This game seems to have divided a lot of people and I can see why and understand both arguments, I'd like to give my two cents as someone who absolutely loved the first game and the characters of Joel and Ellie, and has finished Part 2. This will likely be long so I applaud anyone brave enough to read the whole thing.
I was one of the people that were unfortunately spoiled before the game released, I knew most of the major story beats except the ending and quite frankly could not believe what I read/saw, I was shocked at how bad it was, I didn't need some youtuber to tell me the game was going to suck or someone on reddit to otherwise tell me to give it a chance and the leaks were out of context etc. After thinking about it a lot I decided I would give Naughty Dog a chance and pre-ordered, I owe them that at least, they have made some of the best games out there. The ensuing weeks before the game released I slowly came to terms with the biggest story beats, if anything the leaks actually helped me because I would've reacted badly if I went in blind.
Right out the gate, the game is drop dead gorgeous and plays extremely well apart from a few bugs and pop-in issues here and there, the enviroments, the detailed grass, the grotesque sound design, the sweat on Ellies face, the impact feedback, the combat, the Ai itself, I could go on and on, graphically and technically it is an amazing achievement and I truly believe it has used this gens hardware to is maxium capacity.
The gameplay remained the same as in the first game for the most part, not necessarily a bad thing, I just wish they had expanded on it a bit more, in some ways Naughty Dog has always been stuck in the same style of gameplay, overall tho, the graphics and the rest I meantioned above are something I can't give them enough praise for, the devs, the animators, everyone worked their ass off and it damn well shows.
Now, the story... Perhaps what has sparked the most controversy, I'll cut to the chase and say, I am disappointed, now let me say that I don't agree with people that give it 0/10 and hate it just like I don't agree with people who give it 10/10 and call it a masterpiece like it is the best gaming expirience in the world, especially when the first game still exists. There will be spoilers from here on out to explain in detail my position with the game.
The characters:
Firstly, Joel and his demise. Joel is, wether people like it or not, a beloved character by the majority who played the first game and gamers in general, deeply flawed, brutal and without a doubt a man with a lot of blood on his hands but beloved nontheless. Joel sadly meets his fate way too soon in the game and in brutal fashion that honestly seems like it's trying more to shock the player than anything else. I think I'm one of the few people that actually like this idea/concept, losing Joel early on sets up not only Ellie but the player to have this thirst for revenge and be absolutely hellbent on getting it all costs but here is where the concept fails, for Joel to get himself in the position where he gets killed he has to act completely out of character. I've seen people justifying this, including the writer and director of the game, Neil Druckmann, by saying that Joel in the 4 years he's been in Jackson has become a softer version of the man we played as in the first game, that after 20 years in the apocalypse he finally had the chance to throw in the towel and allow himself to live... BUT Joel at his core always valued survival at all costs, his and of the people he cared about, we see him at the beginning of the first game, making Tommy leave a family on the side of the road, a family with a child mind you, and this is Joel pre-apocalypse, we see him skeptical and untrusting of Sam and Henry for most of his time with those characters, even being angry at Ellie for giving them their names, at one point even contemplating killing Henry for leaving him and Ellie to die, the only reason he doesn't pull the trigger is because Henry says if Joel was in his position he would've left Henry and Sam to die so that he and Ellie could live, he immediatly recognizes an ambush, no doubt one he himself had participated in before and right up until the very end of the game Joel remains the same quick on his feet, hardcore survivalist that takes no chances and will do anything to protect those he loves... Yet in Part 2 he goes out of his way to save Abby, who is pinned down by an infected, and with more just about to come trough a fence and who even knows if she's bitten or not, but Joel takes a RISK saving her, right here this is way out of character but alright I'll buy into the whole "he got soft" argument. Joel, Tommy and Abby then proceed to fight alongside eachother against a massive horde until Tommy has the bright idea to stop for a moment and tell Abby his and his brothers names, Abby immediatly gives off a weird reaction than anyone would've caught on, especially as she keeps glancing over at Joel and even pauses for a second as Joel and Tommy run to their horses. They then arrive at the lodge Abby and her group are stationed at and here's another thing that irks me, Neil Druckmann says Joel trusts these strangers because he has expirience with hunters and other human enemies, he says that Joel analyzes these people and sees nothing to worry about, they're just normal people in winter clothing..... Am I supposed to just gloss over the fact they were all armed, had a military jeep parked in their garage and were wearing jackets with the "WLF" wolf patch, a group that Tommy apparently knew about but forgot who they were up until Joel loses a kneecap? Tommy then proceeds to once again give out his name, the location of Jackson, and introduces Joel, who at this point is obviously a bit concerned but still gives his actual name, we focus on Joel up until Abby surprises him from behind with a shotgun, ok, fair enough, Joel didn't see it comming but did Tommy go blind for a second? Wouldn't Tommy see Abby grabbing the shotgun, walking behind Joel and getting ready to use it? I don't know... the whole scene was poorly done in my opinion and having Abby kill Joel with a golf club, of all things, felt extremely weak to me, in the concept art, a much different Abby holds a machete, this would've been far better, especially if it was the same machete Abby would use in her gameplay, the same way you use Ellies switchblade, not a conviniently placed golf club that has sparked hundreds of memes. The rest of the death scene is superbly acted by Troy Baker and Ashely Johnson that delivers every line with such tangeable pain that it geniunely broke my heart to watch even tho I had already seen it, her useless pleas of mercy, begging Joel to get up, as he looks at her, completely defeated and almost gone is some of the most powerful visuals I've seen it's just too bad they had to abndon all logic to get there.
His character is then only seen in 2 flashback sequences where you can play alongside him as Ellie, which were arguably the best parts of the game, and 2 other short flashback scenes, obviously we could not have more time with the characters because half the game needed to be focused on Abby and her group, which was a huge waste of his character and Troy Bakers talent.
Ellie. Oh Ellie... How I miss your old self, from the very beginning of the game Ellie feels like a completely different character, you can say that it's obviously because she's a teenager now, and has her own problems with Joel but she just felt off to me, in the first game and the DLC we see a strong kid that has been shaped into the person she is by the brutal world she was born and grew up in and the loss she expirienced, a kid that found all the insignficant worries of girls her age before the apocalypse "bizarre" yet here she is... Acting exactly like those girls, being mopey, thingking only about realtionships, etc. which brings me to her and Dina, that relationship felt flat for me, I don't know why they made them immeditaly fall madly in love with eachother at the beginning but it just felt awkward, I didn't find Dina particularly interesting either, of all the AI companions in the game she was the one I least cared about, especially since halfway trough Ellies story she reveals she's pregant and then just does nothing for the most part, but back to Ellie, I really feel like what they did to her was vile, it's obvious her side of the story is crafted in such a manipulative way, we see her kill humans and dogs with no remorse, barely cracking any jokes, which is understandable as she is still grieving the loss of Joel, but then is singing to Dina and calling her babe while smiling? the whole time playing as Ellie she just felt off to me, like she wasn't the same Ellie, the only time we truly got to play as Ellie again was during her birthday flashback sequence which is my favorite part of the game.
Abby... I did not like Abby, she had potential to be an interesting character but from the moment she caves in Joels head she is doomed to be hated by the majority I tried giving her character a chance but i found myself rolling my eyes as the obvious parallels between her and Joel became more apparent as her story went on, especially once she meets Lev, we are once again manipulated into liking her more over Ellie because she is pratically Joel now, trying to protect this kid, while she pets dogs, cracks jokes with her friends and has her own romantic tragedy, all due to her thirst for revenge. Her story doesn't have enought time to get properly fleshed out and her character and relationship with Lev doesn't have the time to go trought the same time and growth Joel does with Ellie, it's a very rushed, manipulative part of the game with arguably the best set pieces to keep you entertained as I'm sure they knew a lot of people would hate playing as Abby.
The whole reason for why she wants revenge is so shockingly bad that it honestly hurts to think about, the fact that they had to retcon the fireflies, turn a random surgeon npc the first game forces you to kill into her father, who saves a zebra in something that is clearly trying to be Abbys "giraffe" moment, and then having Marlene acting like the worried character, retconning her just felt so incredibly wrong.
Abbys character is also very inconsistent, we see her at the beginning of the game getting her revenge but it doesn't affect her in the slightest, her joruney to get to Joel is almost effortless, with no killing or sacrifice, hell she comes across him by sheer luck and if anything she seems happier after she kills him, she then meets Lev and Yara whom trough a nightmare sequence after what was a very unconfortable and unecessary sex scene, she realizes are now her whole purpose in this world... what? They force this "Joel and Ellie" relationship between her and Lev but it doesn't work, in fact it fails quite miserably when you remember she met this kid a day ago and is now salughtering her way trough the seraphites island and her own group, the WLF, to save him, "you're my people" felt so undeserved, so contrived that I couldn't help but roll my eyes again, we see Joel and Ellies realtionship grow over the span of a year, across several hardships and other moments, they try to do all that again in the span of a day or so....
The supporting cast. Din't care for most of them, the only ones I cared about were Jesse, who I thought would've been a great companion and a great character to explore if he wasn't wasted for a shock value moment and Tommy who, I don't know what they did to him, but the man that goes to visit Ellie in the prologue is not Tommy, what they did to him was character assassination, they demoralized him, broke him down and turned him into someone completely different, just like every other character really. Abbys crew I could not get attached to, Owen was alright I guess but I did not care for him, or Mel, I was happy when Tommy blew Mannys brains out which is hilarious since they really tried to make the player like him trough gameplay interaction, the dogs were a cheap manipulation trick, Lev and Yara were uninteresting mostly due to the fact they had almost no time to get properly fleshed out, Yara is killed for shock value and Lev was handled poorly, he should've been the one they really should've fleshed out and done their best with since he's supposed to be Abbys "Ellie" but they do nothing apart from him being transgender, which was only used as a plot device, why not try and do something more with this aspect of his character other than "I'm trans which goes against my cult and now I'm on the run" couldn't they have utilized it to write something more interesting or meaningful? and Isaac, do you remember him? Me neither, all that buildup for a character that only has 2 scenes in the entire game.
Now my closing thoughts on the writting and the story and ending, I felt that what hurted this game the most was the pacing and the structure, splitting the game in half bewteen Ellie and Abby was a bad decision, I feel like if they had juggled their stories and intertwined them together the response would've been much better, forcing you to play as Abby half of the game seems like the creators of the game were so out of touch with their fanbase, things like these can work in shows or movies, but not in games. The lack of choice is a big one also, this game to me felt like the closing chapter of Joel and Ellies story, if they really wanted to test the player and challenge their views wouldn't being able to choose if you kill or spare Abby in the end of the game be more powerful than simply making the deicison for you? Of course we know why she had to be spared, because they plan to keep the series going with her. The writting was all over the place and this is more due to the game trying to be a message with a story attached to it rather than the opposite, trough most of the game the writting is constantly knocking the player down, wagging its finger at you while basically forcing you to commit all sort of atrocities with Ellie going even as far killing a pregnant woman, which of course Abby almost does too but is stopped by Lev, again manipulation, trouhout the game we kill in the name of revenge, or rather we are forced to, until we are then forced to put an end to it as we have to control Abby and brutalize Ellie, Dina and Tommy, we are then treated to a gorgeous farm epilogue with Ellie, could this be the end? No we are show Ellie is suffering from severe PTSD from her inability to save Joel, Tommys visit with new info about Abbys whereabouts and heated rant then prompts Ellie to abandon everything and her family with Dina and Jesses baby so that she can avenge Joel. We are put trough a long killing section in Santa Barbara going trough Abbys capturerers and when we finally reach her, we have to fight her until he hold her down and it seems like Ellie is going to drown her, Ellie has murdered countless people, lost almost everything, including her fingers, all for this moment, and she just gives up, she lets Abby go, why? Because it's supposedly her way of forgiving Joel, suddenly flipping the whole revenge message on its head and it's now really about forgiveness... wouldn't her at the farm realize that Joels decisions gave her that life with Dina and in some way make her forgive him? or if they wanted to keep going with the revenge message, wouldn't Ellie killing Abby have resulted in a more poignant ending where we really see how revenge ultimately cost Ellie everything, and that in spite of all acts of violence she'll never get the chance to forgive Joel? The game tried to be too many things at once, a message about the cycle of revenge, a message about violence, a message about forgiveness, a game about love with Abby and Lev, it was just a mess at the end, much like this post is I assume, but I'm not a professional writer, Neil Druckmann is and the story of TLOU2 is a damn mess, ultimately betrayed by its structure, pacing and not knowing exactly what it wants to be or convey to its player.
I guess if I had to give a rating it would be 6 or 7 out 10, the game is gorgeous and is a technical masterpiece but it tried to hard to be something more than it was meant to be, and destroyed one of the best gaming duos for lesser characters and a message that didn't need to be told. I can respect people who think differently from me, I don't think the game is a groundbreaking masterpiece, certainly not for its story and I don't think it deserves to be called garbage or dismissed as a 0/10 "WORST GAME EVAH" I definitely think people need to give this game a shot, to fully come to a conclusion about it, but as for me, I loved some parts, hated others, felt numb most of the time, I guess the thing I felt most after finishing it was disappointment, and I still do but I've come to the conclusion this is the story they wanted to tell and I respect them for it, maybe as the years go by I'll see it in a different light, but right now I just kind of want to forget it exists and go back to the first game which is superior in a lot of ways, deep down I always felt that the first game didn't need a sequel and unfortunately for me, Part 2 proves this to be true.
