PingMe

The game play itself hasn't changed much from the first game, this semi-open world approach with a lacklustre combat in a story driven game felt dragged and slowing down the progression and enjoyment of the story, even though there isn't much of a story to enjoy. The game is trying to humanise the enemies by giving them names, having their allies calling them, but the dull combat just makes me want to rush through it, making the entire creative decision pointless. As a standalone story it could work. A typical revenge story, it is predictable at times. However this is Part 2, if looking at this from what has been built on the original, it doesn't work, in fact, this story makes Part 1 worse. By the end of Part 1, there is multiple evidence showing the incompetence of the Fireflies and justifying Joel's actions. Multiple voice tapes showing higher up within the Fireflies want to kill the smugglers once they have Ellie and other failed experiments. And they're just going to kill Ellie without running any tests? There is no evidence showing there is a cure from killing Ellie or even actually waiting for her to wake up and let her decide for herself. From what I can tell, they are afraid that she might say no. Even though Ellie lost a lot, but the bond between her and Joel is genuine, in a cold world like this there is warmth between them, and she has hope for the future to balance out Joel's grief. Marlene also threatens Joel by saying "march him out, if he tries anything, shoot him", there isn't an excuse for them treating Joel like that, so he fights back. The first surgeon, what I'm assuming is Abby's dad, wouldn't back down, so Joel kills him. Then off by carrying Ellie mirroring how he carried Sarah, but his time he's able to save his daughter. Ellies ok at the end, I can see that as an acceptance to what Joel has done, because even though she doesn't like it, she in a way wants to believe it as well. Maybe I'm reading too much into this but from a narrative perspective, this can be a possibility of what's been set up. The story in Part 2 tried to make the actions taken by Joel unjustified, almost evil, and broke apart the bond between Joel and Ellie, the flashbacks just rubbing salt in that wound reminding us of what could have been. In Part 2, the decisions made by the character are confusing, multiple characters having this sudden realisation moment and decide not to kill anymore even after mowing down 100s. This is a mess, the storyline is all over the place with constant flashbacks and bad decisions making this story uninteresting. Part 1 has a very linear storyline and makes you focus on the characters, and the characters are so well written that they are able to carry the story even if the story has been told before. The main problem for this game is Abby, she is not a likeable character, from her character design to her personality. First of all, she is way too muscular, the amount of muscle mass isn't something that a person can obtain just by going to the gym for 4 years. For a game going for realism, this isn't realistic, and how come she's the only one that big? As for her personality, she is a very selfish person, from the very beginning of the game, all the way to the end. From a flashback, she is the one given her dad the last push to kill Ellie and then acts like she has nothing to do with it. Abby told him if killing herself he would get the cure then she would let him do it. Who the hell is Abby to decide for Ellie. Playing her is just painful. There is no more us in The Last of Us, is just empty