User Impressions/Reviews Thread - Retro & Other Gaming Forum - Page 148

pushsquare.com:

@Pizzamorg It's going to differ from player to player. There was a lot of dialogue following the release of TLOU Part II about the game's approach to violence, especially with regard to animals and instilling a sense of moral guilt in the player. For a lot of us, no matter how immersive the murdering is, if they're not given a choice in the matter, then that sense of responsibility isn't instilled, whereas, for other people, it's enough that their finger pressing a button directly caused an event to happen in-game.

I do really like it when games force us to question our unflinching recourse to violence in video games, though. For what it's worth, I've yet to find a game that better explored this than the 2015 indie hit Undertale, which quickly became pretty notorious for the way in which it confronts players with the consequences of their actions when they opt to kill monsters they encounter throughout the game. It's a bit gimmicky, and the magic wears off over time, but that first time you feel devastated over killing a character because you just assumed that was what you had to do, and especially if you attempt to load an old save and the game sort of knowingly mocks your attempt to rewind time, or how engaging in a genocide route playthrough permanently alters small aspects of all future playthroughs (at least on PC)… I knew I was experiencing something that was leaning hard into the unique aspects of the medium to explore themes in a way that less interactive mediums simply couldn't.

Would TLOU on HBO be as popular if it wasn't based on a well-loved video game? I'm tempted to say it wouldn't have been as highly regarded, but that's unknowable, sort of like those «would Breath of the Wild have been as highly regarded