KeenGamer: "The sequel to 2013's seminal survival-action game is here. While this should be cause for the entire industry to celebrate, The Last Of Us Part II is fundamentally flawed because of terrible pacing and an odd plot structure."
I get opinions and all, but I’d say this is a flawed assessment.
The delivery was spot on. You can’t explain a “why” to an action like Abby’s without giving equal time to her. It’s literally set as an argument for “who’s revenge is deeper rooted”. The equal balancing of time gives the player the ability to make the decision of “which character was in the right to seek revenge?”. The story, as many seem to miss, is about how revenge manifests and grows like a virus. Joel’s act of love through killing was what caused this. It truly was his fault and he knew there were consequences to it. I love his character and how they portrayed him truly seeing the gravity of how his decision affected the world. The last scenes of the game show his remorse to Ellie, while also realizing that his love did come with a consequence.
If you notice, the main characters seeking revenge, the two factions seeking revenge (all the letters), all cause wayyyyy more damage than any level the infected could.
Revenge is the plague of death in this game. And to the pacing of story, any constant switching back and forth would have ruined the game and more people would have been complaining. The way they set it up delivered the message of revenge flawlessly.
@SpaceRanger this is actually what broke the game. using the characters as plot tools and not as the subject themselves.
and the revenge story is only groundbreaking if you don't read or watch much other fiction or read a little bit of history. if you want a light version just watch Naruto, it's what the whole show is about. or Basilisk if you want a shorter story.
@Game-ur Yea, The praises that this games story gets is an indication that alot of the critics that gave it stellar reviews for the story don't read books or are being dishonest.
I posted my thoughts elsewhere but I would post it here too as I agree with you. (Spoilers of course)
Consequences of revenge, loss/loneliness, perspective, the importance and challenge of forgiveness.
You can see the loss revenge can cause when Ellie is trying to play the guitar, but she can't because of the fingers she lost. The one thing Joel left her she lost.
She gained a home in Jackson because of Joel. She gained family, friends, and a purpose but lost everything.
Additionally the inability to see things from the other sides perspective which is why you're forced to play as Abby throughout the middle of the game. I started out not caring about her but spending time with Abby during that stretch my hatred wore down and it changed my perspective. It was essential
Ellie finally realized that she has to let go and forgive. It took too long but I think leaving the guitar and walking away was a way of showing that sometimes you have to let go.
Ellie was forcing a fight with Abby because she convinced herself it was what she had to do. Abby was over it all and took the first step of forgiveness. She only fought back for Lev but she wanted to let it go too. Eventually Ellie understands that she’s not the only one that went through things and lost people she loved and this sinks in and she lets Abby go who is ironically traveling with a little kid herself.
The game does an amazing job of putting you through a range of emotions. Initially you’re all for killing everyone due to your love for Joel but at the end you come to terms that it’s just not worth it and it becomes clear that you have to let go just like the characters in the game. I actually didn’t want to do the final strike on Abby and kept just looking at her when she was beaten in the water, a far cry from when I first seen her and couldn’t wait to take her out (again this wouldn’t have been possible if they didn’t have you play as her for the middle of the game).
Wonderfully executed in my opinion and the end summarized everything without having to blatantly tell you. Ellie loses everything. The house is empty, she can’t play the guitar correctly the one thing Joel left her, and this was all because of the fuel of revenge. However, she walks away leaving the guitar as a sign of letting go and this is done after the flashback of her telling Joel she wants to try to forgive him for what he did in part 1.
It’s very interesting to read these reviews and reactions. My brother, who’s sole reason for getting a PS4 was for this game... was not impressed, graphics, gameplay, design he loved... story not so much. But I’m picking up my copy tomorrow and very interested to play it.
I thought about it, but I want to support developers that take chances, regardless of whether it could be good or bad. Besides, as a collector, I need to own a copy of a controversial masterpiece, right?
Seems like he's tired of the unending hate campaign being leveled at a friggin video game by some people with preconceived notions of their own who cant deal with its positive reviews and global sales records.
I completely 100% agree with this article. The story/pacing were thorns in my side through the whole 25 hour experience, even if the performances were executed well by the actors. I still loved the experience, but I was definitely underwhelmed as a whole.
I haven't finished it but The Last of Us 2 (so far) is the most impressive game I have played this generation and scores and sales back it up. It's a 95 Open Critic and it obliterated Spiderman's record as the fastest selling PS4 exclusive of all-time with more than 4 million copies sold through in just 3 days.
According to the accolades it is a contender for game of gen yet we continue to see people desperately attempting to discredit it in order to support their pre release opinions.
The game is a gigantic critical and commercial success yet negative articles continue to get highlighted as if the vocal minority makes up the majority of opinions.
It's sad to see just how aggressive certain factions have been in their trolling efforts. It's not just TLOU either, Death Stranding was a mid 80's consensus game of the year and it received a chilling amount of unwarranted hate and relentless trolling for a game that preached togetherness.
I know people will say it's because of the narrative decisions by Naughty Dog but the game is a 95 OC, critics by and large were pleasantly enthralled with the story. The decisions that Naughty Dog made resulted in a critical masterpiece. If the majority of critics were repulsed and thought the story was bad it wouldn't be the highest rated game of the year.
Mid 90's Meta/Open Critic and record breaking sales should have dissolved much of the trolling and vindicated this game, but people are persistent.
The game is jaw dropping quality nearly everywhere and the attention to detail is unlike anything I have played before. The story is intense and controversial but it evokes emotion in a way that no other game has. And who are we to question the characters or their motives? Neil and Halley wrote the story, Naughty Dog created the game, and Sony owns it. They have the creative freedom to take the story anywhere they please, it's their art, their creation, we are merely interactive spectators.
I personally love the game thus far and I'm happy that Naughty Dog has the balls to take risks instead of simply crafting a generic, cookie-cutter sequel with a by the numbers story. Drama is intended to illicit emotion. Not every story is a happy ride. If they were, movies and games would be boring. I applaud the team for crafting such an incredible piece of interactive drama. It deserves all the critical and commercial success it has achieved and I can't wait to see what the studio is working on next. One could argue that based on the body of work that Naughty has been the best developer in gaming over the past 13 years. They deserve respect and the campaign to ruin this game simply hasn't worked.
I'm glad you know what an opinion is. So I have to now explain,every single time, that something is an opinion?
I have to always assume that you and everyone else don't know what an opinion is when they see it and I have to assume they didn't pay attention in school to figure this stuff out for themselves?
I'm sorry but I can't be your and everyone else s teacher. You should be able to know what an opinion is when it presents itself.
If you were just demonstrating that you do know what an opinion is, well then, congratulations! You just demonstrated 2nd grade knowledge! Here's a gold star 🌟
No, Ven, in fact (no pun intended) I kinda loathe the state of conversation these days; that we all have to make clear we're not stating our opinions as if they're fact. Having to go out of our way to say "Look, now, this is only my opinion" and so on sucks, but it's where we are and I get it.
If you make no effort to back up your opinions with reasoning, then people are going to assume you're speaking as if you're stating a fact, because that's how you come across to people.
You can't be anyone's teacher because you're not that enlightened. Stop fancying yourself as though you're above anyone else here in 'any' regard because you're quite simply, not. You said something about "keeping me on track" yesterday and that was another hoot. I don't know how you acquired this superiority complex but it's entirely undeserved. You're a relative lightweight, so cut it out.
I'm sorry, but this is frustrating because once again I feel like I have to keep you on track. The argument here is about the game, not about how I present my opinions.
I understand that it's always best to explain an opinion but you need to look at the context right here. Tyler Durden wrote a huge comment and I completely agreed with it. I only added my extra bit. If you see my comments you will know that I always explain my opinions. This one time wasn't as good because the TLoU 2 topic is so exhausting at this point that I didn't feel like being so redundant. If you keep up with the conversation you know what opinions are already out there. And if you need to know what I think that's in my history as well.
I don't think of myself as superior. I just am so accustomed to N4g that strong opinions Don't phase me so much. Even ones that get a little personal. As long as there's no hate speech I'm down for whatever.
I admit that I might of took it too far there as far as being courteous but I was just frustrated because the conversation again got de-railed by you.
So if we are both open to some self improvement, just make sure your comments stay on topic and don't start getting personal. If you need a clarification, ask for it and don't assume the worst. And just use your common sense. Trust that people have a certain level of respect for another's intellect even though they disagree on opinions.
I didn't derail anything; I merely pointed out that your criticism was opinion, and I did so because it wasn't supported. I'm not actually hearing you speak, because if I were, your tone would tell me enough.
You're just being passive-aggressive at this point adding in that I've now been derailing discussions. Not sure how you've come up with derailment; all things considered. I did nothing to undermine the discussion, but I did ask you to back up your opinion, which I think is fair. If you're upset that you had to reply to my just request of supporting your opinion, well, that's not derailing the discussion. You may be irritated but nothing was derailed. You sound as though you want to speak without being challenged, but that can't happen here or anywhere.
I always consider context before speaking, because to not do so is to be shortsighted. You can agree or disagree with the OP but when you make a claim it must be supported, or else it's no good.
I haven't played the game yet so I'm speaking as an outsider, but considering it has a 94 on meta with mostly 10s and 9s with the occasional 7, I would say the vast majority find the game to be excellent. It might have some flaws, but what game doesn't.
Parroting the same BS others are trying to use for their lame argument against this game. Looking forward to the next article talking about sales records being broken.
It's flawed for two reasons.One Joel's death and two Ellie kills everyone except Joel's killer. I can't say I'm surprised though it started with uncharted 4 Nathan getting beat up by Nadine then it was taken to next level with Joel
its pretty simple. Tlou 1 was universally praised and adored, tlou 2 is probably 60/40 disliked/liked. Technically years beyond anything on any platform, but terrible story and gameplay choices.
I get opinions and all, but I’d say this is a flawed assessment.
The delivery was spot on. You can’t explain a “why” to an action like Abby’s without giving equal time to her. It’s literally set as an argument for “who’s revenge is deeper rooted”. The equal balancing of time gives the player the ability to make the decision of “which character was in the right to seek revenge?”. The story, as many seem to miss, is about how revenge manifests and grows like a virus. Joel’s act of love through killing was what caused this. It truly was his fault and he knew there were consequences to it. I love his character and how they portrayed him truly seeing the gravity of how his decision affected the world. The last scenes of the game show his remorse to Ellie, while also realizing that his love did come with a consequence.
If you notice, the main characters seeking revenge, the two factions seeking revenge (all the letters), all cause wayyyyy more damage than any level the infected could.
Revenge is the plague of death in this game. And to the pacing of story, any constant switching back and forth would have ruined the game and more people would have been complaining. The way they set it up delivered the message of revenge flawlessly.
There's something that's fundamentally flawed, and it's not TLOU 2.
It’s very interesting to read these reviews and reactions. My brother, who’s sole reason for getting a PS4 was for this game... was not impressed, graphics, gameplay, design he loved... story not so much. But I’m picking up my copy tomorrow and very interested to play it.
Oh for the love of god just stfu already