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The Last of Us Part II: HE1NZ review (spoilerz)

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HE1NZ

Banned
I've finished the game and watched a bit of Dina face model playing the game (she's the best new character by far) and was again amazed at how well made the prologue is. That Jackson village is really comfy. There's an element of Fallout 2 in it, where the humanity starts to rebuild and it feels optimistic. The way Joel gets trapped is a very clever piece of writing. His fate is sad, but it hypes you up to do some killing.

I think the game would be much better if Ellie part didn't end with with a pointless cliffhanger. There's no reason for it whatsoever. Just let Abby get into a theater and have a boss fight with her (playing as Ellie). After a long and difficult fight the fridge would overpower you but won't kill. Then the Abby chapter would explain why she didn't. The fact that you rush through Abby chapters only to watch the finale in the theater hurts the game. It's only makes you hate Abby more. In fact they should have split the game into 2 campaigns Resident Evil style.

That would probably make the game's length more torelable, but I don't know if Abby chapters can get fixed. They feel weirdly out of place. Like it's some Final Fantasy episode. Random characters come and go. There's some war that you're supposed to fight, but you're crossing a sky bridge instead. The wokeness sprinkled all over the game gets more difficult to tolerate (Was the speech pointing out the tranny guy really necessary? He already told he shaved his head. People who are into that can figure it out). Last day of Abby episode really loses the grip on reality where Abby is fighting everyone for no reason at all. Then the game forces you to fight Ellie too. I don't want to. Ellie and Dina end up on some farm from David Lynch movie or something. I thought it was Ellie's dream. It's surreal. Why aren't they in Jackson community? Who does all the work on the farm, Tommy? Game gets too disconnected from reality by the end.

Little stupid things bother me too. Zombies didn't kill anyone in this game (except Joel, in a way). They are so far in the background, writers might as well remove them. In the original game, even though they weren't that scary as enemies, they would constantly kill supporting characters, making you aware of how fucked everything is. The only really good scene that involves spores is when Ellie's mask goes bad and she reveals she's immune to Dina. That's a really well acted scene.

Seems like every character in this game is a woman. I think there's 4 man characters in this. Joel is blamed for saving Ellie. Tommy is portrayed as an idiot. There's some Korean and Middle Eastern dudes who's there to die when you least expect it (and for diversity). Women are behind the plot 100% of the time and get 90% of the action too. It's kind of weird that during the woke monologue about transgender guy his sister says that (s)he wanted to be a warrior, but they make her a bride, but when you fight the cult it's 50% women. The game is just non stop torture porn of women violently murdering each other. I bet Druckmann beats his wife.

On a technical level the game is pretty good. Controls are sluggish but it's supposedly a survival horror game, so it's fine. Audio is really nice when you bump dynamic range to max. Environments are very pretty. Gameplay really doesn't support the length of the game and get very samey after about 2/3 of the game but that's alright. I think the game is worth a single playthrough just to learn what's all the fuss is about.

7.5/10
 

Hugare

Member
"The way Joel gets trapped is a very clever piece of writing"

I love the game, but I hope that you are being ironic. Because it was dumb.

I disagree with almost everything that you said, but I'm too lazy to point out everything because I had my fill of TLOU 2 discussions on the internet

Glad that you enjoyed the game

And Many is mexican tho, not middle eastern. Wtf dude? He speaks spanish
 

theHFIC

Member
summary: they should have done this, they should have done that, woke, woke, sjw, diversity, why are there women in leading roles in the game, bizarre accusation about the game director.
 

SLB1904

Banned
751436.jpg
 

HE1NZ

Banned
"The way Joel gets trapped is a very clever piece of writing"

I love the game, but I hope that you are being ironic. Because it was dumb.

I disagree with almost everything that you said, but I'm too lazy to point out everything because I had my fill of TLOU 2 discussions on the internet

Glad that you enjoyed the game

And Many is mexican tho, not middle eastern. Wtf dude? He speaks spanish
Joel helps Abby. They stuck in a storm so she invites his in her group. He’s dead but doesn’t know it yet. The scene where he tells them his name and room get silent is really dark.

I think it’s brilliant.

Yeah, sorry he’s probably Mexican. Still a throwaway character.
 

Kuranghi

Member
I can't wait til its in the bargain bin, I'm going to turn on some accessibility options - immortality + invisible when prone + infinite ammo - and blow the shit out of everyone/everything with explosive arrows.

The physics/destruction system is the best thing about the game by far for me.

Did you try the accessibility stuff out after beating it?
 

Keihart

Member
I agree with your "fix" of the tension defuse, it's a much better way to keep players engaged.
I think (maybe i'm giving them too much credit) that the way it's structured was meant to provoke frustration, the game several times blue balls you as it approaches what you think it's the climax only to be left hanging. I read that moment as a deliberate attempt to have the player feel at odds with what's happening...a trial of sorts, it's kinda comical when you see Abby's dad being Dr. Mcgood after hating Abby's guts just 15 minutes ago.

I think the game really succeeds at projecting that empty feeling left after spending your energy hating some one or something.
 

HE1NZ

Banned
I can't wait til its in the bargain bin, I'm going to turn on some accessibility options - immortality + invisible when prone + infinite ammo - and blow the shit out of everyone/everything with explosive arrows.

The physics/destruction system is the best thing about the game by far for me.

Did you try the accessibility stuff out after beating it?
Controls are not snappy enough for me to enjoy all these features. If its on PC one day I’ll probably give it another go.
 

Fbh

Member
Games was ok.
Solid 7/10 elevated to a 7.5 because of the really nice visuals.

If they made it 7-10 hours shorter by removing like 4 of those trips to aquarium, everything related to Owen, and half of the boring sequences of slowly walking through samey looking abandoned locations opening mostly empty drawers, and made it so you alternate view points instead of having an annoying cliffhanger break in the middle. It could have easily been a 9/10.
 

Hugare

Member
Games was ok.
Solid 7/10 elevated to a 7.5 because of the really nice visuals.

If they made it 7-10 hours shorter by removing like 4 of those trips to aquarium, everything related to Owen, and half of the boring sequences of slowly walking through samey looking abandoned locations opening mostly empty drawers, and made it so you alternate view points instead of having an annoying cliffhanger break in the middle. It could have easily been a 9/10.
Owen and friends serves the purpose of developing Abby, not their own characters. Just like Tess and Sarah for Joel in the first game. We barelly got to know them.

And I cant remember too many "slowly walking" parts in Abby's campaign. It was fast moving as fuck.

"Samey looking locations", now this is some low effort trolling. Every building looks different.

Joel helps Abby. They stuck in a storm so she invites his in her group. He’s dead but doesn’t know it yet. The scene where he tells them his name and room get silent is really dark.

I think it’s brilliant.

Yeah, sorry he’s probably Mexican. Still a throwaway character.
The execution (acting, soundtrack, presentation in general) was stellar.

But you know, Abby finding Joel by accident exactly when she needed to by pure coincidence was a little too much. The day after he fights with Ellie, even.

But as David said in the first game: "everything happens for a reason".

So ok, I'll try to not dwell on it
 

Metnut

Member
Who is the trans character? My understanding was that Lev was being forced against his will and that’s why he escaped.
 
Joel helps Abby. They stuck in a storm so she invites his in her group. He’s dead but doesn’t know it yet. The scene where he tells them his name and room get silent is really dark.

I think it’s brilliant.

Yeah, sorry he’s probably Mexican. Still a throwaway character.
Are you serious? What's clever about that? Nobody believes one s cond that Tommy would just say who they are and acting like they're all friends. Since when has that happened? In the first game they didn't even want to receive Joel until they knew he was Tommy's brother
 

Fake

Member
Are you serious? What's clever about that? Nobody believes one s cond that Tommy would just say who they are and acting like they're all friends. Since when has that happened? In the first game they didn't even want to receive Joel until they knew he was Tommy's brother

This pretty much say to you who played the first one and disliked or who never played the first one or even who never cared about the story.

The disconnection between those two are huge and I feel like the flashback from the 2 are forced on the way is like 'hey we (ND) need to put the first game inside this one'.
 

Raonak

Banned
Personally I liked how they left with a cliffhanger, because starting off hating abby to then seeing her side and becoming ambivalent to her, to slowly actually liking her character, then catching up to modern day, playing as the character I've grown to like trying to kill the character I liked for so long... That boss fight was brilliantly carthatic. A complete rollercoaster of emotions. That's what the game feels like.


It's an amazing game. Not even mentioning how good the gameplay is.

I think for better or worse, TLOU2 lives up to the legacy of the first in that it's unforgettable. Even the haters can't get it out of their head.

ND went this story direction because they wanted to avoid the Uncharted 3 situation. How do improve on a perfect game? You can't. So do something vastly different.
 
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NinjaBoiX

Member
Who is the trans character? My understanding was that Lev was being forced against his will and that’s why he escaped.
Lev is the trans character, he used to be called Lily I believe.

People like to make out that this aspect of the story is really preachy and shoved down you’re throat but it’s actually pretty subtlety handled and almost an aside.
 

HE1NZ

Banned
Are you serious? What's clever about that? Nobody believes one s cond that Tommy would just say who they are and acting like they're all friends. Since when has that happened? In the first game they didn't even want to receive Joel until they knew he was Tommy's brother
It's been 4 years of peaceful existence in their community. Also, Tommy is really easy to manipulate. It was even established in the first game.
 

HE1NZ

Banned
Lev is the trans character, he used to be called Lily I believe.

People like to make out that this aspect of the story is really preachy and shoved down you’re throat but it’s actually pretty subtlety handled and almost an aside.
It's subtle when your traveling with him, but then there's unnecessary talk between his sister and Abby where they just parrot the agenda. Personally I didn't hate the character, but they could have done better still.
 

HE1NZ

Banned
I agree with your "fix" of the tension defuse, it's a much better way to keep players engaged.
I think (maybe i'm giving them too much credit) that the way it's structured was meant to provoke frustration, the game several times blue balls you as it approaches what you think it's the climax only to be left hanging. I read that moment as a deliberate attempt to have the player feel at odds with what's happening...a trial of sorts, it's kinda comical when you see Abby's dad being Dr. Mcgood after hating Abby's guts just 15 minutes ago.

I think the game really succeeds at projecting that empty feeling left after spending your energy hating some one or something.
If they meant to cause frustration they've succeeded. But I don't remember other times them blueballing the player. They even say straight on that it's day 1 for example, so forget about finding Abby for a while and explore Downtown (loved that section).

Oh yeah, I forgot about Abby soy dad. Maybe the dude shouldn't have waggled the knife in front of Joel. I remember that part in the original game. He's the only doctor you are forced to kill. No amount of retconning is going to make his death less justified.
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
It's subtle when your traveling with him, but then there's unnecessary talk between his sister and Abby where they just parrot the agenda. Personally I didn't hate the character, but they could have done better still.
I can’t remember the specific conversation but nothing struck me as incongruous.

They’d just fled their home, mainly because her sister decided she wanted to live as a man. That’s got to be something weighing pretty heavily on your mind, and something you’d want to talk about with the first person who’d listen.
 

killatopak

Gold Member
The gameplay was great.

I have some qualms about the story direction though. I think I’ve said it before the what happened to Joel was too early for me. I needed more build up.
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
The gameplay was great.

I have some qualms about the story direction though. I think I’ve said it before the what happened to Joel was too early for me. I needed more build up.
I dunno, Joel’s death sets up the whole plot. I get that it would’ve had more impact with more build up, but it needed to happen at the start for this particular story.
More like The LMAOst of us Part 2.
I feel like this sounded better in your head...
 
S

Shodan09

Unconfirmed Member
I dunno, Joel’s death sets up the whole plot. I get that it would’ve had more impact with more build up, but it needed to happen at the start for this particular story.

I feel like this sounded better in your head...
Just like the story of the game must have sounded better in Neil's head?
 

mekes

Member
I feel like I'd have enjoyed this if I had a compelling story to observe. But I thought the story was a dull tale surrounded by an overlong and time consuming slog through the game world.

Perfect example of why a games story and narrative needs to be engaging for players.
 

Faust

Perpetually Tired
Staff Member
We don't need "celebrity" gaf threads. Post this in one of the numerous TLOU2 Review threads/discussions already existing.
 
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