The Last of Us Part 2 |OT| Play Phase

[the-pi-guy]

My second glitch.

PS4 didn't let me get the other glitch, because the video saving didn't work half the game. 

The game is done.

tl;dr  the game is great fun.  Weak points are the length, pacing and story.  I say a 9.5/10.  A bit of a step down from the original for me. 

Spoiler for Hidden:

<br>I want to replay the first game, and just see how things are different.&nbsp; My memory might not be exact.&nbsp; From memory some things feel better here and some things feel worse.&nbsp; <br><br>I feel a bit bothered by this game.&nbsp; With the first game every action felt reasonably justifiable to me.&nbsp; <br>With this game though, it feels like they throw the punch line out in the first third of the game, that revenge just gets more revenge.&nbsp; (Jesse says something to that effect).&nbsp; But here there were a fair amount of actions that just felt wrong in the first place. And they came with huge consequences.&nbsp; <br><br>Like Nora, wasn&#39;t the worst death.&nbsp; That felt reasonably justifiable.&nbsp; She was kind of being psychotic towards the end...<br><br>But several of the other deaths didn&#39;t feel that way.&nbsp; Even in the moment it felt like why did it have to go that way.&nbsp; And it gets so much worse when they go back and show what they were the past few days.&nbsp; The story almost feels cringeworthy at times with how bad everything just has to feel.&nbsp; <br><br>I don&#39;t think it&#39;s a bad story.&nbsp; I think it&#39;s a good one, but the actions feel much much harder to justify.&nbsp; It feels like Ellie should have learned the lesson a lot sooner.&nbsp; <br><br>When she was living with Dina and the baby that is what should have been the end I think.&nbsp; <br>Also this kind of felt like a throwback to Jak and Daxter.&nbsp; In that game, basically the first mission is corralling the cows much like how Ellie corrals the sheep.&nbsp; <br><br>It felt like at this point the lesson had been learned. Ellie was moving on with her life, and Tommy just comes in and says nope you promised me.&nbsp; <br><br>(Edit: a couple people talked about this already, but I think a part of the pacing issue was that I wasn&#39;t expecting Abby&#39;s storyline to go so long.&nbsp; Like I was expecting it to be fairly quick, and then I was hoping it&#39;d just be a shorter timeline of what happened leading up to it, instead, they filled it with basically as much content as the first part.&nbsp; Which sucks when it ended up on a cliffhanger.&nbsp; I feel like a lot of the story could have been rearranged better for impact and pacing.)<br><br>Gameplay feels slightly refined from the first game.&nbsp; No major differences.&nbsp; It was a really nice touch that Abby and Ellie had differences.&nbsp; Not just in how they move and act, but actual gameplay differences.&nbsp; Different weapons.&nbsp; It just feels like the kind of thing that could have been made into two separate games.&nbsp; <br>The game play overall is the real highlight of the game of course. <br><br>Sound design is awesome.&nbsp; The music when you find the scars strung up the wlf&#39;s was perfectly enthralling. I didn&#39;t feel like the rest of the game quite captured the level of feeling I had there.&nbsp; The first scars encounter was pretty darn close.&nbsp; I said before the whistling, and the differences of tactics made them feel like the best of the other humans and infected.&nbsp; <br><br>The 3D audio overall worked decently.&nbsp; Didn&#39;t matter all the time, but it really had it&#39;s moments.&nbsp; There was a moment in a broken down building where I heard a bird and was half expecting there to be one after I took my headphones off. There were a few little delightful moments like that.&nbsp; <br><br>Visually the game is quite stunning.&nbsp; I was trying to take quite a few pictures and videos but generally it took a few minutes before the video feature even became available. And the pictures generally took like half a minute before they even were available. <br>

[Legend]

You've made it!

Spoiler for Hidden:

<br><br>I think Ellie was only fueled by revenge in the beginning. Eventually it is more just her suffering and trying what she thinks will help. Just like how Abby kills Joel but still has the nightmares about her dad.<br><br><br>For playing as Abby, maybe it would have worked better to market Abby as a main playable character like a reverse halo 5. Make people think she is one of the new characters and is Ellie&#39;s friend. Then the twist would be that she is anything but her friend.<br><br><div style="text-align:center;margin:auto;padding:5px;max-width:560px;"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;padding-top:0px;height:0;overflow:hidden;" class="youtube g6rRfK-V2jY"> <iframe style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g6rRfK-V2jY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div></div><br>

[Xevross]

My second glitch.

PS4 didn't let me get the other glitch, because the video saving didn't work half the game.  

The game is done.

tl;dr  the game is great fun.  Weak points are the length, pacing and story.  I say a 9.5/10.  A bit of a step down from the original for me.  

Spoiler for Hidden:

I want to replay the first game, and just see how things are different.  My memory might not be exact.  From memory some things feel better here and some things feel worse.  

I feel a bit bothered by this game.  With the first game every action felt reasonably justifiable to me.  
With this game though, it feels like they throw the punch line out in the first third of the game, that revenge just gets more revenge.  (Jesse says something to that effect).  But here there were a fair amount of actions that just felt wrong in the first place. And they came with huge consequences.  

Like Nora, wasn't the worst death.  That felt reasonably justifiable.  She was kind of being psychotic towards the end...

But several of the other deaths didn't feel that way.  Even in the moment it felt like why did it have to go that way.  And it gets so much worse when they go back and show what they were the past few days.  The story almost feels cringeworthy at times with how bad everything just has to feel.  

I don't think it's a bad story.  I think it's a good one, but the actions feel much much harder to justify.  It feels like Ellie should have learned the lesson a lot sooner.  

When she was living with Dina and the baby that is what should have been the end I think.  
Also this kind of felt like a throwback to Jak and Daxter.  In that game, basically the first mission is corralling the cows much like how Ellie corrals the sheep.  

It felt like at this point the lesson had been learned. Ellie was moving on with her life, and Tommy just comes in and says nope you promised me.  

(Edit: a couple people talked about this already, but I think a part of the pacing issue was that I wasn't expecting Abby's storyline to go so long.  Like I was expecting it to be fairly quick, and then I was hoping it'd just be a shorter timeline of what happened leading up to it, instead, they filled it with basically as much content as the first part.  Which sucks when it ended up on a cliffhanger.  I feel like a lot of the story could have been rearranged better for impact and pacing.)

Gameplay feels slightly refined from the first game.  No major differences.  It was a really nice touch that Abby and Ellie had differences.  Not just in how they move and act, but actual gameplay differences.  Different weapons.  It just feels like the kind of thing that could have been made into two separate games.  
The game play overall is the real highlight of the game of course.

Sound design is awesome.  The music when you find the scars strung up the wlf's was perfectly enthralling. I didn't feel like the rest of the game quite captured the level of feeling I had there.  The first scars encounter was pretty darn close.  I said before the whistling, and the differences of tactics made them feel like the best of the other humans and infected.  

The 3D audio overall worked decently.  Didn't matter all the time, but it really had it's moments.  There was a moment in a broken down building where I heard a bird and was half expecting there to be one after I took my headphones off. There were a few little delightful moments like that.  

Visually the game is quite stunning.  I was trying to take quite a few pictures and videos but generally it took a few minutes before the video feature even became available. And the pictures generally took like half a minute before they even were available.

Yay you finished! I think I pretty much agree with all your sentiments, the story is just messy and I can't help but feel like it could've been done better without changing it that much. Overall it's a good story but it's a big step down first, which was a fantastic story told in a much more tight and coherent manner.

Gameplay is a huge step up on the other hand, and production values are off the charts.

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

The misleading trailers argument has got to take the cake.

If you watched the one where Ellie tells joel shes going to kill them all, you should have known there's a high probability that

Spoiler for Hidden:

joel was dead.

[the-pi-guy]

The misleading trailers argument has got to take the cake.

If you watched the one where Ellie tells joel shes going to kill them all, you should have known there's a high probability that joel was dead.

That one is so dumb to me.  
They did that to not spoil the story.  

[Legend]

That one is so dumb to me.  
They did that to not spoil the story.  

It's the exact same thing as the first too. Where they used trailers to sell Ellie killing Joel.

[the-pi-guy]

I always kind of felt like  zombie apocalypses in America would go different from the movies. Due to paranoia and gun people.

But considering the covid response it seems pretty realistic now.

[Legend]

I always kind of felt like  zombie apocalypses in America would go different from the movies. Due to paranoia and gun people.

But considering the covid response it seems pretty realistic now.

Zombies are the stupidest threat and

Spoiler for Hidden:

<br>I&#39;m really glad that this game focuses on how conflict between people is a bigger problem under apocalyptic circumstances. Like the scars had massive cities and purely from a survival point of view they were thriving.<br><br>For a while I was expecting the game to be about the fungus mutating and humanity starting to go extinct but instead it shows that time and time again, humans are the driving force behind most of this misery.<br>

[Xevross]

Spoiler for Hidden:

Abby day 2 and 3

is probably the best sequence in all of gaming. Just masterful, I'm very much looking forward to replaying that part of the game soon.

Spoiler for Hidden:

Haven set piece absolutely blew my mind, that&#39;s exactly what I play games for. Just so goddam awesome.

[Xevross]

Getting towards the end of my second playthrough and I'm so much more positive on the game second time around. I still think my criticisms stand and the game falls short of its predecessor, but this is definitely confirming to me that its a masterpiece. I think I do put it above U2 as Naughty Dog's second best game.

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

Im on day 3 again. I think I would have done

Spoiler for Hidden:

Abbys section a bit different. Her and Ellie could have been at the hospital at the same time. She should have come up to find all the damage Ellie left behind.

[the-pi-guy]

Getting towards the end of my second playthrough and I'm so much more positive on the game second time around. I still think my criticisms stand and the game falls short of its predecessor, but this is definitely confirming to me that its a masterpiece. I think I do put it above U2 as Naughty Dog's second best game.

For me probably:
U2>=TLOU>TLOU2>Uncharted 4>Jak series >Uncharted 3> Uncharted 1

[Legend]

U2=U3=TLOU=TLOU2>U1=GA=U4


U3 and TLOU2 are chaotic good. They have amazing highs but they also have some fundamental lows.
U2  and TLOU1 are uniformly good. They are extremely consistent and are almost always at their best.

U4 is also chaotic good, and U1 and GA are uniformly good, but I think at the moment I'd rank them below the other four.

[Xevross]

Since we're doing this:

TLOU>TLOU2>=U2>U4>U3>Crash Games>U1 (not played Jak)

U2=U3=TLOU=TLOU2>U1=GA=U4


U3 and TLOU2 are chaotic good. They have amazing highs but they also have some fundamental lows.
U2  and TLOU1 are uniformly good. They are extremely consistent and are almost always at their best.

U4 is also chaotic good, and U1 and GA are uniformly good, but I think at the moment I'd rank them below the other four.

Yeah I agree with your statements, although GA isn't a Naughty Dog game

[the-pi-guy]

TLOU 2 has over 80k user reviews.

GTA V across 5 different versions has around 20k.