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TLoU Part 2... How did you feel about... (Spoilers throughout)

How did you feel about the character change?

  • I enjoyed the game as Abby and Ellie

    Votes: 117 57.9%
  • I preferred playing as Abby

    Votes: 26 12.9%
  • I preferred playing as Ellie

    Votes: 77 38.1%

  • Total voters
    202
The characters you played as. Did you prefer playing as Ellie? Or Abby? Or did you enjoy both?

See, I just finished The Last of Us Part 2. I am very... conflicted about how I feel about this game. I genuinely feel as though this game was pretty solid... until you start to play as Abby.

I have to fully confess, I was very lucky and had very little spoiled for me but I just never cared for Abby. No matter what the game did I didn't care about Abby, I didn't care about her friends, I didn't care how any of them died. Even though she killed Joel, which I think was a poor decision really, I just had no feelings towards this character. Even though Joel did kill her dad, very cliche etc. But I feel like the game play was incredibly fun during the first open world section on Day 1 with Ellie and Dina but then it died off a bit and the game design and level design was very inconsistent. But I like the character dynamic, I'm loving it. After the character switch and playing through the first day, I just couldn't bring myself to be motivated to finish the game. Point in fact, I completed the story up to the switch in two days. With very limited time. After that I spent over a week playing as Abby in short bursts because I just lost all emotional connection to the game. Even though I felt Abby quite often had stronger game play sections, I just feel the decision to switch character was poor. I think it killed the momentum, I couldn't really care very much after that for any of the characters and I just had a complete lack of empathy but Joel's death at the end is something I thought would have been immortalised through some way shape or form and thanks to Abby it's meaningless, hollow and empty. I also didn't see the point in Abby kicking the shit out of Ellie for Ellie to go back and have another go, I mean really? How did Abby go from being a one woman army, kicking the shit out of everyone to being kidnapped by a couple of bitches? Meanwhile Ellie was far more vulnerable and nowhere near as strong but she suddenly becomes a one woman army to take out a whole factions base, for the majority she does it by herself.

I would have preferred to play the whole game through as Ellie personally. I didn't want to play as Abby. I didn't really want Joel to die. I think they kind of crashed and burned after the character swap and I couldn't bring myself to like anything about her. Not because of the actress, not because of any kind of pre-supposition, because of what she looks like or who she's voiced by. It's just like we got half a Naughty Dog game and half a mid life crisis...
 
Should of kept the whole game as Ellie and then Abbys "story" as like a left behind dlc or something.

I played through this game with my fiancee. I felt like the game should have ended with Ellie having the nightmares in the barn and trying to cope with life after trying to fight Abby one on one because honestly, the chapters after that where Abby and Lev are captured and Ellie free's them, tries fighting her again and comes home to an empty house just felt like DLC. It actually felt like the 'Left Behind' DLC we had in the first game.
 

sainraja

Member
I agree with everything you have said. I felt the same way and it also took me a week to go through Abby's sections. I was more motivated when playing as Ellie. I think what naughtydog did here was more for the SHOCK factor, than for any narrative/story reasons. They were trying to do too much. They should have kept it focused and if they really wanted to tell a revenge story, they should have separated Abby's part into a separate game.
 
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Yoboman

Member
I liked both. Playing as the villain was fascinating, they successfully pivoted my feelings on Abby from white hot vengeance to understanding of her need for vengeance.

It made a fully fleshed out antagonist. Which was great because the antagonists in ND games (especially Uncharted games) have always been the narrative weak point.

I understand why people might not like it or think it goes an act too long. I think it was necessary, by the end youre supposed to feel that Ellie is going too far. That her quest for vengeance is pointless and will leave her unfulfilled
 

Freeman

Banned
I liked both but I think I might've like Abby's Seattle part better than Ellie's, feels like there is a lot more going on there since we are less familiar to her. It might be that I don't like Dina very much as a companion since there is so little conflict between the two of them.

Ellie's flashbacks were great and so was her last section in Santa Barbara.
 
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I liked both. Playing as the villain was fascinating, they successfully pivoted my feelings on Abby from white hot vengeance to understanding of her need for vengeance.

It made a fully fleshed out antagonist. Which was great because the antagonists in ND games (especially Uncharted games) have always been the narrative weak point.

I understand why people might not like it or think it goes an act too long. I think it was necessary, by the end youre supposed to feel that Ellie is going too far. That her quest for vengeance is pointless and will leave her unfulfilled

I agree with what you're saying about what you're saying with what ND are trying to do, but I think the contradiction here is that killing Joel made Abby feel at peace and she felt all the better for it. She clearly had no remorse. It's a stark contrast for us to just think that she should have let Abby get away with it. Joel crossed the country for Ellie and put his life on the line for her again and again. He loved her like a surrogate daughter and only continued living after Tess died because she gave him meaning. Surely if Abby can be at peace after killing Joel, then surely Ellie can be at peace knowing she got her back. Now she's just unfulfilled and alone, she's clearly just going to go back to Jackson to be with Tommy and hope that Dina and JJ are there.
 

THEAP99

Banned
Playing as abby made it better tbh. Her sections seemed a lot more like the original last of us & were kinda a breath of fresh air from Ellie’s increasingly downfall.

I think both served their purpose though & worked in the end. Though I can understand why people were turned off by that blue ball type of pacing
 

Strategize

Member
The game is far more memorable because of the fact you play as them both. It'd still be good just playing Ellie's parts, but ultimately it would feel like something's missing.

What good is making Abby's part her own separate game? Just so you can proceed to ignore it because you don't even want to try and empathize? Way to defeat the whole point of the game.
 
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Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
I enjoyed both. Ellie's stealth sections were brilliant, namely the hospital and the entire boat level where you can sneak underwater. You feel like a predator.

Abby is more of a tank. I mean she straight up gets 2 health upgrades lol
 
The game is far more memorable because of the fact you play as them both. It'd still be good just playing Ellie's parts, but ultimately it would feel like something's missing.

What good is making Abby's part her own separate game? Just so you can proceed to ignore it because you don't even want to try and empathize? Way to defeat the whole point of the game.

Here-in is the problem though. It's not that I didn't try to empathise with Abby, but I couldn't empathise with her. The job Naughty Dog had of making me care for Abby failed. Simple as that really. I played through all her sections and again, I would argue she had better game play and level design over the sections with Ellie, even though my favourite bit was exploring on horse back in the town with Dina. Abby never felt like a cliche to me and even when I cut her down from the rope at the end, I had no feelings towards her at all. I was completely indifferent and couldn't believe that I was going after her, again.
 

Strategize

Member
I liked both but I think I might've like Abby's Seattle part better than Ellie's, feels like there is a lot more going on there since we are less familiar to her. It might be that I don't like Dina very much as a companion since there is so little conflict between the two of them.
I agree, there absolutely needed to be more conflict with Ellie and Dina. Hell, maybe just hold off on the romance at the beginning and stretch it out a little bit more. Instead of going from 90% romance to 100% in Jackson, make it 70% to 80% and develop the rest of it throughout Seattle day 1 so at least somethings happening with the characters.

Because as it is, story wise literally nothing happens during Day 1 and it's like 6 hours. Plot wise, you just go from point to point and don't really get much closer to your goal other than finding some photos, and character development wise Dina is supportive girlfriend the whole time, then it's revealed Ellie's immune and Dina's pregnant then that tension gets squashed in the next scene anyway.
 
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bohrdom

Banned
I would have preferred to play the whole game through as Ellie personally. I didn't want to play as Abby. I didn't really want Joel to die. I think they kind of crashed and burned after the character swap and I couldn't bring myself to like anything about her. Not because of the actress, not because of any kind of pre-supposition, because of what she looks like or who she's voiced by. It's just like we got half a Naughty Dog game and half a mid life crisis...

For a moment I was worried that the reason why they did the character flip was because this game was a vanity project. It's only after finishing it did I realize what they were going for.

They wanted the player to try and empathize with a side that you absolutely hate. There is no other way to achieve this besides doing the character flip after playing as Ellie for 10+ hours. I agree that it kind of slowed down the building momentum which I didn't like but it puts the confrontation in a better context for the player. If they succeed you don't want either of them to die.

The really cool thing is that this game reflects life (esp. the political climate). We're so tribalistic that when we confront the other side we refuse to understand where they come from. I think one of the core messages of this work is that we should try to empathisize and understand instead of blindly following one group over the other. Damn, this game is so good.
 
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Freeman

Banned
I agree, there absolutely needed to be more conflict with Ellie and Dina. Hell, maybe just hold off on the romance at the beginning and stretch it out a little bit more. Instead of going from 90% romance to 100% in Jackson, make it 70% to 80% and develop the rest of it throughout Seattle day 1 so at least somethings happening with the characters.

Because as it is, story wise literally nothing happens during Day 1 and it's like 6 hours. Plot wise, you just go from point to point and don't really get much closer to your goal other than finding some photos, and character development wise Dina is supportive girlfriend the whole time, then it's revealed Ellie's immune and Dina's pregnant and the tension is squashed in the next scene anyway.
Jesse shows up for 5 min and he already creates conflict by wanting to go help Tommy instead of going after Abby.

Dina ignoring that she just found out Ellie is immune is an oversight unless I'm forgetting something.
 
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Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
Another thread? Really? I'm gonna make one soon then on God.

I enjoyed Abby's story more because it's factually better. Ellie's narrative is a basic but thrilling revenge story and slowly shows Ellie regress her humanity she once had with every desperate move she takes as the days go on. I don't condone the violence she showcased to Abby's friends and never cheered for her because I'm not a psychopath but I cannot deny her feelings and what she felt she needed to do.
 
When the fight between Abby and Ellie started and I had to play as Abby I said, out loud, “I don’t want to play as Abby!” and stopped playing for a few hours. Then it finally gives you control of Ellie and you fight Abby and then you’re denied your revenge. Idk, the game feels like it’s got good gameplay although it wasn’t great and the story was some HBO reject that went to Netflix. TLoU 1 is still one of my top 5 games of all time but 2 I would give maybe a 7/10
This went on too long haha sorry!
 

RasAlGhoul

Member
Bitterly disappointed that Joels death was leaked. Would have been much more impactful if I hadn't known, but it was borderline impossible to avoid.

Fucking bunch of entitled cunts who had to ruin it for everyone.

So happy I didn’t get a single moment of the game spoiled.
 

Dorohedoro

Member
Should of kept the whole game as Ellie and then Abbys "story" as like a left behind dlc or something.
The problem with that is Ellie's moveset is limited due to her not being physically imposing and I could see it getting stale if it was stretched out to the entire game. Every entry in the franchise needs a tank-like character who can use their fists like Joel in the original to keep the combat interesting and fun.
 

GametimeUK

Member
I didn't particularly enjoy the game, but I preferred Abby. Ellie just isn't that interesting in this game. They basically ruined her for me and there really isn't a lot of interesting growth over the course of her playtime. It's just a revenge mission at all costs.

I preferred Abby because it's essentially what I wanted TLOU2 to be. I wanted a story told from a different perspective. Of course this is dampened by what happened to Joel and having their stories entwined, but with all that out of the equation I just feel it was much better playing from a new perspective. I wish the full game excluded Joel and Ellie entirely.

Other than that what I preferred most (runs counter to my argument) was the Ellie and Joel flashback segments, but only because they were so well done. If the same love and care went into a full game with a new cast in a new location it could have been my GOTY.
 

Ellery

Member
I like Ellie (in both TLOU1 and TLOU2) way too much. I like Ashley Johnson voicing her a lot. I am biased. I prefer small and nimble characters over big clunky tank style units (sorry Abby no offense). Same holds true for Joel in TLOU1. Ellie was more enjoyable in TLOU1 for me as well.

Other than that what I preferred most (runs counter to my argument) was the Ellie and Joel flashback segments, but only because they were so well done. If the same love and care went into a full game with a new cast in a new location it could have been my GOTY.

Those segments were so good that it hurt. Ellie's birthday in the museum was so hard to play through emotionally (in a good way). Probably my favorite moment in gaming.

Edit : I think in that segment we get to see the best of Joel. And more important the very best of Naughty Dog and even more so Troy Baker. His performance is outstanding.
 
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Jokerevo

Banned
Basically if you hated Abby even after you learned her story it reveals you to be a person who is unable to empathise. You're the psychopath. At first I wanted to beat Abby to death with her own legs but she wore me down man. I realised that neither of them were the heroes I thought they would be but know this..

Abby forgiving Ellie twice is the reason she lives in the end because no one would have pulled her down off the pillar otherwise....that's the real gut punch there.

Another way to look at it is Abby sees herself in Ellie, the younger hateful self and she gets it. She expected it. Her line to Ellie applies to all those who refused to empathise with her: I gave you a chance and you wasted it.

The sequel completely reframes part 1. Joel is a serial killer and he reaped what he sowed.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
My biggest issue with Abby's side of story is that goes too long to the point of that I kind of lose track of Ellie's story.


In Nier Automata's Route C you also switch between A2 and 9S but in that game you switch more often and not only that you also have a choice of if you want to keep playing as same character instead of switching.
 

Tschumi

Member
I resent an uppity homo chick.

-_-

It sounds like the game had really high minded hopes for its narrative. I'm not entirely sure people's reactions to it aren't kind coloured by the overwhelming count of negative reactions you can't help but notice. But i don't know for sure.

For my part, I'm pleased to report that if i ever played this game I'd want to give it a chance purely to spite those naysayers.
 

Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
The sequel completely reframes part 1. Joel is a serial killer and he reaped what he sowed.
When Joel shot up that hospital at the end of the first game he was fully prepared and made peace with what would come here after. He had five years of peace and while the relationship ended up rocky for a while he had attained happiness through ignorance. He saw his daughter that he lost grew up through Ellie.

Dunno how people don't get it. 🤷‍♂️
 
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sainraja

Member
I liked both. Playing as the villain was fascinating, they successfully pivoted my feelings on Abby from white hot vengeance to understanding of her need for vengeance.

It made a fully fleshed out antagonist. Which was great because the antagonists in ND games (especially Uncharted games) have always been the narrative weak point.

I understand why people might not like it or think it goes an act too long. I think it was necessary, by the end youre supposed to feel that Ellie is going too far. That her quest for vengeance is pointless and will leave her unfulfilled

I think they could have done a better job with developing the character of Abby. For me, their efforts fell flat. I just didn't care for her at all and wanted her portion to be over with.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Abby's section of the game is the best paced and strongest in terms of gameplay.

Ellie's stuff is a bit drawn out, and its where the flow of the narrative and needs of a TPS-action game bump the hardest.

Honestly its all good stuff but Abby's campaign is just much tighter, which is surprising given that it has a lot of ground to cover.
 

trikster40

Member
Without Abby’s story, Ellie’s was just a typical revenge story. After playing through Abby’s 3 days and the crap she went through, it really created some dee conflictions within. I wanted Elllie to mitigate and kill her, but then i saw things from a different perspective.

Seeing Abby at the end and the shadow of her former self, I was like damn Ellie, just let it go.

I did have fun falling off of high places in priories with Abby, especially on the sky bridges lol.
 

Raimond

Member
It's the first game where I went from truly hating the "villain", to then seeing the villains POV, and actually switching to liking this view better! In fact, hated Ellie for how she abandoned her family.
 
S

Steve.1981

Unconfirmed Member
Purely for gameplay, I enjoyed playing as both characters. Ellie felt more nimble while Abby was basically a tank, like Joel in part 1. Both were a whole lot of fun.

Overall I preferred playing as Abby. I thought her story was more engaging. I was interested in the conflict between the WLF & Seraphites. I wanted to help Yara & Lev. I said at the time that I would've liked to see a whole game built around these things, completely separate & removed from Joel & Ellie.
 
I rooted for Ellie at the beginning of the game but when I got to the end I just hoped both would die as they are both psycopaths that like to murder people. The world would defenitly be a better place with both of them gone.

Neither is better then the other, they are both the same. Abby wanted to kill Dina just to hurt Ellie and Ellie wanted to kill Lev just to get a fight with Abby. They are both scum.
Yeah, I get it, someone you love gets murdered and you want revenge. Well, people get often murdered in the real world, almost no one of the family members goes out for revenge. And that's because they are not psychos like Abby and Ellie.
 
The way that only Ellie gets the bitter and not-at-all-sweet end of the "revenge is a bitch" stick, I still hate Abby. She gets saved by Ellie in the end ffs and pretty better off having succeed in killing Joel and taking her revenge, the actual deed which even though complete doesn't give her respite from those nightmares she's having, but compared to Ellie it is a tummy hurt.

What Ellie has lost? Let's count.
Joel most of all, just as when she was in the path to forgive him, maybe she would never forget but she was robbed of her chance at mending their relationship, since finally she could see what Joel did was entirely out of love for her and his resolve in saying that he would do it all over again confirms that for her. Now all of it is pufff gone.
She has lost a chance of having a 'normal' life at Jacksonville, she is now ruined, a walking ghastly apparition of her former self, having PTSD like flashes of Joel being tortured AND killed right in front of her.
She has lost Dina and the baby, or any chance of returning to them because Abby has left so big an emotional scar, so big a void inside of her that she just couldn't let go of having her revenge.
She has lost Jesse and most likely Tommy, one is dead the other is again a ghastly apparition of their former selves because of Abby's revenge quest.
And finally she has lost two of her fingers, finger with which she was playing the guitar, the guitar that Joel gave her and thought her how to play that specific song, a song that she can no longer play without fucking up with two missing fingers, a song that was only thing left that she could connect with her father figure.

Fuck Abby.
 
Honest opinion here:

I found the switch to Abby really jarring at first. Why was I playing as the bad guy? I figured the segment would be really short. Nope. Just as long as Ellie's. Thing is, the more I played it, the more I enjoyed it. I laughed my head off when Lev decided to ask Abby about Owen as Abby was freaking out during the bridge walk. "Now? You want to talk about that NOW?!"

The Ellie boss fight was really tough. The most amusing thing was that having played as Abby for a time, I then saw Ellie as the bad guy. Which was the entire point.

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed playing both sides of the story. I'm very glad that, while ND could have finished the game at the farm, they chose not to. I literally shouted at my TV when Ellie told Abby she couldn't let her just leave, after having just rescuing her. I knew she wouldn't go through with killing her, though; Ellie dug deep and recovered her humanity.

I'm also so very glad that ND chose not to draw Abby as some faceless bad guy that you were to hunt down and kill. Showing that she had suffered a life full of PTSD due to her dad's murder, resulting in her shunning as she obsessed with finding and exacting revenge on Joel was rather excellent. It paralleled Ellie's story and issued a stark warning of what was to come.

10/10 GOTY for me, and definitely one of the games of generation.
 
Fuck Abby.

And Abby lost her dad, Owen, Mel (plus the baby), Manny, Nora, and several others. Even if Ellie and Tommy hadn't killed them, Abby's relentless quest for revenge had already cost her Owen.

If you ignore Ellie's side of the story, you're left with a woman who saw her father murdered by a man who also stole away what could be humanity's last chance for survival. She dedicated her life to taking revenge on that man, and it cost her dearly.

Just like it did Ellie.
 
I knew she wouldn't go through with killing her, though; Ellie dug deep and recovered her humanity.

But she didn't recover her humanity. Five minutes before that scene she was ready to kill Lev (an unarmed teenager) just to have a fight with Abby.

Not related to your quote, I was thinking... All the NPC's Abby and Ellie kill during the game... if the family members of half of those NPC's go on a revenge quest... man, Abby and Ellie are done for! :)
 
I literally shouted at my TV when Ellie told Abby she couldn't let her just leave, after having just rescuing her. I knew she wouldn't go through with killing her, though; Ellie dug deep and recovered her humanity.
At the cost of everything and her fingers, trying to play the only song that reminds the good times of Joel is gonna hurt every time when she can't even play it.

Again, by numbers what they have lost both seem like par for par all equal, father=father figures, friends etc. But not really!

Now after everything Abby still has Lev (Ellie to her Joel in their own version). Ellie has NO one.

Abby has PTSD visions, well boo hoo it is a tummy hurt compared to what she has FORCED Ellie to watch happen directly in front of her, Joel tortured and killed!
Abby doesn't even see the surgery room with her father dead, just some blood on the floor. Ellie sees Joel's tortured face every time she closes her eyes to sleep (read Ellie's diary) and then being clubbed to death!

They we're trying to tell "Revenge at all costs is a bitch"? Well to me Abby has her revenge AND better off all around. Ellie doesn't even had her revenge, 'recovered her humanity' at the cost of everything and even more. All the cost and didn't even exact that revenge. Fuck revenge, she's not even whole anymore! Not in physical not in mental state! I wonder if we can call if she is living at all! She is like a ghost, no place, no home, no family nothing!

Fuck Abby! Cared for her story, but FUCK HER!
 

bender

What time is it?
How did I feel? It all seemed rather pointless.

There are a lot of stupid road trips in the game. All those solo cross country trips and not one person falls to infected or human hunters. Doubt.

-Ellie goes back to Salt Lake alone to scavenge the hospital and learn that Joel was lying (which she already knew based on the ending of the original game) to create tension between them.
-Joel tracks Ellie alone to the Firefly hospital.
-In the midst of a major conflict, Abby takes her squad (including a very pregnant medic) to Wyoming on a vague clue of how to find Joel and runs into him and Tommy in the middle of a blizzard while be chased by a horde. But at least she got her revenge.
-Tommy goes to Seattle alone to get revenge on Abby and company.
-Ellie and Dina (who just fucked after Dina dumped her boyfriend...the boyfriend she is pregnant by) leave for Seattle a day after Tommy to get revenge on Abby and company.
-Jesse (who just got dumped by Dina) leaves for Seattle a day after Ellie and Dina to get revenge on Abby and company.

Ellie racks up a massive body count including most of Abby's crew only to give up on revenge after murdering the pregnant medic in Abby's crew. Abby tracks down Ellie, Dina, Tommy and Jesse. Proceeds to murder Jesse, injure Tommy and beat Ellie's ass...only to leave them all alive.

Tommy, Dina and Ellie return to Wyoming. Tommy convinces Ellie to go to California to hunt down Abby (again!).

-Ellie goes to Santa Barbara. Rescues Abby from her captors, beats her ass but leaves her alive.

That doesn't even cover Abby's absurd adventures of trying to save Lev, Yara and their mother. I get it, they wanted Abby and Lev to parallel Joel and Ellie. It just didn't work for me and felt contrived to try and make you feel empathy for Abby.

I hate to throw out ludonarrative dissonance, but the player acting as Ellie or Abby probably have close to 1,000 human kills including a lot of the inner circle of each others crew but they can't mange to complete they can't finish each other off because of the folly of revenge. That just rings a little hollow when you are sitting on a mountain of corpses and didn't even blink while taken those lives.

That's not even mentioning how poorly paced it is and how poorly written character dialog is (which makes the characters feel even more disposable than they already are). In the end, I never really liked Abby and I really didn't care about Ellie either.

That Joel/Ellie museum sequence was something else though, best piece of content in either game and almost worth the 30 hour slog that was the sequel.
 
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