 2014

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 43 comments


Link (YouTube)

This part of the game is so much stronger than Raiderville. The sewer tunnels are filled with environmental storytelling and detail. The neighborhood just outside is packed with tension, worldbuilding, and little moments of character development. Lots of time and attention was given to how the world would look and feel: The anti-looting messages. The feral dogs. The grass growing up through the streets.

It all works so well. This really is the game at its best.

Which makes it all the more perplexing that the immediately follow this up with more stupid raiders. But we’ll talk about those guys next time.

 


From The Archives:
 

43 thoughts on “The Last of Us EP20: Suck Less

  1. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Oh god,its happening.Josh has infected ellie with the B virus.

    1. 4th Dimension says:

      Bugs?
      Bitch?
      Bastard?

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Bugs.

        Though I have to wonder what you think of Josh if you think he can infect someone with a bitch virus.

        1. SpiritBearr says:

          PC master race, there’s always going to be a bit of bitching when it comes to bad ports, Origin, GFWL, UPlay, 60 FPS, 1080p, exclusivity, $70 price tags on steam.

  2. Traiden says:

    No, Josh! Go back and play the darts so that we can tell Joel to Suck Less too. It is a shame you missed that part. But I also enjoyed the chronicles of Ish and the sewer society. It is easily the best part of the whole game for me.

    1. Thomas says:

      This is my favourite bit too.

      The one thing that I’d have liked them to improve in the inevitable sequel, is to design the pathing and AI so that you can explore without missing so much conversation. It’s really easy to miss some of these little pieces of interaction

    2. I also wished he’d done the ice cream truck sequence. It wasn’t until this game that I realized just how bizarre a concept the ice cream truck is.

  3. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Ok,we definitely need a spinoff where you play ish.

    See,this here pisses me off.This game has such cool characters,and its probably going to remain a stand alone(with a few dlc),and one console exclusive,but the likes of soap and whatever the name other imbeciles had in modern warfare got THREE installments on ALL the platforms.Theres no justice.

    1. Thomas says:

      I wish this game was standalone. I just can’t see a sequel being interesting. We’ve seen the world, that was enough for me

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Sequel,no.But a spinoff or two,definitely.You cant tell me that you dont want to play the rest of ishs days?

        1. Thomas says:

          No I don’t. I think the Ish story is one of those stories which is better when it’s left to the imagination. It’s like Pixel City, the gaps the mind fills in are more interesting than full illumination.

          It would also contradict The Last of Us’ themes to play as Ish, because Ish is a fairly uncompromised individual. Sure you don’t have to repeat the themes, but then why is it a Last of Us spin-off rather than just some random zombie game.

          I feel like all the interesting things that are special to The Last of Us were told in The Last of Us. A spin-off is just another game/story in an oversaturated genre

          1. Humanoid says:

            Maybe it’d be a base-building, Dwarf Fortressish game. Because that’s what Ish was trying to build, sort-ofish.

            1. Ivan says:

              That is definitely a very Dwarf Fortress like thing to happen. Your entire civilization wiped out because someone forgot to close the door.

              1. Abnaxis says:

                Or even better, an entire civilization wiped out because a butterfly got stuck in the door.

                1. Ivan says:

                  And that’s why it’s called, “The Butterfly Effect”.

          2. Daemian Lucifer says:

            “It would also contradict The Last of Us' themes to play as Ish, because Ish is a fairly uncompromised individual.”

            That goes for sequels,not spinoffs.

            ” Sure you don't have to repeat the themes, but then why is it a Last of Us spin-off rather than just some random zombie game.”

            Clickers and characters.

            1. Thomas says:

              But I don’t care about clickers _that_ much and at best want like, two of the side characters to show up again.

              I’d just rather something that’s new but equally good. The whole universe had a good ending point that works because there’s so much it doesn’t tell you.

  4. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Shows that they have no clue about darts.Ellie won with a lanslide(though technically they didnt get even to the half of it,unless they were playing to 101).

  5. Nick says:

    So, I’m not missing something – Mumbles’ guess has been cut from the audio, right?

    1. Jakob says:

      Nope, it hasn’t. It is just muffled by Shamus talking at the same time.

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      If you cant hear her,she says that if someone is immune that means they are going to cut them open in order to find out why.

      1. Humanoid says:

        In the same way that eating someone’s brain grants you their wisdom, it likely also grants you their immunity to zombification. CANNIBAL SCIENCE!

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Galaxy Gun is correct in that cutting someone open is the fastest way to find out how they tick.Especially if you keep them alive during the procedure.But its not really ethical or that productive,since you wont get much willing subjects if 100% of them die horribly.However,we already saw that fireflies arent really ethical,productive or smart,so there you go.

          1. Chris says:

            The fools, don’t theyrealize that the way to gain her immunity is to have her bite them. :)

          2. Abnaxis says:

            Disease immunity is not something you figure out by dissection. It’s a microscopic phenomenon, involving immune factors and blood cells.

            If you can show me which organ you would cut open to measure immune system response, I will concede you the point.

            1. guy says:

              Apparently for some reason they think the only way to figure out her immunity is to extract the fungus that’s gotten into her brain even though that’s only helpful if the fungus itself is mutated, in which case the fungus in her blood is presumably also mutated, and for some stranger reason this needs to be fatal, even though they specifically have the capacity to culture the fungus elsewhere.

              So yes, the Fireflies are Cerberus-level incompetents whose surgeons can’t do trepanning properly, meaning they’re literally less qualified for their jobs than Stone Age doctors.

              1. Tizzy says:

                To be fair, it’s 20 years after the fall, what can you expect from them, really? I’m surprised they have doctors and a sort-of-working hospital.

                1. guy says:

                  I was thinking “Better than thousands of years ago”. I mean, it’d be one thing if they were just going to have to take a noticeable chunk out of the prefrontal cortex, but making holes in people’s heads without killing them is something humanity has been doing a long, long time. If these guys aren’t up to that challenge, then how can you expect them to actually create a vaccine?

            2. Daemian Lucifer says:

              Seeing how this is a brain infection,then the brain.Slice where the infection should be and see how it reacts.

  6. Isy says:

    The comments on the chase scene remind me of the chase scene in Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Not only could you lock the doors behind you (and shove bookcases in front of them, etc), but if you did not do this, the monsters would just open the door and kill you.

    Unrelated, does Sam not have a gun? That seems like a thing he should have.

    1. Isaac says:

      Considering how protective Henry is of Sam, I don’t think Sam is getting a gun anytime soon.

  7. MichaelGC says:

    The flashlight looks pretty impressive in this game. I’m watching in what … 480p on YouTube and it still looks both actual-flashlightesque and useful; neither of which is often the case.

    Edit: OK, it’s slightly less-impressive when it’s the same intensity in broad daylight.

  8. I have a notebook full of passwords, as does my mom. That way if something happens, my next of kin (or my mom) can easily get access to my accounts. Plus, it means I’m insured against brain farts. Of course, these notebooks are physically secured.

    I also wander around with a notebook that has random notes and stuff in it. It’s one of my ADD coping mechanisms to write down stuff so I remember it, and physically writing it helps me remember it better than typing it. So if you come across my corpse in the zombie apocalypse, you’re likely to find a notebook in my purse full of knitting pattern instructions, to-do lists, phone numbers, directions, addresses, notes about random things, bits of fanfic, quotes I like, and other random things.

    Writing stuff down is also a good way to cope with traumatic events, so that may be what Ish is doing. Journaling is supposed to help you work through the trauma.

    1. Tizzy says:

      It’s not unusual for people to keep a notebook with them and jot things down these days. I think that, after the fall, it would become even more important, especially with what would feel as comparatively restricted social interactions.

      That being said, few survivors would leave their notes lying around, so Shamus’s point about Ish’s final message working better as a letter still stands.

  9. Lilith Novale says:

    I think the audio for this week’s episodes have been flipped to the wrong side (that is, the left ear’s sounds are coming from the right side, and visa versa.)

  10. djshire says:

    Its better to have too many shivs…than too many cooks.

    1. Joe Informatico says:

      My mind went there too.

      I’m not getting that out of my head for a while, am I? Intronitis is much worse than cordyceps.

  11. Re: Graffiti in video games.

    My biggest immersion-breaker on graffiti (and handwritten text) in games is when it’s obvious it’s just a font where all the “e”s look the same, the letters are all evenly kerned, their baselines all align, etc.

  12. Andrew says:

    Re Ish, Naughty Dog have all but confirmed they’ll be doing a DLC with Ish (nothing about whether it’s during or after TLOU.

    I don’t agree with DLC’s in general but it’s one I’m definitely getting.

  13. silver Harloe says:

    Although I know most of my passwords from muscle memory (I can’t recite them, only type them), I still have a paper with them written down vaguely hidden (but not really) near my desk. Like Shamus, I operate on the theory that if someone has broken into my apartment, I’ve got bigger problems than their having a password to my work email. It might would be different if I had regular visitors or roommates, but I don’t.

    Then again, the space around my desk also has a metric buttload of index cards with random notes which are usually quick todo lists or puzzle clues from various games. Several lists of movies or books I want to look up and maybe buy. Ancient phone numbers to people who have probably moved twice since then. Appointment times from three years ago. Half-scratched out todo lists for games or projects I played or finished already. Stats for characters so I can see how much they are improving on level up. Little calculations when I got curious about some math thing. It would take hours for me to comb through all my notes and sort them into “live or die” piles, and it would take someone else weeks to find any valuable information in that mess.

  14. noahpocalypse says:

    Wow your daughters are tall. 5’9 is like the average male height in the US, and average female is like a few inches below.

  15. Parkhorse says:

    You seriously have a bolt action rifle that never needs to be reloaded? That… that doesn’t work like that…

  16. BitFever says:

    If you think a limit of 4 shivs is stupid don’t play evil within where you can only carry 5 matches :P Now that is stupid videogame logic.

Thanks for joining the discussion. Be nice, don't post angry, and enjoy yourself. This is supposed to be fun. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked*

You can enclose spoilers in <strike> tags like so:
<strike>Darth Vader is Luke's father!</strike>

You can make things italics like this:
Can you imagine having Darth Vader as your <i>father</i>?

You can make things bold like this:
I'm <b>very</b> glad Darth Vader isn't my father.

You can make links like this:
I'm reading about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Vader">Darth Vader</a> on Wikipedia!

You can quote someone like this:
Darth Vader said <blockquote>Luke, I am your father.</blockquote>

Leave a Reply to Humanoid Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.