Just beat it.
That was an interesting movie.
I feel like the first game was a traditional adventure story of getting the princess to her castle while fighting monsters and the bad men, but done gritty and morally grey with a focus on pushing a "who really are the bad guys in this scenario" angle which leads up to the extremely morally grey, but well built up and satisfying finale.
The first game I would call a crowd pleaser because it's basically just a traditional story that everyone likes but with some added depth and an interesting ending built upon the depth. Basically to me it felt like a Cormac McCarthy version of a traditional adventure tale. The fact that it was very well written and the the ending was good puts it up high on my personal top game narratives list.
Otoh, TLoU2's narrative tries to be much more non-traditional and complex and tries to do more, but it also loses a lot of the crowd pleasingness of a simple tried & true narrative and instead ends up with an auteur narrative something along the line of Inarritu's The Revenant. And like what happens when you try to handle a lot more thematically and break down traditional formulas, you get something that is kind of messy. Some of it really works, but some not so much, and overall you end up with less of a crowd pleaser and a narrative that's less satisfying but gives you more to think about when you walk away.
Gameplay-wise, I thought the gameplay was really good, but the game is too long and the narrative is much more interesting than the gameplay. I found in the first half of the game that I'd clear out every enemy in every encounter using stealth and then scavenge all the loot taking my time. By the last 1/3rd of the game I would just throw a molotov and sprint the fuck past everyone shooting down anyone between me and the exit door to the encounter a lot of the times because I was more interested in progressing the story than "ugh, another gameplay encounter". The encounters were still good, it was just after 20 hours of them, I didn't want to play encounters anymore, I just wanted to see the rest of the story play out.
The game looks amazing and has like the best sound design ever.
In terms of where the story ends up:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
I was fine with everything, the one change I would've made and I'm surprised for a game they say they focus tested the shit out of that they didn't do this, is during the first Abby v Ellie encounter I walked away feeling it was pretty unsatisfying because they had like zero dialogue exchange to talk at least for a bit and realize how similar they were and that have an effect on them.
Then we get the epilogue and I'm like oh, ok they're saving that for Abby v Ellie part 2, and then you get to the fight and they fight again and they still don't have any fucking lines at all and then it ends. Like from Abby's point of view after she gets on that boat and leaves what does she think of Ellie? Does she think "man, that is one crazy bitch wtf" or does she leave having gotten the understanding that Ellie's loss was as heavy as her own loss of her father and that need for revenge damaged her even more than Abby's revenge on Joel?
I'm surprised the focus tested audience didn't feel it was unsatisfying that the two never had a real verbal conversation. Because I found that unsatisfying and the ending was fine but overall the narrative isn't that satisfying to me just because of it missing that one scene of the two having dialogue and understanding each other. The kind of messy narrative reminds me a lot of RDR2, but RDR2's final showdown on the mountain is done in a more satisfying way so it ends better imo.
Also I felt that 2-3 month jump to Abby/Lev tied up and basically at the point of death kinda did those two characters dirty after having the player played through their campaign. That was basically just fucking up characters for fucking them up sake. Also when Ellie released the prisoners right before the final fight and asked where Abby was, I thought the person said Abby was bit? Maybe I just misheard that.
The Joel stuff was fine at the start, I can't believe people got worked up about that. It fit narratively. Reminded me of Silent Hill 3.
Anyhow, I hope they don't make a Last of Us 3. This is a great game and glad they made it, but the original already didn't need a sequel and this sequel having to figure out what story to tell kinda seemed a result of that. Now there really doesn't need to be another one. But since the game is going to sell ridiculously well I guess it's money left on the floor if they don't keep the franchise alive so
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hopefully a Last of Us III takes place elsewhere with a completely different cast of characters.
Also, yeah I was surprised at all the dog killing in this game. Playing it I was wondering if dog owners can't play this game because of that. I know some dog owners that I can see them not being able to play it once the dog killing starts.
