TLOU2 Review Thread

[BrawlMan]

Sony, Gematsu and Naughty made it off limits, I am just endorsing their decision to do so and anyone who posted such drivel is blowing a dog

You are not even worth the laughing videos. Congratulations, you're nothing more than a glorified attack dog (one who is not getting paid, nor even gets their scraps) for your corporate overlords. Sony, ND, and Gematsu don't give a shit about you, aside from your money, and will more than happily throw you away like glorified pawns at their convivence, and when drones like you are no longer needed. Then they'll grab and indoctrinate the next batch of fools. You are two sides of the same coin and act no different from the anti-woke/racist/sexist assholes out there. I have nothing left to discuss with you and never ever fucking talk to me again.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I think the worst part of it is that there are a bunch of really good games in LOU2. That's crux of it. There's like 5 different stories that are all "supposed" to intersect but its like one of those misfires where the Station accidently aired the season finale episode 3 and 5 episode was the premier and so on. I will absolutely defend the "ideas" the artwork, the acting, the gameplay, but it's like someone tried to make tiramisu in a blender and then fry it on an open grill(that might be a bad analogy Im not sure).

I don't hate the game or naughty dog. I'd probably buckle up for LOU3. I just can't recommend it nor can I say no one should play it. I can only say for me it was a living nightmare I haven't experienced since completing Far Cry 2 100% while in a post surgery morphine trance. So many goddamn checkpoints....

At this point I hate the game more for living in my brain rent-free for the last two years, than for the actual characters and theming. Bad games like Max Payne 3, The Evil Within, and Death Stranding I can just put to bed and be done with, but TLoU2 just frustratingly sticks in my brain - It's like I can't help constantly discovering new little angles as to why these characters and this story falls flat, but really what's the point? Also, doesn't help that I fucking love the gameplay. It's like my perfect game in my most hated story.

 

[CriticalGaming]

You are not even worth the laughing videos. Congratulations, you're nothing more than a glorified attack dog (one who is not getting paid, nor even gets their scraps) for your corporate overlords. Sony, ND, and Gematsu don't give a shit about you, aside from your money, and will more than happily throw you away like glorified pawns at their convivence, and when drones like you are no longer needed. Then they'll grab and indoctrinate the next batch of fools. You are two sides of the same coin and act no different from the anti-woke/racist/sexist assholes out there. I have nothing left to discuss with you and never ever fucking talk to me again.

I might be wrong but I think his answer was sarcasm.

 

[09philj]

I'm

Sony, Gematsu and Naughty made it off limits, I am just endorsing their decision to do so and anyone who posted such drivel is blowing a dog whistle for reactionary fuel since wokeness is always attacked

The existence of women and queer people is based. Putting them in a plot raided from Cormac McCarthy's wastepaper basket is not, and nor is then inserting that plot into a AAA stealth action game. A work being attacked by the worst people in society does not make it above criticism from everyone else. "Violence begets violence" is a fine, if unsophisticated, moral for a story, but it is not well served by characters going to beyond unreasonable lengths to perpetrate that violence in the first place, or by making that violence a mandatory participatory element that is presented in a relatively bland way.

 

[BrawlMan]

I might be wrong, but I think his answer was sarcasm.

His answer wasn't even close to sarcasm. He's made similar statements like this before.

 

[BrawlMan]

The Evil Within

5 or 6/10. 7 with all of the patch updates and bug fixes. Though the game can still crash no matter what platform you are on. At least Evil Within is still fun, even though the sequel outdoes the original on nearly every angle.

 

[Piscian]

At this point I hate the game more for living in my brain rent-free for the last two years, than for the actual characters and theming. Bad games like Max Payne 3, The Evil Within, and Death Stranding I can just put to bed and be done with, but TLoU2 just frustratingly sticks in my brain - It's like I can't help constantly discovering new little angles as to why these characters and this story falls flat, but really what's the point? Also, doesn't help that I fucking love the gameplay. It's like my perfect game in my most hated story.

Its odd that, like a train wreck you cant get out of your mind because it was so close to be glorious, the problems are layered and puzzling. Must have been what it was like being a passenger on the titanic. Massive budget, pretty to look, exciting..then you're being forced to play fetch with a random dog the game made you kill because "emooootions" or something.

God...I just realized I enjoyed Days Gone ten times more than LOU2. What a world to live in.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Its odd that, like a train wreck you cant get out of your mind because it was so close to be glorious, the problems are layered and puzzling. Must have been what it was like being a passenger on the titanic. Massive budget, pretty to look, exciting..then you're being forced to play fetch with a random dog the game made you kill because "emooootions" or something.

God...I just realized I enjoyed Days Gone ten times more than LOU2. What a world to live in.

The game is going to go down in history as the worst example of ruining a project with a self righteous story and pretentiousness.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The game is going to go down in history as the worst example of ruining a project with a self righteous story and pretentiousness.

The worst example I don't know - these things always tend to get redeemed later on. You see it all the time. Metal Gear Solid 2 was pretty reviled when it got released, now though it's seen as a genius work of art despite still being the obnoxious and pretentious waffle of a man who drank his own koolaid (and never stopped). Yeah, MGS2 still sucks, come at me ya weirdos.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Far Cry Instincts is best Far Cry game. Crysis series as well.

The poblem with the Last Of Us Part 2, is that the game lacks humanity, and pretends to act as if it does and is saying something important. I find it ironic that games about people with demonic blood in them fighting other demons, a witch fighting angels and demons, or games about vigilantes taking on street gangs and crime syndicates, have more humanity than LOUSPT2.

To be fair, most of Abby’s arc revolves around her finding her humanity, when meanwhile Ellie is losing hers. Abby is making efforts to turn a leaf by helping Yara and Lev escape their own hell, and Ellie is simultaneously on her delusional revenge kick. Then the ending is them hashing it out and meeting somewhere in the middle.

The game’s biggest issue is that while there Is a legit good story buried in there, its effectiveness was compromised by some very questionable directional choices and a dissonant development cycle, then ultimately overshadowed by the woke drama that followed. Its launch and the lead up to it was also a PR shitshow whicy only compounded matters.

 

[CriticalGaming]

To be fair, most of Abby’s arc revolves around her finding her humanity, when meanwhile Ellie is losing hers. Abby is making efforts to turn a leaf by helping Yara and Lev escape their own hell, and Ellie is simultaneously on her delusional revenge kick. Then the ending is them hashing it out and meeting somewhere in the middle.

The game’s biggest issue is that while there Is a legit good story buried in there, its effectiveness was compromised by some very questionable directional choices and a dissonant development cycle, then ultimately overshadowed by the woke drama that followed. Its launch and the lead up to it was also a PR shitshow whicy only compounded matters.

I wonder if the game would have been better by simply not having any returning characters in it at all. Maybe just expand on Abby's story and journey with the Scars kids and make that the entire game instead. You could even give her a similar arc to Joel by her having to sacrifice one of the kids to save the other and perhaps have that give her reflection towards why her father was killed.


In fact you could have her story be involvement in the war with the Scars as a WLF member, she gets caught up taking care of the two kids, saving them from the war. During these events she learns where Joel is, and sets about on a journey to go after him. The kids insist on coming with her for back up and protection, then a journey much like Joel and Ellie's begins with a bit of a darker motive. Along the way Abby is forced to let one of the kids die to save the other (perhaps even the player could choose to promote a replay of the game) and has to kill a bunch of people to do so. In this she gains understanding of why happened with her father and decides to give up that chase and instead go to try and find the Fireflies in Santa Barbara as Owen always wanted. Hell for added reasoning Owen could be killed during the war at the begining of the game so she stops her revenge hunt and instead tries to find Owen's dream.

Or maybe if you save one of the kids you go to Santa Barbara to find the Fireflies only to find the Rattlers and whatever. But if you save the other kid, you continue to hunt Joel and continue to Jackson and whatever.

I mean fuck, there are so many better ways to tell basically the same fucking story. I think that is what makes people so mad about the game, even people who aren't authors or writers can easily see better ways the story could have been done. Instead Naughty Dog made the worst possible narrative decisions and left us with a technically great looking and playing game, packed into a pile of dogshit.

 

[BrawlMan]

be fair, most of Abby’s arc revolves around her finding her humanity, when meanwhile Ellie is losing hers. Abby is making efforts to turn a leaf by helping Yara and Lev escape their own hell, and Ellie is simultaneously on her delusional revenge kick. Then the ending is them hashing it out and meeting somewhere in the middle.

With all of it being forced, hollow, empty, and none of it earned. We're still supposed to show some sympathy for Abby, but I feel nothing for her. I pretty much feel nothing for a majority of the people involved in this narrative aside from one or two characters that are either minor or side characters.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I pretty much feel nothing for a majority of the people involved in this narrative aside from one or two characters that are either minor or side characters.

Maria is the best character for not bothering with any of this shit and just staying in Jackson to take care of her community. I hope she's smoking a cigar and drinking some scotch thinking about how she kicked Tommy's dumb ass to the curb.

 

[Piscian]

To be fair, most of Abby’s arc revolves around her finding her humanity, when meanwhile Ellie is losing hers. Abby is making efforts to turn a leaf by helping Yara and Lev escape their own hell, and Ellie is simultaneously on her delusional revenge kick. Then the ending is them hashing it out and meeting somewhere in the middle.

The game’s biggest issue is that while there Is a legit good story buried in there, its effectiveness was compromised by some very questionable directional choices and a dissonant development cycle, then ultimately overshadowed by the woke drama that followed. Its launch and the lead up to it was also a PR shitshow whicy only compounded matters.

Controversial opinion even among fans of the game, but I actually liked Abby. Her actions and motivations made sense. While Abby being a genuine person was supposed to be a foil for Elie turning rotten, instead, for me, it just made Elie seem even more like an irredeemable ass. The foil stuff aside I simply enjoyed Abbys journey more. I loved the landscapes and the storyline with the zealots. I remember specifically being like 30 hours or whatever frustrating point I was in the game, playing Abby, getting through the flooded city and thinking "damn I'm actually enjoying this, reminds me of LOU1" and wishing this had been more of the game.

 

[MrCalavera]

You are not breadpilled and woke for posting this. TLOU2 was what exactly we needed in the difficult times of the pandemic and videos that bash the game only makes the world a worse place.

This 99% reads like a bit

 

[Casual Shinji]

Controversial opinion even among fans of the game, but I actually liked Abby. Her actions and motivations made sense. While Abby being a genuine person was supposed to be a foil for Elie turning rotten, instead, for me, it just made Elie seem even more like an irredeemable ass. The foil stuff aside I simply enjoyed Abbys journey more. I loved the landscapes and the storyline with the zealots. I remember specifically being like 30 hours or whatever frustrating point I was in the game, playing Abby, getting through the flooded city and thinking "damn I'm actually enjoying this, reminds me of LOU1" and wishing this had been more of the game.

Abby's whole campaign was definitely a lot more enjoyable in regards to progressing through the levels and how they connect; very Uncharted 2 -ish. The part where you're going up one skyscrapper full of human enemies and then down the other filled with infected was masterclass.

I can't say I liked or hated Abby though, she was written too inconsistent for me. And the fucking romance/baby drama was a drag on everything. Though even when Naughty Dog is writing characters badly they're still better defined than characters from a lot of other AAA western games, like Days Gone, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. One thing I did genuinely like about Abby's story was that throughout her entire 3-day run she is completely unaware of Ellie murdering her way to her (or at least trying to). Even when Abby finds the dead bodies of Owen and Mel and goes out for her own revenge, she thinks it's Tommy who was the culprit initially. Whether intentional or not this showed how Abby pretty much forgot Ellie existed while she occupied Ellie's every waking thought, putting emphasis on how pathetic Ellie's whole endeavor is.

There's a lot of really good writing and character moments, even themes in this game, but unfortunately the very foundation of this narrative is so... let's just say, ill-conceived, that the good parts end up stinking too.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I can't say I liked or hated Abby though, she was written too inconsistent for me.

That's one big thing that the Everything Wrong video pointed out about Abby's section. There is never a moment where she is self-reflective, never a moment of remorse, regret, nothing. Abby doesn't grow or change as a person throughout her portion of the game and even her attachment to the random scars kids makes no sense for someone who's the WLF's biggest killer. While she might not murder the kids that just saved her, she wouldn't immediately attach or care for them because she's never shown attachment or caring in any other aspect.

In fact there is never a moment in Abby's entire storyline in which she appears to genuinely care for any other person before the kids. At best she's indifferent, nothing more, even though it's implied she and Owen had a thing.

The result is that it makes her whole story feel disingenuous. You can see what the writers WANTED you to think about Abby and how to feel about her, but they failed to trigger that reaction with the players.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That's one big thing that the Everything Wrong video pointed out about Abby's section. There is never a moment where she is self-reflective, never a moment of remorse, regret, nothing. Abby doesn't grow or change as a person throughout her portion of the game and even her attachment to the random scars kids makes no sense for someone who's the WLF's biggest killer. While she might not murder the kids that just saved her, she wouldn't immediately attach or care for them because she's never shown attachment or caring in any other aspect.

In fact there is never a moment in Abby's entire storyline in which she appears to genuinely care for any other person before the kids. At best she's indifferent, nothing more, even though it's implied she and Owen had a thing.

The result is that it makes her whole story feel disingenuous. You can see what the writers WANTED you to think about Abby and how to feel about her, but they failed to trigger that reaction with the players.

Pretty much.

It sort of tries to make Abby saving Lev and Yara a response to what she did to Joel, but then what she did to Joel seemingly made no impact on her whatsoever. Really, the only time where it comes close to Abby ruminating on her actions is right after she encounters the sniper and finds out it's Tommy, and you actually see that look on her face of 'oh shit... it's him.' Coincidentally the most interesting/engaging character moment from Abby, BECAUSE it ties back to that important moment that introduced her to us.

But then there isn't much self-reflection on Ellie's part neither, she just does the revenge thing because that's what the game wanted to be about, so that's what Ellie is going to do - The things happen cuz the game wants to be about the things.

 

[CriticalGaming]

But then there isn't much self-reflection on Ellie's part neither, she just does the revenge thing because that's what the game wanted to be about, so that's what Ellie is going to do - The things happen cuz the game wants to be about the things.

Ellie is gay btw. That's her character development really.

But in seriousness, Ellie doesn't really NEED character development because she had that in the first game so the player pretty much knows who she is. The problem is that even at the start of the game Ellie isn't the person we know and love. Even if they started the game with Ellie pissed at Joel for the first game, it still wouldn't change who she is or how she acts with everyone else. Yet she's a very different person pretty much from the first moment of the game.

The shame there is that there could have been a very interesting character study on Ellie if they had made her consistent with who she was in the first game. In fact using all her flashback scenes very early and close together could have shown the play in the strain Joel put on their relationship because of his lies about the Firefly incident. But the scene where Ellie goes to forgive him NEEDED to happen before Joel dies full stop.

Then Joel could still die and Ellie could go into this decent. Even bring Dina along to back her up, but slowly get horrified by Ellie as her thirst for revenge gets worse and worse.

The fundamental problem with TLOU2 is that they tried to play both sides and you end up with a story nobody likes. They needed to focus on one story and tell it better, than trying to double dip, because you end up with characters that make no sense and a lot of development (if it even exists) has to be rushed for time.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

That's one big thing that the Everything Wrong video pointed out about Abby's section. There is never a moment where she is self-reflective, never a moment of remorse, regret, nothing. Abby doesn't grow or change as a person throughout her portion of the game and even her attachment to the random scars kids makes no sense for someone who's the WLF's biggest killer. While she might not murder the kids that just saved her, she wouldn't immediately attach or care for them because she's never shown attachment or caring in any other aspect.

In fact there is never a moment in Abby's entire storyline in which she appears to genuinely care for any other person before the kids. At best she's indifferent, nothing more, even though it's implied she and Owen had a thing.

The result is that it makes her whole story feel disingenuous. You can see what the writers WANTED you to think about Abby and how to feel about her, but they failed to trigger that reaction with the players.

It’s mostly subtle vs overtly communicated but it’s still there. I guess the devs thought her arc with Lev spoke for itself enough.



Although, idk if Abby was ever *written* as the type of character to wear guilt on her sleeve or wallow in it either.