[Tom4784]

An accurate depiction of me currently playing through Abby's backstory.

[Brother Leon]

The Abby part is struggling to pull me in as the Ellie and Dina section did. I do think they could have executed the whole two sides of the fight thing better if they wanted us to really care about the other half

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Brother Leon

The Abby part is struggling to pull me in as the Ellie and Dina section did. I do think they could have executed the whole two sides of the fight thing better if they wanted us to really care about the other half

I find it to be quite a misfire so far. Her story isn't that interesting, I have zero sympathy or care for Abby or her friends and it just keeps going on and on. Things were just getting very interesting with Ellie's story and now this massive character development dump for a character I don't have the faintest interest in caring about has derailed and murdered the pace.

[Amy Jade]

Spoiler:

only one I had sympathy for in the abby sub plot is Alice the dog

Yara and Lev too but they werent really part of abby's crew so much

[Ramsay]

I came to really like Abby by the end

[Moniqua]

[Tom4784]

I'm like 16 hours into it at this point and I haven't really found the game to be as bleak or as dark as it was made out to be.

Spoiler:

Ellie killing a heavily pregnant woman aside.

It's basically the same tone as the original so far with all the moments of warmth that were found in the original. I think the story just lacks the same impact the original had so far. I'm hoping to be wowed in what remains of the game but I don't see it happening, personally.

I still really like the game as it's own thing but when you compare it to the original, it feels like it's coming up short atm.

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

An accurate depiction of me currently playing through Abby's backstory.

me at that irrelevant bitch Ellie

[Tom4784]

Both of the games revolve around Ellie, Nicky.

[Nicky91]

dog killer ellie as a protagonist

Spoiler:

should've just letten Alice eaten her

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

Originally Posted by Nicky91

dog killer ellie as a protagonist

Spoiler:

should've just letten Alice eaten her

Cvbnbbvb

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

The game didn’t end how i was expecting it to bc i thought

Spoiler:

abby and lev would find the fireflies and ellie would go with them and willingly have the surgery to try to make the vaccine

That would have been better actually

Naughty dog should hire me

[Tom4784]

I've just started Day 3 as Abby.

Spoiler:

I like Sev and Yara and they're doing a lot to make Abby seem more likable but this whole section with Abby just feels like padding. It's had it's good moments, I loved the Hospital part and the part when she was captured by the Scars but I just feel like they wanted to extend the game and they've done so artificially through going over what happened to Abby in those three days when that whole recap could have been two hours tops.

I also think there's an issue in the fact that Sev and Yara do seem to be plot devices to try to make Abby more likable in quite a cliched fashion. I think it would have been better if we met those two as Ellie instead tbh. I also think the game descended into it's first real bout of bad writing with Mel suddenly turning hostile on Abby for the sake of the plot rather than it making sense for her character.

I'm kinda ready for the game to end now, it's starting to outstay it's welcome a bit. I still really like it, it's still a 9/10 game so far but I do feel it's quite flawed when you compare it to the first game

[Tom4784]

I finished it.

Spoiler:

I kinda felt empty by the end and not in the way that the writers probably intended. It felt like the game never really went anywhere and the pacing was made atrocious by the whole Abby bit although I did like the set pieces in her sections, the Island was pretty great but as I said before, a lot of the attempts to garner sympathy and make her more likeable fall flat and when I did start to like her, they just walked it back by making her an arse again. I feel like the whole Santa Barbara section was just a way to extend the runtime but the final fight with Abby was cool enough I suppose.

I think, overall, it was a story that didn't really need to be told, I get the impression that there was never meant to be a sequel to this game but they created one anyway because the first one was a huge success and this one felt hollow and forced because of it. They dreamt up a story, tried to emulate the emotional resonance of the first game and it just felt empty.

The game itself is great in it's own right but comparing it to the original kinda shows how flawed it is. It was meant to be this brutal and harrowing tale but it didn't really shake or move me at all, it just felt empty and I think the gameplay loop started to grate on me by the end. I feel like a game like this outstays it's welcome if it's too long and this game has far too much gameplay that feels like filler between it's big moments.

I hope they leave The Last Of Us alone now, they won't but I don't think we need another instalment in Ellie's story, we didn't need Part 2 on retrospect.

As a game in it's own right, it's an 9/10 but as a TLOU game, it's a 6/10.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

I finished it.

Spoiler:

I kinda felt empty by the end and not in the way that the writers probably intended. It felt like the game never really went anywhere and the pacing was made atrocious by the whole Abby bit although I did like the set pieces in her sections, the Island was pretty great but as I said before, a lot of the attempts to garner sympathy and make her more likeable fall flat and when I did start to like her, they just walked it back by making her an arse again. I feel like the whole Santa Barbara section was just a way to extend the runtime but the final fight with Abby was cool enough I suppose.

I think, overall, it was a story that didn't really need to be told, I get the impression that there was never meant to be a sequel to this game but they created one anyway because the first one was a huge success and this one felt hollow and forced because of it. They dreamt up a story, tried to emulate the emotional resonance of the first game and it just felt empty.

The game itself is great in it's own right but comparing it to the original kinda shows how flawed it is. It was meant to be this brutal and harrowing tale but it didn't really shake or move me at all, it just felt empty and I think the gameplay loop started to grate on me by the end. I feel like a game like this outstays it's welcome if it's too long and this game has far too much gameplay that feels like filler between it's big moments.

I hope they leave The Last Of Us alone now, they won't but I don't think we need another instalment in Ellie's story, we didn't need Part 2 on retrospect.

As a game in it's own right, it's an 9/10 but as a TLOU game, it's a 6/10.

I've not played either but I've skipped around in playthoughs. Maybe LoU2 should have been the flashbacks? Maybe they should make a 1.5?

[Tom4784]

I don't think they needed to do a second one after playing it. The first game ended perfectly.

[Toy Soldier]

Tonnes of spoilers ahead, but I'm going to assume anyone reading the thread at this point is aware that there'll be spoilers.

Spoiler:

Just had the end credits roll; I loved it in the end. I did actually like Abby as a character and I think maybe that's vital to getting the full impact of the ending, so I guess if a lot of people didn't, maybe there was an overall narrative flaw there. It didn't affect me but if it affected so many then it's still a flaw.

I actually think psychologically some of it is really fascinating though. People struggle with it and struggle to find a connection to the Abby character because of what she did to Joel. But then if you look at the story of TLOU1 objectively... Joel pretty much deserved to die. It's understandable, at the very least as understandable as Ellie's revenge tale. But people were devastated about Joel - and I think that has a lot to do with him being the TLOU1 protagonist. It wasn't Joel who did those things it was YOU who did those things... And people give themselves a lot of leeway. I think that's what they were trying to explore by having you play Abby.

For me it paid off. I absolutely didn't want Ellie to kill Abby (or vice versa)... To the point where in that final fist fight at one point I forgot who I was supposed to be and tied to make Abby dodge Ellie's attack. And I was ****ing hammering buttons to try to save Abby when Ellie had her under water . I do however agree that none of Abby's original friends were likeable at all, except poor Alice . Owen was just awful, ffs.

So yeah overall I massively enjoyed it.

Gameplay downsides... I agree that some of the gameplay segments felt like filler, and I also agree that the game was SLIGHTLY too long. I enjoyed the final hour or so a lot but some of the pointless exploration could have been cut from the lead-up. I did encounter a strange phenomenon though, where after playing Abby, in that final Ellie section I had become a stealth ninja. I dunno if I was just really in the zone but Ellie ****ed up like 50+ of those rattlers without getting hit once, she full on solid-snaked that place. It was a great section to be honest.

But yeah overall I think Ellie's story, at least as protagonist, has to be done now. She could be in it in terms of them still pursuing a cure? Any future TLOU needs a totally new protagonist though, focus on a totally different location maybe. It seemed pretty dubious that Abby's dad was the "only one" who could have made a cure... Surely just the only one that they knew of. There must be plenty of similarly-qualified people still alive out there somewhere?

Anyway, this was very long. 9/10 because it dragged once or twice and there were a few gameplay sections with "cheap deaths" that were more frustrating than fun, but overall I loved it.

[Toy Soldier]

Special mention, I feel like I need to add that from a technical standpoint , the Island section (when it's burning) is incredible. Definitely the pinnacle of PS4 in technical terms.