Current Events > I, too finished The Last of Us 2 and have thoughts *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

The narrative is absolute trash.

The game boils down to the simplest of revenge plots.

The games pacing is destroyed by throwing lengthy flashbacks at seemingly random that feel like they had no idea what to do with them.

Splitting the game into two halves that are occurring at the same time was sloppily handled, as was their convergence in the end.

There are so many handwaves and inconsistencies from scene to scene in a sacrifice to keep the plot moving. The biggest one I can think of is Nora. Nora does not tell Ellie where to find Abby, nor does she even have a chance to because she is dying of spore exposure as Ellie bashes her brains in with a lead pipe, yet in the very next scene Ellie is plot delivered from the hospital back to the theatre and tells Dina she got Nora to talk and told her to go to the aquarium. Its just laughable because you literally watch that character die without her saying anything to Ellie, and thats not the only time theres an inconsistency like that.

The game had not one but TWO pregnancy plots that feel like they just didnt know how to write a female character to empathize with.

Only two side characters (the seraphite twins) are actually worth talking about and had some level of character development while everyone else, including Ellies love interest Dina, is just pure fodder.

The very piss poor attempt to get you to care about random npcs programmed to kill you on sight by having other npcs sadly cry out their name when they die does the opposite of that because of how genuinely annoying it is with how often it happens.

While in universe Joel had it coming, there is no way in hell both he and Tommy would so easily trust Abby and find themselves in the situation that leads to his death. It just feels like they didnt know what to do to give Ellie any motivation to do anything so a generic revenge plot had to be done.

I actually enjoyed Abbys half for the most part. It was much better crafted than Ellies but still suffered from issues mentioned above. I think a solo game from just her perspective would have been much better than what we got.

It feels like Druckmann and crew just watched the most recent seasons of The Walking Dead and decided to emulate that for how often characters are introduced and whacked off before even getting a shred of development.

the ending sequence is eye rolling drivel

Also its kind of pathetic how transphobic the leaker decided to get in order to piss people off when there were genuine problems with the story. Abby isnt even trans. Lev is, and its handled fairly well, but perhaps a little too heavy handed about a lack of acceptance. The only gripe I have about LGBTQ representation in this game is how fucking tropey Ellie and Dinas romance is. Its quite frankly lazy they decided to play up lesbian stereotypes instead of drafting a genuine love interest.

Gameplay is mostly fun, the set pieces are the same ND quality, soundtrack is stellar, and all performances are well acted. Shame about the rest.

6.5/10 this game shouldnt exist, or at least not like this.

---

I really did think even before the leaks they should have just used an entirely new cast if they were going to make more games in this IP

I now really really wish they had

Is TLOU just a full game version of the Walking Dead game?

---

AngelsNAirwav3s posted...

Is TLOU just a full game version of the Walking Dead game?

I would buy a full version game of walking dead before this trash

---

DarthAragorn posted...

I really did think even before the leaks they should have just used an entirely new cast if they were going to make more games in this IP

I now really really wish they had

ND themselves said that after TLoU, they considered Ellie's and Joel's story closed. But money talks, I guess.
---

UnholyMudcrab posted...

ND themselves said that after TLoU, they considered Ellie's and Joel's story closed. But money talks, I guess.

With how much development Abby gets in her half of the game, it genuinely feels like Sony cracked a whip and told them it had to have Joel and Ellie

---

"I too,"

---

Alteres posted...

"I too,"

Too bad you cant correct topic titles amirite

---

Yeah, nice synopsis though.

I have the original remastered version free from ps+ that I have been thinking about playing, with all the hubbub from the leaks I decided to wait and see what actual people thought of it.

This has kinda killed my interest in it tbh.

---

Alteres posted...

Yeah, nice synopsis though.

I have the original remastered version free from ps+ that I have been thinking about playing, with all the hubbub from the leaks I decided to wait and see what actual people thought of it.

This has kinda killed my interest in it tbh.

Frankly this will probably be $20-$30 fairly soon, and I think its a good value at the $20 range. I kind of regret buying it full price though if Im being real with you

---

I want to see a spin-off that starts with new characters at the start of the outbreak with no time jump.

Maybe you start as a rookie cop who goes to the police station to find survivors, or you could play as a young girl searching for her brother.

---

Tyrannosaurus posted...

I want to see a spin-off that starts with new characters at the start of the outbreak with no time jump.

Maybe you start as a rookie cop who goes to the police station to find survivors, or you could play as a young girl searching for her brother.

holy shit why hasnt anyone done this ?!

---

DezDroppedFreak posted...

holy shit why hasnt anyone done this ?!

I know! Maybe the girl and cop end up working together too.

---

Man this game sounds horrible from a storytelling point of view. I'm probably not gonna even play it. Honestly I didn't really get the over the top praise for the first one. I thought the game was fine. The story was good. But there was nothing revolutionary to me. The gameplay felt like it was Uncharted like to me. There are 3rd person shooters that do a much better job. Idk it was fine. But it's definitely driven by the story. This one seems like it lacks a coherent narrative. Feels like they decided to take a big leap.

I see the fan reviews and figure it's being review bombed to an extent. But I see the critic review and there's no way they can genuinely think it's one of the best rated games ever. So it's definitely playing to a narrative on both sides.

---

lilJoe457 posted...

Honestly I didn't really get the over the top praise for the first one. I thought the game was fine.

I think a big part of it is production values + presentation, but also Joel was an interesting character. He is definitely the bad guy of the first game IMO but you develop an emotional attachment to him through his relationship with Ellie.

I liked how there wasnt a disconnect too with the gameplay and cutscenes. Joel is a brutal and violent guy in the narrative and it reflects in the gameplay, instead of being like uncharted where Nathan is charming and funny but in gameplay he is murdering hundreds of people

---

lilJoe457 posted...

I see the fan reviews and figure it's being review bombed to an extent. But I see the critic review and there's no way they can genuinely think it's one of the best rated games ever. So it's definitely playing to a narrative on both sides.

its definitely getting review bombed. Despite how piss poor the narrative is theres no world where this game is a 3 with everything else it has going for it.

On the flip side it sure as hell isnt a 9 or 10/10

---