Brad Archbold

Mostly spoiler free, honest review. After reading these reviews I feel like everyone is just trying to balance the overall reviews by voting 1 or 5 stars, neither of which this game is. So here is my honest review. The game is reasonably good, I'd give it 3.5 stars if that was possible. The original I'd give 5 stars, it was perfect in my opinion and didn't require a sequel, however here it is. The gameplay in TLOU2 is great, if you enjoyed the first you will enjoy playing this one, same as the visuals, sound and overall immersion are all top notch. If this is all you want out of the game you will love it and it's worth your money. Where this one falls short though is story and character development, in the original game I grew to love Joel and Ellie, and when Joel makes the morally bad choice at the end I was right there with him backing up his decision because of that bond that had been developed between the two of them. In TLOU2 by the end of the game I actually didn't care at all what was happening, the final fight scene was horrible for me, it felt forced, I didn't want it to happen, I didn't feel immersed or agree with what was happening. I like what they attempted to do with Abby's character, show her human side etc and to be honest I feel they did a better job with her than they did with Ellie whose character did not improve or grow and I actually felt myself liking her less by the end of the game. They also kept trying to throw in random characters with Ellie that just didn't click for me like her and Joel did, I kind of wished they just made it a Tommy and Ellie road trip. I also think putting the Abby storyline first would have been good, trying to avenge her father without realising the guy she is after is Joel, could have been built up to be this huge twist moment.