The Last of Us™ Part II Remastered

Liked playing as Ellie, but the gameplay loop does not remain fun past like 12-14 hours, so when I got to the point I played as Abby, I was just tired of it, plus I don't really like playing the character that killed Joel, even if the game's writing team is doing everything it can to make her feel sympathetic, but there are so many dynamics she has with other characters that make what we on screen and actions she's taken past and present seem so conflicting and wholly unbelievable. They try so hard to make her seem noble, but she is clearly a sociopath through her lack of remorse, hypocrisy and cruelty that she displays throughout the game. One of the other major gripes I have with the story, is that they straight up retconned dialogue in the first game that implied that the fireflies were in the wrong to justify Abby's entire plot in 2, which lays the groundwork for her entire character's development, which is just... no, clear example of a writing sin and a major factor as to why this game is so divisive. There's alot of other stupid ♥♥♥♥ I could go on about with this game's story, as it's a massive step down from the previous game in just about every way aside from worldbuilding, which is not really hard to do with how strong the foundation from the first game was. Gameplay-wise, graphically, animation-wise, this is an insanely polished and extremely well made game, held down by it's very poorly written story and complete mishandling of some really great characters. It's also a shame that NaughtyDog has become well known for mistreating it's employees, with ridiculous crunch and layoffs, with over 70% of their staff departing post Last of Us 2 and Uncharted 4, with plenty of interviews coming out describing just how toxic this company is, as well as how much of an ego Druckman had and how he stepped over other writers and has tried to make this franchise out to his sole achievement. Narcissism like this needs to be called out more, because people like this are the worst, yet constantly get enabled because of corporate cultures and is why AAA game development has become the cesspool that it is that does not allow the flourishing and cultivation of talent like it once did, and instead you are rewarded with a swift boot to the rear end once they have wrung you dry. I appreciate all the hard work that went into this game, but when it is at the expense of the artists involved, it always leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I wonder how much you were funded to betray your own game.

Neil Druckmann ruined the series with this one. If you enjoyed the story of the first game then steer clear of this one. The game is gorgeous and plays well.

I rly dont think theres justifying the ending. I rly think the developers severely fumbled the bag in this. They tried designing a lesson that revenge isnt worth it and with that ellie lets abby go at the end but it realistically doesnt make any logical sense. Abby tortured joel. She shot him in the leg and continuously beat joel within a inch of his life with a golf club. it was only when ellie entered the room that she finished the job after joel was already bludgeoned. She flat out tortured joel and theres no justification for that. The lesson would have fit perfecltly if after having mel tourniquet joels let abby shoots him and thats it. In that scenario the story makes sense, ellie is blinded by rage and hunts abby down but by the end realizes that killing abby wont bring joel back and will only continue a cycle of violence. In that scenario where abby didnt torture joel i know for a fact the game would have recieved far more praise and wouldnt recieve the hate it gets/got as in that scenario the story and the lesson the developers are trying to show actually make sense. But no abby tortured joel, abbys group got what they deserved and abby needed to die thats how it should have been. We were robbed from a logical and coherent story. It failed to earn us abbys interest as a character which as half of the entire game was a complete utter failure. Lets hope they dont ♥♥♥♥ up part 3 like they did part 2