A dog meet dog world

Geoff Keighley announced the Game of the Year nominees yesterday and they are a brilliantly eclectic bunch. At odds with the action-packed line-up is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Released around the beginning of major lockdowns this cosy island life simulator was no doubt a source of great relief this year. One of Nintendo’s biggest games on the Switch so far, this has been a smashing success for the house of Mario.

Two from Hell

Released the same day as New Horizons fellow nominee DOOM: Eternal offered a very different type of escapism. Relentless demon slaughter at a breakneck pace! In the year that hell came to Earth, it was a delight to travel to heaven and hell with the Doomslayer on his bogus journey. Rip and tear indeed.

Supergiant Games are no stranger to praise but Hades has had nothing but platitudes since its recent release. An isometric rogue-like about escaping the Greek underworld with snappy, dynamic action and a classy wit. Most importantly to its fans on Twitter, however: the entire cast is extremely hot. Surely that’s reason enough for victory here?

Cloud with a silver lining

After a ludicrous wait, the Final Fantasy VII Remake released in April. Though many were delighted with the updated gameplay and presentation the controversial story changes and episodic release plan are still being debated to this day. Regardless it’s a confident, slick re-imagining that is exciting to old fans and newcomers alike.

Sony’s Pretty Revenge Simulators

After a strangely subdued marketing campaign Ghost of Tsushima surprised players by being a very tight, beautiful looking game with an excellently paced story. Although it falls into open-world game pitfalls the presentation triumphs over these shortfalls. If 2020 needed a cure then Jin was the tonic.

Finally awards darlings Naughty Dog are nominated for The Last of Us: Part II. Arguably the most controversial game on this list, it garnered both good faith and bad faith criticism whilst also being a critical darling among professional critics. One has to wonder if a game about human depravity in the aftermath of a pandemic released at the wrong time? Either way, Naughty Dog’s attention to detail is stunning as ever, a great swansong for a console generation.

And that’s it for 2020’s nominees! What a handsome assembly. Personally, I’m rooting for Animal Crossing. I can’t think of a game that was more of a comfort to me this year and I think it would be lovely to show some love to non-violent title. Can’t see that happening though! What would you like to see win? Comment and let us know!

The Game Awards will be streamed on the 10th of December.

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Not long now until we finally see if The Last of Us Part II was worth the wait. There have been figurative and literal catastrophes along the way but June 19th is only a week away.

In The Last of Us, gamers were transported to a world where humanity wasn’t doing well. We had been pushed to the brink of extinction because of a virus that turned the victims into fungi monsters. The remaining humans fought against them best they could but it was a losing battle. There was no hope in this world. The player took control of Joel as he escorted Ellie across America defending her from the infected and the uninfected. There were betrayals, horrors and an iconic relationship was formed.

Now seven years later we return to this world and face the ramifications of surviving the last adventure.

The story thus far

Four years have passed since the events of The Last of Us and Ellie and Joel have found a life in Jackson. This settlement is lively, happy and most importantly safe. They protect themselves and each other. Everything is normal, or as normal as normal gets in a world with horrifying fungus zombies that is until some strangers rock into town looking to cause some damage.

When the dust settles and the damage is done Ellie and her new bestie Dina head out to exact justice because of what’s been done to the residents of Jackson.

Heading out into the brave, new world of The Last of Us Part II

Once I began my playthrough of The Last of Us Part II I was immediately taken by the graphics. This is a game that pushes the limits of the power of the PlayStation 4. The photorealism of The Last of Us Part II is unbelievable. The locales that you visit are varied and a treat to explore. I say treat even though I was tense 90% of the time I was playing The Last of Us Part II.

Thanks to the heightened realism of the design of the various human factions and the monsters the fear factor was always at an eleven for me. Whenever I thought I was safe I was reminded quickly that wasn’t. For example, to stay alive and prepared you have to ensure that you stay stocked up on crafting materials so you have to scavenge and you will search every nook and cranny for materials for your weapons and gear.

This means that you have to be constantly moving and constantly on the look out for crafting materials. Doing this can easily put you into more precarious situations whether it be with the WLF’s, the SCARS or the infected. All these factions want you dead and there are a lot more of them than you. The WLF’s and the SCARS are intense and well-trained humans but the infected are that same x-factor they were inThe Last of Us.

There are also several new variants of the infected and these new variants are even more disgusting and grotesque thanks to creative and nightmarish designs further enhanced by the impressive graphics on show.

Everything changes but stays the same

Gameplay-wise The Last of Us Part II is not that much different from its predecessor and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all the crafting materials from everyday items mechanic worked organically into the narrative of The Last of Us and it works well here too. The team at Naughty Dog have a,” if it’s not broke don’t fix it” attitude towards this system and that’s fine because for me it wasn’t the gameplay that won me over it was the originals narrative, but we’ll get to that element of this game later.

What has also stayed the same is the combat. You run and gun much like you did in the previous title the only difference is there are a number of new weapons to craft and play around with. My personal favourite is the crossbow an enhanced version of the bow from the first adventure. You can still enhance your skills and there are many options allowing you to craft the best version of your character.

This is the last point at which I will discuss gameplay because I think to fully appreciate this game you have to discuss its narrative and so I will say this final statement before I head into the spoiler zone.

The Last of Us Part II is an enjoyable game for fans of the survival horror genre. The graphics and gameplay are outstanding. it is head and shoulders above others of its kind but it will not win anyone over who is not already a fan. There were some animation issues during my playthrough as well as some rendering problems but they ultimately didn’t take away from my enjoyment.

Of monsters and men

To help you understand my mind going into this final paragraph I will state right now I hadn’t seen any of the leaks when they came out. I had only seen the first trailer and that was it. So my expectations were high, so when I tell you that this game is an emotional gut-punch that never stops delivering on award-worthy storytelling I want you to understand the full weight of that statement.

At first, this is a story of vengeance but as the story goes on you learn how destructive it can be to you and everyone around you and how in the end no one comes out clean. As I trudged through the mud facing off against monstrous hordes of cultists while escaping a rabid militia all I could think about was how all these characters were trying so hard to survive. Everyone has a story and everyone is a hero and a villain to someone in this imperfect world and I loved it.

The Last of Us Part II is a sublime tour de force of visceral and engaging storytelling that is complimented by a robust and addictive combat system. If you are a fan there is no reason not to have this day of release.

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So I’m here with the infamous…

Infamous?

Well, you were in one of them.

Ha! Pun.

I should say who you are, it’s Troy Baker. I thought it be funny to do a quick fire round first as you’re a part of such secretive projects. Can you tell us anything about Death Stranding?

Yes.

Oh!? I am genuinely surprised I thought you couldn’t say a word.

I can tell you some stuff. It was a blast to work with Norman Reedus. It was mindblowing to work with Hideo Kojima. You get to see my character which I’m super excited about. I can tell you that if Kojima pulls off what he wants to pull off it could literally change the way we play games.

Can you say if you’re in any scenes with Mads (Mikkelsen) or Guillermo (Del Toro)?

I can’t say.

I thought so that’s fair Will you be voicing both Bruce and Hulk in the Avengers game for Square Enix?

No, I’ll just be voicing Bruce because Fred (Tatasciore) is my Hulk and I’m not sure if Fred is voicing the Hulk.

You also have Joel. Can you talk about Joel and his part in The Last of Us Part II?

I can, but I won’t. More will be revealed as we get closer to the release date which I can’t wait for, especially as a player.

I think everyone who’s been watching Retro Replay has seen how much of a gamer you are.

A frustrating one for sure.

You must have the patience of a saint when it comes to the Uncharted Playthroughs?

For Uncharted sure but what’s funny is when people were screaming at us that circle is cover I don’t sit there and think I’m pressing circle now it’s all muscle memory and in my defence, there’s a lot changed between Uncharted 4 and Uncharted. Cut me some slack.

So how does it feel playing Uncharted with Nolan (North)? I say this because you’re living the dream of playing the game that you loved with the guy who was a part of that genre that you yourself are now famous for?

It constantly amazes me because after being his friend for so many years now there’s a lot of stories that I’ve heard and a lot of stories that I haven’t heard that he’ll only remember by replaying the game. So I intentionally made sure he didn’t get a chance to practice (which he wanted to do) so every time we play he’s experiencing this for the first time.

On a weird tangent, how does it feel to be returning to Vincent Brooks for Catherine: Full Body?

Dude!

I know!

Man, they wrote the hell out of that sequel. It’s a follow up to the previous game and an expansion on the franchise. Dude it is, I thought Catherine was banana’s, this game is insanity.

Can you imagine putting Nolan through that game? It’ll be Spider-Man all over again.

Oh no, no, no we will eventually play through Catherine and I can’t wait. That guy is going to lose his mind.

So how does it feel with Retro Replay being a year old now? Traveller and Retro Replay are now your two one-year-old babies.

Somebody put it best, I love this age of babies because they’re little drunk people they just stumble around and it’s pretty accurate. This morning I finished because we do episode reviews and we’ll go back and we’ll watch through. I mean we finished episode 53 and it blows my mind. We’ve been doing it for so long and we’re constantly growing our community. That person not only like watching us do this but the way we’re doing it. We’re also not operating out of that place of fear and have built a great team that has stuck with us since the beginning. It just keeps getting better, and better, and better.

Finally, we’ll end with how does it feel to have something that is a passion project that is so popular that isn’t even a game?

All I wanted to do was to be a part of something that had a t-shirt. It meant a lot to us. We’re also about to roll out a lot of new merch in July so when we come back we’ll have a proper shop set up.

Well see you next time you’re in Dublin Troy

Thanks for taking the time.

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Highly cinematic, the behind the shoulder camera which trails the trailer’s unknown protagonist and her captors as thunder roars the skies above and rain pummels them and the ground below establishes a tense and hostile atmosphere from the get-go. Much has been made of how violent the trailer is and, simply, there is no denying it. While realistic depictions of gratuitous violence have been commonplace in film and television for half a Century now, comparable displays of violence have only emerged in video games very recently as it was impossible for the relatively new medium to do so with the primitive technology and graphical ability of previous generations. In fact, it really wasn’t until the sixth generation of consoles, which emerged at the turn of the millennium that realistic, that the hardware was sufficiently powerful enough to depict convincing visual brutality (it could even be argued that it wasn’t until the seventh generation, the last one before the current generation, that it became truly realistic). What makes the trailer so hard to stomach for most people, I believe, is lack of context.

In film, heinous violence can be rendered bearable to the viewer if it is acceptably contextualised; it’s what separates, albeit brutal, movies like Hacksaw Ridge and Casino from the gore-porn of Saw and Hostel – emotional engagement, morality and quality storytelling. The problem that this trailer faces is that without sufficient narrative context, a woman having her arms broken with a claw-hammer is just, well, a woman having her arms broken with a claw-hammer. The first Last Of Us game was critically acclaimed not because of how violent it was (and it is, as anyone who has played it will tell you, exceptionally violent) but because, among a litany of other redeeming qualities, how it was able to suck the player into its dystopian world, through brilliant storytelling, outstanding scripting and voice acting, and the genuine emotion it evoked. Therefore, just as in Cormack McCarthy’s novel The Road, which is arguably The Last Of Us’ greatest source of inspiration, it is able to deal with uncomfortable themes of murder, starvation, tribalism, the death of children, rape and molestation without coming off as being deliberately antagonist or controversial. It’ll be interesting to see as graphics improve in gaming, becoming more detailed and vibrant if developers will forego quality storytelling in favour of graphical flare and depictions of increasingly graphic violence and death. Some games, in the past, have driven explicit violence to the forefront as the focal point of the experience (such as Manhunt or State of Emergency), and with rare exception – such as the latest seventh instalment in the Resident Evil franchise – it usually highlights a game lacking in any redeemable content or, worse still, overshadows any quality that may exist.

The good news is that, in an industry with a relatively low percentage of casual and passive consumers (when compared to film and music), I cannot see most developers becoming complacent with regards to its software’s other integral elements, one of which is storytelling, by simply relying on using violence as a shock tactic. What’s even better is that this is less likely to occur with The Last of Us Part II. Naughty Dog has, at this point, a rock solid track record and a reputation as one of the best developers in the world to uphold, with the first Last of Us game being one of the brightest jewels in its crown. (A quick side note on the sparseness of the trailer too is that games which tend to have minimalist trailers, or are indifferent to promoting their games at expo’s, usually indicate a developers confidence in their product – just look at Rockstar’s history of cryptic trailers and E3 no-shows.) It will be violent yes, probably the most violent product the studio has ever sold to the masses, but the violence will take place in a beautiful dystopian world, within which a wonderful story is likely to be woven, the chapters of which will be accessible through what is likely to be a masterfully crafted gameplay experience. In context – bloody, glorious context.

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