Mara Lacroix

So there has been a loud group of people who bashed the game for all wrong reasons before the game came out and after the game came out for a short span. But since then fanboys of the game have been jumping on the love bandwagon towards the game and whenever they comment they depict the game as if it's the most perfect game of all time. They say like "I don't understand why people don't like this game" or "I loved the story, what problems does people have?" as if its the problem on the audience's part rather than the game's part. So here is the list of actual problems TLOU 2 has from someone who didn't hate the game, but didn't like it either.

NOTE: Bear in mind that I DIDN'T LIKE the first game at all. I hated Joel and i hate Ellie in this game because she is acting the same way as Joel(from First game) now.

-The game's message contradicting with the gameplay and sometimes, with the story itself::

So the game's message is "revenge is bad" or "violence is bad" or "actions have consequences" according to people(including me). All these messages are shown by the game but it just doesn't work since Ellie has to kill so many enemies while clearing out a level or when Ellie was gonna find Abby she killed so many of her friends and tortured them even though they hadn't done anything wrong to her. She killed so many people, and didn't face any consequences for it. And at the end(I am on Abby's side though) she let Abby go?? As much as I loved that she let her go, it didn't make any sense if she's gonna kill so many innocent people to find Abby and let her go just because she saw a flashback with Joel. Like c'mon, she should've faced consequences for killing tons of people on her way but she didn't. By doing this the game kinda tells how only Abby and Joel and Ellie are people with value and everyone else is just an obstacle you have to clear, so they don't really have any value.

-Characters::

Seriously, say what you want but this game failed miserably at doing characters the right way. Everyone felt off except Lev and Yara. Nobody had enough development to be able to feel for them. Many characters were also killed and THEN we got to spend time with them but by that point, I just didn't care because I know they're dead. Ellie felt like a dumbass who is blind for a revenge even though she knew Joel was wrong(and c'mon,we all know he had it coming). I just couldn't have sympathy for her. So you may know by now that I love Abby and hate Ellie. Joel was kinda redeemable in this game, though I certainly didn't really feel for him when he was beaten to death(he tortured and killed tons of innocent people in the first game, so why?).

So the only characters I actually loved throughout the whole fucking game were Abby, Lev and Yara. Everyone else felt bland, and that's the thing I don't understand. We had moments spent with them, the dialogues felt natural but I still couldn't care about them. They didn't have the magic that the characters of RDR 2 had. Or even the first game had( I know I hated it but the characters certainly had a charm that made us feel for them, in this game that charm just isn't there). Though I would like to point it out because many call it a criticism, Joel certainly wasn't out of his character when he said his name and location on Abby's place. He had changed a lot now, and it made sense. So that's an invalid criticism.

-Much longer than needed::

Yeah, I loved the gameplay(I loved the gameplay of the first game too) but seriously the story dragged so much longer than needed and there were enemies at every corridor I got fed up of the repetitiveness and tediousness of the gameplay. Also yeah, there were certainly a lot of parts that could be cut and it wouldn't make much difference. I don't know why devs do this. Even though RDR 2 is my favourite game, it felt too stretched out than needed, and this game did the same even thought the first game didn't feel like it had any fillers. This game had tons of fillers and after 20 hours I was wishing for the game to end.

-Not enough memorable moments::

Ending was the only memorable thing for me. The happy moments were there but certainly not impactful(Joel flashbacks were awesome though). They weren't as memorable as the giraffe moment from the first game or LENNNYYYYYY mission from RDR 2.

-Poor execution::

Many have said it already, but let me say this again that the story could've been much better if they had ordered the story parts in a correct manner. I can understand why many didn't like Abby. And killing off a character and then making us spend time with them? It really felt lazy. Joel's flashbacks were really good, he actually felt like a human being rather than a monster he was in the first game. But the flashbacks within flashbacks really messed my head. At a point I forgot what timeline I was playing because the game fucks up the timeline and pacing really badly.

-Out of place level::

The ending felt very out of place. Like Guarma from RDR 2. This gang comes outta nowhere in the end and they kidnap Lev and Abby and it was so Out of place it felt like they were there just for the sake of being there . Pacing felt a little bad too. Too many sections to clear out even though it was the end. I kinda liked the ending, since I now know Ellie is alone(she deserved worse, but okay) and Abby was left alive(she deserved much better) and it certainly made me feel empty. But that island level was just very bad.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Now the game had a ton of positives too. Its has great animations, great graphics, sound design, voice acting, but so does David Cage games which are far from Masterpiece. Gameplay was great IMO, and story was dull as fuck, but that doesn't mean this game deserved anything less than 5/10. It certainly doesn't deserve anything more than 8/10 too. It's a good game, but not a GOTY or GOTG material that people are making it out to be.

For me this game is 7/10, and for perspective I rate the first game 5/10. I loved it more than the first one.

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