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[kiphalfton]

Playing through it, and kind of just want it to be over with. It has to be at least 3 times as long as the previous game.

At least with the previous game it didn't over stay its welcome.

The story in this game, going back and forth, doesn't really help as I just want to progress the story forward. It's like "let's go back to this stuff that really isn't that interesting gameplay wise or story wise to develop the story".

About 20 hours in and per the ign walkthrough, it appears I'm about 2/3 of the way through the game.

I don't hate either the gameplay or story, but I don't love it either.

 

[Magog.]

No it doesn't. 11/10 game.

 

[G-Bus]

As soon as it switched and I realised I was gonna go through it all again I stopped playing.

Not for me.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

"Drags"

 

[Maxwell Jacob Friedman]

Naughty dog games have pacing problems, sadly we know this and they have yet to figure it out.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

"Drags"

Abby is a woman. Reported.

 

[Enzo88]

Yes, pacing is its main flaw. There just isn't enough level design variety/ enemy encounter variety/ideas to sustain the game's lenght. It's still good, but it dragged for me for at least 5-6 hours.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

Abby is a woman. Reported.

 

[Eternal21]

To each his own. Loved ever minute of it. Can't wait for the HBO series, and factions.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

You aren't even reading that lol.

 

[Represent.]

No it doesnt. Learn to recognize and appreciate greatness when you see it. Its polished to perfection.

Where are these complaints for bland repetitive open world drivel like Ass Creed?

 

[kyliethicc]

Playing through it, and kind of just want it to be over with. It has to be at least 3 times as long as the previous game.

At least with the previous game it didn't over stay its welcome.

The story in this game, going back and forth, doesn't really help as I just want to progress the story forward. It's like "let's go back to this stuff that really isn't that interesting gameplay wise or story wise to develop the story".

About 20 hours in and per the ign walkthrough, it appears I'm about 2/3 of the way through the game.

I don't hate either the gameplay or story, but I don't love it either.

Have you ever wondered if that is intentional?

Ellie and Abby both clearly felt a similar way to you by the end.

"I just want to be done, I have to finish this, why can't it be over?"

Storytelling is for evoking emotions, including joy, fear, anger, remorse, and even exhaustion.

 

[SuperBabyMethod]

Have the same exact critique about the game. When I was playing Ellie’s campaign, I stopped and said, Holy shit this game is fantastic. But by the time I was nearing the end of Abbys campaign, I stopped caring a lot about the story and what would happen next. I just wanted it to end and not in a good way. I stopped caring so much that I ended up rooting for Abby in the end.

As a video game, it’s top notch and one of the best; as a narrative it’s inconsistent in its storytelling.

 

[Jigsaah]

I just didn't like how long the flashbacks lasted and how they were...timed i guess.

 

[Fbh]

Yeah, it's one of my main issues with the game. And just like Uncharted 4 it has awful pacing.

IMO the game doesn't have enough enemy, environment or encounter variety to support its length. And it doesn't help that like a third of the experience is walking through abandoned buildings opening empty drawers (same as the first one, except it was much shorter so that stuff didn't outstay it's welcome).

I'll say though, the Abby part does at least get substantially better towards the end.

The first and final third of the game are solid. The middle part with the 724 trips to the aquarium and awful Abby flashbacks could have used some serious trimming.

 

[HotPocket69]

Anyone else remember how FUCKING AWESOME this scene was

 

[Fake]

Yeah, it's one of my main issues with the game. And just like Uncharted 4 it has awful pacing.

Worst than UC4. In fact, UC4 pacing totally destroyed the game inself.

Lost Legacy on the other hand is so much better with the pacing.

 

[Shivvy24]

Felt the same way op, feel like playing through the 3-4 days again from another perspective was just a drag since we knew where it was coming to.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

No it doesn't. 11/10 game.

Nope, there is something off with the whole Abby part of the game, it makes no difference in the scenario one way or another--if it was a movie I would have said that portion made it too long, thankfully it's a game so I enjoyed the gameplay.

You can just

I don't hate either the gameplay or story, but I don't love it either.

I loved the gameplay in tlou2, but felt lukewarm about the story it was very much a modern "theme" game.

 

[sainraja]

Playing through it, and kind of just want it to be over with. It has to be at least 3 times as long as the previous game.

At least with the previous game it didn't over stay its welcome.

The story in this game, going back and forth, doesn't really help as I just want to progress the story forward. It's like "let's go back to this stuff that really isn't that interesting gameplay wise or story wise to develop the story".

About 20 hours in and per the ign walkthrough, it appears I'm about 2/3 of the way through the game.

I don't hate either the gameplay or story, but I don't love it either.

I don't like that I agree with every point you have made about the game. Before playing it, it was one of the games I was looking forward to.....I mean, we were getting two survival horror genre games close together and it's what got me started with gaming.

 

[Magog.]

Nope, there is something off with the whole Abby part of the game, it makes no difference in the scenario one way or another--if it was a movie I would have said that portion made it too long, thankfully it's a game so I enjoyed the gameplay.

You can just

I loved the gameplay in tlou2, but felt lukewarm about the story it was very much a modern "theme" game.

I mean you're wrong. If it was 10 times longer I still would have loved every minute of it.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

I don't like that I agree with every point you have made about the game. Before playing it, it was one of the games I was looking forward to.....I mean, we were getting two survival horror genre games close together and it's what got me started with gaming.

What did we learn?

 

[Vandole]

The pacing was flat out awful. I quit playing a couple times because I got so frustrated with it. Glad I did keep it up though, because Abby's story was actually pretty good I thought. It was nice to see Ellie again and a little older, but her story was pretty standard revenge story, and her flashbacks were just awful to endure. Abby's story with the surrounding war in Seattle was pretty cool though. Very different. I really think only story could have been shortened down to a couple hours and more of a prologue and the rest of the game could have just been about Abby, with Ellie closing out the game one more time.

 

[diffusionx]

Uncharted 4 had the same problem

i was rooting for sideshow Luke Perry to just die already, we lost Chloe’s butt for that guy?

 

[zkorejo]

Yes it's clearly bloated with bad characters and story. I honestly sighed out loud when Ellie went back to help the scavenger girls.

Abby's flashback scenes were far too many for my liking. They could have shaved off atleast 10 hours of content and it would have been better off.

 

[TheMay30thMan]

Have you ever wondered if that is intentional?

Ellie and Abby both clearly felt a similar way to you by the end.

"I just want to be done, I have to finish this, why can't it be over?"

Storytelling is for evoking emotions, including joy, fear, anger, remorse, and even exhaustion.

Liking all those things in video games is perfectly valid, but so is not enjoying games that aren’t inherently fun. Especially since the medium was based on and built off that ideal.

OT: I got the game day one, but only managed to get to Seattle before life got in the way. I’m hoping to start it up again next week. While I haven’t played enough of the game to form a strong opinion, what I have played was marginally better than the first, gameplay-wise. The story was about the same, but the relationships were awful. I didn’t think the story in the first game was good, in any way, shape, or form. The relationships were what kept me going, and TLOU2 is sorely missing that great aspect. From what I’ve played, and in my opinion, of course.

I didn’t really like the Seattle section either. I wish modern games would stop trying to make EVERYTHING more open. The gameplay should fit the narrative here. Linear.

 

[kyliethicc]

Liking all those things in video games is perfectly valid, but so is not enjoying games that aren’t inherently fun. Especially since the medium was based on and built off that ideal.

OT: I got the game day one, but only managed to get to Seattle before life got in the way. I’m hoping to start it up again next week. While I haven’t played enough of the game to form a strong opinion, what I have played was marginally better than the first, gameplay-wise. The story was about the same, but the relationships were awful. I didn’t think the story in the first game was good, in any way, shape, or form. The relationships were what kept me going, and TLOU2 is sorely missing that great aspect. From what I’ve played, and in my opinion, of course.

I didn’t really like the Seattle section either. I wish modern games would stop trying to make EVERYTHING more open. The gameplay should fit the narrative here. Linear.

Eh, I find the game to be incredibly fun.

 

[TheMay30thMan]

Eh, I find the game to be incredibly fun.

That’s fair. Ive enjoyed what I’ve played so far immensely.

 

[kyliethicc]

That’s fair. Ive enjoyed what I’ve played so far immensely.

Try to avoid spoilers and finish it, the ending is worth it. Changed how I felt about the story a lot.

 

[Warablo]

I thought the game was good, but it had horrible story telling pacing issues.

I am sure the middle section frustrated a lot of gamers as well. When they wanted to see the ending, but had to play another 15 hours from the past. I knew it was gonna suck and I had to slog through it, didn't expect it to be so long.

I thought the flashback sections were totally random at the time of the story too.

 

[Valonquar]

The entire final act felt unnecessary and stupid.
*edit* The entire storyline felt unnecessary and stupid.

 

[TheMay30thMan]

Try to avoid spoilers and finish it, the ending is worth it. Changed how I felt about the story a lot.

It's...too late for me, I'm afraid. The amount of effort people will go to spoil things nowadays. It's unprecedented. However! I read all the the Dune Novels' plot descriptions on Wikipedia before reading the books. When I eventually got around to reading the books, I was amazed at how actually reading the material could be such a new and refreshing experience, even after knowing exactly how the plots would unfold. I tend to look at all media that's been spoiled for me after experiencing that phenomenon.

 

[Alan Wake]

No it doesn't. 11/10 game.

7/10. And yes, it's at least 5 hours too long. The first game was about 15 hours and that was perfect in every sense.

 

[farmerboy]

I'd probably agree. It feels like the directors cut.

It should have been 5-8 hrs shorter.

 

[Trimesh]

Have you ever wondered if that is intentional?

Ellie and Abby both clearly felt a similar way to you by the end.

"I just want to be done, I have to finish this, why can't it be over?"

Storytelling is for evoking emotions, including joy, fear, anger, remorse, and even exhaustion.

Sorry, but that's just bollocks. A story that bores the reader to the point where they disengage from it (which is exactly what happened to me - for about the last third of the game I was just ignoring all the narrative elements) cannot possibly be considered good storytelling.

The game is also full of attempted narrative tricks that are so badly done and hence obvious that they fall flat on their face - the most obvious one being the way that Abby is initially set up as a character you're supposed to hate and then you are induced to gain empathy with her later by constantly putting her up against characters that are even less likable than she is. Except it fails because it's laid on far too thick and you instantly see through it.

Which is a pity, since there is a lot this game gets right on a technical level and the gameplay (at least when you were allowed to actually play rather than being subjected to sophomoric exposition) was good. I finished it, to be it's a "one and done".

 

[Knitted Knight]

Pacing is one of the issues I had with the game. The first TLOU was handled much better and Uncharted 2 is still King in that regard... those games also had a single-flowing story line unlike TLOU 2's Abby switch.

They definitely need to look at that on their next title. Sometimes you gotta cut, however difficult it's to do in your perception of the negative impact the cutting will have on the story you want to tell. TLOU 2 feels more like an episodic TV series rendition of the world compared to a movie-like rendition for the first TLOU. Therein lies the pacing issues - Ellie's side is Episode 1, Abby's Episode 2.

 

[Physiognomonics]

Yes the game should have being about 30-40 hours shorter.

 

[Hoppa]

The Abby section really slowed the game down almost to a complete halt. It started to pick up again for me and thankfully stayed consistent until the end

 

[Bryank75]

You may not proceed until you love Abby!!!

 

[kyliethicc]

Sorry, but that's just bollocks. A story that bores the reader to the point where they disengage from it (which is exactly what happened to me - for about the last third of the game I was just ignoring all the narrative elements) cannot possibly be considered good storytelling.

The game is also full of attempted narrative tricks that are so badly done and hence obvious that they fall flat on their face - the most obvious one being the way that Abby is initially set up as a character you're supposed to hate and then you are induced to gain empathy with her later by constantly putting her up against characters that are even less likable than she is. Except it fails because it's laid on far too thick and you instantly see through it.

Which is a pity, since there is a lot this game gets right on a technical level and the gameplay (at least when you were allowed to actually play rather than being subjected to sophomoric exposition) was good. I finished it, to be it's a "one and done".

That's not what I said at all.

And I disagree.

 

[kyliethicc]

It's...too late for me, I'm afraid. The amount of effort people will go to spoil things nowadays. It's unprecedented. However! I read all the the Dune Novels' plot descriptions on Wikipedia before reading the books. When I eventually got around to reading the books, I was amazed at how actually reading the material could be such a new and refreshing experience, even after knowing exactly how the plots would unfold. I tend to look at all media that's been spoiled for me after experiencing that phenomenon.

I highly doubt you actually know how the game ends.

 

[brenobnfm]

As soon as it switched and I realised I was gonna go through it all again I stopped playing.

Not for me.

Worst pace breaker moment i ever saw in a video game, how the fuck this shit is sweeping the GOTYs i'll never know

 

[Hugare]

As soon as it switched and I realised I was gonna go through it all again I stopped playing.

Not for me.

Yeah, maybe you should have played the game

Because you dont "go through it all again"

Abby scenario is entirely different.

Same days, whole different parts of town. You even go to a different island, for fucks sake

So next time, play the game so you can criticize it properly

With that said, I agree, the pacing is bad.

Loved the game regardless. Its just not perfect, far from it.

 

[GhostOfTsu]

It is too long because they kept adding stuff in the Abby section to make her relatable somehow (wlf base, dad flashback, sex, love triangle, scared of heights, all the Lev shit (like Joel and Ellie!), kidnapping etc).

The playtesters still hated her so they kept twisting what happened in TLOU1 to make it fit, changing scenes and adding stuff.

Big awful mess but it worked on some brainless twits and they will be here soon defending it (if they are not here already).

 

[xrnzaaas]

It definitely does and not only because some people heavily dislike playing as Abby. For me the perfect length would be TLoU1 + maybe 2-3 hours extra (and also with better pacing).

 

[Self]

I can relate to people who feel some narrative driven games beeing to long. Personally speaking GoW Reboot was 3 hours to long and Part 2 was about 5 hours to long.

Developers have this approach of filling their games with unnecessary content to justify the price. They don't need it.

 

[Jokerevo]

Yeah dragged for me too but that's because I was rushing so I could complete it and sell it on. My 2nd playthrough will be the Ps5 version where I will bathe fully in the hot tub of lesbo angst

 

[s-bojan]

It really does. I've felt like I've played both TLoU2 and TLoU3.
To make things worse, game stopped evolving after the introduction of dogs.

Had to force myself to finish the game, the same happened with Uncharted 4.
I prefer their shorter games like The Lost Legacy.

 

[angrod14]

I actually wished it was longer, as the last chapter felt rushed. If you think about it, the confrontation in the theater -along with The Farm little section which doesn't even count- is pretty much the anteroom to the final act, and you already get to such confrontation halfway through the game, after completing Ellie's campaign.

Only when you arrive in Santa Barbara you're actually advancing in the story, in terms of chronology. But as soon as you start moving forward, excited to finally see and experience something fresh beyond those three days in Seattle, the game ends.

I was all pumped to see some Firefly action, and they left it hanging. They teased it and left the audience with blue balls. Gotta wait another seven years I guess.

 

[Whitecrow]

How you dare. We all know it's a perfect game, with perfect narrative and dialogs. Your opinion is wrong.