Joe Pedrick

After waiting so long for this game I was thoroughly disappointed. I thought the first one was excellent and the writing in it was great including the unexpected turn the story took at the very end. I didn't read or watch any spoilers or leaks for the sequel before playing it so I went in fresh and hopeful for another great game. Here is what I didn't like about it. SPOILERS AHEAD. Firstly, I'm not bothered by the gay/trans characters in the story. I didn't feel like those elements were overly pushing an lgbt agenda or pandering to that community. What I thought was terrible was playing at the "antagonist" for nearly half the game. I didn't care about Abby's back story and still don't. I didn't want to play as her at all or know her. Being forced to "know her as a person" didn't make me want to kill her any less. That entire part of the game was a waste to me and completely ruined the experience. It got me to a point where I was just playing to finish it and be done with it, not because I cared what was going to happen next. I know many people are upset about killing Joel, but I feel that was a natural progression in the story and honestly a necessary one to flesh out the story of Ellie... Except that the story of Ellie gets lost in playing as her sworn enemy and being engrossed in a war between the psuedo military and the "earther" group (that are also apparently bigots). I didn't care about any of that. I think myself like most people were expecting a game about Ellie (not having to fight her as someone else) and if that's what you wanted, you really didn't get much of it. You got more about Abby and the WLF and honestly I couldn't care less about any of them. And then, the ending, after Ellie sacrifices literally everything including her ability to play guitar, she just let's her sworn enemy sail off into the sunset after the whole "hey let's introduce this other random faction as a plot device" fight. Overall it looked nice, played well, but the writing was a huge fumble for me. Really bummed about it.