Did it really take you that long? I only died like 3 times if I remember. It is true that this fucking boss is nightmare fuel. It reminded me of something out of Resident evil.
Not that anyone cares, but I beat that big Infected boss this afternoon. I was too freaked out about it last night that I needed to take a b… morereak and turn the game off. (I kid you not, I ended up having a nightmare about it last night. I ended up waking up at 5am, and I couldn't calm myself to sleep for an hour.)
(apologies for the awkward commentary. I had a headset plugged in and talking to myself was the only way for me to keep calm.)
But I did it, killed him, I'm proud of it, and I don't think I'll be going through that chapter again in future playthroughs.
Did it really take you that long? I only died like 3 times if I remember. It is true that this fucking boss is nightmare fuel. It reminded me of something out of Resident evil.
The problem isn't just the story, it's also the fact that this game is soo long and repetitive. Barely does anything new for the gameplay
Problem looks more like plot and how much that goes into the characters too. Like I think saw ppl say that they were getting bored and depressed over what many thought(subverting Expectations from what many thought differently) was getting a good game with Ellie And Joel. Instead they didn't get that at all.
Instead what they get. Was seeing Joel get Killed by Abby. Which was revenge against Joel killing her Father. Then Ellie killed her friends,while Abby killed Ellie's friends. This game become more like kill each other's friends and feel like shit no matter what. Especially the ending too. Like WTF lol
Also gameplay doesn't look more as change other than just the graphics making gameplay look good. But, literally good. Just graphics and art. Fighting is the same from the looks of the previous game. So basically it was a waste of 7 years. It is just sad to see that
Critics don't mean anything to me anymore. The Last of Us 2 is a divisive game and why they consider it a masterpiece is beyond me. The prob… morelem isn't just the story, it's also the fact that this game is soo long and repetitive. Barely does anything new for the gameplay,
Guess I'll have to upload the rest of my playthrough on youtube. I'm gonna skip as many of my explorations as possible because let's be honest, it's boring to watch someone else do it.
Well yeah, Abby lost Owen and became a top Scar-killer and Ellie lost Dina and JJ due to their lust for revenge. Abby doesn't regret killing Joel but she does regret obsessing and ruining her relationships. She becomes the WLF's best soldier and realises what she was doing was wrong, turns on her group, finds her humanity in Lev and Yara, and is finally able to see her Dad smiling in her dreams.
Still doesn't change the fact that Joel and his brother revealed their names to strangers. I don't care if they were living in a peaceful place for years. Joel mentioned in the first game that he has made a lot of enemies for the past 20 years. Even if they weren't fireflies, they could have also been the hunters from the Pittsburg city or David's group who came to avenge their friends.
Abby is the WLF's top soldier and she was determined to find Tommy. I don't think the ex-fireflies hate Tommy. She was prepared to torture. Jackson were lucky that it went down the way it did. So Tommy reveals his name, and even if he said "I'm Tommy and this is Larry" it would've been suspicious because they look like brothers and Abby would've figured out that it was Joel anyway. It's really not that farfetched. If you want to look at it as every NPC from the first game has a wife and kids that wants to kill Joel, then Joel shouldn't even be going on patrols.
Joel meets the group. The group acts normal, friendly and helpful because they still don’t know who Joel is, so it doesn’t raise any red fla… moregs for him. Joel reveals his name to the rest of the group, and only then do they act suspicious, for a whole 3 seconds before Abby shoots his leg. You see, Joel didn’t have time to act on their sudden and very short lived suspicious behavior because Abby had already found out who he was ages ago when they were fighting infected.
Still doesn't change the fact that Joel and his brother revealed their names to strangers. I don't care if they were living in a peaceful place for years. Joel mentioned in the first game that he has made a lot of enemies for the past 20 years. Even if they weren't fireflies, they could have also been the hunters from the Pittsburg city or David's group who came to avenge their friends. The fact that Joel does the opposite of what Ellie did when she met David makes me thi… [view original content]
Not that anyone cares, but I beat that big Infected boss this afternoon. I was too freaked out about it last night that I needed to take a b… morereak and turn the game off. (I kid you not, I ended up having a nightmare about it last night. I ended up waking up at 5am, and I couldn't calm myself to sleep for an hour.)
(apologies for the awkward commentary. I had a headset plugged in and talking to myself was the only way for me to keep calm.)
But I did it, killed him, I'm proud of it, and I don't think I'll be going through that chapter again in future playthroughs.
A lengthy analysis video/video essay by Noah Caldwell Gervais on the The Last of Us Part 1 and 2. Surprisingly he's quite a bit critical of the first but has a more glowing opinion of 2
You know, I find it really interesting how in the first 20 minutes of your video, you're pretty apathetic to the conversations and "wholesome moments" between Dina and Ellie. (Like how when Ellie finds a working guitar you exclaim "Fuck this. I don't want to handle this right now")
It really shows how attached Naughty Dog made us to Joel and Ellie in the first game, and how after Joel's death, it really brings on a sense of despair and apathy and conflicting emotions of "what's the point anymore".
It's totally fine that you feel that way, by the way, I'm just mentioning it because I stopped playing for the rest of the day after Joel died, and came back the next day after having slept on it and was mentally refreshed. So, I can't imagine how it must have felt to play the next two or three hours after that moment.
It's a very interesting look at how shell-shocked we can be so soon after a beloved character's death.
Guess I'll have to upload the rest of my playthrough on youtube. I'm gonna skip as many of my explorations as possible because let's be honest, it's boring to watch someone else do it.
Yep. I gotta admit, I think I exagerrated too much at that part but as mentioned in my video, it's because of the way they treated Joel at the beginning, couldn't stop thinking about it. Same happened in my recent uploaded video right now.
You know, I find it really interesting how in the first 20 minutes of your video, you're pretty apathetic to the conversations and "wholesom… moree moments" between Dina and Ellie. (Like how when Ellie finds a working guitar you exclaim "Fuck this. I don't want to handle this right now")
(Spoiler)
Do you guys think the TLOU show on HBO will be better or worse? I watched Angryjoe talk about his thoughts after his crew finished TLOU2 and he said there would be no point in making the show because of what happened.
Do you guys think the TLOU show on HBO will be better or worse? I watched Angryjoe talk about his thoughts after his crew finished TLOU2 and he said there would be no point in making the show because of what happened.
Finally finished Part II.
Goddamn. This was a long game, essentially 2 games in one. Good job on that, Naughty Dog. You spoiled us.
(Just when you think it's about to end and the conflict is resolved, it decides to continue in some epilogue-climax thing)
I'm going to need some time to think over this and gather opinions/impressions on events of the game, since some character decisions/actions aren't explained well, and that's what some events of the plot hinge on.
But, for now, what I do think about it is this:
I do think this is a good game. I enjoyed my time with it, and I'm sure I'll be revisiting it in the future. (If not for the collectibles and trophies, then at least the gameplay and combat encounters.)
I do think this is a good sequel to the original. It's definitely not the sequel I envisioned, I think there's elements that do fall flat, and elements that would probably be better accepted in a different order (but that might have been the point of why we got this order) -- like marketing the game as an Abby-first story -- but it sticks to the world and pushes characters to their brink, IMO.
Definitely not a perfect 10/10 game, for now I'd rate it around a 7-8/10. I'd definitely recommend it to others.
This is mostly in part due to the notable amount of bugs in the game I came across, usually happening in cutscenes and taking me out of the experience. I don't remember as many from the PS3 game. (The cutscenes in this game are all in-engine/real-time so it's pretty hard on the PS4 to keep up.)
I don't know if Naughty Dog is going to make a PART III (heck, even Neil doesn't know if he wants to yet), but I'd be open to the idea of it. So long as they either focus on a new protagonist in this world (maybe taking place outside of the US, that way, architecturally, environments won't look so samey to the other games -- slightly teased near the end by Lev) or focusing on Ellie, getting her to build her life back up after losing nearly everything.
This might be unfair due to how long this game is, the meticulous motion-capture/animation fidelity, how much character flair is included in gameplay, or how this game is the biggest story-driven game of the year, but I'm going to be shocked if Ashley Johnson doesn't get a BAFTA for this. She had a really powerful performance.
Also, because this is a video game -- one with teams of thousands across many countries and companies -- the credits are long. Very long. Like 16 minutes.
But if you're patient enough (or have nothing else to do), if you wait...
about 11 minutes in you're greeted with a cover of Johnny Cash's Wayfaring Stranger sung by Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker as Ellie and Joel, respectively. Apparently they sang this together before a TLOU panel at a Playstation Experience Expo in 2017!!
So since I don't have a PS4 I watched an LP of The Last of Us Part 2, which was about 25 hours long and I just wanted to share my thoughts on it. Since I didn't actually play it I won't really talk about the gameplay so I'll be mostly focusing entirely around the story of the game. I'll keep things vague for a bit then I'll go into some spoilers. I didn't look into any spoilers beforehand and even downloaded a chrome extension that was suggested on here in order to help avoid spoilers. The only things about the game I'd seen before release were the trailers and whatever gameplay was released as part of the marketing. I went in completely blind. I'll keep things vague for a bit then go into a big spoiler talk. Sorry if it's a little ramble-y. Keep in mind, this is all my own personal opinion.
First of all the game is absolutely gorgeous. Like holy shit this is easily one of the best looking games I have ever seen, and the animations are absolutely god-like, especially the facial animations which on its own is some next level stuff. Also the voice acting is some of the best I've heard in a video game in a long while. This is easily Ashley Johnson's best work as a voice actress. She is absolutely phenomenal and deserves an award for her work in this, followed by Laura Bailey and of course, Troy Baker who are both incredibly exceptional.
As for the story, I actually ended up really liking it! It definitely tries for something more ambitious despite being smaller scale in comparison to the previous game and I applaud the writers for doing something unique, and in my opinion manages to (mostly) successfully build off of certain plot elements previously established. I also like most of the new characters that were brought in, in particular Dina, Abby and Lev. The story is very much a deconstruction of certain video game tropes. The best comparison I can think of would be Spec Ops: The Line which has a similar idea but with a very different style of execution. Overall I really enjoyed it, but because it tries to go for a more ambitious and "complicated" story, it doesn't nail everything as well as the first game did, but I'm not going to really compare the two. The game is not perfect, definitely not a 10/10, I don't think there's such a thing as a perfect game but I think it did its job very well.
Now for some spoilers.
I really like what the game did with the introduction of Abby. You spend the first bit of the game playing as Ellie patrolling around with Dina before it suddenly switches over to Abby and you're left wondering "Who dis? Where Ellie? Hot damn, she is jacked!" You don't spend too much time with them initially but you think, hey they seem alright, and before you know it, they kill Joel in a horribly brutal fashion as Ellie is forced to watch. You now hate them, you want to tear them apart. And that is what you do for the first half of the game. Ellie has a list of targets and begins taking them down one by one in a variety of horrible different ways, all of it hopefully leading you to Abby. And as the story plays out and the body count rises, you can clearly see that Ellie is as ruthless as Joel, but unlike Joel, the things she does leaves a mark on her, in particular torturing Nora for information, and killing Mel who she learns is pregnant after the fact. But it'll be all worth it once she faces Abby, and when that finally happens (though not the way Ellie would have wanted), it switches perspective. You now play as Abby.
The game does something extremely ballsy, forcing you to turn your brain on and empathise with Abby. Joel's killer. The game reminds you that Joel was left with an ultimatum at the end of the previous game. Sacrifice Ellie in order to potentially create a vaccine that could save a lot of people, or save Ellie and potentially doom the world. You quickly learn why she did what she did. When I saw what is essentially the first games ending play out, but from her perspective I kinda just sat there going, "Yeah okay I get it now. I still don't like you though," and I kept that mentality for quite a while. Along the way interacting with some of her crew that took part in Joel's death and learning more about them. You find out that some of them weren't really happy about having a hand in Joel's death and how it's affected their relationship with one another. In my opinion the game (mostly) succeeds in humanising what I believed to be the villains of the game. You can even meet some of the random people you kill as Ellie in Abby's side of the story which I thought was pretty neat.
As Abby's story went on and her actions given more depth, I really started to warm up to her, especially when she meets Yara and Lev. Abby and Lev have a great sibling-like relationship, it's very clearly a parallel to Ellie and Joel, with Lev being unfamiliar to many of the things outside his home and essentially being a fish out of water (which is a trope I very much enjoy), but with a little bit of a religious cult background thrown into the mix. I think Yara and Lev are a great characters. They are both shown to have a clear dislike for the cult that raised them but still bind themselves to some of the traditions they were taught to do, like praying, leaving them very emotionally conflicted. I also think that Lev's backstory was handled well, and in my opinion properly mirrors aspects of real life in particular with Yara's line about Lev "breaking tradition." Also I have to mention, Abby and Lev climbing the skyscraper was great. I can relate to Abby being deathly afraid of heights. She reacts exactly like how I react to being on high places, minus the still continuing to climb part.
The game puts you through a number of uncomfortable situations. The first confrontation between Abby and Ellie being one of the big ones, where you are put into another unthinkable situation, where you are forced to try and kill Ellie, and then finally at the end of the game when you are forced to try and kill Abby, who at this point is a shell of her former self. The final fight gave me this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Watching them trade blows, both injured and exhausted was horrific to watch. Some of the punches weren't even holding much weight to them, showcasing how tired they both were. At this point I didn't want either of them to die. What I loved about the final confrontation is Joel's influence. The reason Ellie decides to kill Abby despite having saved her just moments ago was her flashing back to Joel's dead body, and finally her choosing to spare Abby was her flashing back to Joel, alive and playing a guitar, and when you find out about the context of that flashback you realise how important it was. Because that was the night Ellie chose to try and forgive Joel for his actions, and she decides to do the same here. Okay well maybe not forgive, but at the very least end the cycle of violence.
Alright rambling over. There were a few more things I wanted to go into (some more story stuff, themes, characters, etc) but I'm getting kinda tired so I'll just stop here. Again, these are all my own opinions on the games story. If you dislike the game that's fine, I'm not trying to change anyone's opinions or anything, I'm just saying my piece.
I don't know if Naughty Dog is going to make a PART III (heck, even Neil doesn't know if he wants to yet), but I'd be open to the idea of it. So long as they either focus on a new protagonist in this world (maybe taking place outside of the US, that way, architecturally, environments won't look so samey to the other games -- slightly teased near the end by Lev) or focusing on Ellie, getting her to build her life back up after losing nearly everything.
I'd prefer it if they leave Ellie and start over with a fresh new cast of characters. I think her story is over, for now at least.
This might be unfair due to how long this game is, the meticulous motion-capture/animation fidelity, how much character flair is included in gameplay, or how this game is the biggest story-driven game of the year, but I'm going to be shocked if Ashley Johnson doesn't get a BAFTA for this. She had a really powerful performance.
Her voice work as Ellie in Part 2 absolutely amazing. I'm annoyed that she's not in more things. I demand that by the end of the year she be given a dozen different awards for best VA.
Yep this was one of Troy's best performances but Ashley absolutely smashed it. The amount of different Ellie voices in this game is insane and she definitely deserves the BAFTA. Laura Bailey was also pretty good too, I love the line "we let you live.. and you WASTED it!"
Lmao why should I care about Abby all her friends look like Until Dawn characters oh no no no I guess you could say at the end she bit off more than she could chew
The game is absolutely gorgeous but (to me, personally) fails to deliver a narrative worth of its name. It's definitely the The Last Jedi of the franchise. And I rather watch TLJ over this shit story.
Lmao why should I care about Abby all her friends look like Until Dawn characters oh no no no I guess you could say at the end she bit off more than she could chew
Is TLOU3 even a good idea? What would be the point of it if they just shitted on Joel and Ellie's characters? The only thing Naughty Dog could do now is make a new IP. The Uncharted franchise should be left untouched and TLOU won't be a thing everyone is gonna be excited for in the future anymore.
Good for you. I personally did not enjoy playing as him. He was one of the only people who set up the prank on Hannah and showed no remorse or guiltiness over her and Beth. He was forced to be the main hero of the game and you can tell by his plot armor. He never dies until the last chapter of the game and he got Josh killed as well.
While I was high, I thought about when Ellie smoked weed did she think about the burning in her lungs as like how the people un-immune would feel like breathing spores. Or something else.
Is TLOU3 even a good idea? What would be the point of it if they just shitted on Joel and Ellie's characters? The only thing Naughty Dog cou… moreld do now is make a new IP. The Uncharted franchise should be left untouched and TLOU won't be a thing everyone is gonna be excited for in the future anymore.
I prefer Riley. I don't hate Dina but tbh, her relationship with Ellie wasn't build up very well, it felt forced in some ways. Although, I do kinda wish Ellie stayed with her if she (Ellie) would be such an idiot to ditch her new family for a quest she wasn't even gonna accomplish.
I don't hate Dina but tbh, her relationship with Ellie wasn't build up very well, it felt forced in some ways.
In a way Dina wanted a family,yet,Ellie wanted to be happy. But,like all things Ellie was more concerned about revenge than anything. I don't think Ellie or Done were very much for what they wanted. It came off a little forced cause I don't know much about Dina from the gameplay videos I saw. Also it didn't feel like their was development between including character. Like dina didn't seem interesting. To me of course
I prefer Riley. I don't hate Dina but tbh, her relationship with Ellie wasn't build up very well, it felt forced in some ways. Although, I d… moreo kinda wish Ellie stayed with her if she (Ellie) would be such an idiot to ditch her new family for a quest she wasn't even gonna accomplish.
The rumors about that are probably true. I dont know how I feel about that though, especially considering it may actually bring Drake back which kinda ruins the entire point of Uncharted 4. It probably will happen and be made by a different studio because money but I wish they didnt. I prefer things end when they're meant to end, not to be milked dry. Ruins a lot of the artistic direction in story to just go "and Drake is back baby!" after 4 was very much meant to be the finale.
Okay, I've been thinking about the game, looking up some explanations to events and here's what I'm coming out of it with: (wall of text -- stream of consciousness, here we go)
Let's start off with the fact that I really enjoyed this game. It took a lot of big, sometimes off-putting risks (like wow there's a lot of time-jumping and flashbacks to deal with) but mostly, I enjoyed them and thought they made sense, story-wise.
One of the big parts of why I liked the game was definitely the gameplay. Call it old, outdated, whatever, but I really enjoyed the simple, tight gameplay of the first game, probably evidenced by my love for Factions, the multiplayer mode for TLOU. That is essentially just pure gameplay of TLOU put into a PvP online mode, and I played the shit out of it both on PS3 and 4. So, naturally, this sequel takes the gameplay I love dearly and pushes it a step further. Not a big step, but there's additions and changes nonetheless. Squeezing through cover, going prone, adding silencers, not being able to charge at opponents (or you'll get knocked back). And the fact that it can all be flowed smoothly is just pure bliss. The past 24 hours have had me chomping at the bit to jump back into Part 2 just to replay some of those combat scenes, but a part of me doesn't want to, to let the story of the game sink in and let go for a minute. Still, I can't wait to see how they implement these new skills into Factions 2, especially the dichotomy of the Ellie vs Abby gameplay styles. Speaking of which...
Abby. The character that shattered a fanbase. You love to hate her, but also hate to love her.
Personally, I really enjoyed Abby's character by the end and the journey she went on. I don't think I liked her 100% of the time (as she's shown to be pretty resentful towards other people's actions -- Owen getting Mel pregnant -- and really lets her anger control her -- the Joel moment/the Ellie fight scene) but by the end I really empathized with her and didn't want her to die (least of all in such a painful and scummy way by Ellie -- I.E.: "death by 1000 cuts", essentially.)
Also, going back to what @lupinb0y said, -- and this is pretty cool for me too -- is that they gave Abby a minor phobia reflected in gameplay and some story beats, that being her fear of heights. I have that too! (So, it's cool to see that represented in a video game, even if it's a super minor thing.) Love how there's detail put into this fear shown in gameplay as well, with Abby tensing up and beginning to hypervenilate near steep drops or a trippy Dolly-zoom camera shot if you look down while doing so. I find that to be a neat detail.
The structure of the game is very different and more complex (or messy, depending on how you view it) than the simple structure of the first game. But the big twist being that you switch and play as Abby for the second half of the game was very interesting to me. Yes, I had some pretty conflicted feelings because of her previous actions, but upon shoving those thoughts out of my head I really started to enjoy her sequence.
It's obvious that this second half is essentially an homage to the first game -- both in story with Abby finding and taking care of a younger, jaded child unfamiliar to the "normal world" and especially in gameplay, where you're smashing heads left and right, you feel like a tank, you craft shivs to stab Clickers with... and all that jazz. That latter part was loads of fun, and really helped differentiate her and Ellie's playstyles.
The dynamic shift to this new -- and frankly, unrelated story perspective -- was cool due in part to how disconnected to Ellie's story Abby's was, and very much felt like it was a whole new game with a new cast of characters. You're deep within Seattle, you're a part of this militaristic force in a civil war against some crazed cultists. There's a sense of being a part of something larger -- that it's not just You vs. The World (like it is in Ellie's section) but that this is the story of one soldier from a team of hundreds/thousands. I found that really fascinating, and it probably could have been better received and appreciated had the Joel Moment not occurred and had Abby's friends been developed a bit more. Also probably could have been pitched as its own game.
Finally catching up to Ellie's Confrontation again was a nice moment since there was practically no mention or appearance of Ellie's group within the second half. Then begins the awesome boss fight. Wow. It really shows how scary and monstrous Ellie has become if viewed from an outside lens. She's extremely quiet, leaving traps everywhere and is pretty deadly accurate. (Also is barely noticeable in Listen Mode).
Finally, let me go over the ending for a bit. We shift to what seems to be a nice and happy life with Ellie and Dina, where the two are happily living on a farm some 12 months(?) after Seattle. But Ellie is still facing her grief and trauma about Joel. Anguished by this, (and obsessed to gain closure) she decides to abandon her newfound family to make things right one last time, whatever it takes.
I'll admit that Seattle as a main environment in the game didn't get old for me. They really made the city feel huge with how many diverse locales you visited -- and I'm a sucker for modern architecture getting a post-apocalyptic twist -- so it was really nice to see the amount of locations re-taken by nature and battered by the elements. And by the ending, we go to Santa Barbara, California. There's a clear difference in environment and architecture here and that was really refreshing. The amount of brown, dead grass and (I think?) crisped-up infected, burning and dying in the scorching California sun was a really cool thing to see.
But okay, I'm going off-track here. So Abby gets kidnapped by this local slaver group and held for god knows how long -- then Ellie finds her and seemingly agrees to let her leave, seeing her already beaten-up and tortured -- "a fitting punishment for what she did to Joel" is probably how she'd justify it -- but that ends up not being enough for Ellie. She still can't move on from Joel's horrific death, and so she feels that killing Abby is the only thing to stop it.
In an awesome climactic battle on the shore, the two women clash before Ellie finally gets the upper hand and... in a swift moment of remembrance, doesn't go through with it.
Now there's a lot of different opinions about why this happens, but I'll go with my favourite: that Ellie realizes that her new purpose -- avenging Joel through whatever amount of dead bodies -- isn't worth it if it doesn't change how she was unable to completely forgive Joel for his cruel act of murder and how it pushes her away from Dina and JJ -- the family she built and wanted to stay with, but couldn't.
It definitely pulls up a whole new moral/philosophical dilemma like the ending of the last game, but makes the reasoning wayyyy more abstract and up for debate. "Why did she decide to end the cycle? She was so close to fulfilling her quest."
One thing's for certain: had Abby slit Dina's throat, you can bet this game would have ended with a dead Abby. That would have really deserved revenge for how angry and spiteful Abby was towards ruining Ellie's life and then some.
This review-thing has gone on too long and it's late, so I'll go with a quick bullet list of good and bad
Some of the parallels between Abby and Ellie's story to try and humanize Abby and make her (and the WLF) feel like actual humans living in a real world were nice but pretty heavy-handed. [They both live in a secure, built-from-the-ground-up community. They both lose someone close to them and seek revenge. Doing so doesn't ease their emotional pain, however. They both lose someone close extremely quickly (Jesse/Manny). Ellie kills Mel (pregnant). Abby almost kills Dina (pregnant). Ellie's group has a logbook, Scar Island has a similar logbook to find.
Identifying murdered people Ellie kills on Abby's side was cool. Some didn't really have much purpose other than "hey look its that person who dies and Abby knows them. feel sad."
Owen is cool except for when he wants to cheat on Mel. Like, dude. Really? Stop flirting with Abby about trying to run away or have sex, you've already got a child with someone else.
Also, that sex scene. It was only 10 seconds, I didn't find it appealing or understand the significance of it, but bold move by Naughty Dog for having that in there, because we never see that in video games. Only movies. I guess that adds to the 'cinematic flair' of this game.
Game about character study and drama don't give an F about character development. Jesse got shot really quick to solidify that people don't get heroic deaths in this game and shouldn't be expected to. People die. We move on. And no, Jesse did not get forgotten after this. There's just no real moment to talk about him. They mention him in a journal entry and also in a cutscene before Ellie leaves Dina. What more do you people want?
I don't buy how Tommy gets shot in the back of the head and comes out alive, but just missing an eye. I don't understand the science behind that one.
Again, Ashley Johnson needs all the awards for this game. Amazing performance and I feel bad for the other nominees already. (Did you know she's 36 years old?! 7 years ago she was 29 playing 14, now she's 36 playing 19! Wow! Acting!)
Factions for Life. We need that multiplayer mode. It was actually great.
isn't worth it if it doesn't change how she was unable to completely forgive Joel for his cruel act of murder
Well he also doomed the world there's that too.
Owen is cool except for when he wants to cheat on Mel. Like, dude. Really? Stop flirting with Abby about trying to run away or have sex, you've already got a child with someone else.
I like how flawed Abby and her crew are. While the game definitely wants you to at the very least try and empathise with them, you don't necessarily have to like them. They are all assholes in their own way. Owen is initially portrayed as a kind of nice and romantic type kind of guy and was critical of the Fireflies, even he was part of them, but he's revealed to be a pretty selfish asshole when it comes to his relationships. Mel was revealed to be against Abby and the others going after Joel and even talks about how it was all a mistake, making it seem like she was only there because Owen was, but she was one of the ones saying that they should kill Ellie and Tommy at the beginning, despite neither of them really being involved.
They mention him in a journal entry and also in a cutscene before Ellie leaves Dina. What more do you people want?
While it's not said in the game, I think it's also safe to say that JJ is named after Jesse and Joel. Don't quote me on this though.
I don't buy how Tommy gets shot in the back of the head and comes out alive, but just missing an eye. I don't understand the science behind that one.
Yeah that's actually a weird one. His eye is still there, it's just kind of faded looking. I feel like they changed the way Tommy got crippled in the writing process, but they didn't have enough time to change the model or something.
Okay, I've been thinking about the game, looking up some explanations to events and here's what I'm coming out of it with: (wall of text -- stream of consciousness, here we go)
(Spoiler)
Comments
Did it really take you that long? I only died like 3 times if I remember. It is true that this fucking boss is nightmare fuel. It reminded me of something out of Resident evil.
It only took me 3 deaths overall: 2 last night and then 1 today. Didn't take too long, maybe 15-20 minutes in total.
But, damn, yeah that section really felt like a survival horror game.
Problem looks more like plot and how much that goes into the characters too. Like I think saw ppl say that they were getting bored and depressed over what many thought(subverting Expectations from what many thought differently) was getting a good game with Ellie And Joel. Instead they didn't get that at all.
Instead what they get. Was seeing Joel get Killed by Abby. Which was revenge against Joel killing her Father. Then Ellie killed her friends,while Abby killed Ellie's friends. This game become more like kill each other's friends and feel like shit no matter what. Especially the ending too. Like WTF lol
Also gameplay doesn't look more as change other than just the graphics making gameplay look good. But, literally good. Just graphics and art. Fighting is the same from the looks of the previous game. So basically it was a waste of 7 years. It is just sad to see that
Guess I'll have to upload the rest of my playthrough on youtube. I'm gonna skip as many of my explorations as possible because let's be honest, it's boring to watch someone else do it.
Well yeah, Abby lost Owen and became a top Scar-killer and Ellie lost Dina and JJ due to their lust for revenge. Abby doesn't regret killing Joel but she does regret obsessing and ruining her relationships. She becomes the WLF's best soldier and realises what she was doing was wrong, turns on her group, finds her humanity in Lev and Yara, and is finally able to see her Dad smiling in her dreams.
Abby is the WLF's top soldier and she was determined to find Tommy. I don't think the ex-fireflies hate Tommy. She was prepared to torture. Jackson were lucky that it went down the way it did. So Tommy reveals his name, and even if he said "I'm Tommy and this is Larry" it would've been suspicious because they look like brothers and Abby would've figured out that it was Joel anyway. It's really not that farfetched. If you want to look at it as every NPC from the first game has a wife and kids that wants to kill Joel, then Joel shouldn't even be going on patrols.
No problem man, when I was alone I was talking myself through this fight too. That shit was intense.
A lengthy analysis video/video essay by Noah Caldwell Gervais on the The Last of Us Part 1 and 2. Surprisingly he's quite a bit critical of the first but has a more glowing opinion of 2
You know, I find it really interesting how in the first 20 minutes of your video, you're pretty apathetic to the conversations and "wholesome moments" between Dina and Ellie. (Like how when Ellie finds a working guitar you exclaim "Fuck this. I don't want to handle this right now")
It really shows how attached Naughty Dog made us to Joel and Ellie in the first game, and how after Joel's death, it really brings on a sense of despair and apathy and conflicting emotions of "what's the point anymore".
It's totally fine that you feel that way, by the way, I'm just mentioning it because I stopped playing for the rest of the day after Joel died, and came back the next day after having slept on it and was mentally refreshed. So, I can't imagine how it must have felt to play the next two or three hours after that moment.
It's a very interesting look at how shell-shocked we can be so soon after a beloved character's death.
Yep. I gotta admit, I think I exagerrated too much at that part but as mentioned in my video, it's because of the way they treated Joel at the beginning, couldn't stop thinking about it. Same happened in my recent uploaded video right now.
Do you guys think the TLOU show on HBO will be better or worse? I watched Angryjoe talk about his thoughts after his crew finished TLOU2 and he said there would be no point in making the show because of what happened.
Yeah, we don't even know what the plot would be. Is it still going to be about Joel and Ellie?
I don't see the point of it if Joel is dead and Ellie loses everything in the end.
Finally finished Part II.
Goddamn. This was a long game, essentially 2 games in one. Good job on that, Naughty Dog. You spoiled us.
(Just when you think it's about to end and the conflict is resolved, it decides to continue in some epilogue-climax thing)
I'm going to need some time to think over this and gather opinions/impressions on events of the game, since some character decisions/actions aren't explained well, and that's what some events of the plot hinge on.
But, for now, what I do think about it is this:
Definitely not a perfect 10/10 game, for now I'd rate it around a 7-8/10. I'd definitely recommend it to others.
This is mostly in part due to the notable amount of bugs in the game I came across, usually happening in cutscenes and taking me out of the experience. I don't remember as many from the PS3 game. (The cutscenes in this game are all in-engine/real-time so it's pretty hard on the PS4 to keep up.)
I don't know if Naughty Dog is going to make a PART III (heck, even Neil doesn't know if he wants to yet), but I'd be open to the idea of it. So long as they either focus on a new protagonist in this world (maybe taking place outside of the US, that way, architecturally, environments won't look so samey to the other games -- slightly teased near the end by Lev) or focusing on Ellie, getting her to build her life back up after losing nearly everything.
Also, because this is a video game -- one with teams of thousands across many countries and companies -- the credits are long. Very long. Like 16 minutes.
But if you're patient enough (or have nothing else to do), if you wait...
about 11 minutes in you're greeted with a cover of Johnny Cash's Wayfaring Stranger sung by Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker as Ellie and Joel, respectively. Apparently they sang this together before a TLOU panel at a Playstation Experience Expo in 2017!!
So since I don't have a PS4 I watched an LP of The Last of Us Part 2, which was about 25 hours long and I just wanted to share my thoughts on it. Since I didn't actually play it I won't really talk about the gameplay so I'll be mostly focusing entirely around the story of the game. I'll keep things vague for a bit then I'll go into some spoilers. I didn't look into any spoilers beforehand and even downloaded a chrome extension that was suggested on here in order to help avoid spoilers. The only things about the game I'd seen before release were the trailers and whatever gameplay was released as part of the marketing. I went in completely blind. I'll keep things vague for a bit then go into a big spoiler talk. Sorry if it's a little ramble-y. Keep in mind, this is all my own personal opinion.
First of all the game is absolutely gorgeous. Like holy shit this is easily one of the best looking games I have ever seen, and the animations are absolutely god-like, especially the facial animations which on its own is some next level stuff. Also the voice acting is some of the best I've heard in a video game in a long while. This is easily Ashley Johnson's best work as a voice actress. She is absolutely phenomenal and deserves an award for her work in this, followed by Laura Bailey and of course, Troy Baker who are both incredibly exceptional.
As for the story, I actually ended up really liking it! It definitely tries for something more ambitious despite being smaller scale in comparison to the previous game and I applaud the writers for doing something unique, and in my opinion manages to (mostly) successfully build off of certain plot elements previously established. I also like most of the new characters that were brought in, in particular Dina, Abby and Lev. The story is very much a deconstruction of certain video game tropes. The best comparison I can think of would be Spec Ops: The Line which has a similar idea but with a very different style of execution. Overall I really enjoyed it, but because it tries to go for a more ambitious and "complicated" story, it doesn't nail everything as well as the first game did, but I'm not going to really compare the two. The game is not perfect, definitely not a 10/10, I don't think there's such a thing as a perfect game but I think it did its job very well.
Now for some spoilers.
I really like what the game did with the introduction of Abby. You spend the first bit of the game playing as Ellie patrolling around with Dina before it suddenly switches over to Abby and you're left wondering "Who dis? Where Ellie? Hot damn, she is jacked!" You don't spend too much time with them initially but you think, hey they seem alright, and before you know it, they kill Joel in a horribly brutal fashion as Ellie is forced to watch. You now hate them, you want to tear them apart. And that is what you do for the first half of the game. Ellie has a list of targets and begins taking them down one by one in a variety of horrible different ways, all of it hopefully leading you to Abby. And as the story plays out and the body count rises, you can clearly see that Ellie is as ruthless as Joel, but unlike Joel, the things she does leaves a mark on her, in particular torturing Nora for information, and killing Mel who she learns is pregnant after the fact. But it'll be all worth it once she faces Abby, and when that finally happens (though not the way Ellie would have wanted), it switches perspective. You now play as Abby.
The game does something extremely ballsy, forcing you to turn your brain on and empathise with Abby. Joel's killer. The game reminds you that Joel was left with an ultimatum at the end of the previous game. Sacrifice Ellie in order to potentially create a vaccine that could save a lot of people, or save Ellie and potentially doom the world. You quickly learn why she did what she did. When I saw what is essentially the first games ending play out, but from her perspective I kinda just sat there going, "Yeah okay I get it now. I still don't like you though," and I kept that mentality for quite a while. Along the way interacting with some of her crew that took part in Joel's death and learning more about them. You find out that some of them weren't really happy about having a hand in Joel's death and how it's affected their relationship with one another. In my opinion the game (mostly) succeeds in humanising what I believed to be the villains of the game. You can even meet some of the random people you kill as Ellie in Abby's side of the story which I thought was pretty neat.
As Abby's story went on and her actions given more depth, I really started to warm up to her, especially when she meets Yara and Lev. Abby and Lev have a great sibling-like relationship, it's very clearly a parallel to Ellie and Joel, with Lev being unfamiliar to many of the things outside his home and essentially being a fish out of water (which is a trope I very much enjoy), but with a little bit of a religious cult background thrown into the mix. I think Yara and Lev are a great characters. They are both shown to have a clear dislike for the cult that raised them but still bind themselves to some of the traditions they were taught to do, like praying, leaving them very emotionally conflicted. I also think that Lev's backstory was handled well, and in my opinion properly mirrors aspects of real life in particular with Yara's line about Lev "breaking tradition." Also I have to mention, Abby and Lev climbing the skyscraper was great. I can relate to Abby being deathly afraid of heights. She reacts exactly like how I react to being on high places, minus the still continuing to climb part.
The game puts you through a number of uncomfortable situations. The first confrontation between Abby and Ellie being one of the big ones, where you are put into another unthinkable situation, where you are forced to try and kill Ellie, and then finally at the end of the game when you are forced to try and kill Abby, who at this point is a shell of her former self. The final fight gave me this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Watching them trade blows, both injured and exhausted was horrific to watch. Some of the punches weren't even holding much weight to them, showcasing how tired they both were. At this point I didn't want either of them to die. What I loved about the final confrontation is Joel's influence. The reason Ellie decides to kill Abby despite having saved her just moments ago was her flashing back to Joel's dead body, and finally her choosing to spare Abby was her flashing back to Joel, alive and playing a guitar, and when you find out about the context of that flashback you realise how important it was. Because that was the night Ellie chose to try and forgive Joel for his actions, and she decides to do the same here. Okay well maybe not forgive, but at the very least end the cycle of violence.
Alright rambling over. There were a few more things I wanted to go into (some more story stuff, themes, characters, etc) but I'm getting kinda tired so I'll just stop here. Again, these are all my own opinions on the games story. If you dislike the game that's fine, I'm not trying to change anyone's opinions or anything, I'm just saying my piece.
I'd prefer it if they leave Ellie and start over with a fresh new cast of characters. I think her story is over, for now at least.
Her voice work as Ellie in Part 2 absolutely amazing. I'm annoyed that she's not in more things. I demand that by the end of the year she be given a dozen different awards for best VA.
Yep this was one of Troy's best performances but Ashley absolutely smashed it. The amount of different Ellie voices in this game is insane and she definitely deserves the BAFTA. Laura Bailey was also pretty good too, I love the line "we let you live.. and you WASTED it!"
Lmao why should I care about Abby all her friends look like Until Dawn characters oh no no no I guess you could say at the end she bit off more than she could chew
The game is absolutely gorgeous but (to me, personally) fails to deliver a narrative worth of its name. It's definitely the The Last Jedi of the franchise. And I rather watch TLJ over this shit story.
I let them all die except for Chirs, Sam and Emily. Mike was easily the worst of the bunch. His plot armor was too fucking strong
Is TLOU3 even a good idea? What would be the point of it if they just shitted on Joel and Ellie's characters? The only thing Naughty Dog could do now is make a new IP. The Uncharted franchise should be left untouched and TLOU won't be a thing everyone is gonna be excited for in the future anymore.
Nein. Mike is by far the best one.
Good for you. I personally did not enjoy playing as him. He was one of the only people who set up the prank on Hannah and showed no remorse or guiltiness over her and Beth. He was forced to be the main hero of the game and you can tell by his plot armor. He never dies until the last chapter of the game and he got Josh killed as well.
While I was high, I thought about when Ellie smoked weed did she think about the burning in her lungs as like how the people un-immune would feel like breathing spores. Or something else.
Isn't the next Uncharted game being made by a different studio?
If you haven't seen this already, it's definitely worth a watch.
Doubt it
Who do you guys prefer, Riley or Dina?
I prefer Riley. I don't hate Dina but tbh, her relationship with Ellie wasn't build up very well, it felt forced in some ways. Although, I do kinda wish Ellie stayed with her if she (Ellie) would be such an idiot to ditch her new family for a quest she wasn't even gonna accomplish.
Riley.
Dina is ok and all but if I had to choose, definitely Riley. And I agree with @AronDracula about Riley.
In a way Dina wanted a family,yet,Ellie wanted to be happy. But,like all things Ellie was more concerned about revenge than anything. I don't think Ellie or Done were very much for what they wanted. It came off a little forced cause I don't know much about Dina from the gameplay videos I saw. Also it didn't feel like their was development between including character. Like dina didn't seem interesting. To me of course
Same here I mean Riley was okay
The rumors about that are probably true. I dont know how I feel about that though, especially considering it may actually bring Drake back which kinda ruins the entire point of Uncharted 4. It probably will happen and be made by a different studio because money but I wish they didnt. I prefer things end when they're meant to end, not to be milked dry. Ruins a lot of the artistic direction in story to just go "and Drake is back baby!" after 4 was very much meant to be the finale.
Riley, they had way better chemistry. Pewdiepie also agreed he liked their relationship better when watching his stream.
Is it just me but Ellie sparing Abby is a rip-off of "Martha" scene from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice?
I think It's by far waaaaay worse than that scene from that movie.
Okay, I've been thinking about the game, looking up some explanations to events and here's what I'm coming out of it with: (wall of text -- stream of consciousness, here we go)
Let's start off with the fact that I really enjoyed this game. It took a lot of big, sometimes off-putting risks (like wow there's a lot of time-jumping and flashbacks to deal with) but mostly, I enjoyed them and thought they made sense, story-wise.
One of the big parts of why I liked the game was definitely the gameplay. Call it old, outdated, whatever, but I really enjoyed the simple, tight gameplay of the first game, probably evidenced by my love for Factions, the multiplayer mode for TLOU. That is essentially just pure gameplay of TLOU put into a PvP online mode, and I played the shit out of it both on PS3 and 4. So, naturally, this sequel takes the gameplay I love dearly and pushes it a step further. Not a big step, but there's additions and changes nonetheless. Squeezing through cover, going prone, adding silencers, not being able to charge at opponents (or you'll get knocked back). And the fact that it can all be flowed smoothly is just pure bliss. The past 24 hours have had me chomping at the bit to jump back into Part 2 just to replay some of those combat scenes, but a part of me doesn't want to, to let the story of the game sink in and let go for a minute. Still, I can't wait to see how they implement these new skills into Factions 2, especially the dichotomy of the Ellie vs Abby gameplay styles. Speaking of which...
Abby. The character that shattered a fanbase. You love to hate her, but also hate to love her.
Personally, I really enjoyed Abby's character by the end and the journey she went on. I don't think I liked her 100% of the time (as she's shown to be pretty resentful towards other people's actions -- Owen getting Mel pregnant -- and really lets her anger control her -- the Joel moment/the Ellie fight scene) but by the end I really empathized with her and didn't want her to die (least of all in such a painful and scummy way by Ellie -- I.E.: "death by 1000 cuts", essentially.)
Also, going back to what @lupinb0y said, -- and this is pretty cool for me too -- is that they gave Abby a minor phobia reflected in gameplay and some story beats, that being her fear of heights. I have that too! (So, it's cool to see that represented in a video game, even if it's a super minor thing.) Love how there's detail put into this fear shown in gameplay as well, with Abby tensing up and beginning to hypervenilate near steep drops or a trippy Dolly-zoom camera shot if you look down while doing so. I find that to be a neat detail.
The structure of the game is very different and more complex (or messy, depending on how you view it) than the simple structure of the first game. But the big twist being that you switch and play as Abby for the second half of the game was very interesting to me. Yes, I had some pretty conflicted feelings because of her previous actions, but upon shoving those thoughts out of my head I really started to enjoy her sequence.
It's obvious that this second half is essentially an homage to the first game -- both in story with Abby finding and taking care of a younger, jaded child unfamiliar to the "normal world" and especially in gameplay, where you're smashing heads left and right, you feel like a tank, you craft shivs to stab Clickers with... and all that jazz. That latter part was loads of fun, and really helped differentiate her and Ellie's playstyles.
The dynamic shift to this new -- and frankly, unrelated story perspective -- was cool due in part to how disconnected to Ellie's story Abby's was, and very much felt like it was a whole new game with a new cast of characters. You're deep within Seattle, you're a part of this militaristic force in a civil war against some crazed cultists. There's a sense of being a part of something larger -- that it's not just You vs. The World (like it is in Ellie's section) but that this is the story of one soldier from a team of hundreds/thousands. I found that really fascinating, and it probably could have been better received and appreciated had the Joel Moment not occurred and had Abby's friends been developed a bit more. Also probably could have been pitched as its own game.
Finally catching up to Ellie's Confrontation again was a nice moment since there was practically no mention or appearance of Ellie's group within the second half. Then begins the awesome boss fight. Wow. It really shows how scary and monstrous Ellie has become if viewed from an outside lens. She's extremely quiet, leaving traps everywhere and is pretty deadly accurate. (Also is barely noticeable in Listen Mode).
Finally, let me go over the ending for a bit. We shift to what seems to be a nice and happy life with Ellie and Dina, where the two are happily living on a farm some 12 months(?) after Seattle. But Ellie is still facing her grief and trauma about Joel. Anguished by this, (and obsessed to gain closure) she decides to abandon her newfound family to make things right one last time, whatever it takes.
I'll admit that Seattle as a main environment in the game didn't get old for me. They really made the city feel huge with how many diverse locales you visited -- and I'm a sucker for modern architecture getting a post-apocalyptic twist -- so it was really nice to see the amount of locations re-taken by nature and battered by the elements. And by the ending, we go to Santa Barbara, California. There's a clear difference in environment and architecture here and that was really refreshing. The amount of brown, dead grass and (I think?) crisped-up infected, burning and dying in the scorching California sun was a really cool thing to see.
But okay, I'm going off-track here. So Abby gets kidnapped by this local slaver group and held for god knows how long -- then Ellie finds her and seemingly agrees to let her leave, seeing her already beaten-up and tortured -- "a fitting punishment for what she did to Joel" is probably how she'd justify it -- but that ends up not being enough for Ellie. She still can't move on from Joel's horrific death, and so she feels that killing Abby is the only thing to stop it.
In an awesome climactic battle on the shore, the two women clash before Ellie finally gets the upper hand and... in a swift moment of remembrance, doesn't go through with it.
Now there's a lot of different opinions about why this happens, but I'll go with my favourite: that Ellie realizes that her new purpose -- avenging Joel through whatever amount of dead bodies -- isn't worth it if it doesn't change how she was unable to completely forgive Joel for his cruel act of murder and how it pushes her away from Dina and JJ -- the family she built and wanted to stay with, but couldn't.
It definitely pulls up a whole new moral/philosophical dilemma like the ending of the last game, but makes the reasoning wayyyy more abstract and up for debate. "Why did she decide to end the cycle? She was so close to fulfilling her quest."
One thing's for certain: had Abby slit Dina's throat, you can bet this game would have ended with a dead Abby. That would have really deserved revenge for how angry and spiteful Abby was towards ruining Ellie's life and then some.
This review-thing has gone on too long and it's late, so I'll go with a quick bullet list of good and bad
Holy fuck, this is a 8+ hour game with just cutscenes!
Well he also doomed the world there's that too.
I like how flawed Abby and her crew are. While the game definitely wants you to at the very least try and empathise with them, you don't necessarily have to like them. They are all assholes in their own way. Owen is initially portrayed as a kind of nice and romantic type kind of guy and was critical of the Fireflies, even he was part of them, but he's revealed to be a pretty selfish asshole when it comes to his relationships. Mel was revealed to be against Abby and the others going after Joel and even talks about how it was all a mistake, making it seem like she was only there because Owen was, but she was one of the ones saying that they should kill Ellie and Tommy at the beginning, despite neither of them really being involved.
While it's not said in the game, I think it's also safe to say that JJ is named after Jesse and Joel. Don't quote me on this though.
Yeah that's actually a weird one. His eye is still there, it's just kind of faded looking. I feel like they changed the way Tommy got crippled in the writing process, but they didn't have enough time to change the model or something.
Here we go, ladies and gents
