I've had a few days to think about this game and how I feel and now I will share my thoughts.
My personal views should give some context to my thoughts:
First off, I am sick and tired of the walking on egg shells PC-cancel culture. I think they are very toxic and vile and are not interested in equality, but on turning the tables in the opposite direction. However, I have grown equally wary of the opposite outrage where every story is seen as pandering if a female/gay/POC character makes an appearance. Many people on the opposite side are profiting off of the outrage instead of trying to shift it back to a more balanced position. Female/gay/POC individuals are parts of out society and I see no issue with them getting representation in games as long as it's not done in a way that feels forced. Obviously people will interpret "being forced" differently. I view it as being forced if it distracts from the overall story. That should set up what I am about to say I think.
I see this game being called The Last Jedi (TLJ) of games on the woke and anti-woke side. As somebody who HATED the TLJ, because it had a straight up bad incoherent illogical story with awful attempts of lame humor, needless subplots were put in for the seeming sole purpose of pushing an agenda. I am no fan of that film and consider it pure cinematic trash. That to me was an example of being forced where it got in the way of story telling aka subverting expectations. I am all for writers challenging and surprising the audience, but I use a restaurant analogy. I have no problem with a Hamburger restaurant taking a chance on a chicken sandwich. TLJ was the equivalent of expecting a steak and being served a shit sandwich.
The Last of Us II is by no means as bad as the TLJ. However, it was the equivalent of a Hamburger restaurant serving am overcooked and dried out chicken sandwich that was not unedible but by no means as good or as executed as it could have been. The area that this is different from TLJ, is that the story in TLoU2 for the most part made logical sense. Seeing Joel get killed off early on was very hard to see, but it's actually very logical story telling to believe that Joels decision at the end of the first game to massacre everyone (including the doctors) was going to have very serious consequences and that someone would be out there looking for revenge. That 100% makes sense. Now some have argued that Joel too easily believed Abby and was too easily duped, but I can at least buy that his journey in the first game might have softened him up a bit and also it was heat of the moment decision where both of them would die from the infected. It's one of those iffy things where I can see both sides. I can agree and sympathize that the way Joel was killed at the beginning rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and made you HATE Abby. I very much wanted her dead at that point.
Then Elle with Dina makes her way to Seattle. I had no issue with Dina and felt she was somewhat the heart of this game in a game that didn't really have a lot of it. Elle of course massacres everyone to get to Abby. A revenge story is not exactly original, but it works. Make no mistake you hated Abbys group and had no hesitation taking them out. It felt really good until the final moment at the aquarium where people needlessly die. It bothers me that TLOU2 is simply a world of psychopaths where nobody is willing to make even a little bit of effort to not turn every human encounter into a gun fight where everybody is firing their weapons to try and kill everyone. If survival is the goal, then bullets constantly flying shouldn't be an immediate first resort. But it is what it is.
Then the game makes it's gutsiest story telling decision and lets you play as Abby at a moment when you are hating her the most since she killed another character close to Elle. I have very mixed feelings about this and many people hated it. I didn't like it, but it's a decision where I admire the intent. The goal of playing as Abby was to show you that she also suffered a big loss and that her decision to get revenge also lead to some huge consequences and loss for her. She meets Yara and Lev. That subplot did feel somewhat tacked on and was a vehicle to try and garner support for Abby. It didn't work as well as it hoped and never really felt anything for her. On the whole, the entire Abby sequence is where the believeability went a little off the rails. The game goes through the trouble of showing you the very civilized side of the WLFs, but makes it very hard to stomach that they just become complete murdering psychopaths when they are on the outside. Owen and Mel's death were handled a little poorly. I felt that Elle could have been convinced to spare them. Then the fight with Elle where you play as Abby. Wow. Very gutsy and very hard to stomach and it was a fight I really wanted to lose, but the game wouldn't let me. Abby ends up letting Elle go.
That is where the game should have ended. Abby and Elle have suffered their losses, although at that point I felt Abby lost a lot more since Tommy and Dina were still alive, while Mel, Owen and Manbun dude got killed and at that point why continue.
The farm sequence was tedious and unfun. I was very pissed when Tommy showed up and still wanted to kill her and Abby. Elle then goes off to do it. A nice epilogue would have been Abby finding the Firefly survivors instead of being captured by the Rattlers.
In terms of pure gameplay, the Santa Barbara section was arguably the most fun as I felt the encounters were very well designed and was visually pleasing. Story-wise I was emotionally done. It was absurd to me that Elle was still trying to go after Abby and then we she does find her we are forced to once again fight, but Abby is ultimately spared. I honestly had no issue with letting Abby go. It just made no sense to kill her in that moment. But, it would have been much better if Elle had realized that Abby had suffered enough and just let her go without the unnecessary fight. I suppose that could have been one moment where you are allowed a choice.
Story wise the game is a 6/10 for me. The game experimented with a lot of ideas that didn't work as well as intended, but I can admire the attempt. I really do. He tried to show that in a revenge story nobody wins.
Gameplay-wise I give them game a 8/10. The game was very well designed and the gun play works for the type of game it tries to be where bullets need to be conserved and consequences to missing shots. The encounters were very well designed and it was a beautifully created world.
Overall, I will give it a 7/10. I was glad I played it, but I really have little interest in returning this world.
Like I say, I have a laundry list of issues with the storyline, but I wouldn't necessarily call it bad writing. They are trying to do something challenging and confronting for the audience, all within a medium that makes it technically difficult to do right.
Yeah, I'd say this sums it up.