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.