Pat G

I can’t remember the last time I played a game and genuinely wanted to play every side mission. Even in red dead the side missions felt like a chore and the story felt like I was grinding to get the next cutscene. Every side mission in this game has a purpose whether it be what the reward is or how just the story of it. I love traveling the world and finding artifacts, haiku’s, etc that would all benefit the player (and when was the last time a game made you want to do a haiku). The story is amazing too it shows you so much including the dynamic of his family, the honor he feels he’s breaking, and how no matter how honorable nobody is perfect. I’m about 40 hours in and I’m barely past the first island I just can’t get enough of these side missions. 100% must buy combat is amazing as good if not better than any other sword or hand combat game.

I really like the game and I don’t care what anyone says, if you enjoyed the first one you’ll love this one too. I see a lot of the reviews (spoiler alert but not really) are bad because they killed off Joel and they just hate everything about the game because of that. Imagine how repetitive the game would be if he didn’t die. And don’t get me wrong I loved Joel and thought he was amazing. People say the game made him weak but it did the opposite, he allowed himself to care and be a good person after moving to Jackson, that was his character arc. Ellie takes on his shoes in this and it shows you how much he taught her. The flashbacks to young Ellie make you smile the entire time just thinking of the first game. The only reason I took one star off was because of the long sections where you play as Abby, the one who killed Joel. (Everyone is saying she’s transgender which is just nonsense she’s just a really buff female you can even see it when it flashes back to when she was a little girl so if they’re saying that they obviously haven’t played the game), and I just hate having to play as her it makes me turn off my brain and just force through these sections because I don’t want to relate to her in any way. All in all it’s a fantastic game and a great addition to the first, don’t listen to the people saying it’s bad because Joel died, listen to the critic ratings, there’s a reason this game is 10/10 and 100% by all of the larger critic companies.