The Last of Us Part 2 Remi-review..... lol (Spoilerz enter at own risk)

[Remij 4,670]

Oh where to begin with this game?

First off... the premise that some no-name doctor Joel killed at the end of the first game had some daughter and that she... out of all the people Joel has crossed, decided to take revenge is just stupid.  I hate it.  I can't give a shit about this character because she was just so poorly conceived.  If she had been Marlene's daughter or something that would have made more sense and given me more of a "oh shit" moment because Marlene was an important character from the first game... you understood her and her reasoning, you empathized with her because she was just trying to do what was right and had a connection to Ellie and her mother.  As for some doctor?  LMAO...no.  I don't give a shit.

 

Anyway, first let me say, I hate when games make characters do things out of character so that it pushes the story in a certain direction. Tommy and Joel would have NEVER went back to a fucking Mansion full of armed people with some girl they didn't know.... much less one THAT'S WEARIN A FUCKING WLF emblem on her jacket.  It wouldn't matter how fucked of a situation they were in, they would have went back to Jackson to warn them or died trying.  Joel is such as stupid fuck in this game it hurts me.  Yea, like as if Joel wouldn't have put together that these people were from Seattle...LOOL. He would have immediately questioned this girl, who she was and why there were a group of her people right outside their perimeter.. he would have argued with Tommy about following them and suggesting they head back to Jackson.. but nope... they waltz right in to a heavily armed group and leave themselves completely vulnerable.

 

And Abby just gets lucky and finds Joel on his patrol...falls right into her lap? LOL.. ridiculous.  The entire opening section with Abby is fucking STUPID.  You want me to feel something for Abby?  Have us play more as Joel.. have us find her in trouble, take her back to Jackson where she spends more time with the group, meets Ellie, Dina, Jessie and the others.. almost like she's a friend as she finds and puts the pieces together that this is the guy she's been looking for... then with us playing as Joel, have Abby set him up for his demise.

 

The time between when we meet Abby and she kills Joel is so short that I couldn't even be bothered to give a fuck about her.  They handled her completely wrong IMO.

 

Imagine if they would have spent the first 9h of the game setting Abby up as a companion, someone you actually cared about... and then having her kill Joel.  Joel should have died in the middle of this game... not at the beginning.  10 fucking hours in the middle of this game are pure bullshit... literal garbage.  They completely miss the mark and I honestly don't know what the FUCK they were thinking.  Most of the new characters in this game were just complete WASTES.  LOL that little rag-tag group... Manny and Owen.. LOL get the fuck out of here.  You guys can't tell me you honestly gave a single fuck about any of them, did you?  The only two decent new characters were Lev and Yara.  Dina?  What a complete waste of a character.  Served no purpose but to make Ellie feel bad for going after Abby.  Jessie was just there so he could die... literally walks through the door gets shot in the face and is never mentioned again. LOL  and can you believe that in that SAME cutscene... Tommy get's SHOT IN THE FUCKING BACK OF THE HEAD and yet............ miraculously doesn't die?  

 

What the ABSOLUTE FUCK?... You guys can seriously NOT defend this GARBAGE.

 

Dina and Jessie exist only so that Ellie "has even more to lose"....  They wanted to treat poor Ellie SO bad in this game... because it's so edgy!  Bubut the world of TLOU is so tough, Ellie is broken SHUT THE FUCK UP... 

Then the ending.... Jesus Christ... and I fucking called this from the leaks that I saw.  I fucking KNEW that she wasn't going to kill Abby.  That's part of what pissed me off so much... because I knew this "revenge story" was set up to "rob the player" of that emotional release.  I hear people talking like "oh man, Ellie thinks back to Joel, and the symbolism of the talk they had and Joel wanted Ellie to forgive him and that she should forgive Abby"...  You know, that flashback scene was REALLY nice.  I really liked that.... but no... if someone killed Ellie, Joel would have them DEAD.  Joel was ruthless and would not have had a second thought.  So lmao... this ending... Ellie goes, frees Abby, doesn't immediately kill her... ... then has the little vision of Joel... starts a fight with Abby... almost kills her.. but then doesn't.  The whole fucking thing was POINTLESS.

 

Abby immediately killed Joel after he saved her life.. there was no inner struggle there.  Ellie upon learning who Abby was and what Joel did could have empathized with Abby... Ellie was well aware of how the world was.  But nope... they had to make Ellie stupid enough to lose everything positive she had gained in her life... because the goal of this game was to put Ellie through hell and have the player feel SOOOO bad for her..  

They fucked up the story in this game.  I cared more about Henry and Sam than any secondary characters in this game...and look how little time we spent with them.  Hell I cared more about Ish than any of them from this game.  David was also a far better character... like what the fuck?

 

Ugh.. so much stupidity in this game.  What a waste.

As for the other aspects of the game, as well as the technical stuff.

 

Gameplay-wise the game is good.  It's not as much of an improvement over the original as I would have wanted, but I really liked the stealth gameplay of the original, and this one takes that farther and has some nice encounter scenarios and level design which give you a lot more options.  I don't think the enemy AI is nearly as good as I was expecting and they often just run right out if you wait even just a tiny bit of time... but sneaking around and getting the drop on enemies never gets old.  The weapons are good and feel good to use.  The best part about them is how good they sound though lol.

 

Visually.. the game is quite amazing.  Some REALLY impressive areas.... but others are just meh.  Sometimes it's the best looking thing I've seen, other times it's barely better than the average AAA game.  To be clear, I'm talking about gameplay visuals here.  I feel like God of War is better overall than this game and is far more consistent visually... I also think RDR2 does a lot of things a lot better than this game, and is more impressive overall technically... but TLOU2 at it's best is phenomenal and sits among them at the top.

 

Talking about that... omfg the rope/cable animations and physics in this game are legendary.  I really fucking love stuff like this and that shit couldn't have been easy to pull off.  I spent a lot of time just fucking around and looking at the animations of the rope/cables.  Very cool.  Also the rain in this game is really well done.  Considering how much of the game takes place in the rain, that's a good thing.  Sometimes I think the lighting looks off and not very well done, but other times it's really incredible looking.  It's overall a very mixed bag for me in that regard.  The snow covered areas were alright, but honestly that's been done better in RDR2.  Even the horse animations and phyiscs are off IMO compared to RDR2.. but that's a really high bar to set considering that game is based around horses lol.

 

As for the cutscenes and visuals... top of the fucking line.  It's really incredible what they've done with their character models and animations.  Next level stuff.  Sometimes their animations and little mannerisms are so realistic I almost can't believe it.  The way the eyes move and twitch, and the way you can literally see what they're thinking.. it's next level stuff.  REALLY impressive.  And that leads me to the motion capture.  WOW... Ashley Johnson as Ellie is so fucking good.  I really love the character of Ellie.  She really nails almost all of the scenes.  Same with Joel and Tommy.  They've all done a phenomenal Job.  Laura Baily does really well as Abby as well, but I feel like there's some scenes where things really don't land quite as well as they should.  Overall, it set's a high mark.  As far as animations, I don't think anything else matches it... but the voice acting, I'd put RDR2 up there with TLOU2 as comfortably above most everything else this gen.

 

The sound design... oh man.  The sound is really fucking good in this game.  The weapons sound amazing, plain and simple.  The gore, the enemies dying and infected and everything sounds top notch.  I can't really find anything to complain about here.  I can only imagine what they are going to be able to do on PS5.

 

 

Overall, the story is simply not up to par.  It cheapens the entire thing.  I didn't care about any of the new characters they introduced, and it was extremely predicable where they were going to go with Ellie's arc and how the game ended off.  The middle of the game is a train wreck with only the ending segment being somewhat exciting only to fall flat right at the very end.  Naughty Dog has to figure out how to make better "boss" fights, because it's always the same stupid bullshit.  The water also looked terrible lmao

 

7.5/10

Edited June 23, 2020 by Remij_

[Twinblade★ 3,893]

Damn you need to take a deep breath and chill out  

 

Really though you're thinking too hard into the characters and their motivations. Mad said it well in the other thread, Ellie needed to fill the gap in her life left by Joel's death and the only way to do that was through revenge. Being a step mom isn't what shes cut out for. I feel like in most cases the characters make the logical decisions based on their personalities.

 

Joel is definitely kind of an idiot in the beginning....I mentioned so in the other thread too.

BTW if you rewatch the Tommy cut scene you'll notice that he turns his head just in time for the bullet to go through the side of his face. That does make his survival more plausible.

[madmaltese★ 2,554]

You went in with way to much baggage man. L

 

Like you said in the other thread, you went in to see how they fuck it up. Or for them to try win you over. A game shouldn't be trying to win you over before you even start. You're meant to go in with a blank slate and you most certainly didn't. Going back to read the load of shit the ppl who saw leaks had to go in and how much that would ruin the experience just makes me sad for ppl who missed out on experiencing this properly. 

 

I also think the idea to have Abby infilitrate the base and befriend them and so on is horrible. Completely throws out all the themes the game which are so much more nuanced than that. TLoU should never be about plot and always about characters. 

[Remij 4,670]

Holy shit  

 

Alright well this conversation is done, because you guys are just going to dismiss any criticisms thrown at this game as "you wanted to hate it"

[madmaltese★ 2,554]

You had criticisms before you even played the game. You can't go into a game already hating it and them trying to win you over. Look at the other thread before the game came out. It's a joke. 

Mal ruined that Joel dies for me (that's the only thing I knew), that's it, so I was expecting that crap you mentioned with Abby infilrating the base and befriending them and so on and was ughhh ing at the thought of that happening and see the obvious play out that I was so happy and surprised when Joel gets offed so early. 

 

You don't even talk about anything really here. You're crying that the fan fiction you wanted wasn't the way it went. That's why you don't go into a game wanting this and wanting that. You go in blank, go along for the ride then when it's done either like it or not. You clearly were hating it from the onset. 

[Remij 4,670]

Just now, madmaltese said:

You had criticisms before you even played the game. You can't go into a game already hating it and them trying to win you over. Look at the other thread before the game came out. It's a joke. 

Mal ruined that Joel dies for me (that's the only thing I knew), that's it, so I was expecting that crap you mentioned with Abby infilrating the base and befriending them and so on and was ughhh ing at the thought of that happening and see the obvious play out that I was so happy and surprised when Joel gets offed so early. 

 

You don't even talk about anything really here. You're crying that the fan fiction you wanted wasn't the way it went. That's why you don't go into a game wanting this and wanting that. You go in blank, go along for the ride then when it's done either like it or not. You clearly were hating it from the onset. 

lol ok dude.

[madmaltese★ 2,554]

Just now, Remij_ said:

lol ok dude.

Go in the other thread and see me and Pure talking about certain criticisms. There is a convo there. There is none to really be had here. This is stupid, that is stupid, fuck this, fuck that, etc etc. You aren't really looking for a discussion. 

[Remij 4,670]

Just now, madmaltese said:

Go in the other thread and see me and Pure talking about certain criticisms. There is a convo there. There is none to really be had here. This is stupid, that is stupid, fuck this, fuck that, etc etc. You aren't really looking for a discussion. 

No sense it in.

 

You've ALREADY decided that anything I think is due to me expecting things and having my "fantasies" not playing out as I want.  I already knew this was going to be the case since the leaks anyway..

 

 

[madmaltese★ 2,554]

1 minute ago, Remij_ said:

No sense it in.

 

You've ALREADY decided that anything I think is due to me expecting things and having my "fantasies" not playing out as I want.  I already knew this was going to be the case since the leaks anyway..

 

 

Well you've said nothing in this thread that isn't that. Look at criticisms from ppl who didn't know the leaks like GD, Pure, TB, myself, etc. They are so different to anything you mention.

You surely don't believe that seeing the leaks didn't have a gigantic impact on your enjoyment of this game. 

[madmaltese★ 2,554]

- because the goal of this game was to put Ellie through hell and have the player feel SOOOO bad for her..  

- Dina and Jessie exist only so that Ellie "has even more to lose"....  They wanted to treat poor Ellie SO bad in this game... because it's so edgy! 

 

LOL what. Did we even play the same game. 

 

[Remij 4,670]

4 minutes ago, madmaltese said:

- because the goal of this game was to put Ellie through hell and have the player feel SOOOO bad for her..  

- Dina and Jessie exist only so that Ellie "has even more to lose"....  They wanted to treat poor Ellie SO bad in this game... because it's so edgy! 

 

LOL what. Did we even play the same game. 

 

I see the game for what it is.

[madmaltese★ 2,554]

6 minutes ago, Remij_ said:

I see the game for what it is.

Clearly not if either of those are what you took from the game. They are so far from the reality of what actually happens. 

 

The game doesn't for a single second try to make you feel bad for Ellie and in regards to Dina and Jessie only existing so Ellie has more to lose....lmao. That is so far from reality. It's basically the polar opposite. Ellie just uses both of those characters to get what she wants. She uses Dina to start her journey only to completely call her a burden when she learns she is pregnant, completely abandoning her to continue alone instead of giving up her hatred to return with Dina home (her hate more powerful than her love for Dina). Then she lies to Jessie and says she just wants to continue to get Tommy cause he went out for her but the reality was she just wanted to go after Abby and used that to make Jessie come with her. She then completely abandons Jessie in the middle of nowhere to fend for himself when she learns the lead to find Tommy isn't the same as the lead to find Abby (again, her HATE for Abby is far greater than her friendship with Jessie and even her love for Tommy). She totally uses, lies and manipulates Dina and Jessie and you somehow got that the game is trying to make you feel bad for her.....right. You really see it for what it is....

[lynux3 2,052]

Remij got bodied ITT. 

[Remij 4,670]

36 minutes ago, madmaltese said:

Clearly not if either of those are what you took from the game. They are so far from the reality of what actually happens. 

 

The game doesn't for a single second try to make you feel bad for Ellie and in regards to Dina and Jessie only existing so Ellie has more to lose....lmao. That is so far from reality. It's basically the polar opposite. Ellie just uses both of those characters to get what she wants. She uses Dina to start her journey only to completely call her a burden when she learns she is pregnant, completely abandoning her to continue alone instead of giving up her hatred to return with Dina home (her hate more powerful than her love for Dina). Then she lies to Jessie and says she just wants to continue to get Tommy cause he went out for her but the reality was she just wanted to go after Abby and used that to make Jessie come with her. She then completely abandons Jessie in the middle of nowhere to fend for himself when she learns the lead to find Tommy isn't the same as the lead to find Abby (again, her HATE for Abby is far greater than her friendship with Jessie and even her love for Tommy). She totally uses, lies and manipulates Dina and Jessie and you somehow got that the game is trying to make you feel bad for her.....right. You really see it for what it is....

Oh for fuck sakes  

 

You're LITERALLY explaining how those characters were USED to simply further Ellie's tale of revenge.... they were there to make Ellie (and you AS Ellie) feel BAD about continuing her path.. they were there to COST Ellie something for continuing on the path she was on... that's literally ALL those characters were used for.  In the end... they meant NOTHING.  Jessie literally DIES in the lamest way possible and is never spoken of again.  Completely USELESS.  The game is ATTEMPTING to make you feel bad about Ellie's treatment of characters that aren't even interesting... that's my fucking point and you NAIL the reason why perfectly.  Ellie LOSING everything and everyone is what makes you feel BAD for her..  If you didn't feel bad for Ellie at all during this game LMAO Neil REALLY failed to do his fucking job  

 

It's hilarious to me that you can't even see how completely terrible most of the characters are in this game.  Also the way you talk about Abby and Owen... lmao shit has me laughing HARD... bubut the way he couldn't kill that one old dude.. so deep... so real  LOL....

 

You're buying whatever Neil is selling..  The characters aren't true to themselves at all.  Joel would NOT fall for a fucking ambush like that.  Literally the stupidest shit ever.

 

Most of the game playing as someone you don't give a single fuck about all while the game is trying desperately to make you care for this person, all for it to build up to nothing and fall completely flat.  Kills Joel, Kills Jessie, shoots Tommy in the head, and Ellie spares her    oh my, what character development..  Ellie's grown so much  .....  

 

Jesus  

Edited June 23, 2020 by Remij_

[DynamiteCop 2,085]

Actually after reading what you've said a lot of cracks started to appear. I mostly just play games to enjoy them and generally I don't get super deep with most shit and hung up on details, I'm having a good time with it regardless. WIth that said there are a lot of cracks now that I really look at it. 

 

The premise is pretty weak, it's really weak actually but they had to springboard somehow and I get that but it's still weak. Jesse and Dina are absolutely pointless, they are plot devices and nothing more, they are a red herring to fill out Ellie and create a level of controversy. Abby's introduction and her whole plotline is incredibly shaky. It's been years, somehow she got an entire group of people together to go cross country with her to kill one person and they seem to give a shit for whatever reason.. The way her and Joel just so happen to cross paths and not someone else, or nobody at all because the concept of that out in this wilderness alone is incredibly unlikely. It happens in a convenient crazy situation where they need to save her, and they somehow have to end up back at her place. She doesn't evaluate the situation really at all or weigh how he just saved her life, it just goes from I saved you to now you're killing me. 

 

This game doesn't feel like a second game, it feels like a third game where the second game centralized around Abby didn't happen. It's like a Shenmue with the ending where you never really experienced this vast journey beforehand to get to this final point so you don't really give a shit and it doesn't land well. 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by DynamiteCop!

[Remij 4,670]

Just now, DynamiteCop! said:

Actually after reading what you've said a lot of cracks started to appear. I mostly just play games to enjoy them and generally I don't get super deep with most shit and hung up on details, I'm having a good time with it regardless. WIth that said there are a lot of cracks now that I really look at it. 

 

The premise is pretty weak, it's really weak actually but they had to springboard somehow and I get that but it's still weak. Jesse and Dina are absolutely pointless, they are plot devices and nothing more, they are a red herring to fill out Ellie and create a level of controversy. Abby's introduction and her whole plotline is incredibly shaky. It's been years, somehow she got an entire group of people together to go cross country with her to kill one person and they seem to give a shit for whatever reason.. The way her and Joel just so happen to cross paths and not someone else or nobody because of concept of that out in this wilderness alone is incredibly unlikely. It happens in a convenient crazy situation where they need to save her, and they somehow have to end up back at her place. She doesn't evaluate the situation really at all or weigh how he just saved her life, it just goes from I saved you to now you're killing me. 

 

This game doesn't feel like a second game, it feels like a third game where the second game centralized around Abby didn't happen. It's like a Shenmue with the ending where you never really experienced this vast journey beforehand to get to this final point so you don't really give a shit and it doesn't land well. 

 

 

They needed to save her, because they had to make us shocked that this unknown person who Joel JUST SAVED would kill him so brutally...  When you take literally 1h between meeting Joel meeting a character and having her kill him... you've got to make the most of what little time you have.  So Joel was so nice to her and saved her.  She rode with Joel... because well... oh man, she struggled with realizing who this man was, and yet was riding with the very man who killed her father.

 

OMG Neil you're so diabolical.  And yea, the ridiculousness of Abby getting SO lucky..  lmao.. patrols set up around the entire perimeter... and yet they don't know that some group has holed up in a known location to them? LOL... they would have sent a team out there immediately and got the drop on that fucking group...

 

It's pathetic that Joel fell for that shit.  I literally just shook my head and said you deserve to die.  Dina and Jessie absolutely were there as red herrings and give Ellie more to lose as she continued on her quest for revenge despite them and in spite of them.

 

Ugh, the ending was just so bad too..

[madmaltese★ 2,554]

LMAO remij having a cry cause his fan fiction didn't come true. Oh they should've done this, they should've done that, I knew they would do this, etc  Literal 4chan level post

 

OMG mah most anticipated game all year which is why I actively went looking for spoilers just like everyone who absolutely hates the game 

 

Hey guisss the whole point of the game is to make you feel bad for the character that lies, manipulates, abandons her family and continues to go after the person that spared her TWICE  Lmao. Easily the worst take I have read and I've read a lot. 

 

 

 

[kaz 2,439]

couldn't you just post your review in an ongoing TLOU2 thread? 

[madmaltese★ 2,554]

1 hour ago, DynamiteCop! said:

Actually after reading what you've said a lot of cracks started to appear. I mostly just play games to enjoy them and generally I don't get super deep with most shit and hung up on details, I'm having a good time with it regardless. WIth that said there are a lot of cracks now that I really look at it. 

 

The premise is pretty weak, it's really weak actually but they had to springboard somehow and I get that but it's still weak. Jesse and Dina are absolutely pointless, they are plot devices and nothing more, they are a red herring to fill out Ellie and create a level of controversy. Abby's introduction and her whole plotline is incredibly shaky. It's been years, somehow she got an entire group of people together to go cross country with her to kill one person and they seem to give a shit for whatever reason.. The way her and Joel just so happen to cross paths and not someone else, or nobody at all because the concept of that out in this wilderness alone is incredibly unlikely. It happens in a convenient crazy situation where they need to save her, and they somehow have to end up back at her place. She doesn't evaluate the situation really at all or weigh how he just saved her life, it just goes from I saved you to now you're killing me. 

 

This game doesn't feel like a second game, it feels like a third game where the second game centralized around Abby didn't happen. It's like a Shenmue with the ending where you never really experienced this vast journey beforehand to get to this final point so you don't really give a shit and it doesn't land well. 

 

 

Some legitimate criticisms here that don't read like a 4chan user. 

Abby is EXTREMELY lucky but they point that out very clearly. Im replaying it again and the shock on her face when she realises who it is very evident and when they go back to the lodge and Owen takes her aside and says 'you know how lucky you are!' (refrencing that she is still alive) she says 'oh you have no idea'. Yes, very lucky. 

But nearly all these issues matter so little. All that is literally the intro. The game is about two parallel tales of Revenge and Hate.

The fact she kills him so relentlessly after he just saved her is selling that Hate. It was said endlessly, the theme of the game is Hate. That is what the game is selling. It sells us very easily on Ellie's hate but then tries (whether you think it works or not is up to you) to sell the hate for Abby. This idea that Remij is bringing up that it's about guilt or feeling bad is just utter shit. If the game was trying to push that theme you would be playing Ellie and Abby's tales simultaneously. You would have gotten some attachment to Abby's crew BEFORE they got killed so those moments have more weight to the player. I see Owen get killed when I have zero care in the world for him and by the end of the game i think he is one of the best characters in this universe. The game is relentless on it's focus on ELLIE and ABBY. The exact same way the original is relentless on it's perspective through JOEL. Just because it's focus is on these characters doesn't mean every else is solely a plot device. Plot devices don't get given the screen time or depth of relationships that we see between Dina and Jessie and in particular Owen and Mel. They are ppl too who have full lives and get caught up in this tale of Revenge between the two main characters. 

 

The biggest issues is the disjointedness of the story due to how they tell it. This game most definitely doesn't feel like just sequel, it nearly feels like a trilogy in one. Ellie's arc, Abby's arc and then the final arc. As such has big pacing issues which they sacrificed to try to tell this tale in this matter. It most definitely isn't the straight tight narrative that builds to a climax in expected order like say TLoU or GoW. 

 

And you mightn't be a fan of the original but TLoU is NEVER about the plot. The original's plot is extremely basic, it's about it's characters.

This game has as many if not more amazing Joel and Ellie moments than the original. Every scene with them is pure perfection. So much heart in the midst of such a dark and heavy game. 

[Remij 4,670]

48 minutes ago, madmaltese said:

LMAO remij having a cry cause his fan fiction didn't come true. Oh they should've done this, they should've done that, I knew they would do this, etc  Literal 4chan level post

 

OMG mah most anticipated game all year which is why I actively went looking for spoilers just like everyone who absolutely hates the game 

 

Hey guisss the whole point of the game is to make you feel bad for the character that lies, manipulates, abandons her family and continues to go after the person that spared her TWICE  Lmao. Easily the worst take I have read and I've read a lot. 

 

 

 

You're the one having a cry dude  

 

Jesus christ hearing you talk about the game just has me rolling my fucking eyes