The Last of Us Part 2 - SPOILERS (1 Viewer)

[bartk12]

after i finished TLOU2 i needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts.
you guys did not have any compassion for Abby but you did for Joel. why is that?
She avenges her father by killing the man who killed him but leaves Ellie and Tommy alone. Ellie on the other hand sets out to kill everyone who was there.
I didn't want them to fight in the end, they both ended up with almost nothing, altough Abby got the better end of that deal.

the part in the basement of the hospital, to me, that was the best part of the game. What's yours?

 

[antipop]

after i finished TLOU2 i needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts.
you guys did not have any compassion for Abby but you did for Joel. why is that?
She avenges her father by killing the man who killed him but leaves Ellie and Tommy alone. Ellie on the other hand sets out to kill everyone who was there.
I didn't want them to fight in the end, they both ended up with almost nothing, altough Abby got the better end of that deal.

the part in the basement of the hospital, to me, that was the best part of the game. What's yours?

i think if they wanted you to have empathy for Abby, maybe don't show her kneecap Joel and then play Tiger Woods 08 on his face right at the beginning of the game ...if you played 10+ hours of Abby hunting down the man that killed her father but not knowing it was Joel, it would have worked much better...you could have put all of that stuff with Lev as events leading up to her finding him...then she encounters Joel, kills his face and you take over as Ellie....

i don't think the story itself is bad, it's just not properly ordered to make you really empathize with Abby....it's a structure issue, not a content issue

also, most people understand that Joel was a selfish prick...that was never in doubt

i think Abby had the best encounters in the game from a level design and gameplay perspective...the hospital basement was pretty intense...my favorite was descending that building floor by floor

 

[bartk12]

i think if they wanted you to have empathy for Abby, maybe don't show her kneecap Joel and then play Tiger Woods 08 on his face right at the beginning of the game ...if you played 10+ hours of Abby hunting down the man that killed her father but not knowing it was Joel, it would have worked much better...you could have put all of that stuff with Lev as events leading up to her finding him...then she encounters Joel, kills his face and you take over as Ellie....

i don't think the story itself is bad, it's just not properly ordered to make you really empathize with Abby....it's a structure issue, not a content issue

also, most people understand that Joel was a selfish prick...that was never in doubt

i think Abby had the best encounters in the game from a level design and gameplay perspective...the hospital basement was pretty intense...my favorite was descending that building floor by floor

So were you unhappy/unsatisfied that Ellie let her live? Would it be a better game if Abby died? Just wandering, because to me the game felt as if there was more to be told and the end left me uncomfortable.

 

[Zack Lee]

In a lot of ways Ellie became less interesting after her trauma with David and his clan in the first game. She would get lost and was pretty much mute the rest of the trip. She was still sort of like that through this whole game as well. Like something died inside of her. Maybe she should have killed her but I don't know how much further they could take the character in that direction. I already have doubts as to whether she makes a good main character for a third one (if there is one) I think they took their chances at a completely different kind of game and by most accounts (and partially mine) they failed. But it still stands as one of the few game sets where I actually cared much about the story. I usually just care about the game play. So they still achieved that much with me.

 

[bartk12]

In a lot of ways Ellie became less interesting after her trauma with David and his clan in the first game. She would get lost and was pretty much mute the rest of the trip. She was still sort of like that through this whole game as well. Like something died inside of her. Maybe she should have killed her but I don't know how much further they could take the character in that direction. I already have doubts as to whether she makes a good main character for a third one (if there is one) I think they took their chances at a completely different kind of game and by most accounts (and partially mine) they failed. But it still stands as one of the few game sets where I actually cared much about the story. I usually just care about the game play. So they still achieved that much with me.

ok, different opinions, i am cool with that.
I think they knocked it out the park with the story and also with the sequence. my sympathy in the end was with Abby and not with Ellie who was a bit too vindictive to my liking.

 

[Zack Lee]

ok, different opinions, i am cool with that.
I think they knocked it out the park with the story and also with the sequence. my sympathy in the end was with Abby and not with Ellie who was a bit too vindictive to my liking.

I love hearing someone say they loved it. I wanted to love it. I did love the fact that they tried to show the reality of what the vengeance game ultimately gets you. They tried to make you like Abby or at the very least empathize with her. I think I did empathize with her. And she lost everything because of her fascination with vengeance on Joel. But the world they live in is far crueler than this one and everyone has lost everything. I didn’t ultimately like Abby. It’s easy to like Lev. Owen, IMO, was the most likable character of the Ex Fireflies. you could kind of understand where he was coming from at every step along the way.

 

[antipop]

So were you unhappy/unsatisfied that Ellie let her live? Would it be a better game if Abby died? Just wandering, because to me the game felt as if there was more to be told and the end left me uncomfortable.

i just think they tried to make you empathize with Abby but it falls flat because you already want to kill her and her dumb friends....it doesn't really matter if Joel was a selfish prick, you empathize with Joel because of the opening scene of the first game and then his redemption arc throughout the events of that game...even if his choice to save Ellie was selfish in the end, you can understand it....

Abby is just thrown into the second game and kills Joel immediately...why would i ever care about her story after that?? it really sucks because her story is actually pretty good if you remove the first hours of it...i just don't understand how they expected players to feel about that...mostly, i just felt meh about her

 

[bartk12]

i just think they tried to make you empathize with Abby but it falls flat because you already want to kill her and her dumb friends....it doesn't really matter if Joel was a selfish prick, you empathize with Joel because of the opening scene of the first game and then his redemption arc throughout the events of that game...even if his choice to save Ellie was selfish in the end, you can understand it....

Abby is just thrown into the second game and kills Joel immediately...why would i ever care about her story after that?? it really sucks because her story is actually pretty good if you remove the first hours of it...i just don't understand how they expected players to feel about that...mostly, i just felt meh about her

the funny thing is that I at first hated her as well and intentionaly wanted her to die (kind a strange to admit this) but as her story grew she is much more likable then Ellie. Ellie kills everyone in her way, even preggo Mel (while all Abby's friend did wrong was being at the other end of Ellie's vendetta) Abby on the other hand spares Dina and Ellie (Ellie twice)

the game makes you think about things...why do you have no ill feelings towards Joel (who is a selfish prick who could have potentialy saved all of mankind but instead kills everybody in his way) and Ellie who is so vindictive that while she has all she wants, goes out on a second quest to kill Abby. But you do have ill feelings towards Abby who revenges her father and then shows compassion for Ellie and Tommy and the second time for Ellie and Dina after Ellie just killed all of her friends.
the game makes you feel uneasy about things, no matter which way your sympathy goes.
That makes it a great game in my book

 

[bartk12]

I love hearing someone say they loved it. I wanted to love it. I did love the fact that they tried to show the reality of what the vengeance game ultimately gets you. They tried to make you like Abby or at the very least empathize with her. I think I did empathize with her. And she lost everything because of her fascination with vengeance on Joel. But the world they live in is far crueler than this one and everyone has lost everything. I didn’t ultimately like Abby. It’s easy to like Lev. Owen, IMO, was the most likable character of the Ex Fireflies. you could kind of understand where he was coming from at every step along the way.

and that is what makes her character likable. they all lost something but in the end someone had to stop the cycle of violence and vengance. And Abby could where Ellie failed. So Abby had to teach Ellie a lesson about forgiving before the cycle could end.

 

[Zack Lee]

to me the attempt to show they were equal (both good and bad) failed on a couple of fronts. First, as antipop points out, the players already have a connection to characters in the first game and that is hard to overcome. But say you do overcome that, Ellie, though you don't want to be in a wrath, was trying to do the right thing. She actually wanted to die on that operating table. Her whole quest was trying to do the right thing. Joel was trying to do the right thing. Sometimes he did it reluctantly and sometimes he had to choose where it wasn't clear - but he did what he did out of love, first for Tess and then for Ellie (and his daughter in a way)

On Abby's side, you can say that her father was innocent but he made a choice in a world where that choice was not protected in the way it would be in this world. And Abby had no redeeming qualities until she met up with Lev. She was only hell bent on vengeance and became a mercenary for a group she didn't even have allegiance to previously. The story line with her and Lev was a good one. And to me their ventures were the most fun as far as game play. But it was too little too late as far as empathy as compared to the characters you were already attached to. But again, the very fact that people will discuss this much about a story tells you that they have done way better than 95 percent of games.

 

[UptownSaintsFan]

Finally rolled credits last night.

I thought it was great. the story worked for me. by the end, i liked Abby a lot more than Ellie, which is what i assume they were trying to do.

Graphics were amazing. all the parts where it was night out and there was fire were amazing.

game play-wise, nothing is more fun in an encounter when things go sideways and you have to improvise.

my only complaint is that it was a little long.

 

[TheGooch]

Finally rolled credits last night.

I thought it was great. the story worked for me. by the end, i liked Abby a lot more than Ellie, which is what i assume they were trying to do.

Graphics were amazing. all the parts where it was night out and there was fire were amazing.

game play-wise, nothing is more fun in an encounter when things go sideways and you have to improvise.

my only complaint is that it was a little long.

 

[Zack Lee]

curious what difficulty you guys have played this on. I am going through survivor right now and it requires a lot of patience but is doable. Has anyone done "grounded"? If I am not mistaken, they take away listen mode altogether which has to be insane. Don't know when or if I will go at that..

 

[UptownSaintsFan]

I just played on normal. I don't have the patience to play games on harder difficulties. Also, i'm probably just not very good at games.

 

[antipop]

curious what difficulty you guys have played this on. I am going through survivor right now and it requires a lot of patience but is doable. Has anyone done "grounded"? If I am not mistaken, they take away listen mode altogether which has to be insane. Don't know when or if I will go at that..

I just roll with the normal...the games are typically designed around that difficulty so you are playing as it was intended...

most harder difficulties just add HP to enemies and reduce player damage output....that often results in more frustrating gameplay instead of more difficulty