PixlBit

A lot of games copied TLOU story and gameplay just to show how influential it was. I can think of a few just off the top of my head like Evil Within 2, Metro Exodus, God of War, Days Gone, Witcher 3 (a dad game but not sure if inspired by TLOU) basically daddy simulators in post-apocalypse. Reminds me of all the Dark Souls clones. I will probably hold off on TLOU2 until a sale later in the year. I still have Dying Light and Uncharted 4 to finish.

See, but of the games you listed that I've played like God of War and the first couple stages of Evil Within 2, they were still very much their own games with their own style, gameplay, etc. I don't mind if games share some themes in common, but Days Gone reminds me of TLOU in the gameplay, visuals, and overall feel of it. That's what I don't like, but I've heard it comes into its own so I'm going to give it a bit more of a chance. 

And man, Uncharted 4 is great. I see why people who don't love heavily story driven games don't like stuff like it, but I loved it. 

Fair enough. Do you think that Horizon sequel and maybe the brutality of the newer tomb raider games were influenced by TLOU? I sort of feel like TLOU is still influencing games in the future. I haven't played Horizon 1 yet, but just going off the trailers. 

I think after the last Uncharted, the games started feeling very repetative and I drifted away from story focused games, but lately I've been playing more open world games and I'd like something more linear. 

I'm not sure what the development cycles looked like, but Tomb Raider was released a couple months before The Last of Us in 2013, so I think both dev teams just had the same brutal ideas at the same time, kind of like how the Dredd remake and The Raid: Redemption are so similar but there's really no way to prove either production team was seeing what the other was doing. 

And having played Horizon: Zero Dawn, I don't get a TLOU vibe at all, but that may be since the game is so extremely colorful and TLOU intentionally looks muddy. I think Aloy had some dad issues but there was also a lot of focus on religion and corporations and such that I felt was less of a TLOU theme overall. I still haven't actually FINISHED Horizon though. 

And I played the Uncharted series pretty much straight through from 1-4 and Lost Legacy, so yes you see the saminess after a while for sure. Same with Yakuza. I really should play those kinds of games on a more spread out basis, cause they can be tiresome when you play them like that. I feel you there. 

I want to go finish Last of Us 1 that I started on PS3 a year or so ago. I'm also disappointed that the motorcycle controls are so great in Days Gone. I was really hoping to tool around on a Harley. 

You do get to upgrade your cycle, so maybe it gets better but I sent it back and am receiving TLOU 2 soon. 

The only reason I kept Days Gone is cause other people told me it gets better, but the whole point of me having GameFly is to see if a game grabs *me*, and there's just too much to play for me to keep going on a game I'm not really enjoying. Also, they mentioned the STORY being the best part, so I can watch YouTube clips if I ever get the urge.

I'm very close to doing that for Horizon, but I'm torn cause I actually really like Horizon's gameplay too. It's just some of the bosses take too damn long and I'd rather not be repeating the same tactics for an hour (I'm sure I'm going in with the wrong equipment, but I think some of it could be better explained). 

I have trouble finishing games now because I have so many on my plate. Same thing, if it isn't wonderful, I'm on to something else. 

I got to get back to Horizon. I really liked it for the several hours I played a while ago. 

I never played the first game. But Chris has been playing the new one and has been very impressed. He said it's very ambitious. I've heard other people talking about it, and they've said it's emotionally wrenching, in good and bad ways. I'm curious, but I've got enough games I'm not playing. 

Yeah, I really liked the first one, mainly for the story. We'll see if I'm in the right headspace for TLOU 2. Either I'll love how dark it is, or I'll need a distraction like Crash Team Racing instead, which is next in my Q. We'll see.