The Last of Us 2 goes beyond accessibility and difficulty levels

Naughty Dog is trying something new with in-game options

[Game-ur]

that is one great thing in the game. technically it is a marvel (other than AI). if ND just replaces the horrible narrative team dragging the studio down they could make a comeback.

[sushimama]

I think you need to get off the internet for a while. Might do you and your bitterness some good. For the record, I enjoyed the game's narrative and so did countless other reviewers.

[Game-ur]

maybe learn to cope with people that don't agree with you.

[TheKingKratos]

Awww look
a new alt account to trash the game...so cute

Fanboys are so insecure

[Yodasfavoritesoda]

Lol @ the last Jedi fans! Hate that movie

[sampsonon]

A large majority love the game. And others are letting the death of their boyfriend get in the way of their judgement. Basically whining constantly. It will be Game Of The Year. Nothing will come close because if it has this much discussion and emotion, what else can top it? It won't be Cyberpunk that's for sure.

[sampsonon]

@Thetrashspotter: I am looking at the up to down vote ratio on your comment and it looks like you're soo wrong. 2 - 14 at this point. Now go suck an egg and wait for the next game you can troll. Oh! it would help if you actually played the game..... just saying lol

[TheEnigma313]

You’re the first to comment on every article concerning this game. We get it you don’t like it now piss off.

[porkChop]

They don't have to piss off because they have the same right to comment that you do.

[Lord_Sloth]

@porkChop While they of course do have that right, I feel like they may enjoy their time better focusing on things they enjoy instead of wallowing in their hatred.

[zeuanimals]

@porkChop: And people have the right to tell him he's annoying and to piss off. He doesn't have to piss off when people tell him, and as we keep seeing, he doesn't. So let the guy continue being a dumbass and let people keep telling him he is one.

[sampsonon]

He sits waiting.... He's such a loser

[rainslacker]

Seriously?

One major great thing, that goes well beyond this game, and all you can do is give it a nod before you launch into your tirade about how the game sucks? 7 words about probably the best thing to happen with modern gaming, making them more accessible to more people, is all you have to offer after tens of thousands of words of completely meaningless bile you spew on every article about this game?

Hell, I have criticized MS all gen, but I have gone on at length about how great their controller for adaptive controller is.

You are just one sad individual. Hopefully the mods can deal with you at some point, because you are obviously nothing more than a troll.

Maybe you should try to be this guy from this comment.

https://n4g.com/comments/re...

Do a search on your name if it doesn't jump to the comment.

[Game-ur]

criticizing =/= trolling

my intent is to help ND realize their mistakes and improve.

[rainslacker]

No, trolling is taking any topic related to the game, and using it to express your distaste for the game in the most shallow way with the intent to antagonize or incite others. There is absolutely no reason to add in the negative commentary you did in your post. None of that was relevant to the topic at hand.

You're criticisms are weak and shallow, and you dont even try to make it seem like you have any kind of first hand experience with the game, and you certainly have no interest in actual discussion. Not once have you bothered to answer questions to explain your criticisms deeply, and instead just playing the victim with everyone that says they dont agree

[Game-ur]

@rainslacker

your definition of trolling matches your comments towards me. just read your own words.

I always respond to comments in notification as long as I have bubbles.

[rainslacker]

Yeah, but you never actually state anything worthwhile, nor do you answer questions when asked for clarification. Another attribute of trolling. I'll expand on what I say if need be, and clarify points, and it's not trolling to directly reply to the person who made a comment with something counter to what they said when that reply is on topic to said comment.

[TheKingKratos]

Get a F life

You starting to creep the hell out of me

[sin7279]

Please gtfo alredy!jesus

[sampsonon]

This loser again? lol God, for someone that doesn't like the game you sure need to talk about it a lot.

[DrDeath]

Ai is actually better than any game ive played in awhile?

Hard was a challenge sometimes my first playthrough.

Yet again Maybe play the game

[SyntheticForm]

Except that the story narrative that you've opposed since before June 19 (release) has nothing to do with this topic.

I'm not one of those guys who likes to police discussions and tell people they're off topic; that sort of thing I actually find to be obnoxious in most cases. Overly rigid topic adherence is mostly unreasonable and it constrains discussion.

But, how is what you're doing at this point anything other than trolling?

If I find myself to be arguing too aggressively, I'll back off for awhile. It doesn't mean I'm conceding anything; it just means that I realize that I'm not going to change the world, and that I've argued a certain point to exhaustion. People know how I feel, and I don't need to come in here every single time to counter my opponents, so I chill. So, when is it going to reach that point for you?

You need to just chill at this point. Relax. Let an article go without posting the same old opinion we're all familiar with. It's insane, really. That's how it feels now. I look at your posts and I'm like 'This guy is just insane.'

[Cikatriz_ESP]

This seems like a level-headed and valid criticism. Don’t let the detritus that responded bring you down.

[RgR]

I am finding the game to be ridiculously easy. Clickers are a joke compared to the first game and so far the human enemies don't care much better then in the first either. Maybe even worse since there's high grass options and the new prone mechanic.

I'm on my first playthrough in survival. I always play my games on the hardest difficulty on my first try.

I don't like the difficulty options and how accessibility can affect the difficulty.

No problem with those features that help other people play the game but I thought that with the choice of difficulty should come specific unchangeable parameters.

Heck even the trophy list is more accessible. This is one of the easiest platinums ever.

[Sunny12345]

Accessibility come with options. So it's the players choice what they want and how they want to do it. You want the game to be difficult go for a knife only run. I agree with the platinum being easy, but to increase replayability they will add grounded/+ mode with the mp launch on ps5 probably. Like they did for the first one.

[RgR]

I prefer when games actually cater to difficulty settings instead of sliders. I don't like having to forcefully play a certain way in order to get a sense of difficulty.

[PhantomTommy]

I love all the accessibility options, love being able to disable the motion blur, adjust the field of view, pull the camera back from the character, even create a custom difficulty -- they did and amazing job. BUT, I do feel that this game is significantly easier than the first and I played through on survivor. I do wonder if the push for accessibility had anything to do with that. The combat is so visceral and intense but it's undermined by enemies who are too quick to forget all about you. I played some encounters on hard from the menu and you can run around the arenas like a maniac without a scratch. This game's survivor feels like hard from the first game and hard feels like normal. I'm sure the inevitable "Grounded" mode will be closer to what I was looking for.

[DrDeath]

New game + i believe is harder than regular difficulties my man

[RgR]

Well I would love to play grounded mode on my first playthrough. The game warned me not to play survival on my first playthrough. So far it is an unnecessary warning.

[rainslacker]

I havent tried survival mode, but hard was not really hard at all. Just fewer supplies and if you got grabbed, you lost more health.

None of the levels were particularly hard. Some had some challenge to them, but it isnt like in the first game where even on normal, some parts took quite a few tries, or dumb luck. The school and that town where you meet that guy and his brother come to mind.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

I did die about 10 times on Very Light during the section with Lev and Yara where you're going against all those Stalkers. The only thing I dislike about this game is the dodge mechanic. For me, it makes it more difficult, even in Very Light mode.

[sampsonon]

Whether you find it easy or not the game has some of the best kills I've seen in a while. I like hitting right leg with a shotgun blowing it clear off followed by a foot to head stomp. So many ways to rip people apart. Love the game.

[RgR]

I wasn't commenting on the kills but the difficulty. I personally have fired my gun only once in the whole Seattle section and a little more past when you get saved by Dina.

Not arguing about the kills as those are satisfying...the difficulty isn't satisfying. If I want to see glory kills I'd go play doom.

[sampsonon]

@RgR: Well it's not the game because most people find the survival hard, so you will have to wait for grounded. if you want. Sorry, anytime you want to compare ripping humans apart vs some monsters we can. I find blowing someone's head clear off and watching it splatter on the wall, the table, and the floor all at once is way more gory than anything doom has to offer. I mean creatures are not the same as some guy screaming in agony as the blood gushes out of his leg for 10 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[RgR]

@sampsonon

Who is this "most people" that find the game hard?

I normally hear the opposite from people I know that have played the game and beat it in survival already. The dodge mechanic makes the infected a joke. You can sneak kill clickers. And for those that don't know, a brick and whack kills clickers as well, just like in the first mind you. And the prone system adds more flexibility for getting behind human ai. The only thing so far I've yet to encounter are the dogs...heading towards Leah right now and have still only fired one shot.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Life is Strange is the easiest platinum. You just take pictures, lol. I have the platinum for the PS3 and PS4 versions as well as Before the Storm. I only play on the easiest setting. Still got 6 trophies until I have the platinum for TLOU2 which I'm working on now. It's a huge time commitment in getting all the collectibles using chapter select. I'd say this trophy is moderate difficult just because of the time it takes.

[Chaos_Order]

I applaud Naughty Dog for their accessibility options. They're taking steps in the right direction.

As for the mountain of difficulty options, I can't help but think there are better ways to go about it. Starting up the game and being given difficulty settings for a whole load of different variables (enemies damage, health, item scarcity etc) what player is going to know what's best for them? Simply introducing all these options doesn't necessarily mean the game can be tailored to exactly what's best for the player. Looking at the custom difficulty options, I feel overwhelmed. Are players expected to have all this in the back of their minds as they play through the game, constantly adjusting the experience?

This is where I think a more robust form of adaptive difficulty would work well. Give players the generic Easy, Normal, Hard, Survivor with an option to turn on adaptive difficulty that alters the experience automatically as you play. If it detects that the player struggles to shoot straight, it can make an adjustment to weapon accuracy. If the player is constantly running out of supplies, it can alter the availability of certain items. If the player seems to be walking past important items again and again, it could use some dialogue ("Better check out this place") to guide them. If the player struggles with stealth, it could adjust enemy behaviour. This way, you can cater to players who might struggle while allowing them the chance to enjoy a more challenging game if they improve, all without the confusing and vague list of difficulty options.

[DrDeath]

Fair ideas. They would be welcome for some. But also just play the game on normal then and adjust as you go.

I myself would hate the game changing around all the time. Making it to easy then maybe to hard

[Chaos_Order]

That's fair enough. Personally, I hate the idea of constantly having to second guess myself whether I need to adjust it up or down. There's no telling if I'm suddenly struggling because there's a genuine difficulty spike or BS encounter or I've simply overlooked something that would help me progress.

I generally like it when games have only one difficulty setting because then I have nothing to doubt. It's impossible for me to regret putting the game on the 'wrong' setting or trying to figure out if I'm *supposed* to be finding the game easy or hard. Some games have difficulty spikes and lulls as part of their design. If there's only one difficulty, I'm getting the intended experience. I'll never have to look back and think "If I'd only played it on normal/hard mode, I might have enjoyed my experience more. But now that I've finished it, I've lost that chance forever."

It's a difficult (pun intended) thing to balance, and I don't think there's ever an objective right or wrong way to do it. The adaptive difficulty method is something I would never use, but I think it'd at least solve the issue for some people.

[Final_Aeon]

Another part of the game that ND has excelled in. I hope other devs will follow suit, as difficulty is not the only accessibility option.

Incidentally Polygon has put out many articles masking their demand to make hard games have easier difficulty options, with claims that hard games are impossible for colorblind/handicapped gamers.

[Magog]

Sounds like they are just using the disabled options to cheat their way through a stealth game.

[rainslacker]

Not really cheating. Just making the game easier for them. I dont see why people would care either way. It's not like it's a competition about who played it the most hardcore. I used the sonar thing during listening mode to do a bit of the clean up for collectibles. Still had to fight my way through all the areas on the hard mode default setting.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

I play it like Rambo on Very Light which is very satisfying. Explosive arrows and shotgun slugs are my best friends.

[FlavorLav01]

Playing on survival game+, so far I’m still I’m still feeling like a female Rambo. Haha