Kaya Waddell

-This review has SPOILERS- This honestly could have been a good game if they fixed the pacing and story order. When you start off the game watching one of the main characters of the previous game get killed off just for shock factor, it doesn't allow you to develop any sympathy for the main character, Abby, and multiple hours of gameplay does not change that (no matter how hard I tried to like her). There's been some discourse over the theme of the game, such as teaching about forgiveness or that revenge is not always the answer, but it's really poor writing to drag a person through hours of gameplay on a sole purpose and then say "oops, actually we've learned something now." The game feels...non-canon. I played the entire first game before playing this sequel game and I've got to say that everyone took a 180 in terms of their personality. Suddenly, the hard-up, distrusting, and cautious man turned into a trusting, "hey just take all my weapons why don't you," stupid old coot. A few years and some peace doesn't suddenly take away the abilities of someone who's been killing for over twenty years. Tommy does not behave even remotely like he did in the previous game, nor does Ellie. It is like Neil scrapped the first game and made an unassociated game with the same characters. The first game SET the bar for this one, why do you think this one had so many pre-orders? At the end of the first game, Ellie knows what Joel did. She wasn't naïve, she knew he was lying to her but to the general audience, it seemed she had accepted it for what it was. I was excited for the game as well, but I'm not here to defend Joel. I could have accepted Joel's death had the story not been so jarring and off-putting compared to the first game. The Last of Us 1? A masterpiece. Unfortunately, this game just didn't do it for me.