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All The Last of Us 2 leaks/spoilers in here and nowhere else.

Raonak

Banned
After having a week for think about it....

yeah, it's without a doubt the best "badly written" story I've played.


I think the playable character twist works even better in TLOU2 than it does in MGS2.
because it's very cool too see events of the first half unfold from a different perspective.
plus then having ellie as a boss fight, where you you actually see how badass and dangerous Ellie is from an enemy's pov.
 

joe_zazen

Member
lMjbfJe.jpg

ur drinking alone at the bar. this girl comes up to u and starts flirting. ur a few beers deep. she smacks ur ass and asks if u wanna come back to her place. do you go y/n

anyone every fucked a workout obsessed woman? Aside from the weird looking, floppy mons (caused by too little body fat?), it is ok. Also, chlorine pool smell.

that was a triathlete tho, maybe bodybuilders with acne scars and rage issues not as fun?
 

joe_zazen

Member
I just cant stop thinking about this game. I dont remember a game holding onto my mind space so much after I've completed it. I think the reason this game has stuck with me so deeply is the loss of a father. While I could understand the concepts of fatherhood in the firsf game, it never struck deep with me (not being a father myself).

But I have lost a father in sudden circumstances. I really deeply relate to the anger, confusion, and deep sadness of Ellie and Abby, and even how myself and others as gamers have felt losing Joel in that fashion. To a limited extent it felt like those feelings of loss again. While it obviously never manifested in revenge, I can relate to that loss of meaning in life as you try to rediscover purpose. The things you've said to your father you regret, those special moments you have that you'll remember. The Joel flashbacks are a real highlight for me.

The ending really struck home for me, that was Ellie finding that purpose and joy again in life. Its not instant, its a journey. The game is really special to me because I felt things I never expected from a game, the sadness of loss sure - but the anger and frustration and regret are real parts of it too that I don't know if many understand or identify unless they've been there

weird you like reliving the pain of the loss of loved ones. Anyone who has had their daughter get shot while in their arms like replaying the first game?
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Just finished it.

I'd give it a very solid 8/10 but honestly, and much to my surprise. the story and writing is the weakest part of the package. Its not "bad" per se, but it really could and should have been much better.

Druckmann and Gross really badly need to go and rewatch Yoko Taro's GDC talk on how you build towards emotional peaks. Because they fluff it so badly in this game, that the game does have some emotionally impacting moments is mainly testament to the quality and quantity of the gameplay between story beats.

Its attachment forged through sheer brute force. In his work Yoko achieves higher levels of empathy in minutes of comparatively "sketched-out" sequences of gameplay and cut-scene than what TLOU2 dies after literally hours of ultra high-production value gameplay.
 
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NeonDelta

Member
Just finished it. So many of the early spoilers were rubbish then. Nothing I had spoiled for me happened which I'm glad of.
 

psorcerer

Banned
I think the playable character twist works even better in TLOU2 than it does in MGS2.

MGS2 wasn't dead serious about the twist.
Actually MGS2 was a postmodernist take on why linear games are cheap.

how badass and dangerous Ellie is from an enemy's pov

Yup. That's why writers actually unintentionally hint that Abbie can never win against Ellie unless author is making her lose on purpose.
 

Arthimura

Member
I finished the game last night.

It's 10/10 for me. Would be 11/10 if Naughty Dog let the player choose between killing Abby or not.

Sad that Ellie didn't had a happy ending. If she stayed home living with Dana, Abby and Lev would have died. The way Naughty Dog wrote the story, there was no possibility for Ellie to have a happy ending.
 

ZZZZ

Member
Pewdiepie: "I have played so many mediocre games i don't even care anymore. It makes no difference another one. Another one bites the dust."
"6/10"
 

Raonak

Banned
It's people that didn't give a shit about original's characters giving this a 10/10.
Absolutely not. I love Joel and Ellie and TLOU is my favourite PS3 game. But for me, this story is just as good as the first.

This game reinforces how much Joel does mean to Ellie. It reinforces that Joel's decision was the correct one for him because he would do it all over again. It's great to see a version of Joel that has settled down, a version that has finally let go of his anger and bitterness towards the world. Joel's story didn't really have anywhere to go, his character arc was complete. So I understand why he died, to furfil a higher narrative purpose. He died a hero. He died a matyr.

This game made me love Joel even more, because you never know what you had til it's gone. And this will make replaying TLOU1 even more special.
 

J3nga

Member
Absolutely not. I love Joel and Ellie and TLOU is my favourite PS3 game. But for me, this story is just as good as the first.

This game reinforces how much Joel does mean to Ellie. It reinforces that Joel's decision was the correct one for him because he would do it all over again. It's great to see a version of Joel that has settled down, a version that has finally let go of his anger and bitterness towards the world. Joel's story didn't really have anywhere to go, his character arc was complete. So I understand why he died, to furfil a higher narrative purpose. He died a hero. He died a matyr.

This game made me love Joel even more, because you never know what you had til it's gone. And this will make replaying TLOU1 even more special.
It's not a problem that Joel dies, it's how it's done. People had their theories he is dead since that reveal trailer and no one was angry if that will have been the truth. In RDR and RDR2 both protagonists die, but it's done well and ties into the games themes And narratives. In TLOU2 it's done just awful and distasteful and for what? Just for some shock moment. Game does controversial decision then does second controversial decision which should justify the first one and it just does not work for a majority of the people, because it misses the mark at setting premises and then dragging through an irrelevant storytelling.
 

Raonak

Banned
It's not a problem that Joel dies, it's how it's done. People had their theories he is dead since that reveal trailer and no one was angry if that will have been the truth. In RDR and RDR2 both protagonists die, but it's done well and ties into the games themes And narratives. In TLOU2 it's done just awful and distasteful and for what? Just for some shock moment. Game does controversial decision then does second controversial decision which should justify the first one and it just does not work for a majority of the people, because it misses the mark at setting premises and then dragging through an irrelevant storytelling.
No way. Joel's death in TLOU2 is done masterfully, because it's an encapsulation of the brutal world these characters inhibit. He didn't get off-screened, he didn't get cancer, he didn't randomly get shot in the head, and thankfully he didn't get the cliche infected death or a cheesy heros death.

It's a well done death because of how perfectly it ties with the first game, and how much narrative weight it carries. The entire game is about how he effected people, good and bad.

With Joel's decision at the end of the first game, he essentially sacrificed his life for Ellie, except the consequences came later
 

Jon Neu

Banned
Absolutely not. I love Joel and Ellie and TLOU is my favourite PS3 game. But for me, this story is just as good as the first.

This game reinforces how much Joel does mean to Ellie. It reinforces that Joel's decision was the correct one for him because he would do it all over again. It's great to see a version of Joel that has settled down, a version that has finally let go of his anger and bitterness towards the world. Joel's story didn't really have anywhere to go, his character arc was complete. So I understand why he died, to furfil a higher narrative purpose. He died a hero. He died a matyr.

This game made me love Joel even more, because you never know what you had til it's gone. And this will make replaying TLOU1 even more special.

That’s good and all, but the problem is that Joel is actually a small part of the overall game. And the game tries so hard to force you to empathize with Abby, but it does it so poorly and shallow it’s almost comical. You are forced to feel for this emotionless stronk psycho who killed this super beloved character with cheap manipulations such as killing her dog or watch her save some kids for no actual believable reason.

If the game had more hours in it, they would had probably make her find the cure and save humanity while helping grandma’s cross the road.
 
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Arthimura

Member
It's people that didn't give a shit about original's characters giving this a 10/10.

Care to explain?

Story and character actions are pretty consistent with what they were in the first game. What could be complained it's about the ending, since even Naughty Dog acknowledge that at first they planned for Abby to die.
 

Umbral

Member
If I were to assign a number 7/10 feels pretty appropriate, that’s if I don’t hold the social engineering stuff against it.
 

Raonak

Banned
That’s good and all, but the problem is that Joel is actually a small part of the overall game. And the game tries so hard to force you to empathize with Abby, but it does it so poorly and shallow it’s almost comical. You are forced to feel for this emotionless stronk psycho who killed this super beloved character with cheap manipulations such as killing her dog or watch her save some kids for no actual believable reason.

If the game had more hours in it, they would had probably make her find the cure and save humanity while helping grandma’s cross the road.
She killed a beloved character, so you start off hating her. But you see that the beloved character killed her beloved father, and you come to understand that she is just a tortured daughter, just like Ellie.

The so called cheap manipulations are just normal things just presented from her perspective.

It's hilarious you find it so hard to believe she's actually just a normal person, except for her burning hated of Joel. She's not any more of a psychopath than Joel and Ellie are.

The Last of Us is a world of grey. There are no objectively good or bad people, this was a big theme of the first game, and even more in the second.

Ellie's ability to move on from her hatred elevates her character. Really looking forward to her finding the light in part3
 
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J3nga

Member
If I were to assign a number 7/10 feels pretty appropriate, that’s if I don’t hold the social engineering stuff against it.
Same here, i disagree with people giving 0 on mc, because objectively a game with such production value deserves more, but there's one huge but...my disappointment in this game is beyond any number or score.
 

Umbral

Member
Same here, i disagree with people giving 0 on mc, because objectively a game with such production value deserves more, but there's one huge but...my disappointment in this game is beyond any number or score.
Yes, there is a lot of good in the game that is marred by what is bad in it. I suppose some of it could be chalked up to subjectivity though I‘m not sure myself how to determine that.
 

ZZZZ

Member
If I were to assign a number 7/10 feels pretty appropriate, that’s if I don’t hold the social engineering stuff against it.
Same here, i disagree with people giving 0 on mc, because objectively a game with such production value deserves more, but there's one huge but...my disappointment in this game is beyond any number or score.
What takes it below a 5 to me is the false marketing and all the lies they have been saying through the years.

It's the same reason why i give a game like Star wars battlefront 2 a 2/10 or a sports game a 0/10.
Do they deserve those scores? No, but the lootbox, pay to win mechanics and overpriced microtransactions disgust me to no end.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
Here is Jeremy Jahns spoiler video. I agree 100% with him! Dude is spot on!



I can't agree with him.

Ellie was broken after her first fight with Abby. Even though she tried to move on, she was still had a very hard time dealing with Joel's death, and that was still evident in the farm chapter. She couldn't sleep, she could barely eat and that's why she didn't look the same physically. This also didn't help that Tommy made this worse by making her feel guilty and not killing Abby when she had the chance.

Going to Santa Barbara brought her closure. It allowed her to move on , something she couldn't do while living "the good life" with Dina in the farm chapter.

Joel was also not a good guy. He made a selfish decision and killed people to hide the truth from Ellie.
 
She killed a beloved character, so you start off hating her. But you see that the beloved character killed her beloved father, and you come to understand that she is just a tortured daughter, just like Ellie.
A father who was completely incompetent and his frequent violations of the hippocratic oath that led to many unneeded deaths. He wasn't even killed unceremoniously. His corpse revealed one wound from the head/neck area.

So far Abby to torture Joel before bludgeoning him with a golf club isn't exactly and eye-for-an-eye. And the fact she did that after Joel saved her makes her characterization forced. And the thing is, these problems could've been easily avoided with extremely minor tweaks. One includes changing the order of the events the game depicted. Another, I'll explain later below.

The so called cheap manipulations are just normal things just presented from her perspective.
Yeah, because using dogs to juxtapose Ellie and Abby was super subtle...

It's hilarious you find it so hard to believe she's actually just a normal person, except for her burning hated of Joel. She's not any more of a psychopath than Joel and Ellie are.
It's hilarious that you think a verbose 'nuh-uh' post qualifies as an actual counterargument.

The Last of Us is a world of grey. There are no objectively good or bad people, this was a big theme of the first game, and even more in the second.
The sequel's way of juxtaposing Abby and Ellie isn't exactly grey. And if the sequel wanted to be grey, then Abby would've actually had a moment of internal conflict before killing Joel. "How can this person be noble, but also be savage enough to kill my dad?" "Is there more to my dad's death?". And then, she decides to kill Joel because she determined that his one good deed he made to her did outweigh her dad's murder.
 

Umbral

Member
What takes it below a 5 to me is the false marketing and all the lies they have been saying through the years.

It's the same reason why i give a game like Star wars battlefront 2 a 2/10 or a sports game a 0/10.
Do they deserve those scores? No, but the lootbox, pay to win mechanics and overpriced microtransactions disgust me to no end.
I think a lot of the ones and zeroes people are giving it are partially an attempt to counter what they perceive as unearned perfect scores. It’s exaggeration from both ends. One begets the other. It’s less a score and more a demonstration of the gulf between buyers and critics. Game reviewers write for themselves, their peers, and their industry friends.

AmusedSlimyAfricanclawedfrog-small.gif
 
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pLow7

Member
What takes it below a 5 to me is the false marketing and all the lies they have been saying through the years.

It's the same reason why i give a game like Star wars battlefront 2 a 2/10 or a sports game a 0/10.
Do they deserve those scores? No, but the lootbox, pay to win mechanics and overpriced microtransactions disgust me to no end.

What false marketing and what lies? The game Is exactly what all the Trailers showed bare some minor downgrade in some instances and improvement in others. That's not false marketing.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
They were right. The user reviews are filled with trolls who have nothing to say about the actual game.

8o7bufiqhf751.jpg

June 19. I'm sure they beat a 20+ hour game in an hour.

I would take legit criticism from people who actually played it, not those who haven't. There's people who call all the good scores on MC paid but try to justify the user scores.
 

devDemonik

Neo Member
Just finished it yesterday. I'm pretty conservative and I can say this game is good.

Still, I don't like Abby as a playable character. I don't feel bad for her either, since I believe her dad made a poor decision in attempting to kill Ellie for the cure without first consulting her and Joel.

Also, her character design sucked. That literally looks like a male torso with a female head photoshopped on. As a fan of MMA, and having watched tons of WMMA fights, in my experience women who work out do not look like that at all. Ripped, yes, but big arms without the typical female hourglass shape is abnormal.

That said, I did like the variation in Ellie/Abby's weapons selection, and the new infected types.
 

Arthimura

Member
What takes it below a 5 to me is the false marketing and all the lies they have been saying through the years.

It's the same reason why i give a game like Star wars battlefront 2 a 2/10 or a sports game a 0/10.
Do they deserve those scores? No, but the lootbox, pay to win mechanics and overpriced microtransactions disgust me to no end.

What false marketing? They just pranked everyone, making people think the game was about Ellie revenging Dina's death. Joel's death wouldn't have the same impact if everyone already knew it by the trailers.

It's Kojima's tier prank, like how he made everyone think MGS2 protagonist was Solid Snake, but the actual game has Raiden as protagonist.
 

CobraXT

Banned
Pewdiepie: "I have played so many mediocre games i don't even care anymore. It makes no difference another one. Another one bites the dust."
"6/10"

Also said :

"I wouldn't play it again"

"Could've been better"

"Every character had a political aspect behind them, eventually making you see the sock puppet man and not the sock puppet"

"I wouldn't have enjoyed it if not for the stream"

"Needs to be tightened up a bit and reordered"

rephrasing: Epilogue was useless and added nothing

"The relationships were empty"
 
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Raonak

Banned
I think a lot of the ones and zeroes people are giving it are partially an attempt to counter what they perceive as unearned perfect scores. It’s exaggeration from both ends. One begets the other. It’s less a score and more a demonstration of the gulf between buyers and critics. Game reviewers write for themselves, their peers, and their industry friends.

AmusedSlimyAfricanclawedfrog-small.gif
So they're just review bombing a game because they don't like the fact other people liked it.

Turns out it's a pretty damn good game, the only thing people can even critique is the story, and even that is subjective. Some love the story and some hate the story.

But there's so much objectively good in this game. gameplay, graphics, music, acting, lack of bugs, lack of microtransactions.

A 10/10 is actually a lot more believable than 0/10.

Cycle of hatred is strong in the user reviews.
 
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Arthimura

Member
Just finished it yesterday. I'm pretty conservative and I can say this game is good.

Still, I don't like Abby as a playable character. I don't feel bad for her either, since I believe her dad made a poor decision in attempting to kill Ellie for the cure without first consulting her and Joel.

Also, her character design sucked. That literally looks like a male torso with a female head photoshopped on. As a fan of MMA, and having watched tons of WMMA fights, in my experience women who work out do not look like that at all. Ripped, yes, but big arms without the typical female hourglass shape is abnormal.

That said, I did like the variation in Ellie/Abby's weapons selection, and the new infected types.

I agree with the part that Abby's dad made a poor decision, for me there's no morality gray in who was right and who was wrong in the first game, it was not the right of the Fireflies to decide if Ellie would be sacrificed to make a vaccine.

But about Abby, they modeled their body based on a female MMA fighter. The face model was another girl.

But i agree that her arms are disproportionaly strong.
 
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yeeeeeezy

Banned
Just finished after 31 hrs. Fantastic game. I’m so happy that Ellie didn’t finish off Abby. Ellie’s humanity is restored. She caught herself.

Since I empathized with both Abby and Ellie, that last fight brought out emotions in me unlike any I have experienced in any other medium. The interactive medium is a crazy thing. Bravo ND 👏
 

REE Machine

Banned
Havent beaten the game yet but finally ran into the scars as ellie, boy gameplay with them and stealth is sure fun, im on survivor but have a shit ton resources, hoping for grounded soon.

also quick critique of people saying joel acted out of character in the first game, people said in this one Joel was to trusting but i remember Henry strangled him and the Joel decided fo go with him and sam anyways, also Henry left Joel behind which almost killed him and he still worked with him cooperatively. If anything the first game lines up with how he acts perfectly fine.
 

Mossybrew

Member
Since I empathized with both Abby and Ellie, that last fight brought out emotions in me unlike any I have experienced in any other medium. The interactive medium is a crazy thing. Bravo ND 👏

Yeah that was brutal. I resisted sympathizing with Abby for hours of gameplay, but by the end I couldn't help but root for her to live too. Part of me wishes the game had just ended on that first farm sequence, but I guess we had to go this extra mile for Ellie's final catharsis. And the So Cal environment was pretty cool.
 

Jon Neu

Banned
But you see that the beloved character killed her beloved father

b90.gif


Joel killed an infanticidal hypocrite who was part of a terrorist group that was going to kill Joel too.

Everything he did was self defense. If her stupid father didn’t opposed Joel taking Ellie, he would be alive.

And not only that, but Joel saved her masculine ass from being bite by a zombie. He saved her life and still that emotionless bitch tortured him to death in front of his surrogate daughter.

But she is totally not a psycho.

The so called cheap manipulations are just normal things just presented from her perspective

It’s hilarious that you aren’t capable of seeing the poorly written and executed attempts at trying to making us empathize with this crazy psychopath who enjoys torturing people to death without any kind of remorse and that even her friends and her boyfriend can’t call her any other thing but a monster.

Oh, but she had a dog and Ellie killed her! Empathize with her through the dog, please! Forget about Joel!

Ellie's ability to move on from her hatred elevates her character. Really looking forward to her finding the light in part3

Ellie kills half the population of America trying to hunt Abby down, and when she manages to get to her, she suddenly have a Joel flashback and sees the light. Expectations subverted!

She is redeemed because she let’s Abby go, so the other people she have killed don’t matter. They simply don’t mean anything because the game needs you to not care about them, the only bad thing was killing Abby, the rest of people are ok to be killed. Best writting ever.

Like Owen, who was like a real good human being and not a psycho monster. His death doesn’t matter, only killing Abby is when the line of Ellie’s humanity is drawn. Apparently she couldn’t get back to herself if she killed this psycho monster who killed her daddy.

But killing actual innocent people doesn’t matter.
 

Umbral

Member
So they're just review bombing a game because they don't like the fact other people liked it.

Turns out it's a pretty damn good game, the only thing people can even critique is the story, and even that is subjective. Some love the story and some hate the story.

But there's so much objectively good in this game. gameplay, graphics, music, acting, lack of bugs, lack of microtransactions.

A 10/10 is actually a lot more believable than 0/10.

Cycle of hatred is strong in the user reviews.
No, you’re misunderstanding me.

They do not like the game, but instead of giving it a 4, 5, 6, or 7 out of 10, they give it a 0 or 1 to counter what they perceive to be unwarranted 10 out of 10’s. They’re not review bombing it because they don’t like that other people like it. Their dislike is genuine.

There are faults with the game but they’re mostly story and writing related. Story, you might be able to argue the dislike being purely subjective, but there is also some bad writing in the game that can’t be hand-waved away.
 

Umbral

Member
Fuck Jerry Anderson. He thought he was hard and subsequently got his ass stuck.

“Please, Marlene. Let me kill a child while she’s unconscious without her permission. It’s for the greater good. Humanity needs this, think of all the lives we’ll save.”

Cut to 5 years later and humans are doing fine and adapting without a cure or vaccine. They’re rebuilding cities and pushing back the infected.
 

Raonak

Banned
No, you’re misunderstanding me.

They do not like the game, but instead of giving it a 4, 5, 6, or 7 out of 10, they give it a 0 or 1 to counter what they perceive to be unwarranted 10 out of 10’s. They’re not review bombing it because they don’t like that other people like it. Their dislike is genuine.

There are faults with the game but they’re mostly story and writing related. Story, you might be able to argue the dislike being purely subjective, but there is also some bad writing in the game that can’t be hand-waved away.
The story is no worse than any other videogame story. Infact the same heavy-handed reinforcing of themes and "emotional manipulation" is seen all throughout TLOU1, which is still considered one of the GOAT videogame stories.

Some people just don't like the events story, but overall, it's pretty well written, and does what it does very well.
 

Umbral

Member
The story is no worse than any other videogame story. Infact the same heavy-handed reinforcing of themes and "emotional manipulation" is seen all throughout TLOU1, which is still considered one of the GOAT videogame stories.

Some people just don't like the events story, but overall, it's pretty well written, and does what it does very well.
Some people consider it the GOAT videogame story, others think it travels a pretty well-worn path. That’s not to say that it’s bad, but it’s nothing groundbreaking. It was well told. You shouldn’t need the qualifier of “for a videogame story” if it’s a good story. That doesn’t excuse its mistakes.

There are a lot of plot contrivances in Part II that bug me. Inconsistency in some characters, characters that are one-dimensional, characters I outright despise, the pacing of the game is also not good. It jumps around constantly, some parts drag, other parts are over really quickly, there are a lot of cutscenes, many walk and talk moments where they restrict your movement and actions. These don’t make the game a pile of garbage, but they are flaws that hurt the overall experience. Neil appears to be a fan of David Benioff, one half of the ruiners of Game of Thrones. That should give you pause alone.

Leaving out the criticism of the “agenda” in the game, it’s still not a 10 out of 10.
 
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dcx4610

Member
Beat it tonight. I really enjoyed it but I still prefer the first game story wise. There were a lot of great moments in 2 but some felt like filler/DLC and I didn't like some of the storyline directions they went.

I'd like opinions on if Abby is trans. I found it really bizarre that she would just get up and leave her life to rescue these two people out of the blue. It seemed really out of character for her. Also, the comment to Lev that "I am your people", the awkward sex scene and the end where her hair is cut.

Was Abby a trans that related to Lev or was it simply bad story telling to make Abby a more sympathetic character?
 

Collin

Banned
Beat it tonight. I really enjoyed it but I still prefer the first game story wise. There were a lot of great moments in 2 but some felt like filler/DLC and I didn't like some of the storyline directions they went.

I'd like opinions on if Abby is trans. I found it really bizarre that she would just get up and leave her life to rescue these two people out of the blue. It seemed really out of character for her. Also, the comment to Lev that "I am your people", the awkward sex scene and the end where her hair is c
Was Abby a trans that related to Lev or was it simply bad story telling to make Abby a more sympathetic character?

she’s not trans. it’s even been confirmed by druckmann himself that she’s not. that rumor was just started by some dipshits when the game leaked and that lie has carried all the way here
 

Umbral

Member
Beat it tonight. I really enjoyed it but I still prefer the first game story wise. There were a lot of great moments in 2 but some felt like filler/DLC and I didn't like some of the storyline directions they went.

I'd like opinions on if Abby is trans. I found it really bizarre that she would just get up and leave her life to rescue these two people out of the blue. It seemed really out of character for her. Also, the comment to Lev that "I am your people", the awkward sex scene and the end where her hair is cut.

Was Abby a trans that related to Lev or was it simply bad story telling to make Abby a more sympathetic character?
I believe Abby is female.

I think they wanted a Joel-like character, but they also wanted a mostly female main cast. You can figure it out from there. Abby plays a lot like Joel did in the first game, while Ellie retains a lot of how she played in the first one.
 

dcx4610

Member
I do wish they would have toned down the buffness of Abby but I just looked at her like a crossfit girl. There's even a brief scene where they walk past a gym full of people so it's explained at least. She also mentions in a flashback how she pushed some heavy weight and impressed Owen. Still, I liked the character and seeing her as the daughter of the doctor that was working on Ellie was a big surprise and gave her good motivation.

What killed it for me was the sub-plot of Yara and Lev. I thought it was completely pointless other than to shoehorn in some social commentary. It made zero sense for Abby to go on this big journey with people from a different group and just felt like filler or should have been DLC later on. I think really all you needed was the scene on Abby watching her dad die and then a few flashbacks to give her sympathy and that was enough to make you question what Ellie is doing.

If you are fan of TLoU, you are emotionally invested in the characters of Ellie and Joel. You understand why Abby did what she did but at the same time, you don't want to spend 10 hours playing as this other character that you really don't care about. Even though I actually liked the twist and liked Abby's motivation, I still ultimately wanted to just get back to Ellie and her story. This is where the game suffered the most to me. No matter how sympathetic they made Abby, I just wanted Ellie to get her revenge.

Abby's scenes felt like Uncharted to me and extra video-gamey. It was still fun and some of the set pieces were impressive but again, it's not what I wanted to be playing. 1-2 hours of Abby would have been enough. Cut her scenes drastically, take out the entire Yara/Lev subplot and I think you have a near perfect game.

All of the Joel, Ellie, Dena, guitar and slower moments of the game were fantastic. Part of me also felt like you didn't even need the infected this time around as a lot if felt forced just to give the game some action.

One more thing to note - I'm a PC gamer and some of the graphics made me jealous. Easily the best looking console game I've ever played. Also, HDR did absolute wonders for the game. From the pitch black basements to the bright, beautiful forests. It really added a ton to the atmopshere. If there's one thing I can give an absolute 10/10 to is the presentation and graphics. Amazing stuff.
 
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