Also I wouldn't really consider treating the characters and mythos from the first game with consistency to be fan service. Whether it's Ellie's characterization or lack of pushing the zombie stuff forward in an interesting way, the story and world building miss the mark.
It's probably short-circuiting reviewers brains when they see one of the most technically impressive games console of the generation have poorly thought out themes, nonsensical character motivations and bland dialogue with really amazing performances by the actors. Tons of effort and talent put into something with little nutritional value. This game is gourmet Cheetos.
Again, i'm still halfway through, but i didn't see particularly nonsensical character development so far.
I have no problem shitting on technically super impressive games (i hated God War 2018 and have no interest in The Order) but i just don't see a lot of the shit people complain about.
Ellie's motivations so far have been perfectly reasonable, given her character in the past game and her role models, Joel's too.
The new characters are also acting in an understandable manner so far.
And the theme of not being able to let go, being overwhelmed by a trauma, isn't far off from what the first game dealt with, with Joel and his daughter.
It's well treaded ground, but i'm not claiming LoU2 reinvents the wheel.
Without going too much into spoiler, because i don't want to fuck with the spoiler tag, the approach of having you see multiple POVs is more effective in doing what the first game failed miserably to do, which is humanize more all partie involved, which in turns makes everybody's actions make more sense.
The first one used a more classical structure of story propulsion, so it was easier for them to maintain a decent pacing, but definitely felt (even more) clichè and predictable.
Yes, this one doesn't go where fans who were looking for "Joel & Ellie summer adventures" wanted, but given the events of the first game, it wouldn't have made any sense; it was a good choice.
So far, pacing problems aside, the one big issue i have is that they mimic the issue i just mentioned (enemies being faceless baddies) with the 3rd faction they introduced, the Seraphites/religious nuts.
Aside from being a generally terrible idea in itself (religious cults always look stupid and comical in general) they feel tonally very out of place, and so far they aren't given much of a depth, like the Jackson people & the WLF are.
That said, i'm not saying this is Bresson, but even if more messy, this at least tries to tell what is a very clichè story, moving things around a little bit, unlike the first one.
Ofc. people can keep harping on that Schiendler's List quote, like they did back in the day for GTA4, but that's not really the game's fault.
There's plenty to criticize, but distinguished mentally-challenged fellowed journalist praise is not really anything they had any control over.
I gotta say, a good amount of the way into this now
And this is the new Silent Hill game I never knew I wanted.
Like outside the lack of SH supernatural stuff, gameplay-wise/level-design-wise this is the closet game to Silent Hill since Downpour. Feels kinda like a halfway between RE and SH survival horror, but leans a lot closer to SH. I really do not remember the original giving me this feel. Feels like ND was purposely going for a SH vibe. All its missing are more maps with crossing off Xs for locked doors.
I wouldn't go that far, but i did feel some similarities in the vibe, while exploring.
Compared to a Resident Evil they still need to integrate better enemies and exploration though.
You'll be exploring for 40 minutes, and then immediately will become obvious when an arena is going to have enemies; not so much because of chest high walls, like the last one, but because encounters are still very much "contained" in XYZ area.
They should find ways to have a bit more organic enemy patrols, or random clickers around, it happens here and there, but rarely enough where you don't really feel the tension of having to make no sound, for example.
If i lived in that world, i don't think i'd just trot around smashing glass and talking out loud, when a horde of zombies or a group of scavengers could be around the corner.
