Feedback in Games - Third Person

The Last of Us - Third Person Game

The menu system for The Last of Us is very clean an very smart, the font it uses is easily readable for players to read through, it also helps that the background for the menu system is a darker colour thus the text being used in a bright white colour which works very well for reading.  The in-game menus are also very good as once again there is hardly any clutter; everything is evenly spaced out so the player can view it all without being bombarded with information. 

In this game all the necessary information that the player would need is all there right in front of them, from the main menu the player can view their current progress in the game, restart a new game, look through the chapter of the game and scroll through the options menu, there isn’t any kind of delay when choosing one of these options as the game takes the player straight there. When looking at the in-game menus they are equally impressive as it lets the player look through the options menu as does the main menu, have a look through some of the tutorials the game offers and the chance to restart any encounter the players makes in the game. The other in game menu is specifically designed for game-play purposes such as crafting weapons; this menu also follows the colour pattern like the others in being black or darkish background behind white text. Some of the information in the game can be complex at time, but the game does its best in order to condense this information, a good way of this is the sliders which are located at the options menu, these provide the player to alter the music, sound effects and the speech to whatever the player then find most comfortable with.

The input methods for the menu screens for The Last of Us are very simple as it only requires the player to use three buttons which aid them through the menus within the game such as the pause screen menu that only needs the use of the circle button (Back), the pause button on the centre of the controller which enables the player to resume the game and finally the enter button which is in the shape of an X which selects options o the menus for the player.

The menu screens for The Last of Us are quite effective because they are very simple to use and navigate through; only having the player to sue a maximum of three buttons for some of the menu screens makes it very simple for the user to use.

When using the menu systems in The Last of Us there isn’t any real delay when pressing the buttons required to navigate through them, the only real delay in very, very short, the only real place where the game menus become slow is when the player decides to pause the game, obviously that would come with delay as it is saving the players current progress. Other than that, the controls used are very smooth to use. The controls used for the menu systems are all on the controller you are provided with your console, all the buttons are easy to use and not out of the players reach when using them.

There are a number of ways this game gives the player feedback, through clever sounds to attract the player’s attention to something important, to icons the player can see when playing the game to show them items they can use. At the very start of the game through the prologue, it uses one of these, a little chime noise is heard and the camera moves ever so slightly in the direction it wants the player to face in order to show them something of importance. Throughout the game the player would see icons with pictures on them, some for weapon parts which they can craft into better weapons, others for supplies such as medical packs which restore the player’s health. Some of these hints can cause the player a psychological response, an example of this can be a psychological response such as when the player finds weapons parts then they would want to craft better weapons in order to have the best chance in the game.