Ryan Ballard

I waited until recently to check out any reviews, vids, etc. - after I completed the story line. I can see how it can be controversial to a lot of people. I was stunned when they kill Joel off within the first couple hours of gameplay. I expected to play the entire game as Ellie but also playing as Abby gives a lot of perspective to the other side of the story- The affect that Joel saving Ellie in the first game had directly on those involved. I think that was a good viewpoint and showed us how other groups are living during the times as well. The ending may upset a lot of people but it was a good way in case people had a certain bias toward either character without completely upsetting more people. From a gameplay perspective, I think they did a good job at giving the player more options as to routes, tactics, and plans to cover ground, take on enemies and traverse the terrain. AI was a little predictable- I’d get in a good hiding spot then stealth kill one, hide in the same spot, another would come along and spot the body, I’d do the same and repeat a couple times. But you have the option to either confront the enemy head on, go the stealth route and kill them that way or completely try to avoid them all together and get to where you need to be. Considering it’s not an open story game, they did give you options to explore and made it feel somewhat like one as much as possible given the linear story. Also gave us good context with flashbacks multiple times. All in all, it was a good game. I think with how the story ended, they could go with a part III but I think best option would be to do a prequel. That gives us the most wide open story of how the outbreak occurred and how Joel and Ellie connected first.