I don't know the people, who criticising the game, do they even play it to the END. This has even better ending than the first one. Me personally would have done what Ellie did. Most of the people hated Abby, including me. The game forced us to play Abby, that pissed me off for sometime, but without her story, what she gone through, the END would have been meaningless.
By the way, what joel did , what he has to . What Abby did,what she meant to , some point she regretted it after what happened at the end. Good ending not a cliffhanger. One of best ending, people who attached to the characters, i see no reason to hate the game.
About the gameplay, could have better, but still holds the top survival game spot. Horror side was nerve racking, specifically the big thing Abby fought and sneaky infected.
People just play the game yourself, don't listen to ,what other people saying, definitely would love this masterpiece.