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Does Abby from The last of us part II have potential to be the most hated videogame character? (spoilers)

Abby is the most hated character ever?

  • yes

    Votes: 189 42.8%
  • no?

    Votes: 162 36.7%
  • I dont care... i just love Kat from Gravity rush the charming character ever!

    Votes: 91 20.6%

  • Total voters
    442

Vaelka

Member
You guys should stop saying that something you don't like is automatically bad.

Does '' you guys '' enjoying something automatically make it good tho?

I think that TLOU2 is objectively good in many ways ( graphics quality for example ).
But most people who say what you said just say it to dismiss peoples opinions and then start labelling a masterpiece and the best game ever etc xD.
 

Psykodad

Banned
I honestly don't get the hate for Abby.

Is it because she killed Joel?
Is it because she's buff (like a lot of women who work-out or play sports)?
Is it because her story isn't interesting?

Maybe all of the above?

Gamers are a weird bunch and sometimes it seems like they like to whine for no other reason than to whine.
Kinda like the people they like to whine about. Lol
 

Moriah20

Member
I honestly don't get the hate for Abby.

Is it because she killed Joel?
Is it because she's buff (like a lot of women who work-out or play sports)?
Is it because her story isn't interesting?

Maybe all of the above?

Gamers are a weird bunch and sometimes it seems like they like to whine for no other reason than to whine.
Kinda like the people they like to whine about. Lol

The game was trying too hard to make her likable, also speedran her bonding with Lev, trying so hard to mirror Joel/Ellie from TLOU 1 while also turning on her own faction.... yawn. I don't even hate Abby, I just don't care for her. She's whatever. Her campaign has massively fucked with the pacing of the game. I wish most of her stuff was saved for a DLC like left behind.
 

Psykodad

Banned
The game was trying too hard to make her likable, also speedran her bonding with Lev, trying so hard to mirror Joel/Ellie from TLOU 1 while also turning on her own faction.... yawn. I don't even hate Abby, I just don't care for her. She's whatever. Her campaign has massively fucked with the pacing of the game. I wish most of her stuff was saved for a DLC like left behind.
I agree with the pacing of her story. ND definitely fucked up on that.

I wonder if that is the root cause, because everything seems way overblown, imo.
 

Ulysses 31

Member
same, but it wasn't a fair fight, even with the abdomen injury, ellie was still more healthy than abby after 2 months of torture and hard work, and the bitch even used a knife against a disarmed opponent.

i admit that i "forgot" to press the buttons to see abby beating the brat a couple of times :ROFLMAO:
More puzzling is that Ellie didn't use the machine gun she got earlier if she was serious about killing Abby. How did fighting Abby become the goal rather than killing her as we've been lead to believe the whole game... 👀
 
I sort of like Abby. She's more peppy and friendly than the permanently emobitchy Ellie. If she wasn't built like a tank and had Greta's face and haircut more people would like her.
 

Valentino

Member
The game was trying too hard to make her likable

Can you give a few examples of the game 'trying too hard' - personally I didn't get any 'try hard' vibes from her character presentation. I just got the feeling this is her side of things - she's another person surviving. I don't remember any over the top "look she's an angel" kind of traits. She went back to save those kids and she was pleasant enough to people. That was all. I might have thought if she was more of a dick then she just would have been outright not playable. She's just a buff girl living in a lonely world.
 
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Ellery

Member
(preface : I played the game completely blind. I didn't know about any of the stuff happening in the game. Everything that happened I experienced completely blind and raw exactly how it was intended to make me feel at that time)

I think the game wants you to hate Abby and then understand her. It is extremely hard for me to rank Abby as the most hated video game character ever. I love Ellie and I loved Joel, but I could understand Abby's side. The flashbacks were a great thing to humanize characters.

But I also have to add that I can see why people who loved the first one and then got spoiled the second game are so hateful towards it. I think it is very fair to dislike the game and the characters and the narrative and it all. Completely fine. Joel was one of the greatest characters in video games and the scenes with him in TLOU2 are pure magic. Troy Baker absolutely kills it.

Pretty sure the game would have had a different public reception if nothing had been spoiled. At least to a degree. People in general hate being put in different perspectives, but I think it was exactly what I needed. I hated Abby. I wanted to do to Abby what she did to Joel. I didn't want to play as Abby, but then I realized how the game felt from the other side. Suddenly I felt like the villain. In the end I was extremely happy that Ellie let her live. I wanted her to be happy and escape with Lev.

In some sort of cosmic way it is extremely ironic that this game receives so much hate. Almost like people are trying the hardest to not understand it and the other side (This doesn't go for people having legitimate criticism of the game. Which is fine. More directed towards the leak readers who didn't play and feel it)

More puzzling is that Ellie didn't use the machine gun she got earlier if she was serious about killing Abby. How did fighting Abby become the goal rather than killing her as we've been lead to believe the whole game... 👀

This is quite common in Naughty Dog games to have melee "boss battles". Furthermore it increases the brutality and puts you much closer to the violence. It is a theme throughout the game(s) that violence that directly impacts you emotionally and from a story side of things is more raw and close up. Whether it is happening in a cutscene or interactive playable segments. It gives more weight and meaning to it.

Then there are also ways to interpret it personally, but that is mostly up to each individual (why Ellie does that). I can't say what Naughty Dog thought it about it for sure, only what I think about it.
 

Ellery

Member
Can you give a few examples of the game 'trying too hard' - personally I didn't get any 'try hard' vibes from her character presentation. I just got the feeling this is her side of things - she's another person surviving. I don't remember any over the top "look she's an angel" kind of traits. She went back to save those kids and she was pleasant enough to people. That was all. I might have thought if she was more of a dick then she just would have been outright not playable. She's just a buff girl living in a lonely world.

Same. I mean in General Abby doesn't seem like a bad person, but I wouldn't say that Naughty Dog tried extremely hard to make her likeable. If anything I would say Naughty Dog tried to show lots and lots and lots of parallels between Ellie and Abby: Very good cinematography throughout the game highlighting certain scenes being shared. They are slightly different, but yet the same.

It really isn't a bad vs good story where Ellie is the bad one and Abby is hero. After all Abby killed Joel in a murderous revenge trip. She could have let him live and puts her energy to something more productive/useful/positive, but she didn't. (Even after Joel and Tommy saved her life. They even ask her if she is okay. They seem very human at that moment. They create a scene where there is human vs monster)
 
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GhostOfTsu

Banned
All of these characters are fake. Abby, Ellie, Joel, Tommy, Dina and whoever else don't exist in real life.

OMG! Really? Do you seriously think that's what I meant?

Her dad was a random black NPC in a doctor's outfit who was going to KILL Ellie without telling her and Joel. They turned him into this hero doctor who loved animals that was going to cure the world with his good little daughter Abby at his side. None of this is canon. Abby came from out-of-nowhere as a second protagonist in TLOU2 and story-wise she got star treatment.

It's all about her and Lev and her redemption. So many scenes are written to make us care for her, to show us how vulnerable she is. Hours and hours of flashbacks with Owen and her dad. She's afraid of heights! She loves dogs! She protects Lev just like Joel and Ellie! Deep down she is a good person! Watch her have sex! It's so transparent and fake.

I feel sorry for anyone that fell for this cheap crap.
 
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OMG! Really? Do you seriously think that's what I meant?

Her dad was a random black NPC in a doctor's outfit who was going to KILL Ellie without telling her and Joel. They turned him into this hero doctor who loved animals that was going to cure the world with his good little daughter Abby at his side. None of this is canon. Abby came from out-of-nowhere as a second protagonist in TLOU2 and story-wise she got star treatment. It's all about her and Lev and her redemption. So many scenes are written to make us care for her, to show us how vulnerable she is. Hours and hours of flashbacks with Owen. She's afraid of heights! She loves dogs! She protects Lev just like Joel and Ellie! Deep down she is a good person! Watch her have sex! It's so transparent and fake. I feel sorry for anyone that fell for this cheap crap.
I'm at the "heights" section, was really enjoying the game up until this. Now, I'm playing just to finish it.
 
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A.Romero

Member
I finally finished the game last night. I think it overstayed it's welcome by at least 5 hours.

When I started the game I was team Ellie all the way although I did understand why that group of people was behind Joel. His dead didn't piss me off, it made me sad. It was his past catching up to him. Joel was a POS since Sara's dead and until he grew attached to Ellie. Remember how reluctant he was to take on the mission. The game reminds you several times that there is a lot of people with reasons to kill Joel. Even Tommy himself was pissed off at him when he heard the truth. I'm not saying he deserved it or anything... It was just understandable.

Once I knew about Abby's origins I started developing empathy for her. By the end I saw here as the true (flawed) hero of the game (just like Joel was in the first) and Ellie as the villain. Ellie was so blinded by anger that she put Dina and the baby at risk. When push came to shove, she preferred to leave Tommy on his own and go after Abby again. Yes, she showed remorse when torturing people and killing Mel and Owen but that didn't matter at the end. We are witnesses that she doesn't learn shit because when all is said and done, she decides to go to Santa Barbara and take another shot at Abby, abandoning her family and a peaceful and safe life and despite Abby forgiving her life a second time. Let this sink in: she abandoned her partner and a baby in a world where there is no law. She was so hell bent into releasing her anger that she couldn't even kill Abby when she had the chance because what Ellie was looking for was not actual revenge, she was looking for her own death.

Abby was a Terminator and killed without remorse but she helps Yara and Lev, out of guilt. She feels remorseful about Joel and she even said it twice. In other words, what happened with him is what kickstarts her growth. By looking at what's happening with the Scars she re-evaluates everything. She grows so much that despite seeing a pregnant Mel and Owen lying on the floor doesn't kill Ellie nor Tommy and decides to continue with her life, far from all that.

In my opinion Abby's arch was pretty good. You get to see her losing her innocence, focus on one single objective (revenge) and then realizing nothing really comes out of it. Ellie is the one that just gets progressively more and more fucked and doesn't really get anywhere but the bottom. She was trying to escape from her own guilt for surviving at the cost of finding a cure and the way she treated Joel. She was just looking to die in a meaningful way, at least from her perspective.

Regarding the first game, I kind of remember that the Fireflies tried to find the cure through experimenting on other people but failing. I thought Joel chose to not sacrifice Ellie at least in part because there was no guarantee that the cure would work. However, during the flashbacks it seems that Ellie was indeed the only immune person that the doctor had come across.
 

Psykodad

Banned
OMG! Really? Do you seriously think that's what I meant?

Her dad was a random black NPC in a doctor's outfit who was going to KILL Ellie without telling her and Joel. They turned him into this hero doctor who loved animals that was going to cure the world with his good little daughter Abby at his side. None of this is canon. Abby came from out-of-nowhere as a second protagonist in TLOU2 and story-wise she got star treatment. It's all about her and Lev and her redemption. So many scenes are written to make us care for her, to show us how vulnerable she is. Hours and hours of flashbacks with Owen and her dad. She's afraid of heights! She loves dogs! She protects Lev just like Joel and Ellie! Deep down she is a good person! Watch her have sex! It's so transparent and fake. I feel sorry for anyone that fell for this cheap crap.
Abby's father was a random black NPC?

Did you even pay attention to the game or were you too busy rolling your eyes?

Abby's father was the white male doctor who would perform the surgery and who got killed by Joel after he pulled his scalpel and threatened Joel.
She didn't come out of nowhere, her role made perfect sense.
 

Rengoku

Member
Abby's father was a random black NPC?

Did you even pay attention to the game or were you too busy rolling your eyes?

Abby's father was the white male doctor who would perform the surgery and who got killed by Joel after he pulled his scalpel and threatened Joel.
She didn't come out of nowhere, her role made perfect sense.

Well.... he's not wrong....

t6ayAzA.jpg
 

A.Romero

Member
Well.... he's not wrong....

t6ayAzA.jpg

Interesting. I wonder why they changed it. Abby would have worked as a black woman just fine.

Why would Abby's flashbacks be something negative? They are developing the character. Everything they show helps understand who Abby is and why she behaves the way she does. Every person has a background but for storytelling purposes you can't delve into everyone's life.
 

GhostOfTsu

Banned
Abby's father was a random black NPC?

Did you even pay attention to the game or were you too busy rolling your eyes?

Abby's father was the white male doctor who would perform the surgery and who got killed by Joel after he pulled his scalpel and threatened Joel.
She didn't come out of nowhere, her role made perfect sense.

You are so naive. All of this was made up in TLOU2, even the flashbacks cutscenes were not from TLOU1. Abby and her father were nowhere in TLOU1. The doctor was a random black NPC.
 

A.Romero

Member
You are so naive. All of this was made up in TLOU2, even the flashbacks cutscenes were not from TLOU1. Abby and her father were nowhere in TLOU1. The doctor was a random black NPC.

Do you think it would have made a difference if Abby was the daughter of a random victim of Joel? I mean, they got to kill dozens of people.
 

Psykodad

Banned
You are so naive. All of this was made up in TLOU2, even the flashbacks cutscenes were not from TLOU1. Abby and her father were nowhere in TLOU1. The doctor was a random black NPC.
Apart from the skin-color of the doctor, I think you're missing the point.

To Joel, and us as players, the doctor was a random NPC.
But in that universe, that random person wasn't a random person to his loved ones.

From Abby's perspective, Joel was just a random killer who killed her father.
What Abby does is exactly what Ellie is doing.

And Joel getting killed is karma. I surely remember all the discussions after the release of TLOU1 about how people were divided on whether or not Joel was a psychopathic killer.
Him getting killed by a relative of one of his victims isn't something that's forced or that came out of the blue.

The execution of TLOU2's story was bad, but it showed the backstory of Abby rather well.
Why she killed Joel, why she wanted to kill Ellie and why she decided to not continue her hunt for Ellie.

I'd even go as far as to say that TLOU2 shows how people are incapable of looking at things from different perspectives in general and rather resort to mindless rants and hate without trying to see where others are coming from.
 
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A.Romero

Member
Thinking back I don't think the cure would have really made a difference. We can clearly see that the biggest threat for humanity are humans themselves.

They all seem very proficient at killing infected and building safe communities. They biggest contribution would have to have fewer dying because of the infection.
 

Keihart

Member
I'm at the "heights" section, was really enjoying the game up until this. Now, I'm playing just to finish it.
one of my favorites sections, the skyscrapers.
Look down with Abby.
Well.... he's not wrong....

t6ayAzA.jpg
The amount of bullshit people make up to feed the fire...just look at the video, it's pretty clear that the doctor wasn't "black"


At most it's just shitty shaders/texture
 
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GhostOfTsu

Banned
Apart from the skin-color of the doctor, I think you're missing the point.

To Joel, and us as players, the doctor was a random NPC.
But in that universe, that random person wasn't a random person to his loved ones.

From Abby's perspective, Joel was just a random killer who killed her father.
What Abby does is exactly what Ellie is doing.

And Joel getting killed is karma. I surely remember all the discussions after the release of TLOU1 about how people were divided on whether or not Joel was a psychopathic killer.
Him getting killed by a relative of one of his victims isn't something that's forced or that came out of the blue.

The execution of TLOU2's story was bad, but it showed the backstory of Abby rather well.
Why she killed Joel, why she wanted to kill Ellie and why she decided to not continue her hunt for Ellie.

I'd even go as far as to say that TLOU2 shows how people are incapable of looking at things from different perspectives in general and rather resort to mindless rants and hate without trying to see where others are coming from.

This again? As if we don't like her because we don't "get it" and we need explanations. This was explained multiple times in the spoiler threads and I got it by myself while playing the game, thank you. It's obvious what they were going for. A child would understand that cliche story, it's not that deep.

It's the special treatment they gave to Abby that I'm against. The whole time I was like OMG am I stuck playing with her? Yep. And look how nice she actually is! And Lev!

It's not like Abby was in TLOU1 so they were stuck her, they retconned her and made her into a full-fledged protagonist with the big star treatment. I'm surprised she's not on the cover. Everything happens to make you sympathize with her.

Thankfully, I have a brain and it didn't work on me. At all.
 
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A.Romero

Member
one of my favorites sections, the skyscrapers.
Look down with Abby.

The amount of bullshit people make up to feed the fire...just look at the video, it's pretty clear that the doctor wasn't "black"


At most it's just shitty shaders/texture


Wow, I didn't remember the scene with so much detail. Joel was an animal, no need to kill the doctors. He could have knocked them down. Same with the execution at the end.

And that's Joel after Ellie. Can you imagine what a bundle of rage he was before her? The only part that's surprising about his dead is that it didn't come sooner.

I guess, in retrospective, Ellie did lose her mind too.
 

GhostOfTsu

Banned
one of my favorites sections, the skyscrapers.
Look down with Abby.

The amount of bullshit people make up to feed the fire...just look at the video, it's pretty clear that the doctor wasn't "black"


At most it's just shitty shaders/texture


So what? It's not the same person. He looks old and a different race. They retconned him and his ugly daughter. That's the point.
 

Psykodad

Banned
This again? As if we don't like her because we don't "get it" and we need explanations. This was explained multiple times in the spoiler threads and I got it by myself while playing the game, thank you. It's obvious what they were going for. A child would understand that cliche story, it's not that deep.

It's the special treatment they gave to Abby that I'm against. The whole time I was like OMG am I stuck playing with her? Yep. And look how nice she actually is! And Lev!

It's not like Abby was in TLOU1 so they were stuck her, they retconned her and made her into a full-fledged protagonist with the big star treatment. I'm surprised she's not on the cover. Everything happens to make you sympathize with her.

Hopefully, I have a brain and it didn't work on me. At all.
What's this "this again" you're talking about?

You claim Abby was completely random, I explained how it wasn't.
You don't have to accept that, it's entirely up to you.

And ofcourse everything happens so we can sympathize with her, that's the entire point.
ND just fucked up the way they tried to do it by suddenly having the player play through her entire arc right after her putting a gun at Ellie. Took away all the momentum of the game and slowed it down to a snails pace.
That's just terrible game direction.

But Abby and her story made sense.
 

sol_bad

Member
I hated her at first but by the end I loved and cared for both Ellie and Abby. I am quite amazed at this game on a narrative level. You can't do what Naughty Dog have done in any other media.

Yeah in books and movies there will be scenes or chapters where you see the badges, but it's on a whole other level when you areplaying as a badge.

People saying they hate Abby because her character appears out of no where and wasn't introduced in the first game. Those people are weird. You nearly spend more time as Abby in TLOU2 than you spend time as Joel and Ellie in the first game. Saying you didn't connect or care for her based on time spent with her, that would mean you didn't connect with the characters in the first game either.

The game was trying too hard to make her likable, also speedran her bonding with Lev, trying so hard to mirror Joel/Ellie from TLOU 1 while also turning on her own faction.... yawn. I don't even hate Abby, I just don't care for her. She's whatever. Her campaign has massively fucked with the pacing of the game. I wish most of her stuff was saved for a DLC like left behind.

Abby didn't turn on her faction, they turned on her. If what you saw is her turning on them than it seems you don't understand story or character motivations. Your mind set on Abby is set to black and you twist narrative in your mind to make Abby look worse than she is.

OMG! Really? Do you seriously think that's what I meant?

Her dad was a random black NPC in a doctor's outfit who was going to KILL Ellie without telling her and Joel. They turned him into this hero doctor who loved animals that was going to cure the world with his good little daughter Abby at his side. None of this is canon. Abby came from out-of-nowhere as a second protagonist in TLOU2 and story-wise she got star treatment. It's all about her and Lev and her redemption. So many scenes are written to make us care for her, to show us how vulnerable she is. Hours and hours of flashbacks with Owen and her dad. She's afraid of heights! She loves dogs! She protects Lev just like Joel and Ellie! Deep down she is a good person! Watch her have sex! It's so transparent and fake. I feel sorry for anyone that fell for this cheap crap.

WOW
So they did this thing called story telling? Like what they did in the first game and they "tried hard" to make you like Joel and Ellie?
 
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Vawn

Banned
I don't understand the Abby hate. Yeah, I hated her at first too, but after you see why she did what she did, she honestly became a more sympathetic character to me than Ellie.
 

Woggleman

Member
I don't understand the Abby hate. Yeah, I hated her at first too, but after you see why she did what she did, she honestly became a more sympathetic character to me than Ellie.
At the end of the day she still killed a beloved video game character. I happen to love her part of the game but I do understand why some people can't get past that. Joel is far from a saint but ND did such a good job in the first one making likable and compelling that people were bound to get attached, If you can get past that she really is a good, compelling and complex character. I like morally grey characters more than perfect people.
 

EDMIX

Member
Have you seen the WLF base or Jackson? Yeah, they’re doing great.

That stadium was PACKED! Livestock, training hunting dogs, farms, in door gym, shooting range, gunshop etc. One of my favorite scenes in the game. WLF is one fucking scary force, they are almost completely self sustained.

I love the narrative of how they don't just tell you this.....THEY FUCKING SHOW YOU THIS!

W Woggleman "At the end of the day she still killed a beloved video game character" and At the end of the day he still killed her father (and many others)

So I don't understand how folks cant just respect a story for what it is in the medium. I respect what ND did with his character as they threw no punches, they didn't go for some fake over dramatized death and they went 100% hardcore and relentless.

He got killed the same way he killed many others in the first game and he went out, like he did other people. The world in bigger then 1 character and it just made me like the team even more. ". I like morally grey characters more than perfect people." Same.
 
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Woggleman

Member
The WLF succeeded where the Fireflies failed in the sense that they won against Fedra for at least a short while were able to run a city. If they didn't get caught up in the war against the Seraphites they would be doing very well.
 

Keihart

Member
Excuse me!!! But Raiden from MGS is a badass character.
Tell me more about how bad-ass was the lame ass Raiden that wasn't able to infiltrate properly and fall on his ass by stepping on some bird shit at the start of the game.
Raiden it's purposely lame after the switcheroo. During MGS2's launch the backlash by the fan base was pretty big.
 

Inspector Q

Member
I don't understand the Abby hate. Yeah, I hated her at first too, but after you see why she did what she did, she honestly became a more sympathetic character to me than Ellie.
I can only really speak for myself, but what you just said is actually part of the problem I had. The writers seemed intent on destroying Ellie as a character. She basically grew up to become an absolute shithead, lol. By the end of the game she is an irredeemable monster who has lost everything. I am not really sure why anyone who was a fan of Ellie in TLoU1 is happy about how this story turned out...

TLoU1: Ellie says something to Joel along the lines of "Everyone who I have ever known has either left me or died. Everyone except for you."
TLoU2: Joel is killed and everyone else that cared about her hates her guts because of her decisions. She is broken and alone without even the ability to play the fucking guitar, lol.

Why should we like this again? Maybe if she hung herself in an epilogue we should give the game an 11/10 instead? The story is fucked up with an obvious push by the writers to break down Ellie as a character. Even petty shit like Dina one-upping her in different things. First human kill? Ellie shot someone at 12. Dina stabbed someone at 10. Most infected killed on a patrol? Ellie a dozen. Dina 20. My numbers are probably off, but you get the point. The writers just seemed to have it out for this character. Strange shit...

Now as for Abby, I just never really bought into her story. How can you feel sympathetic for a father who was literally the one fighting to kill a 14 year old girl in her sleep for his precious cure? I would have gutted that mother fucker like a pig if he tried to kill my daughter in her sleep.

Then there is this part when you are Abby on that large ship and you find a couple of skeletons who were seemingly shot by arrows and killed in their beds. And she remarks, "Eww, killed in their sleep." Hello, you hypocritical idiot? Your shithead of a father was on the verge of cutting a young girl's brain open in her sleep. Do you not realize this? Are you dense?

Her relationship with Lev comes out of nowhere and didn't really make a lot of sense to me. Lev was ready to let her hang like a piece of meat. I do kind of like Lev, though. But I generally like these "fish out of water" types of characters.

Anyway, I can rant and rave all I want, but at the end of the day this game's story was just unsatisfying for me. Great game in other areas, though. Even the story, as much as I dislike it, is told with a level of technical skill that you just don't see in most other games. They know how to get the best out of their voice actors.

However, can Laura Bailey at least try to alter her voice a bit from game to game? Abby was basically Kait, Helena, Fiona, etc. No difference at all between the characters. She's not bad, but man, it's just getting a little ridiculous hearing her in every game, lol.

Sorry for the nonsensical rant. Take care.
 
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