This game was for me 7/10 solely due to the gameplay, graphics and certain story bits. Gameplay, while really refined and smooth, it is kinda dated, stealth only for most sections is borderline impossible at times as you are bound to be spotted at one point or the other and when the game throws a nice twist on the gameplay, it is usually doesnt last very long. I dont really need to say much about the graphics and the art direction since they are abosolutely top notch without a doubt. The story is… I'd say its meh. Frankly the best bits of the story are the flashbacks with Ellie and Joel. I mean damn, those are executed almost flawlessly. But the rest is either really bad and illogical and okay and passable at best. To avoid typing out a whole college essay on what i think is wrong with the story, I'll just say that it is not very good. It had potential and if it was told in a different manner and made a few core changes it probably would have been good. It is no dumpsterfire, but it sure as hell is not a masterpiece either. Reality is that this game didnt even need to exist as Ellie and Joels story pretty much ended in the first game and did not need a continuation of that story. And that pretty much caused one of the biggest divides in a fanbase that ive ever heard and actually seen. If anything, it should tell you how ND fumbled with this game.
Positives: all scenes between Joel and Ellie, Gameplay, design of the apocalyptic world/environments, character models, inclusion of dogs, voice acting of Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker.
Negatives: story, narrative structure, pacing, characters that were hard to get emotionally invested in (Abby,Jessie, Dina,) lack of Isaac Dixon, Ending with Ellie not killing Abby (doesn't feel earned) diminishes the urge to replay the game again and again, a bit too grim at times… a little levity missing.
I wouldn't say that Abby was a victim, she's been more than willing to slaughter and brutally torture Seraphites for years in a conflict that she didn't even really care about. Her entire existence was war and violence.
While I don't necessarily agree that Joel was the villain of the first game, I'm happy to see some positive light shed on this game. I recently just played the first one (for the second time) w/ DLC and then went right on the TLOU:P2 and was absolutely blown away. Having experienced some morally grey issues in my life, I sit in the camp that sees nobody as evil and nobody as good. Justice is confusing.
So there are no clear villains and heroes in the Last of Us, but wait Joel I and absolute villain an Evil man, this inconsistency is that thing that I notice whenever people try to defend this game Joel himself is neither hero nor villain, you can understand his actions in the first game from both angles, that's why the game was so good, Part 2 relies on convenience and a contrived plot or at the character's expense, the game just tries to manipulate the player to justify Abby's actions they even used a dog which I think is rather pathetic, gameplay is 10 and actually fun but the story is so bad that it killed replay value and potentially Naughty Dog I know I don't trust them anymore.
Honestly, the criticisms towards this game just feel like desperate nit picky copes just admit it guys Neil drukman wrote a story that you didn't want he wrote a story that wasn't boring and predictable. Imagine how shit it would've been if Joel just dies near the end of the game like we wouldn't have seen that coming. I feel like people get really emotional about this game which is ironic because that is exactly what the game is criticising about people and how their emotions get in the way of morals and the way they do or view things. At the end of the day this game is last of us the tone has never changed it is the same as the first game but improved and Ellie and Abby are amazingly written characters equally flawed as eachother.
Gameplay was good, the story could have been better.
I don’t mind the opening. Keep it. What I would have changed is have the series be four games total. I don’t want my comment to be a thesis, but this game lost its way with not enough on the road moments.
First I want you to think about before the release of the game. The trailers implied that we would have a continuation of Joel and Ellies story. There was no mention of abby in these trailers. It wasn't until the leaks came out that we had an idea of the story. They may have hid abbey because they wanted to surprise us or they hid abbys existence because of how controversial it would have been. They made it seem Joel would have participated more in story by using a younger model in the trailers. We didn't even know abbys story before she killed Joel so many would obviously be pissed that Joel was killed before we had a chance to be happy we had a sequel to one of the best stories in the game. We expected Joel to die in this game but we wanted more time with him before it happened. I've said it before but they should had us play the flashbacks first before they killed Joel we would have played abby got a chance to know her before she killed him. No one is happy to play her after she killed Joel especially since you play her for about half the game. I think last of us 2 has great gameplay but the story is either in the wrong order or done in such a way that they wanted this game to be controversial. This story had many issues to me. Firstly the clickers took a back seat they where no longer a major part of the story. Secondly the hypocritical actions of some of these characters the enter first half they where telling Ellie go get revenge, the pregnant girlfriend also decides its a good idea to fight while pregnant same with the pregnant woman in abbys group, the death of the child's father where the characters don't even acknowledge his death and lastly Ellies decision to not kill abby at the end of the game. You can say its Ellie ending the cycle of violence but that's a lie. How many did Ellie kill in her revenge of Joel's death, how many would seek the death of Ellie, if she stopped way earlier than maybe but you can't pretend she ended the cycle. The last of us 2 is to me the worst revenge story
Garbage sequel, style over substance with monotonous gameplay and terrible writing that hopes people will overlook its flaws because it's pretty and peppered with woke tropes. ….and in terms of reviews, it worked.
-Joel the Villain of the first game? Dude…..did you actually play the first game? As for Abby, nobody liked her, some people just pretended to because of said woke points. Who are you trying to impress with this?
Loved part 2, it’s a brutal world where anyone, even the esteemed “hero” Joel can be brutally murdered in a split second….. tired of babies just pissed they didn’t get to play as Joel and were so upset they had to play as som muscular chick, I know there are some real issues in the game but I truly feel if they didn’t kill Joel and you just played as him and it was a super vanilla sequel it would have been much better received sadly
it's clearly a labour of love from a very talented team, supporting a terrific story written by some of the most amazing writers today. for anyone to assume that Joel's death was due to lack of ideas or done cheaply for reactions is fooling themselves, IMO. I reckon no one loves these characters more than Neil and team who breathed life into these characters from the start, so to make the decision to kill off one of the most popular (anti?) hero must've been difficult. but it makes sense once you see it through the eyes of those affected by Joel's actions. I mean, he killed a doctor only interested in creating a cure, and, as shown in Part 2, the doc was really torn up about ending Ellie's life to do so because of his own daughter.
another complaint I see often is the way Joel was killed. again, putting myself in Abby's shoes, i think this is probably how I'd want to avenge my father's death; slowly, painfully, make his killer feel weak, helpless and vulnerable. that's exactly how it happened. not Joel going out in a blaze of glory like some people want, but he was just taken out by his enemy just like Nora, Owen, Mel with her unborn child, Alice….
the flashbacks served their purpose too of keeping Joel connected to the story throughout, paying off with the porch scene at the end. I was a huge fan of Joel and I was angry that he died. but I opened my mind and heart up to Abby's story and felt her pain when she found her dad murdered, found her friends as they were picked off one-by-one by Ellie, and by the end, I was team Abby. IMO, the story is amazing and told brilliantly through engaging, fun, scary, and sometimes heartbreaking gameplay.
I don't care about any of the positive points you made about it, after playing as much of it as I did and watching the rest, I have no interest in recognizing this as a sequel to an excellent game and story that I greatly enjoyed in The Last of Us, nor will I likely considering buying another game from Naughty Dog in the future especially since he was promoted to head after this crap. Simple as that. Now going to go back to not remembering this experience and moving on with my life.
People who like it: people with brains larger than peanuts People who don’t like it: entitled brats who cry that their student loans haven’t been forgiven
The story of part II was created, solely to undo the first. I don't mind Joel dying, but forcing me to play as Abby was too much. Dude, Joel wasn't a villain… he was a man. Maybe they're two in the same for you, I don't know.
I don’t know people can say Joel was Selfish it doesn’t sit well with me…because let’s say Elle was his actual Biological daughter would people still hate on him or call him selfish then? Don’t think so because most “Parents” wouldn’t sacrifice their child for the world and Joel considers Elle as his daughter and he as her parent no matter how you look at it, this was a Rational decision on his part Abby literally said in the game to her father that if it was her she would want him to do it…but he didn’t answer so you would have to think would the doctor sacrifice his own daughter I don’t think so but he was willing to sacrifice someone else’s as a parent which Joel is to Elle at that point made the decision any parent would make…So to say it “Selfish” is actually a bit Tone Deaf…..Next thing is Everyone excepted Joel to Die damn most people wanted him to die and no one cared that Abby did it, it was just done poorly they had to Dumb Joel down to make it possible and if your story requires your characters to not act like themselves for plot convenience then it’s bad writing…the next thing is the structure of the game, if they started the game with Abby and her father hide the fact that he was the doctor Joel killed let you spend some time liking both characters then jump in time continue using Abby only Give hints that her father is dead but don’t outright say they traveled met Joel didn’t know it was him at first then killed him after that they can reveal that her father was the doctor Joel killed in the last game Boom….no you have a better story and not start over the damn story in the theater jump between both story’s every 4 hours is so if you notice I literally didn’t change anything much and it’s already better 😂 this game was done so poorly
Abby justified is the funniest thing I heard someone said Joel is evil for saving his daughter from the man who was gonna kill her then that doctor’s daughter grew up and killed the man who killed her father because he was gonna kill the man’s daughter…no but abby is totally Justified 🤣 and not evil she shows remorse will killing her Fellow WLF she has been with for years ohh wait she didn’t show remorse she didn’t even care but I’m glad she showed remorse to Joel for saving her life by playing Golf ⛳️ with him what a kind Soul
TLOU wasn't a cartoon superhero show with paper villains and the like. The characters were modelled after real human beings, with qualities and flaws. Even "good" if not decent people can do terrible things given the right set of circumstances. Another character like Joel that comes to mind is the protagonist from Nier Replicant. A flawed, but believable protagonist and well written.
The two minimal effort decisions they could've done is either; Fix the pacing, because the story just feels as if it was told in the wrong order. I'm paraphrasing from another comment, but as they said, it would've been better if they made you play as Abby and she's on her quest of revenge, but you don't know who she wants revenge on. You go through all of this, feeling as if you want to murder the guy who killed her dad. THEN they reveal it was Joel. That would've improved it significantly, and all it would take is some rearranging. The other option was just.. add a choice at the end? We get it. Revenge is bad. We know because that message has been done a hundred times over, and a hundred times better by every other story. Adding a choice would allow the saps who wanted to spare her the option, and allow the sane people who wanted her dead their choice too. Everyone wins. Wouldn't fix the story completely cause of all the BS writing earlier, but atleast it wouldn't be like Druckfuck is just shoving his cliche idea in your face. Thanks for reading, feel free to insult me in the comments since that's inevitable on this topic.
40 Comments
Video contains no spoilers for the end game, however I do talk about Joel in this video.
My favourite part was that sex scene on the boat , spectacular
Joel was never the villain and the cure wasn’t tested. It was just an experiment.
Literally unsubbing cause you said Joel is the Villian…What game did you play??!
This game was for me 7/10 solely due to the gameplay, graphics and certain story bits.
Gameplay, while really refined and smooth, it is kinda dated, stealth only for most sections is borderline impossible at times as you are bound to be spotted at one point or the other and when the game throws a nice twist on the gameplay, it is usually doesnt last very long.
I dont really need to say much about the graphics and the art direction since they are abosolutely top notch without a doubt.
The story is… I'd say its meh. Frankly the best bits of the story are the flashbacks with Ellie and Joel. I mean damn, those are executed almost flawlessly. But the rest is either really bad and illogical and okay and passable at best. To avoid typing out a whole college essay on what i think is wrong with the story, I'll just say that it is not very good. It had potential and if it was told in a different manner and made a few core changes it probably would have been good.
It is no dumpsterfire, but it sure as hell is not a masterpiece either.
Reality is that this game didnt even need to exist as Ellie and Joels story pretty much ended in the first game and did not need a continuation of that story. And that pretty much caused one of the biggest divides in a fanbase that ive ever heard and actually seen. If anything, it should tell you how ND fumbled with this game.
I'm glad someone else likes the game like I do <3
Joel is a villain? Bro 💀🤦♂
Positives: all scenes between Joel and Ellie, Gameplay, design of the apocalyptic world/environments, character models, inclusion of dogs, voice acting of Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker.
Negatives: story, narrative structure, pacing, characters that were hard to get emotionally invested in (Abby,Jessie, Dina,) lack of Isaac Dixon, Ending with Ellie not killing Abby (doesn't feel earned) diminishes the urge to replay the game again and again, a bit too grim at times… a little levity missing.
I wouldn't say that Abby was a victim, she's been more than willing to slaughter and brutally torture Seraphites for years in a conflict that she didn't even really care about. Her entire existence was war and violence.
The only good thing that came out were the memes.
While I don't necessarily agree that Joel was the villain of the first game, I'm happy to see some positive light shed on this game. I recently just played the first one (for the second time) w/ DLC and then went right on the TLOU:P2 and was absolutely blown away. Having experienced some morally grey issues in my life, I sit in the camp that sees nobody as evil and nobody as good. Justice is confusing.
i think tlou 2's gameplay is amazing. I have some issues with the story but the gameplay is so much fun and so much better than the first game
Killed Joel & no factions
Hot Trash
So there are no clear villains and heroes in the Last of Us, but wait Joel I and absolute villain an Evil man, this inconsistency is that thing that I notice whenever people try to defend this game Joel himself is neither hero nor villain, you can understand his actions in the first game from both angles, that's why the game was so good, Part 2 relies on convenience and a contrived plot or at the character's expense, the game just tries to manipulate the player to justify Abby's actions they even used a dog which I think is rather pathetic, gameplay is 10 and actually fun but the story is so bad that it killed replay value and potentially Naughty Dog I know I don't trust them anymore.
Strongly agree, the story was so special. All the hate was so unnecessary.
It was a Masterpiece as far as I’m concerned
You cant possibly have that opinion anymore without some people completely losing their shit
joel got what he deserved i don’t care what people say bout him
bro finna need a plan b the way he bouncing on she hulk like that
Yikes
Honestly, the criticisms towards this game just feel like desperate nit picky copes just admit it guys Neil drukman wrote a story that you didn't want he wrote a story that wasn't boring and predictable. Imagine how shit it would've been if Joel just dies near the end of the game like we wouldn't have seen that coming. I feel like people get really emotional about this game which is ironic because that is exactly what the game is criticising about people and how their emotions get in the way of morals and the way they do or view things. At the end of the day this game is last of us the tone has never changed it is the same as the first game but improved and Ellie and Abby are amazingly written characters equally flawed as eachother.
Gameplay was good, the story could have been better.
I don’t mind the opening. Keep it. What I would have changed is have the series be four games total. I don’t want my comment to be a thesis, but this game lost its way with not enough on the road moments.
Factions 2 will be so amazing!
First I want you to think about before the release of the game. The trailers implied that we would have a continuation of Joel and Ellies story. There was no mention of abby in these trailers. It wasn't until the leaks came out that we had an idea of the story. They may have hid abbey because they wanted to surprise us or they hid abbys existence because of how controversial it would have been. They made it seem Joel would have participated more in story by using a younger model in the trailers. We didn't even know abbys story before she killed Joel so many would obviously be pissed that Joel was killed before we had a chance to be happy we had a sequel to one of the best stories in the game. We expected Joel to die in this game but we wanted more time with him before it happened. I've said it before but they should had us play the flashbacks first before they killed Joel we would have played abby got a chance to know her before she killed him. No one is happy to play her after she killed Joel especially since you play her for about half the game. I think last of us 2 has great gameplay but the story is either in the wrong order or done in such a way that they wanted this game to be controversial. This story had many issues to me. Firstly the clickers took a back seat they where no longer a major part of the story. Secondly the hypocritical actions of some of these characters the enter first half they where telling Ellie go get revenge, the pregnant girlfriend also decides its a good idea to fight while pregnant same with the pregnant woman in abbys group, the death of the child's father where the characters don't even acknowledge his death and lastly Ellies decision to not kill abby at the end of the game. You can say its Ellie ending the cycle of violence but that's a lie. How many did Ellie kill in her revenge of Joel's death, how many would seek the death of Ellie, if she stopped way earlier than maybe but you can't pretend she ended the cycle. The last of us 2 is to me the worst revenge story
Garbage sequel, style over substance with monotonous gameplay and terrible writing that hopes people will overlook its flaws because it's pretty and peppered with woke tropes.
….and in terms of reviews, it worked.
-Joel the Villain of the first game? Dude…..did you actually play the first game? As for Abby, nobody liked her, some people just pretended to because of said woke points. Who are you trying to impress with this?
Loved part 2, it’s a brutal world where anyone, even the esteemed “hero” Joel can be brutally murdered in a split second….. tired of babies just pissed they didn’t get to play as Joel and were so upset they had to play as som muscular chick, I know there are some real issues in the game but I truly feel if they didn’t kill Joel and you just played as him and it was a super vanilla sequel it would have been much better received sadly
A masterpiece.
great video, and I'm with you 100%
it's clearly a labour of love from a very talented team, supporting a terrific story written by some of the most amazing writers today. for anyone to assume that Joel's death was due to lack of ideas or done cheaply for reactions is fooling themselves, IMO. I reckon no one loves these characters more than Neil and team who breathed life into these characters from the start, so to make the decision to kill off one of the most popular (anti?) hero must've been difficult. but it makes sense once you see it through the eyes of those affected by Joel's actions. I mean, he killed a doctor only interested in creating a cure, and, as shown in Part 2, the doc was really torn up about ending Ellie's life to do so because of his own daughter.
another complaint I see often is the way Joel was killed. again, putting myself in Abby's shoes, i think this is probably how I'd want to avenge my father's death; slowly, painfully, make his killer feel weak, helpless and vulnerable. that's exactly how it happened. not Joel going out in a blaze of glory like some people want, but he was just taken out by his enemy just like Nora, Owen, Mel with her unborn child, Alice….
the flashbacks served their purpose too of keeping Joel connected to the story throughout, paying off with the porch scene at the end. I was a huge fan of Joel and I was angry that he died. but I opened my mind and heart up to Abby's story and felt her pain when she found her dad murdered, found her friends as they were picked off one-by-one by Ellie, and by the end, I was team Abby. IMO, the story is amazing and told brilliantly through engaging, fun, scary, and sometimes heartbreaking gameplay.
I don't care about any of the positive points you made about it, after playing as much of it as I did and watching the rest, I have no interest in recognizing this as a sequel to an excellent game and story that I greatly enjoyed in The Last of Us, nor will I likely considering buying another game from Naughty Dog in the future especially since he was promoted to head after this crap. Simple as that. Now going to go back to not remembering this experience and moving on with my life.
I really thought this game great. Not afraid to admit it.
People who like it: people with brains larger than peanuts
People who don’t like it: entitled brats who cry that their student loans haven’t been forgiven
The story of part II was created, solely to undo the first. I don't mind Joel dying, but forcing me to play as Abby was too much. Dude, Joel wasn't a villain… he was a man. Maybe they're two in the same for you, I don't know.
I don’t know people can say Joel was Selfish it doesn’t sit well with me…because let’s say Elle was his actual Biological daughter would people still hate on him or call him selfish then? Don’t think so because most “Parents” wouldn’t sacrifice their child for the world and Joel considers Elle as his daughter and he as her parent no matter how you look at it, this was a Rational decision on his part Abby literally said in the game to her father that if it was her she would want him to do it…but he didn’t answer so you would have to think would the doctor sacrifice his own daughter I don’t think so but he was willing to sacrifice someone else’s as a parent which Joel is to Elle at that point made the decision any parent would make…So to say it “Selfish” is actually a bit Tone Deaf…..Next thing is Everyone excepted Joel to Die damn most people wanted him to die and no one cared that Abby did it, it was just done poorly they had to Dumb Joel down to make it possible and if your story requires your characters to not act like themselves for plot convenience then it’s bad writing…the next thing is the structure of the game, if they started the game with Abby and her father hide the fact that he was the doctor Joel killed let you spend some time liking both characters then jump in time continue using Abby only Give hints that her father is dead but don’t outright say they traveled met Joel didn’t know it was him at first then killed him after that they can reveal that her father was the doctor Joel killed in the last game Boom….no you have a better story and not start over the damn story in the theater jump between both story’s every 4 hours is so if you notice I literally didn’t change anything much and it’s already better 😂 this game was done so poorly
Abby justified is the funniest thing I heard someone said Joel is evil for saving his daughter from the man who was gonna kill her then that doctor’s daughter grew up and killed the man who killed her father because he was gonna kill the man’s daughter…no but abby is totally Justified 🤣 and not evil she shows remorse will killing her Fellow WLF she has been with for years ohh wait she didn’t show remorse she didn’t even care but I’m glad she showed remorse to Joel for saving her life by playing Golf ⛳️ with him what a kind Soul
Joel loses his only child & finds his lost child in Ellie who's about to be killed by some doctors without any guarantee of a world cure.
What would any one do!? Do everything in their power to save their lived ones! That's basic human nature!
Joel ain't a villain, Downward Thrust is just defending a poorly return sequel 😂 with laughable arguments.
Man your channel is no longer worth subscribing IMO
This game’s sound scared me, doors knock and footsteps are played when you’re trying to open a safe.. not cool man
TLOU wasn't a cartoon superhero show with paper villains and the like. The characters were modelled after real human beings, with qualities and flaws. Even "good" if not decent people can do terrible things given the right set of circumstances. Another character like Joel that comes to mind is the protagonist from Nier Replicant. A flawed, but believable protagonist and well written.
Last of Us bias confirmed 👌
Without coping. Better gameplay, worse story. The cold true fact
The two minimal effort decisions they could've done is either;
Fix the pacing, because the story just feels as if it was told in the wrong order. I'm paraphrasing from another comment, but as they said, it would've been better if they made you play as Abby and she's on her quest of revenge, but you don't know who she wants revenge on. You go through all of this, feeling as if you want to murder the guy who killed her dad. THEN they reveal it was Joel. That would've improved it significantly, and all it would take is some rearranging.
The other option was just..
add a choice at the end? We get it. Revenge is bad. We know because that message has been done a hundred times over, and a hundred times better by every other story.
Adding a choice would allow the saps who wanted to spare her the option, and allow the sane people who wanted her dead their choice too. Everyone wins. Wouldn't fix the story completely cause of all the BS writing earlier, but atleast it wouldn't be like Druckfuck is just shoving his cliche idea in your face.
Thanks for reading, feel free to insult me in the comments since that's inevitable on this topic.