re: The Last Of Us Part II Review Thread Metacritic: 95

I appreciate your opinion and agree on some of it. There was a lot of extremely awesome gameplay segments and awe inspiring moments. The whole hospital sequence was an absolute blast specifically.

Yet, I really wasn’t a fan of some of the story telling. It felt first-drafty at times and used/overused multiple tropes. Characters showing up out of no where to save a character, multiple times where pregnancy is used to cause a sudden decision change, the use of dreams and flashbacks to drive character actions including at the game’s ultimate moment (although some of the flashbacks were my favorite parts). At times the story felt convoluted for the sake of being convoluted. I think they were trying to add depth and uniqueness to the game, but it just came off as contrived and severely affected the pacing. Still, it did not cause me to hate the game, I enjoyed it for what it was. It did however, frustrate me because you could see the clear potential the game had that it couldn’t quite reach.

quote:

---

however it had a satisfying ending

---

This is where I respectfully disagree with your opinion. The ending was one of the most unsatisfying endings in a game I’ve ever seen.







-SPOILERS- (if it’s even necessary anymore)






To tell the story and lesson that they wanted to convey, I think they should’ve killed Abby. It would magnify the “was it all worth it?” question even more whenever Ellie returns to the farm and she’s lost everything. Think of how much more powerful the guitar scene would’ve been. It clarifies and focuses the message for the gamer to think about how Ellie went through everything to avenge Joel and lost her last connection to him in doing so. Instead, by sparing Abby, it muddies the waters because it causes a lot of people to think about a myriad of issues, including how Ellie went all that way and killed all those people for absolutely nothing. It blows my mind that ND had the courage to make so many other choices (Joel dying early and brutally, killing multiple characters, playing as Joel’s killer without complete backstory first, breaking down Ellie, etc.), but whenever it came to this final decision, they didn’t kill Abby (or even gave the player the choice to). My best guess is that, no matter what they say now about it, the main reason ND wanted to spare Abby is because they want her to be in the next game, even if it hurts the story of this one.