The Last of Us Part II

[HandsomeDead]

I don't think it's the stupidity that is annoying, though it's part of it.  A lot of it is stoked by culture war folks and these reactionary criticisms are often very loaded, insincere and weaponised usually coming from people trying to build a certain audience.

Regular people could be being sincere but it becomes hard to tell.  It usually results in people digging their heals in and being incurious as well.

 

I know it shouldn't put me off talking about TLoU or anything else but I do more and more find myself backing into the bushes like Homer Simpson because of this shit.

[Maf]

I distinctly remember finishing the game, watching the credits roll, jumping in to this very thread and going to write something, and just sitting there like

 

…

 

It’s not even about not engaging with the thing. It just left me with nothing to engage with. 
 

The half way “twist” if you like, is a clever blend of gameplay and theme. But it doesn’t really matter if you’ve stopped caring about the thing by that point. It was just like, oh, I don’t really want to do this. But I will anyway because I’ve come this far (and didn’t expect it to just keep going)
 

I could be wrong but my belief is TLoU 2 is the video game attempt at challenging cinema. Something that makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and pushed, or grinds against their world view and makes them see something they don’t want. But the thing about challenging cinema is it has to be making a point. But I don’t think TLoU 2 has a meaningful point. Eye for an eye leaves everyone blind and there’s 2 sides to every story. But we already know this.

 

I know it goes on to other topics as well. In the back third I would say, wildly off-topic. 
 

I don’t hate the game, but I don’t think the emptiness the game ends on is the same empty I was left with. 
 

I wasn’t stuck for processing what happened. I was just stuck like ok…well, that went on too long 

[HandsomeDead]

The things I really like about TLoU2 is the original ended on a much discussed, grey moral quandary in terms of character motivation at least and what the sequel I think does pretty well is have moments like that more consistently weaved throughout the game's runtime.  I don't see it as a means to an end I see these moments as the point.  The focus is on these individual characters and what motivates them to do what they do, and I think it's compelling with it.

 

And I wish everyone did know an eye for an eye is a bad way to approach things but it just isn't true due to the massive elephant in the room in regards to the game's inspiration.

[Metroid66]

I've hit the epilogue in this. Still the flawed masterpiece I judged it to be on my initial playthru. It's also still in my top 25. Love it.

 

I do think it gets a mite repetitive in the endgame, with just too many encounters on the scar island, and I could have done without the stealth showdown between the  two principals at the end. Replete with QTE instant death bullshit it feels a little out of place, especially in a game that throws hour upon hour of cutscene your way. 

 

I don't really like this epilogue either. The game (in my view) had a supreme ending,

Spoiler

with the camera rising slowly over the defeated Ellie and her pregnant partner, lives begged for and granted by an enemy cajoled into mercy by her own battle worn charge. Everything that needed to be said about the emptiness of vengeance was said right there. They wasted it.

 

I'll still play thru it tho. 

[AndyKurosaki]

It definitely outstayed its welcome. Especially when it goes “

Spoiler

Here comes a brand new enemy faction we’ve made utterly no reference to before”, right at the end of the game.

 

[Maryokutai]

I realise the game isn't new and all, but still, maybe put some spoilers here and there.

[Metroid66]

Done.

 

Fucking hell, the sheer pointlessness of that whole epilogue. In my opinion it commits the cardinal sin of narrative, silliness. 

 

Surely someone at ND played this and said 'What's the point of all this? We've just done this.'

 

I'm also not a fan of this trend in American drama where the character stares into space for half an hour while emotional music plays in the background. My kids call this the 'the song bit' as in 'oh no it's the song bit. Now we've got to look at people staring through windows for ten minutes.'

 

Well ND have bought I to this trend big time, and need to nip it in the bud.

 

[Jimboxy]

7 hours ago, Metroid66 said:

Done

You didn't, I have now though. Good job I've no interest in playing this...

[AndyKurosaki]

The only thing the ending made me think, (and I’ll spoiler this)

 

Spoiler

Fuck Last of Us 3. I don’t want to see any further of these characters. Ellie had a perfect ending, and she throws it all away, for nothing. And Abby was just an unlikeable cow from start to finish. She’d have happily murdered the pregnant Dina, if her Scar friend didn’t stop her. She didn’t redeem herself at all.

 

[Metroid66]

2 hours ago, Jimbo Xiii said:

You didn't, I have now though. Good job I've no interest in playing this...

I did try but the forum is a bit mad on my phone so I was waiting for you to do it.

 

For example I can't get the home page. It just goes to topics, and not all of them show. And editing a post is some far off dream, it seems to work, but then the edits don't show. It's ok on my kindle, but I never had that last night.

32 minutes ago, AndyKurosaki said:

The only thing the ending made me think, (and I’ll spoiler this)

 

  Hide contents

Fuck Last of Us 3. I don’t want to see any further of these characters. Ellie had a perfect ending, and she throws it all away, for nothing. And Abby was just an unlikeable cow from start to finish. She’d have happily murdered the pregnant Dina, if her Scar friend didn’t stop her. She didn’t redeem herself at all.

 

 

Just bad, contradictory writing. Nothing that a good editor can't fix. They need to employ one if they're going forward with this. Personally, I love the world and the nail biting gameplay so I can forgive poor writing. You have to do that nine times out of ten if you're going to play videogames.

 

Trouble is, they think they're good writers so tend to just disappear up their own arses. I call I Kojima syndrome.

[one-armed dwarf]

I've found sometimes when editing that you have to open the edit in a new tab, otherwise it says 'too much time has passed' or something like that

[DANGERMAN]

3 hours ago, AndyKurosaki said:

The only thing the ending made me think, (and I’ll spoiler this)

 

  Hide contents

Fuck Last of Us 3. I don’t want to see any further of these characters. Ellie had a perfect ending, and she throws it all away, for nothing. And Abby was just an unlikeable cow from start to finish. She’d have happily murdered the pregnant Dina, if her Scar friend didn’t stop her. She didn’t redeem herself at all.

 

With the first part of the spoiler, that's the point

Spoiler

It achieves nothing. She was already miserable and all she does is throw away the only thing in her life that's positive. But she just couldn't let it go, she tries, but she can't 

 

[AndyKurosaki]

To be honest, and again I’ll have to spoiler it, 

Spoiler

That’s why i don’t care about Ellie anymore, and felt no sympathy for her losing two fingers in her final fight with Abby.

 

Her original battle, hunting down Joel’s killers, that was one thing. But carrying on the fight, even though she had a perfectly happy life with Dina, was just bloody stupid.

 

True, that may have been the point. But by the finale, it had killed any interest i had in her character. And I can’t think of another game where the writing goes “We want you to hate our characters”. 

I dunno. Just felt unnecessarily miserable.