Re: The Last of Us Part 2 (PS4)
Your explanation in the spoiler sums the game up perfectly.
Finally completed TLOUP2 in 44 hours, 10 minutes. Played on Moderate difficulty with the AI settings as is. Enhanced Dodge on. Weapon Sway off. Damage/Enemy Indicators off. Motion Blur/Camera Shake set at 0. Field of View/Camera Distance set at 5. Camera/Aim Assist off/0. Lock on Aim/Strength off/0. Hints/Dodge Prompt off. Full Screen Effects off. Sensitivity was set to 3. Pretty much everything else stayed at default. Only used Listen Mode once which was during the tutorial. Never used it again.
Story/characters and overall rating are in the spoiler tag. Do NOT read if you haven't completed the game.
VISUALS - 10/10 (superb)
Not much needs to be said here. Outside of some pop-in, the entire game looks amazing with great detail and animation.
AUDIO - 10/10 (superb)
Excellent sound effects, voice acting and music.
GAMEPLAY and COMBAT - 9.0/10 (excellent)
Loved the combat. Especially melee which is brutal, visceral and in your face. Perfect for me. Stealth was great but they should have added more stealth kill animations. Gunplay is good. Some weapons better than others. Felt clunky and stiff at times. Upgrading your character is good but I wasn't happy that the abilities are spread out. For example, I had to upgrade Listen Mode at least twice to get to the upgrade I wanted which was annoying because I don't use Listen Mode. Enemy AI was overall excellent. Companion/Partner AI was fine at best. If anything, they were in the way most of the time. Worst part is that the Enemy AI still does NOT detect your companion/partner just like in the first game. Level design and enemy encounters were great for the vast majority of the game. Good action sequences. Going prone and being able to shoot and dodge while on the ground was definitely good. Underwater sections and puzzles were very good overall. A few good jump scares actually got me which is extremely rare. Pacing was great at times but also poor at times. Game went too long though in my opinion.
STORY and CHARACTERS - 5.0/10 (average)
I will start a few hours into the game with the segment where Joel is killed is horribly done because even if you believe that Abby and Joel just happen to run into each other, the rest makes no sense. Joel (and Tommy) would not spill their guts to strangers they don't know and to go back with Abby was even more mind boggling. It simply doesn't fit the Joel character based on the first game. Biggest issue I have though is the way Joel gets killed. You never play as him, you don't fight Abby and he goes out horribly. Simply, Abby didn't earn the right to kill Joel from a character standpoint. He basically kills himself by going with her back to that cabin. This could have been done so much better and yet, it wasn't. Also, Abby lets Tommy and Ellie live. Why? This makes no sense because no one is going to do that.
The Ellie/Dina relationship and Dina being pregnant was more like a soap opera than anything. Character wise, Dina and Jesse are solid. Not bad but not great either. And of course, Jesse dies halfway through the game. SMH. None of the characters on either side really ever develop or get to the point to where you have an attachment to any of them. It's not that they were bad, they're just not memorable.
The flashbacks were cool but after Joel's death, seem to be out of place. These would have meant more if Joel was still alive when you actually play them and if Joel would have died after playing them.
Now, we get to the biggest complaint I have in the game - ABBY. You can't introduce a new character to me by having her kill Joel and then later on, force me to play as her while she pets dogs and try to come across as likeable even though it's all forced and not natural. Abby has no charisma, isn't interesting and at the end of the day, I just don't care about this character. Abby is basically a female bodybuilder. Fine, whatever but did we really need to see her topless in a sex scene? It's out of place, doesn't add anything to the game and quite honestly, is cringe worthy. Why developers put sex scenes in games, I will never know. Then for the second half of the game, we get to play as her which outside of the melee combat is simply dull and boring because I don't care about this character.
All the other characters like Owen, Nora, Mel, Manny, Lev and Yara were the same as Dina, Tommy and Jesse, fine for what they are but being separated into halves, they all simply never come together, at least for me
anyway. In general, the writing was fine. I wouldn't say it was bad but not good either. The story and characters simply didn't connect with me. Maybe if they would have done Seattle Day One with Ellie, then Abby and then move on to Day Two with flashbacks here and there along with Joel's death being done much better, perhaps I would have enjoyed it but sadly, I just didn't.
The revenge also never happens after the Joel segment. It's all about Abby and Ellie. As Abby, you let Ellie and Dina live while at the end as Ellie, you let Abby and Lev live. So what the hell was the point? If you're going to let
them live, there's no point in going after them in the first place. Too many false endings. Game seems to drag on way too long. You feel like it's going to end and it just doesn't.
The ending is beyond horrible. Again, the ending sees Abby live and leave with Lev while Ellie loses half of two fingers, Dina and Dina's son. She basically loses what should be most important to her but isn't. I did not like fighting Ellie as Abby because I don't want to play as Abby or fight/kill Ellie. The ending fight in the water was cool but the actual ending, not so much.
The groups in the game were good though. Not as fleshed out as they perhaps should have been but I enjoyed fighting the WLF, the Scars and all the Infected. There's another group at the end which is fine but not enough time in the game to see how they really are as a group and what their purpose is.
In conclusion, if this was it's own game, I would have probably enjoyed the story and characters more because there would be no history, no connection, no interest but as a sequel to what was my 360/PS3 game of the generation with an amazing story and characters that I loved, not so much. It's simply very disappointing in this aspect while everything else is top notch or very close to it.
OVERALL - 8.5/10 (great)
TLOUP2 is great for pretty much everything except for what was most important to me with this franchise - the characters and the overall story. I rate games that I complete on a category basis using a whole number 0-10 scale, add them up and then divide by 4 (or 5 if it was a wide linear/open world game). In conclusion, I played TLOU three times (once on PS3 and twice on PS4 with the remaster) but I can guarantee that I will never ever play TLOUP2 again.
Story/characters and overall rating are in the spoiler tag. Do NOT read if you haven't completed the game.
VISUALS - 10/10 (superb)
Not much needs to be said here. Outside of some pop-in, the entire game looks amazing with great detail and animation.
AUDIO - 10/10 (superb)
Excellent sound effects, voice acting and music.
GAMEPLAY and COMBAT - 9.0/10 (excellent)
Loved the combat. Especially melee which is brutal, visceral and in your face. Perfect for me. Stealth was great but they should have added more stealth kill animations. Gunplay is good. Some weapons better than others. Felt clunky and stiff at times. Upgrading your character is good but I wasn't happy that the abilities are spread out. For example, I had to upgrade Listen Mode at least twice to get to the upgrade I wanted which was annoying because I don't use Listen Mode. Enemy AI was overall excellent. Companion/Partner AI was fine at best. If anything, they were in the way most of the time. Worst part is that the Enemy AI still does NOT detect your companion/partner just like in the first game. Level design and enemy encounters were great for the vast majority of the game. Good action sequences. Going prone and being able to shoot and dodge while on the ground was definitely good. Underwater sections and puzzles were very good overall. A few good jump scares actually got me which is extremely rare. Pacing was great at times but also poor at times. Game went too long though in my opinion.
Spoiler
STORY and CHARACTERS - 5.0/10 (average)
I will start a few hours into the game with the segment where Joel is killed is horribly done because even if you believe that Abby and Joel just happen to run into each other, the rest makes no sense. Joel (and Tommy) would not spill their guts to strangers they don't know and to go back with Abby was even more mind boggling. It simply doesn't fit the Joel character based on the first game. Biggest issue I have though is the way Joel gets killed. You never play as him, you don't fight Abby and he goes out horribly. Simply, Abby didn't earn the right to kill Joel from a character standpoint. He basically kills himself by going with her back to that cabin. This could have been done so much better and yet, it wasn't. Also, Abby lets Tommy and Ellie live. Why? This makes no sense because no one is going to do that.
The Ellie/Dina relationship and Dina being pregnant was more like a soap opera than anything. Character wise, Dina and Jesse are solid. Not bad but not great either. And of course, Jesse dies halfway through the game. SMH. None of the characters on either side really ever develop or get to the point to where you have an attachment to any of them. It's not that they were bad, they're just not memorable.
The flashbacks were cool but after Joel's death, seem to be out of place. These would have meant more if Joel was still alive when you actually play them and if Joel would have died after playing them.
Now, we get to the biggest complaint I have in the game - ABBY. You can't introduce a new character to me by having her kill Joel and then later on, force me to play as her while she pets dogs and try to come across as likeable even though it's all forced and not natural. Abby has no charisma, isn't interesting and at the end of the day, I just don't care about this character. Abby is basically a female bodybuilder. Fine, whatever but did we really need to see her topless in a sex scene? It's out of place, doesn't add anything to the game and quite honestly, is cringe worthy. Why developers put sex scenes in games, I will never know. Then for the second half of the game, we get to play as her which outside of the melee combat is simply dull and boring because I don't care about this character.
All the other characters like Owen, Nora, Mel, Manny, Lev and Yara were the same as Dina, Tommy and Jesse, fine for what they are but being separated into halves, they all simply never come together, at least for me
anyway. In general, the writing was fine. I wouldn't say it was bad but not good either. The story and characters simply didn't connect with me. Maybe if they would have done Seattle Day One with Ellie, then Abby and then move on to Day Two with flashbacks here and there along with Joel's death being done much better, perhaps I would have enjoyed it but sadly, I just didn't.
The revenge also never happens after the Joel segment. It's all about Abby and Ellie. As Abby, you let Ellie and Dina live while at the end as Ellie, you let Abby and Lev live. So what the hell was the point? If you're going to let
them live, there's no point in going after them in the first place. Too many false endings. Game seems to drag on way too long. You feel like it's going to end and it just doesn't.
The ending is beyond horrible. Again, the ending sees Abby live and leave with Lev while Ellie loses half of two fingers, Dina and Dina's son. She basically loses what should be most important to her but isn't. I did not like fighting Ellie as Abby because I don't want to play as Abby or fight/kill Ellie. The ending fight in the water was cool but the actual ending, not so much.
The groups in the game were good though. Not as fleshed out as they perhaps should have been but I enjoyed fighting the WLF, the Scars and all the Infected. There's another group at the end which is fine but not enough time in the game to see how they really are as a group and what their purpose is.
In conclusion, if this was it's own game, I would have probably enjoyed the story and characters more because there would be no history, no connection, no interest but as a sequel to what was my 360/PS3 game of the generation with an amazing story and characters that I loved, not so much. It's simply very disappointing in this aspect while everything else is top notch or very close to it.
OVERALL - 8.5/10 (great)
TLOUP2 is great for pretty much everything except for what was most important to me with this franchise - the characters and the overall story. I rate games that I complete on a category basis using a whole number 0-10 scale, add them up and then divide by 4 (or 5 if it was a wide linear/open world game). In conclusion, I played TLOU three times (once on PS3 and twice on PS4 with the remaster) but I can guarantee that I will never ever play TLOUP2 again.
Comment