Ok folks, so here are my two cents for all (ie most) of the critiques i read. I played through the game within the first 29 hours after release, I am currently on my second playthrough, and I'd like to adress most of the points the internet is angry about
Joel deserved better:
Why? What makes him so outstanding? Remember a frw scenes from TLOU1, for example the one in the winter in which Joel, the supposedly good guy, tortures two of davids guys to tell him where they kept Ellie captive. Or the one in which Joel killed the surgeon that was about to find a cure for the cordyceps. He's a normal human being, why should he, realistically speaken, get some sort of special treatment and an "oh so theatrical ending"? Abby was pissed because of all the selfish and cruel actions Joel did, not only to humanity, but to her personally by killing her father. So she and the group she had with her on that mission did what she was set out to do: finding Joel. Not out of her personal reasons, but most probably because the entire WLF was after him for years. The personal part is the way how she killed him and the reason why she killed him. They (Naughty Dog) had to kill him, he was a favorite character, there was no way they could've killed him without any shitstorm in the fanbase. So they had all the freedom to kill him whichever way they wanted, and getting his skull smashed by a golf club seams reasonable for this kind of world.
Abby wasn't grateful for getting saved:
Go back and look at the cutscene again, where she heard Joels name the first time. You can clearly see in her eyes and hear in her voice, when she realizes that she just got rescued by Joel. Her coice changes, her eyes glaze, it's shockingly for her, but she keeps on sucking it up until she was in a safe environment of getting her revenge. What else was she supposed to do? Killing him on first sight? it was two against one.
Abby killed Joel in front of his daughter:
She didn't know that the girl which ran into the room was Ellie, she didn't know anything about her relationship with him. For all she knew Ellie was just one woman who knew Joel. And once they had Ellie on the ground, she was ordered by Owen to end it quick, because he doesn't want him being tortured anymore. Ellies name was never mentioned in the room. Neither was that Ellie was part of Abbys pain. If Abby were that cruel, she would've killed Ellie and Tommy as well, just because she can. But she didn't. Cruel or not, evil or good is a matter of perspective, but to me, Abby is not the villain in this game.
Abby is a tranny:
Yeah, whatever. Grow up and stop watching porn. Different people, different looks, and I hate to destroy your dreamworld, but some females like to have muscle, whether you like it or not. In my opinion, Neil Druckmann did a really good job of making the characters realistic, and buff women, especially in a post-apocalyptic world who serve as soldiers, may be buff as well. One of the first scenes you see when the Abby part starts is a massive gym. Muscles reduce the chance of getting killed when death is permanently waiting outside. Period.
It doesn't make sense she doesn't want Owen until he's taken:
So, you never felt bad because somebody "got" a person you desired? What did you do then? Just run away, let them live happily ever after, or try your best chances to get the person anyway? In the moment Owen was about becoming a father with a woman he doesn't really love, which is clearly visible, Abby realized that she had real feelings for him and he is indeed someone that can be loved, although (or despite) they're friends. Happened to me a few times in my life, but maybe love works differently overseas, I don't know.
Abby is cruel because she takes Owen from Mel:
WTF? Again, step out of your dreamworld. It's love, didn't seem like she raped him or so. It was two mature people having sex with each other, consensually. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Dina is ugly:
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
No consequences for Abby:
Yeah right, as if getting many friends killed by Ellie is no consequence. As if seeing a little girl getting killed is no consequence. As if getting captured by an inhumane, ruthless, opportunistic group and being hung at the beach, so long, that your entire skin peals itself off from the sunburns is no consequence.
Abby had suffered enough I think, even though she wasn't killed. It doesn't have to be always eye for an eye.
The ending scene:
Ellie lost Joel. Ellie lost her ability to play the geetar. Ellie lost Dina. And she got rid of her feelings of revenge. She released the anger, just in the moment, when she could've continued being part of the problem of this cruel world. Instead she chose to end the cycle of hatred. And no, Ellie didn't choose to let her go because she realized that Joel killed her father and how much pain that must've caused, Ellie didn't know that Abbys father was the surgeon who was supposed to save humanity.
The fact, that so many people are butthurt as hell, proves that Neil Druckmann did a great job. If a game is only good in case it delivers what people were expecting it would be called Uncharted or GTA or whatever triple A game.. But if you get the internet on a ragewar, you did something special. Whether you like it or not, the fact, that the fanbase is discussing so intensely since the games release means that he truly created a piece of art. And thank god it's the 21st century, otherwise it would be pitchforks and torches, and centurys later it would be called art nonetheless.
Naughty Dog created a masterpiece, with characters so realistic, it scares me to see where we're heading to in the next generation. If graphics get even more realistic, the already thin line between the real world and the virtual world gets thinner and thinner, and it shocks me how I felt about the game after I finished it. I didn't read any spoilers beforehand, when Joel got killed I cried for a few minutes straight. I felt the anger, I felt the lust for revenge, I was just as sad as if a good friend got killed. I was heartbroken, and there were a few other scenes which made me cry. At first, I didn't like to play Abby as well. But then I got to know her a little bit better, and even if I'd never feel the same empathy for her as I did for Ellie, especially in the first game, gameplay wise, her part is so much better than Ellies part. And if I wouldn't have seen Joels killing beforehand, if ND would've release Abbys part just like they released The Lost Legacy, I would've bought it. And then, when Ellie and Abby got confronted the first time in the theater, I was very confused about what to feel. The game even made me feel anger towards Ellie. And the ending sequence left me totally confused. Not because of a bad story, but because I didn't know what I should feel. Certainly, there was some sort of relief, but in a very strange way.
Replayability isn't as high as it was in the first game, but going for the 100% and diving deeper into the world by searching all the collectibles is worth the time, and I'd suggest everyone to do so as well, especially since after seeing the complete story the first time with all the flashbacks and Abbys sideway story, it gives you a totally different view to the happenings in the game, because now you know what they know.
And besides all the critiques, and all the rages I read and saw on the internet, nobody ever mentioned a truly bad decision: Abbys voiceactor. Not only is it a little bit too soft in my opinion, after I finished the game I had to research if Ashley Johnson also played Abby, because Abbys and Ellies voices sounded so similiar to my ears. But I guess that's a not-native-speaker problem.