I have a whole top row of one of my collectible shelves dedicated to Last of Us, CE's/figures/etc. I feel like I'm predisposed to judging this severely, so I'm both excited and nervous. :D
It looks really fantastic. I don't think I like the Ellie actress, she will have to win me over. Loved her in GOT though. I LOVE that they included the Take On Me song, call back to TLOU2. Made me go and download the song and added it to my forever playlist. Just a fantastic cover of it even if it was almost unrecognizable. Ugghh the games had such good music.
> I thought it was terrible, boring and miscast. Hope it gets better. Yikes.
Really? I enjoyed it quite a bit! Ellie was miscast but that's been said since the initial news. Still, she's a strong actress and I'm optimistic she'll play the role well.
Wish they would have released two episodes to kick off like many others do.
Well, I am well known to like... Damn near everything. Might not be the best judge here but both my wife and I enjoyed it. Wish I woulda replayed the game before watching though. After Ys (which gdamnit is so good! 35 hours in), I may go play it instead of Tactics Ogre / Dead Space.
As someone who only started playing the game last night and therefore have no over attachment (yet), I thought the first episode was extremely well done. I heard on Harloff?s show that most reviewers claim the first episode was the ?worst? (not actually bad, just the weakest of the batch) and that the show only gets stronger from there. I?ll keep on watching.
I?ve rewatched it. I think it?s hard to watch this knowing the story and see the pace that it unfolds. It feels like forever before it gets to Boston- and knowing how quickly that into part of the story ends - it feels like a large waste of almost 1/2 the episode. It?s great TV but man how will they tell this story without like 5 seasons?
> I?ve rewatched it. I think it?s hard to watch this knowing the story and see the
> pace that it unfolds. It feels like forever before it gets to Boston- and knowing
> how quickly that into part of the story ends - it feels like a large waste of almost
> 1/2 the episode. It?s great TV but man how will they tell this story without like
> 5 seasons?
As someone who played Remastered years ago on PS4 and recently played the PS5 Remake, the story itself isn't long or complicated. It was a 17 hour game give or take and a lot of that is gameplay. Considering the 9-episode first season is planning to cover the whole first game and the DLC and they have added content for the show, they will be just fine. When playing the Remake recently, I was surprised how quickly the game ended when going into Winter and then Spring.
> I?ve rewatched it. I think it?s hard to watch this knowing the story and see the
> pace that it unfolds. It feels like forever before it gets to Boston- and knowing
> how quickly that into part of the story ends - it feels like a large waste of almost
> 1/2 the episode. It?s great TV but man how will they tell this story without like
> 5 seasons?
If it takes them 5 seasons to tell the story of part 1, they would definitely lose me - talk about padding and not moving the plot forward. That would one up some Game of Thrones seasons in terms of nothing happening. Considering the game is made of large chunks of gameplay which is time they can instead use to further focus on character/story development, I think using 1 season to tell the story will be perfect. Pacing is everything and they could mess it up, but first episode has me confident so far
They practically more than doubled the length of the prologue. I think the reason the show is not hitting with me yet is because there is not a dearth of action long periods in the game. The amount of great story in that 15-20 hour experience is a part of its brilliance. Hopefully the show picks up and I enjoy it but seeing more stuff about the upcoming episodes it looks like it may get a GoT type multiple character / stories ongoing that interconnect type treatment. This will require lots of backstory and new / supplemental material. annnd- it?s HBO. They have a penchant for creating brilliant TV when given source material but inevitably destroying the best stuff by padding it out too much. True Blood, GoT etc- some of their best shows were cancelled and never got watered down. Like Deadwood, Rome, Carnivale etc.
The first hour of cutscenes mirrored what happened in the first episode (of 9 total this first season), leaving 4 hours for the rest of 8 episodes. Some key gameplay portions will get trimmed down into a few action sequences for the show. The rest of the gameplay is filler and won't need to be reflected in the show.
Major story points would be Bill & Frank, Sam & Henry, David, Salt Lake City, and Riley from the Left Behind DLC. Each of those can be covered in a single episode, maybe 1 and a half for some characters.
Maybe it was just me, but Gabriel Luna as Tommy sounded just like the Tommy voice actor. And casting Marlene's voice actor to actually play Marlene in the show was awesome.
There will likely be a ?before the outbreak? episode or at least an after the bombing type episode.
He did sound exactly like Tommy. I was confused as to the casting Tommy VA as another toon and using that dude as the character- he?s pretty great.
Another insight- the prologue took more time partly because the ability of the game to tell the story by exploring the items in the house etc had to be more visual and less intuitive. That?s one of the perks of a video game. Tons of the story- and especially back story- is told through item descriptions/ files / photos, in game dialogue etc. that will all likely be realized through television by longer runtimes.
Some cool discussion of the source of the outbreak. Especially with the foods mentioned in the prologue. My theory is sugar, soy or flour (which would be because it has sugar in it.)
This is not a huge spoiler and won?t ruin anything for you as it?s speculative- just respect.
I enjoyed the pilot... Since I played the games I already knew about the beginning, but I thought it was pretty good and sets up the show nicely. Does anyone else picture Pedro Pascal as the Mandalorian during certain scenes and laugh a bit? I'm just waiting for him to say "This is the way" in a scene...
>> I haven?t watched it, but just looking at the pics I hate the casting of that
> girl
>> as Ellie
>
> You wanted to creep over a 19 year old actress playing a teenager, huh?
Huh? no. I wasn’t thinking about age (or that) at all.
I just think she has almost no likeness (IMO) to Ellie. Even the pics I’ve seen of her from the show, the looks on her face and stuff, doesn’t really make me think she was a good choice.
I’ve watched GoT, she did a fine job in that for the smaller role she had. She has some chops for sure.I don’t dislike the actress.
Now I could watch it and maybe she does a great job and does mannerisms and nuance that youd never be able to tell from still photos of her. I could be blown away by how great she does even if she initially seems like a poor casting choice (a la lots of ppl with Tom Cruise as Lestat in Interview With a Vampire), but she just doesn’t seem to look like a good representation of Ellie I guess, to me. I’m open to being wrong. I’ll give it a shot for sure.
Yeah I saw that. Like she loves seeing him batter someone for her. Yikes.
Im afraid they’re going to have her manipulate his protective nature more than we’re accustomed to. Seems to be a big thematic goal after seeing the after credits.
Watched the first episode last night. I think they did a wonderful job. I don't think Bella is the perfect Ellie but she is acting the part well. It really did capture the feel of the first game. Honestly after digesting the second game for a bit, I do quite love it too. So the 2nd season should be great.
> Watched the first episode last night. I think they did a wonderful job. I don't think
> Bella is the perfect Ellie but she is acting the part well. It really did capture
> the feel of the first game.
> Honestly after digesting the second game for a bit, I do quite love it too. So the
> 2nd season should be great.
>
>
If season 2 even is the second game.... I haven't read much but I could expect them to end season 1 after the Colorado part where Joel gets hurt and it transitions to that snow but where you play as Ellie solo for a bit.
After reviewing the few cast details for each of the 9 episodes on IMDB, I retract my previous thoughts about the first season covering all of the first game. It seems like they won't get through all of it since they've adding a lot of backstory and some new characters. That's fine with me because the Indonesia scenes at the beginning of Episode 2 was great.
Second episode was fine but kinda boring. Other than the whole fungus concept, it seemed to be a very “by the numbers” episode of “zombie” TV, and it was fairly predictable how it was gonna end up.
Show is good and looks great, but doesn’t blow me away like it seems to do for most folks. But tbh that goes for what I’ve played of the game so far too, in my opinion at least.
> It's a bit too similar to the game. But with most game adaptations, they usually
> stray so far from the source it just sucks as a result.
This. I think they should just stick to the game and see what happens. Literally every adaptation is usually just wallpaper that resembles the game that is glue to a pile of crap script. Just do the direct adaptation with minor tweaks.
> If season 2 even is the second game.... I haven't read much but I could expect them
> to end season 1 after the Colorado part where Joel gets hurt and it transitions to
> that snow but where you play as Ellie solo for a bit.
The little bit I heard/read said Season 1 was going to be part 1, and season 2 would be part 2. With no plans for anything after that. Though Naughty Dog has hinted part 3 is in production.
Ellie is growing me a little bit... But man, that forehead and that weird facial expression she makes. Is she surprised? Is she being sarcastic? Is she smelling poop? I don't know!
> Ellie is growing me a little bit... But man, that forehead and that weird facial
> expression she makes. Is she surprised? Is she being sarcastic? Is she smelling poop?
> I don't know!
Saw episode 2 and yeah she's growing on me. But you are right... she's this generations' equivalent of Kristen Stewart with facial expressions. I do think she acts out Ellie's sense of humor very well though.
I'm personally hyped Season 2 was announced. I can't wait to love/hate Abby.
Settle for what you got. But work your ass off to live. It’s flicted. I agree with the idea that living ain’t life without other people for sure. Other people are our purpose. However this is gonna get bombed.
> Settle for what you got. But work your ass off to live. It’s flicted. I agree with
> the idea that living ain’t life without other people for sure. Other people are our
> purpose. However this is gonna get bombed.
I thought the same, that butt-hole general Joe was gonna lose their crap over the episode for the wrong reasons (hello Lightyear), but it really was done quite well and was such an awesome message that almost made ya forget that we were watching Last of Us.
Just felt like a slog. The human camp woman storyline feels superfluous- and the very last scene introduces what I expected to be the meat of this episode. I did enjoy that Ellie is becoming more like the character I expected. Funny they did the porn mag scene this week and gave the homophobes a week to cry about how much of a manly badass bill is in game and he can’t possibly be gay. I lol’d. This is the first episode that I have no desire to rewatch.
I'll be honest, I thought the first episode was real well done and the acting in episode 3 was great, but otherwise the show really isn't doing it for me either. Episode 2 was a bore and pretty "paint by numbers" zombie stuff. Episode 3 was good and like I said, incredible acting, but it was a full hour flashback that resulted in Joel getting a car battery in the last 2 minutes. I understand the thematic resonance of losing hope in humanity and learning to care again (clear foreshadowing for Joel's relationship with Ellie), but having all of that take place in a flashback between two characters who will otherwise have no effect on the story is peak Walking Dead material.
Haven't seen episode 4 yet, but my buddy who did watch it also decided that the show wasn't scratching his itch either. The lady and I will still give it a go in hopes there's an uptick (and out of loyalty to our boy Pedro Pascal), but so far it's just... "alright" I guess.
I know Episode 1 is free to watch, but I'm thinking I should wait until the 1st season concludes, and I can purchase a month and binge all the episodes.
So far I'm really digging The Last of Us. I'll echo thejaw on the flashback issue with EP3, but that was a pretty gripping story, even if it shoved Joel and Ellie to the side for a long time. EP4 kicked me in the teeth even though I wasn't remotely surprised.
Yeah I agree, the show has been great so far, very happy with it!
After seeing what's coming in the next episode, feels like they're moving kinda fast and sadly ... feels like in fact the entire first game will be covered in Season 1. Truth be told, feels like they could (and should) have drawn this out further.
It's awesome playing Part 1 Remastered now, but is making me wish the show slowed down and did more with exploring.
Been so long since I played this. Bill is definitely quite different (not to mention that Frank hated Bill), and man... Ellie is so much better in the game.
Just played through and beat the Last of Us and the Expansion Left Behind. It's been an utterly satisfying 20 hours or so of play. I had wanted to do this prior to watching the show. Now I'm caught up . Btw, Last of us II is on sale for $10 on PlayStation store.
I tried to like the game but it just didn’t hook me. (Please don’t flay me yall.) I’ll keep watching the show eventually but still haven’t seen anything past the third episode.
It was good. They got lots done tonight. Notice the Depeche Mode song from end credits episode one is covered in credits tonight. “Never Let Me Down Again.”
This episode was good, the Joel developments were well done. Even in those emotional scenes, Bella has one facial expression ... Her range of emotions is very limited.
So wait, is next episode the dlc? I never played it, pretty excited to do it with Remaster. Just seems odd that they're throwing it out there now.
Yeah, it's during the events when Joel is impaled. Ellie looks for medical supplies to stitch up his wounds. At the end of the original game before she makes Joel promise he's telling the truth. She talks about Riley and how they would "would be all poetic and lose their minds together." The DLC is the a flashback lead-up to their relationship and the moments leading up to the them being bitten.
I finally watched the first six eps over the weekend with my wife. I'm ok with the show, but it feels really condensed, and I kinda question the extensiveness of some of these character backstories that ultimately end up to nothing.
Yeah, you gotta pad the show and stuff. But something feels weird. My wife commented that the ep with Sam and Henry felt like it was moving into Walking Dead territory and she had a hard time keeping interest.
I was shocked to learn that there are only 9 eps (?) so I'm really wondering how they are going to squish the rest of the story into those three eps.
I get some of the changes - if they played out Bill's story like it was in the game I'm sure people would complain. So go in the total opposite direction. I still felt like Bill was miscast. It should have been Earl Brown like in the game. He was really good.
I'm fine with Ellie. I'm okay with Joel.
I dig it, but I dig the game much much more.
I'm also let down by how little we are seeing infected/clickers/bloaters/etc.
I’ve seen a lot people comment about the length and how they are condensing the game/plot. I disagree. I posted way earlier in this thread that the amount of “story” game only amounts to around 5 hours. The gameplay is what is mostly being cut. I mean. How often can you watch Joel killing raiders or infected? It would make no sense to show that over and over on the show. It would just become The Walking Dead. Makes the infected feel much more dangerous. There 3 episodes left. That’s 3 episodes to cover…
Left Behind DLC (which Ep. 7 seems like it will cover), the Winter segment with David and the cannibals, Spring segment when they arrive at Salt Lake City and the Firefly hospital, and the Epilogue, and then fitting in some flashbacks of Ellie’s mom giving birth that’s added plot in the show only (which based on episode cast listings will be in Ep. 7).
> I’ve seen a lot people comment about the length and how they are condensing the
> game/plot. I disagree. I posted way earlier in this thread that the amount of “story”
> game only amounts to around 5 hours. The gameplay is what is mostly being cut.
> I mean. How often can you watch Joel killing raiders or infected? It would make
> no sense to show that over and over on the show. It would just become The Walking
> Dead. Makes the infected feel much more dangerous. There 3 episodes left. That’s
> 3 episodes to cover…
>
I was thinking the same thing. I was even telling my wife… I guess they’re not gonna show the dozen or so times Joel has to float Ellie on a raft to some nearby objective. Let’s be honest, the story/presentation was the only thing going for the game.
The pacing is ok as far as the backbone story goes- but as someone previously mentioned- they’ve pretty much made this an infected-less buddy trip. It feels very unbalanced in an action sense- the world doesn’t seem as dangerous etc. I’ll finish this season for sure - but no doubt this has gone from something that felt exceptional and different to something that feels overly safe and a bit boring / by the book. Personally I feel almost no attachment to these characters- I certainly did with the game.
I'm almost up to speed with the show from the game. Last night I was playing the Tommy era and when Ellie ran off ... I'm kinda bummed they left that out. That in itself could have been a whole damn episode. They're moving too fast
I've also seen people complain about the characterization of both Ellie and Joel with regards to how Bella and Pedro are portraying them. They are different vs. the game, but I think the portrayals are much more realistic in how people living in this type of environment would actually act. Both Joel and Ellie in the game were much more upbeat, and while that made them much more likable, seems out of place.
Joel (Pedro) bearing his soul to Tommy was incredible.
It’s frustrating because there’s 30 minutes of hiking and small talk and 15 minutes of story per episode it seems. Like they didn’t know if they’d milk it and slow it up or zoom though it. They gave as a mashup of both. It feels like there’s an identity crisis.
> I've also seen people complain about the characterization of both Ellie and Joel
> with regards to how Bella and Pedro are portraying them. They are different vs.
> the game, but I think the portrayals are much more realistic in how people living
> in this type of environment would actually act. Both Joel and Ellie in the game
> were much more upbeat, and while that made them much more likable, seems out of place.
>
> Joel (Pedro) bearing his soul to Tommy was incredible.
You're right, didn't really consider that. Playing the game in parallel right now, I love the game characters much better ... but how they're portrayed/played in the show is more realistic.
Regardless, the game Ellie is so much more sassy and entertaining. Game Joel definitely feels a bit more dark than TV counterpart, which is probably for the better of the show to round him out a bit more.
I’m struggling with knowing how this ends (understanding it may be changed up) and feeling absolutely no emotion towards that thought. If they pull this off with these actors / scripts and pull me back in then magic. I just don’t think it’ll happen, at least with me- recognizing it could just be a “me” problem.
> You're right, didn't really consider that. Playing the game in parallel right now,
> I love the game characters much better ... but how they're portrayed/played in the
> show is more realistic.
>
> Regardless, the game Ellie is so much more sassy and entertaining. Game Joel definitely
> feels a bit more dark than TV counterpart, which is probably for the better of the
> show to round him out a bit more.
I've been reading a lot of comments on Kotaku (first mistake) about how Joel is just a mass murderer, which is very true if you think about the number of raiders (humans) he kills in the game, which wouldn't translate realistically to the show. He's very nonchalant about it if you think about it and that is what makes him truly dark. Obviously it's a video game and yes, they're trying to kill you, but it completely changes your perspective. Joel and Ellie shouldn't be likable, but obviously since you play as them, they needed to be.
I know there was huge outrage when it was revealed that Joel dies at the beginning of Part II, but objectively he deserved it. He killed Marlene (after she put the gun down, shot her, and then shot her in the head after that) at the end of Part I only because he believed the Fireflies wouldn't stop coming for Ellie. Just thinking about how they'll have to show that in the last episode of this first season blows my mind.
Just finished Remastered, absolutely loved it, best play through thus far. Have a better appreciation of the game this time, not only because of the remastered version, but the show, and how well the game has aged (even though it's not that old). Played at release and once again a couple years later showing my wife the game.
Played on hard, surprised at how much ammo and supplies I always had. I also don't remember being Sam Fisher last time. I think I legit choked out 90% of the enemies.
Things I want to see in the show before s1 ends: - Ellie taking a machete to a certain dudes face - Ellie hunting with a bow - Joel swimming Ellie around on a pallette - More exploration with discovery of random stories - Giraffes (I'd be amazed if they omit this) - Nail bombs
It's weird after paying. Some of the changes in the show make more sense but also a bit let down even more. Joel's injury scene in the game is so much better than what we just saw in last week's episode. Playing through that again, I'm a bit salty on how quick they did that on the show.
I forgot how brutal both Joel and Ellie were in the game, gdamn!
They absolutely should have had a few more episodes in this season. I really wonder if they'll truly finish the first game in s1. With the DLC going next, that means we have to wrap up everything from Joel's injury on, in only two episodes? Seems insane if cram all that in!
Looking forward to the DLC as I've never played it.
TLoU on harder difficulties is a masterpiece. Improvisation and anxiety. Never been more happy to find a brick or bottle laying around. Default difficulty the gameplay is just average imo.
> This last episode is my least favorite so far. I never played the DLC so I cant compare,
> but I know the game's Riley story was well received.
>
> Did you guys like the show's version of the DLC?
I liked it. It was very similar to the DLC content, even used some of the same lines. I did miss a few scenes not in the show like the water gun segment and throwing rocks at car windows segment, but those are minor quibbles. The biggest difference for me was the way they were attacked. I liked the game version better, it was more thrilling than what occurred in the show.
I would give this latest episode a very good rating overall.
The relative episode was pretty well done in a vacuum, but pacing could have been better. I really hate having a character have something bad happen as a cliffhanger, then the next episode is a filler flashback for almost an hour before we get a relatively unearned resolution.
I really dislike people. Why is everyone so butt hurt that modern media is finally trying to be a bit more diverse and inclusive? 'MURICA, F YEAH! Sad.
I read some of the reviews on IMDb (not all) but apparently the closeted hateful folks thought it was pointless, boring, predictable and filler and didn’t do anything to progress the story; didn’t need to be 45 min. I didn’t see any hate. Maybe I didn’t look at the right reviews.
We are very behind... I'm still only just past episode 2. If the baby isn't keeping us up, the other one is. Now everyone has strep.
The DLC was kind of crap but good story telling. I'm glad they included it, I guess. The comparison between the games and scenes look great. I love that Mortal Kombat 2 made an appearance.
I'm replaying the game now for the second time, first was when it was released on ps3, and we just watched the last episode. Some of the story beats feel adapted well (even better with one death imo), but overall feels kind of rushed, esp the bond between Joel and Ellie. Liked it a good bit overall though.
> I'm replaying the game now for the second time, first was when it was released on
> ps3, and we just watched the last episode. Some of the story beats feel adapted well
> (even better with one death imo), but overall feels kind of rushed, esp the bond
> between Joel and Ellie. Liked it a good bit overall though.
It definitely felt rushed in the show for me too. Also, felt there were not enough clickers or action scenes. All the drama was very well adapted though.
I’ll die on this hill - Ellie is miscast. She never feels like a fit for me. In fact it gets worse as the season goes on. Joel is fine- just feels like almost no development. It feels strange having such a small emotional connection to these characters after all these episodes.
@Feeb - she grew on me, but still think she could/should have been better cast, for sure. She's a good enough actress and all, but just ... the face/emotion, doesn't match that of the game version of Ellie sadly.
Kinda bummed that they legit skipped over so much action in Ep8 and 9. I get that they've done that basically the whole season, skipping over most of the game fight scenes ... but there were some good opps here to dive in a bit more - more so with Ellie and the town of Ep8. Oh well.
Still think it overall felt rushed, they needed 2+ more episodes. Overall though, really enjoyed it.
Love the little nods we got in Ep8 and Ep9 with the voice actors.
When I think of end game TLoU I think of going under the overpass / the tunnel with tons of infected. That needed a shout out. It was the litmus test for grounded.
