N “NClyne” C

- WARNING: SPOILERS MAY LIE AHEAD. TURN BACK NOW. - . . . . . . . . . . . . . For hardcore fans of The Last of Us Part 1, you'll be hit immediately with immense nostalgia. You'll get a small recap of what happened as Joel speaks to his brother and then you ride on your horse into a beautiful and vast apocalyptic world as opening credits softly roll. Music plays in the background that gives you that obvious The Last of Us vibe. Now, imagine the excitement that you have felt for 7 years, waiting for the continuation of Joel's story (let's be honest, 90% of people's favorite character is Joel) and this idea is stripped from you in an hour from a character that we have never seen or met before. No connections are made. No emotional attachment besides the death of your favorite character. All from the beginning. I'm perfectly okay with Naughty Dog taking risks but only in the right capacity. If their plan was to kill Joel from the beginning, then it should have been further in the game. Remind us of how much we love Joel. Show us how evil the new character Abby is. Make us feel the anger that Ellie feels as she watches her adopted father taken from her. Imagine if Abby and her group had killed multiple new characters that we had time to become attached to and then finally, she kills Joel. The player would be fuming. The player would feel the anger that Ellie was feeling and want to enact revenge just as much as her. Instead, the player is left with an empty feeling with a sense of hopelessness. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for fan service and I'm most certainly NOT a professional writer by any means, but after that scene, for me personally, I continued to play but didn't really have the desire to. The visuals were beautiful of course, but the relationship that we had worked so hard to establish was just gone in an instant, and this new relationship with Ellie's romantic interest is just kind've thrust onto us with no previous connection to this romantic interest and hardly any time to establish a connection with them. The writing truly is what makes Naughty Dog games, and the writing was terrible, predictable, and mindless. I'm giving it a 2 because the visuals and combat are the best we've seen in years. So much so, that it actually looks like a PS5 game. Anyways, enjoy the game if you dare! :) Sincerely, A disappointed gamer who just wanted a good script.