Mobolaji Obadimeji

To be honest, I had a very open mind about this game and before the day I finished it, I would have given it a 5/5, but after completion I have to review my ratings for the game. The main downfall is that in my over 15 years of playing games, I had a very huge disconnect with the character's morals I was controlling (Abby) and I had to literally force myself to play and conclude this game. The game is great in terms of gameplay, good graphics and a great AI. However, the game falls short on story and its length, which is the only thing this game really has for itself when you consider how linear it is, the lack of DLCs and multiplayer. The issue with the story for me, is not Joel's death but the obvious lack of direction for Ellie and Joel's characters, it is very obvious the writer and director had very little thoughts on the future of this characters. At the end of the game, Ellie's fingers going off felt too convenient when you think of the guitar and felt more like a deliberate slap on the face for every fan rather than whatever it was meant to convey. This game was also marketed as an Ellie and Joel game which was completely false.You get to play as Abby for about 50-60% of the game, a character with zero moral compass, and this created a huge disconnect with me controlling the character, I hated the character and I don't know how I saw the game through. The worst part of the game to me, was the conclusion of Seattle day 3 with Abby, you would think that she had a great conscience or change of heart after the 10 hours+ of using her, but then you see that grim smile on the thought of killing a pregnant lady and naughty dog somehow wants me to have some empathy or love for this character. This was a big no, and I honestly felt her part of the game could have been introduced as a DLC, it had very little to the overall story we started in part 1. On the contrary naughty dog tries to sell Ellie out as a villain or somehow very similar to Abby throughout the game, which didn't connect to me, because Ellie always felt remorseful and never wanted to kill the characters she did in the game, she felt filled with guilt each time she made a kill and this was taking a toll on her. Which was the opposite of Abby, a character filled with joy in doing evil things, a sociopath that the game tried to make us love, from her cheating with Owen to her love for killing Jesse, Tommy and Almost Dina despite knowing she was pregnant. To me this was all I needed to know about the characters. If you think this story is good or a masterpiece, I completely disagree with you, as the story felt like it was paving the way for new games rather than continuing on its previous game, it felt like an introduction to gangs and zombies, something familiar to walking dead. It's almost like naughty dog has plans for multiplayers, and perhaps new characters/fraction wars in the future and not the great individual story which is the main reason for even playing the game. There are so many zombie games and movies and it is sad the last of us tries to feel like any other rather than set itself apart. I hope there is no part 3 of this game, because to me this game didn't only serve as a conclusion to Ellie and Joel's story but to the whole franchise. If I want to watch a zombie or survival movie with vengeance as the theme, there are many movies to watch. Naughty dog has too seriously rethink its future with this franchise moving forward and look at what worked in the first compared to the second.

Really loved this game, great story and emotionally captivating.