Jackson Ledford

I love the diverse representation in this game, love the graphics and the game play, I wish I could say that this game is great because that would be amazing and encouraging for a game with this level of diversity. There are some great moments, but the game just falls flat... The issue with this game is not the story itself, it's not the characters, or even the event that happens early on which angered everyone (I personally think that needed to happen for the game to exist) The problem is how the story has been told, it's the pacing, it's simply the sheer amount of time you are forced to play as an unrelatable , unlikable character. They could have told this characters part of the story in a quarter of the time they did (or going back and forth between this character and Ellie) and it honestly would have been more effective. I can see why so many are disappointed with this game, what could have been something great was completely ruined by how the story was told. The heavy handed approach and trying to force empathy just had the opposite effect and made you feel frustrated and bored with the game. This is the real reason I believe the game has had such a bad reception from the community it was made for, on top of that, the contrasting high reviews from critics just angers the community more and really shows how disconnected critic reviews are these days. It feels like we can't even honestly express our displeasure with something without being told we're "wrong". At the end of the day, we're all just disappointed with a game we were so invested in emotionally and had so much potential to be great.