Sulphur on 6/6/2012 at 07:38
Yeah, but he's not even a little bit relatable, is he? He's a self-important douche with no character development at all, at least not from what I've seen so far.
A flawed character who does the wrong things because he's human is infinitely more interesting than a protagonist like Alan, who's written to be a two-dimensional asshole who perfunctorily calls out scenery in front of him ('It was me, on the TV' - WELL GEE WILLIKERS I GUESS I DIDN'T NOTICE WHEN IT HALF BLINDED ME AS IT TURNED ON BY ITSELF), pocking bullet-holes in shadows after freezing them with the ungodly bright beam of his supernatural torchlight.
Thirith on 6/6/2012 at 07:44
Since The Last of Us is a Naughty Dog title, I'm actually not too worried about the writing/characterisation. Nathan Drake is by no means a perfect example of a well-written character (there's a lot there that can be criticised), but on the whole I really enjoyed how the writing and performance came together with him. The Naughty Dog guys strike me as pretty smart in what they do, so for now I'm definitely not pre-judging the game or its characters based on E3 footage.
Angel Dust on 6/6/2012 at 09:49
Quote Posted by Thirith
Since
The Last of Us is a Naughty Dog title, I'm actually not too worried about the writing/characterisation.
I don't know, the fact that it
is Naughty Dog is what has me concerned. Yeah, Nathan Drake is a fun character in the cutscenes but during gameplay he's a homicidal maniac, racking up hundreds of kills on his merry mission for the McGuffin. He's pretty much the epitome of the
Quote Posted by Thirith
...protagonist that is all about cool quips in between bouts of hyper-violence...
Now, from what little I've seen of
The Last Of Us does seem to indicate they are aware of how this new character may come across but it's going to take more than the occasional objection from the kid to iron out any narrative/gameplay dissonance if he's going to be as psycho as he is in that E3 video. I've seen a lot of people defending it as the whole 'what you will do to survive' thing but I don't see how that works here. He was the completely unnecessary aggressor and brought the kid right into the middle of a face-off between half a dozen armed men*, to the point where the kid had to get involved too. And for what?
I've got no problem with unlikeable characters, it's the reason I love the
Kane & Lynch games despite their ropey gunplay, but, as others have mentioned, it's a tricky thing to get right and I have my concerns here. I really want to be proven wrong though because it looks visually stunning, very atmospheric and the combat/violence has the right tone for the material. Stealth and diplomacy options would be great but player choice is not something I associate with Naughty Dog and I can't see them creating alternate character arcs, with all their meticulous cutscenes, for stealthy vs full psycho.
* The characterisation and design of these guys is pretty lazy and gutless too. They're all beefy and tough looking, swearing profusely - which is pretty much Naughty Dog shorthand for 'these guys are not good, don't feel too bad about killing them'.
Thirith on 6/6/2012 at 10:16
I see where you're coming from, Angel Dust, but in Uncharted this didn't bother me (much) - for me, Nathan Drake is very much in the vein of an Indiana Jones, and I'm not overly concerned about Indy killing Nazis and other bad guys in the movies, as long as it's a means to an end.
To borrow a term dethtoll used recently, what bothers me is the sort of dudebro violence that is mindlessly, gleefully sadistic and stripped of any context, violence where you're supposed to sit there and think, "Isn't it cool how that guys head came apart?" Drake works for me because of the type of narrative he's in and because he's not enjoying violence and brutality for their own sake. This doesn't mean that I wouldn't prefer the Uncharted games to offer more/better stealth gameplay and alternatives to killing, but IMO there's a big difference between Uncharted's violence and the kind of violence (and characterisation) you get in Army of Two.
I'd definitely not want the protagonist of The Last of Us to be a post-apocalyptic Nathan Drake, but what I'd trust Naughty Dog with is understanding what sort of narrative they're telling and what this means for characterisation etc. Player choice could come into this, but it doesn't need to - I didn't find Shadow of the Colossus any less intriguing and poignant for not giving me the choice of 'talking to the monsters', so to speak. What I do mind is games trying to force a particular attitude towards what the player character does onto me.
One of the most violent games of recent years, God of War 3, did this pretty niftily IMO - obviously there's the "Cool, those were the centaur's guts flying across the screen!" element there, but the game primarily made me think that Kratos, through his actions, is becoming more and more irredeemable, to the extent where I felt more and more that my character was as much as a villain as those he fights (and sometimes more). And I don't think I'm reading this into the game - I do think the game at the very least allows for this reading.
june gloom on 6/6/2012 at 10:32
Quote Posted by Sulphur
a two-dimensional asshole who perfunctorily calls out scenery in front of him
Given that A) that's Sam Lake's style and B) so's Stephen King's and C) AW is very much a love letter to (aside from Twin Peaks) 1990s Stephen King miniseries on ABC, this is pretty much to be expected.
gunsmoke on 1/6/2013 at 16:12
Looks great, but not THAT great. Jesus. I'll wait for Tom Chick's review over @ Qto3 thankyouverymuch.
SubJeff on 2/6/2013 at 00:38
I've been looking forward to this and although those statements are ott it does suggest that it won't be mediocre.
june gloom on 2/6/2013 at 02:11
Yeah, I'm wit it.
