LogFAQs > #898345613

I agree with that criticism and to me it comes down to the game design vocabulary they use. It's like reading a gripping well written novel and then the next chapter is in a nursery rhyme format with pictures. It's still valid prose, but it feels pedantic and overly safe and doesn't add meaningful content. Feels like the devs didn't trust the player to appreciate the nore subtle and deep encounters and emotions alone, and threw in these basic fights as insurance for players who just wanted to kill big monsters.

TLOU is insanely gamey, and that's a big part of why I like it. It's a super serious game but it still incorporates clear defined mechanics that would even make for a good board game if you stripped out all the narrative. But all those mechanics are used to enhance the drama and serious emotion of the game. A pile of bricks in a room means you can be more aggressive, clickers raise the tension of all your actions, etc. But bloaters just mean you have to sit there for a couple minutes shooting at a big thing, like a kid at an arcade game.

I do think they used a bloater well in that basement area though, specifically because you weren't really supposed to fight it.
---

_foolmo_
2 + 2 = 4