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[–] 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

The last of us 2.

I liked the first game, the twist at the end was a bit iffy, but it was understandable from a character perspective (Joel was never a good guy, and him deciding to kill a bunch of fireflies to save his psuedo-daughter from an iffy medical procedure makes sense to his character).

The second game was fantastic mechanically, and a train wreck everywhere else.

I understood the story they tried to tell, and they might have even told that story decently.

But it was absolutely not what I signed up for, I went from a coming of age (Ellie) / found family (Both) / redemption (Joel) story, and went right into a gritty "the price of revenge" story that was just so emotionally exhausting. Half the story was spent on a character I didnt care about, the timeline was confusing, and most of all, I didnt want to play a game about Ellie (and Joel's brother) descending into emotionally driven monsters who sacrifice everything for revenge.

Its hard to say the game was "bad," since mechanically it was good, and the story had depth. The confusing timeline wasnt great, but was survivable if the game was otherwise good. It was just such a tonal whiplash, and was such a slog to get through that it killed the whole series for me.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    I loved it. Blew the first game out of the water. Found absolutely nothing about the narrative to be confusing and I'm not even sure how that would be possible.

    Everyone was just pissed at the events of the beginning of the game (trying to avoid spoilers), but I honestly thought it was brilliant and an amazing way to keep the (far superior now) story going.

    Joel was a piece of shit who deserved to die, it's that simple. Even before his actions at the hospital and his murder of the only fucking doctor they had left. Even before he doomed the remains of humanity to save his "daughter".

    It really doesn't matter that you played as him for 40 hours or whatever. In fact, that makes it even better imo.

    I'm glad we got a great story about revenge and the endless cycle of violence over just another 40 hours of killing shit with Joel and Ellie.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Found absolutely nothing about the narrative to be confusing and I'm not even sure how that would be possible.

    I mean, they did have two story lines that take place in parallel with one another, and affect one another. So it's not like a standard linear timeline, I could see how someone spreading their play sessions out over many weeks or months could lose track of things. But I thought it worked well.

    Joel was a piece of shit who deserved to die, it's that simple

    I don't think that was the intended takeaway, nor would I ever dare to say "it's that simple" about any character's motives in this story. The entire point of a trolley problem is that it's an ethical dilemma without a clear "right" answer.

    At the beginning of TLOU2, Ellie clearly also felt like Joel was a piece of shit liar/murderer....but then learns she's capable of being the exact same person under the right circumstances. If anything, I see the moral of the story as "it's never simple once it's you".

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