![]() Characters are shot, beaten, stabbed, blown up and killed in bloody fashion, using various weapons and guns, and even sometimes using the environment to the player's advantage such as slamming enemies' heads into counters/walls etc. MAIN CONTENT ISSUES - There is frequent, strong bloody and brutal violence throughout gameplay and cutscenes. One of the main themes of the game is if the wants of the many outweigh the needs of the few - not to spoil anything, but near the end of the game Joel has to make a choice to sacrifice a loved one's life in return for a longshot chance to saving millions. TLOU tackles serious themes such as the death of children and animals, suicide, cannibalism, and existentialism. The game also isn't light on the violence, with characters able to die (and dying) in brutal ways. There is an implied depiction of attempted sexual assault during the climax of the game - the season "Winter" - but it is not explicitly shown and left up to the imagination. There are a few potentially triggering scenes. All of the areas are beautifully designed and portray a haunting beauty of nature reclaiming a fallen world. Ellie is a foil to Joel, being lighthearted and adventurous at first before events throughout the pair's journey to Colorado harden her to the outside world. The main character, Joel, is set up as gruff and traumatized at the beginning but begins to take on a paternal role for his newfound daughter, Ellie. I don't think it's unfair to describe this game as an artistic masterpiece. There's one temporary character whom adults may detect could be a pedophile, but aside from one brief kiss, no actual sexual activity takes place in the game either on-screen or off. Aside from the pandemic fungus that causes its victims to become murderous mutated zombie-like killers, what's left of the federal government is the bad guy, though the anti-government "freedom fighters" aren't angels either. ![]() There's no explicit or implied racism, sexism, or religious or gender discrimination that I can see, but neither is there any pronounced virtue-signaling (the game was written in 2013), except that homosexuality is normalized (at least two characters are gay or gay-curious), and there's plenty of diversity casting, though no interracial nuclear families (which seems obligatory in today's entertainment industry) as in the 2023 HBO series version. There's a strong storyline, especially in the area of loyalty and protectiveness toward family, but there are shocking and heart-wrenching plot turns as well. I'd say it's not appropriate for prepubescent children, being chock-full of violence, very frequent profanity, and visual gore (which can be modified or reduced via settings), but given the world we live in, most kids today are used to that. The game is made for PlayStation and is not currently available on Xbox, but it's available on PC via Steam (recommended only for high-end gaming computers), which allows using the keyboard to control play (and using the mouse to aim and shoot, which is great for console-challenged players) and also allows control by any of the popular gaming console controllers. I used the "Moderate" difficulty setting for my first play-through, and I enjoyed using the highest possible difficulty level to keep the enemies tough and smart while using those additional "second-time through" options to make my own character more formidable. Additional options that make it much easier to play (like infinite ammo, infinite resources, one-shot/blow kill, etc.), and filters to make the game look different, are available after the first play-through, and there are other options not usually found in games (e.g., permadeath). There are great options for different ability levels, and additional gameplay options (like auto-aim for people like me who can't aim well with their thumbs) that apply to all levels, and those difficulty options can be adjusted for a number of different categories, including toughness and tactical AI of enemies, toughness of player, effectiveness of stealth, helpfulness of allies, and availability of resources. Game mechanics are quite intuitive and easy to learn.
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