Botch, that part where you get the battery out of the high school is, in my opinion, one of the worst parts of the game from a difficulty spike standpoint. That was one of the areas of the game where I died probably a dozen times in experimenting with stealth. It did not go well.

That's why, while I'm glad I played on Survivor at least once, I don't think I'd do it again because I would resent the difficulty spikes in the game. I feel the same way when I want to play Mass Effect 2 again, and then I think of the two battles with that stupid praetorian creature; puts me off.

As for supplement upgrades, it's funny Dix, I went the complete opposite as you: got extra health and aim steadying early, and never took the clicker-shiv upgrades. I liked the extra health because I got into so many melee situations where I'd take at least a few blows. It saved me many tedious deaths. Whereas with any time a clicker killed me, I found typically there would be an auto-save no more than a minute or two before any of those situations.

The AI honestly is ramped up though on Survivor - you can't get as close to clickers nor sneak past them as quickly. It sounds anecdotal and not real but one needs only test it out to see how real it is. Which does seem strange - AI "upgrades" are usually not a part of difficulty levels because I'd assume you want the AI to be at its best no matter the difficulty. Like I said though, I never ran into a part where it was completely broken because of Survivor difficulty. The same spikes generally exist in all difficulties (the first clicker in Boston, the high school, and so on). Fortunately I think all the worst parts of the game are in Boston, so once you leave it only gets better.

Yeah, it's a little infuriating how many developers treat playing on a higher difficulty sort of something you have to earn.  I mean, not in the sense of unlocking that super-hard Survivor or Crushing difficulty level by completing the game once, but in the sense that with a lot of games, if you start on Medium, get a few levels in, and want to bump up to Hard, you've gotta start over.  I get that I suppose it's a way to prevent people from getting to hard parts, bumping the difficulty down, and passing them easily, but still.

To answer that spoiler question - nope.

I've held back joining in with the Last of Us chatter because of my Games of 2013 list but now that's out of the way and open to all, I'll just say that I echo a lot of what's being said in here.

I agree with xtal that the harder difficulties are the way to go but I can't remember whether I went hard or survivor. As for the upgrades, because I was on hard (or survivor) health was important but I definitely prioritised shiv skill and weapon sway. I had a lot of trouble with clickers early on so the ability to jab shivs in their necks couldn't come soon enough. The subway station was tough but the cemetery caused the most restarts for me. In the end I discovered a very cool trick where I tossed a bottle at a patch of ground just ahead of me, waited for all the clickers in the area to run to that spot, then tossed a molotov in there. Finger clickin' good. Oh and I just remembered: the bit in the flooded basement where you have to get the generator up, grab a key card and avoid a bloater was really rough. In the end I snagged the key card before heading for the door.

For the record, I loved the bow the most. Silent take-downs and retrievable ammo? Yes please. One of the later weapons I didn't get a chance to fire once unfortunately, as much as I wanted to. I was waiting for an impromptu bloater attack that never came!

The high school part? I recall the beginning of it but can't remember much more... it wasn't that long was it? I don't remember much of the office building section either.

One of the things I really loved about The Last of Us was seeing Ellie attack people who were tussling with me. Take that Elizabeth!

Yeah it was a bloater. I can't remember if it was explicitly pointed out at any time in the game, but their weakness was fire. One molotov and a well placed shot or two could finish them off if you were lucky. Sometimes a second molotov helped.

Gregg, the high school wasn't that long like you say; I just experienced a lot of trial and error there which seemed to prolong the place. Specifically when you had to sneak through that lab/classroom; there were a couple clickers around there who seemed very sensitive to any wrong move, and like many other tricky parts they had runners around them.

I...don't remember if I found that one, either.  Wait, are we now talking about The Last of Us in two separate threads?

ALL THE THREADS ALL TEH LAST OF US

Somehow I knew you were behind me not being able to find that combo, Botch.  I just knew it.