r/TheLastOfUs2

*long rant incoming*

For me video games are supposed to be something that relieves stress, not contributes to even more stress. They are supposed to be fun, so when people like Neil say "we don't use the word fun here", what the hell is the point? Video games are supposed to be FUN, that's the whole point, that is why we play games in the first place. And for me, the first time I played the Last of Us pt II, will be the last time. I am currently in college, but after a really stressful day (which happens a lot), I look to play story games that can relieve my stress like Witcher 3, Uncharted, Last of Us, etc. And now, now, now, I'm not saying I want a happy sunflowers and daisies game, no I don't want that. I'm okay with dark themes, characters dying. But Last of Us had dark themes, but balanced it out with one of the best moments I have ever seen in video games. The cabin scene in pt I, after I got through that I was like "That is cinema", and the jokes Ellie tells Joel, especially the funny comics and trying to ragebait Joel, that was funny. And Ellie's beef with Bill, I found that super funny too. And when Ellie saves Joel getting the medications, and staying by his side and where Joel calls Ellie "baby girl" and hugs her, that melted my heart. So yes, there were moments of sadness, like Sarah's death, Sam and Henry's death, Tess's death, etc, but it balanced it out with these well written characters, the bond they formed with each other, something I can empathize with, and that relieves my stress. That makes the game "fun".

Well, there is NONE OF THAT SHIT IN THE SEQUEL. We had a good opening of Joel telling Tommy what happened, and Joel playing guitar to Ellie, and then the musuem flashbacks, but THAT's IT. I come back from a stressful day to see Joel being treated like garbage, and then he dies in the most contrived way possible. Ellie does something Ellie would never do, and it's just straight miserable to watch. WTF is this sadistic shit, Neil? Oh you think it gets better from here, no TF IT DOES NOT. I am already feeling more stressful than my stressful day at school and that is really saying something (when I played TLOU2 I was in high school). I have to play as Abby for 12 hours, and I am like HELL NO. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing they can do to make me like Abby. The same person who brutually tortured the person that saved you, and doesn't show any remorse. It's like they are shoving something I don't want, like they are trying to make Abby a protaganist, when she is NOT. There are so many better antagonists written better than Abby. Like David who says "get this, a crazy man traveling with a little girl. See, everything happens for a reason." This guy gave me literal chills. The main villain Wild Hunt in Witcher 3 is also way better written. Darth Vader in Star Wars. Voldemort in HP. The Joker from The Dark Knight. Shall I go on? Thing is I could not give a shit about Abby. And you know the one character I kinda liked? Jesse. He was such a good friend to Ellie, but Ellie doesn't treat her like a friend? He dies in shot in the face, BRUH. Like that??? And then Ellie is like "whatever, he died". Oh no, no, no, you'd think the misery ends there. No, Neil wants the player to SUFFER as much as possible. You have to beat up Ellie as Abby, oh fuck off. I had to drop the controller, and I swear tg I was going to punch something, because I was so pissed off. And not to mention the stress I was feeling as well.

Oh and Tommy gets shot in the head, and somehow doesn't die and everybody just teleports to Jackson. Ok so we are at the farmhouse, and I am thinking finally this misery is ending, this is so far a piece of shit game, and then we get a glimpse of Ellie being happy and living a normal life, basically the first time in the game where it isn't just straight depression in misery porn (other than flashbacks). I was thinking, ok we can end here, because I want this to be over, RIGHT. RIGHT????? Well, nope. Because you have to suffer more, more and more. So ellie gets this PTSD dream, then Tommy goes over, and then Ellie goes off for "revenge" again. *sighs of stress, dissapointment, agony*. Okay and we get to the Santa Barbara section, where gameplay was I guess the most fun, because you had an assault rifle and one of the best guns in the game, and then we see Abby at the stake? Shoot her, Ellie, shoot her???? No, we can't shoot her. Why? Because Neil needs to protect his "golden character". So we let her go, watch her free Lev, and then we force Abby to fight us because she shows remorse in killing Joel, when Ellie confronts her. NOW? at THE END OF THE GAME? AW HELL NO. Then we get to this boss fight okay, Ellie loses her two fingers, and then she lets her live because of a flashback she got of Joel? yeah we killed like 300+ people and now, its RIGHT THERE and you won't kill Abby. John Wick wouldn't have hesitated. Now I am telling myself to breathe in and out, don't destroy your controller, don't destroy your TV, and I swear tg I was going to slap everyone who contributed to this TOTAL DUMPSTER FIRE OF A STORY. Yeah and abby gets the brighter ending, of course you get the brighter ending if you are the golden child of Neil. Oh yeah (for the third time), you think you are suffering enough from the total destruction and massacre of Joel and Ellie? Nah, neil says you have to SUFFER EVEN MORE for "rEvEngE Is BaD", when we again teleport to Jackson, Ellie can't even relive the memory of Joel, and leaves his guitar behind. Then we get to the porch scene, where she says "I'll try to forgive you?" And Ellie wouldn't wait for 2 GOD DAMN YEARS to forgive Joel, they were so close that it would have been 2 months maximum. Perhaps the cringiest line was back in the hospital where she says "don't touch me", and I got totally pissed when she says "I don't need your fucking help" at the dance.

So in summary this game was just straight sadistic, and a miserable game to play. I was too emotionally tired at the end, and caused me more stress than studying for a midterm or final that is worth like 60% of my grade and that means there is something severely wrong. Games are meant to be fun and relieve stress, and this game brings more stress into my life. Where's the hopeful and charismatic Ellie? nowhere to be seen. You know what this feels like? To anyone who watched back to the future, this is like falling into a darker alternate universe. I waited multiple years to reconnect with these characters, and they are not themselves, they are darker, and broken. In fact, I still have PTSD with this game. And I was so sick of Ellie this game, because Joel loved her, and she never returned the favor in this game, she didn't act like she returned the unconditional love Joel gave her. And what makes it worse, is the absolute shitty reviews by journalists (who have been getting that money from ND to glaze the shit out of the game), and say its the best game of the century and is a masterpiece. Except Polygon and Forbes, you guys are good. It's not a masterpiece if it divides the fanbase in half and shits on the most beloved characters in gaming. It's more like a "mastershitpiece". I've effectively wasted almost 30 hours of my time and there was no point in this game. Neil ruined this experience fully, and he doesn't give a shit about The Last of Us franchise, and it is evident when they keep making remasters of remasters. The true heroes are the leakers, and maybe I should have listened to them. You know your game is ass when your own employees seek to expose you. And that is when I realized, Neil never knew how to write the bond between Joel and Ellie, it was Bruce Straley. The stark difference in writing quality is laughable. And yes grapics was excellent, although gameplay wasn't that innovative. I'd rather play something with a great story and decent gameplay/graphics rather than play a shitty story with excellent graphics and visuals. This quote perfectly explains this game "it's something about right and wrong, written by people who think they are always right". I just wish Ellie showed more love and treated Joel better in this game, but yeah whatever. Fuck Neil and ND. Just fuck this game as a whole. As Jeff Goldblum from Jurrasic Park says, "That is one big pile of shit". This sequel was probabaly THE WORST GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED PERIOD. We never got to even watch Ellie and Joel watch a movie together. That is the end of my rant.

I remember watching the first one and it was pretty good but saw ppl making fun of the second one so never even delved into why, hope someone can tell me.

In this sub, hating the game is a big reason why we gather but it is not the only big reason. We gather because we loved Joel and Ellie so much in our hearts enough to grieve what Neil took from them and all of Bruce Straley's work. Our community is a place where dissapointment becomes connection and where shared hurt becomes shared feeling.

I came to this sub after the devastating events of TLOU2, the absolute terrible story with the same ache in my chest, that somehow made the weight easier to carry. Only a community that cared about these characters, obviously more than Neil and we care so much to express our criticisms in the way we do.

And yes we laugh, rant, rewrite stories, and tell ourselves pt II is not Canon, but the important part is we do it together​ and thats what makes this place feel like home.

I will forever hate neil for causing me misery and destroying my favorite duo in all of games. Joel and Ellie was written so well (thanks Bruce straley) and they care for each other so much which is why part II doesnt make sense. No I dont buy Ellie avoiding joel for 2 years, and becoming the pissy teen she was in whatever the hell pt 2 was. The real Joel and Ellie bond was so heartwarming and just flat out beautiful. Joel and Ellie wasnt just "fictional characters" to me. They were family. They brought me happiness. And without this sub, I wouldn't be able to rant on all the game's issues the way I do now, and I feel like I have a support group around me when I grieve about the character assassination of Joel and Ellie

In my mind, Joel and Ellie are living happily together on the same roof and have accepted each other as father and daughter. Oh yeah and fuck neil and fuck Abby.

Why does abby get the happier ending? She cheated with her friends baby daddy, who happened to be her ex. She betrayed people who had known her for years, people who probably called her their friend. Yet she switches sides and kills them with zero remorse at the drop of a hat to save two random kids she has known for 5 minutes. She is a flip flopping psychopath with no consistent morals. The only person she was mad about dying is Owen, the rest she simply did not care at all. She is a villain who somehow gets the happy ending, riding off into the sunset to reunite with her firefly friends, lev by her side, and she suffers no permanent injury or consequences of her revenge or her betrayal. She has next level plot armor the whole game.

Meanwhile, Ellie never gets her revenge, and yet is completely forsaken. Broken mentally and physically, nobody left by her side, and as one last middle finger to her character she loses her fingers and can no longer play guitar, her last connection to Joel now gone.

Tommy never gets his revenge, yet he now has a permanent limp, blinded in one eye, his wife left him, and he is now a bitter lonely man.

So, let me ask you this, why does Ellie and Tommy lose more in pursuit of revenge than Abby loses after getting revenge AND betraying her former group? What message is that supposed to send? If the message is that revenge is bad, then why does Abby more or less get away with no consequences, besides her ex-boyfriend dying, and losing her unrealistically big muscles. She still has the more hopeful ending. She is a villain propped up as a hero by a game writer that doesn't understand how to make relatable characters.

There is a blatant and giant narrative bias against every character except Abby. The game pulls extremely emotionally manipulative methods out to try and make you like her. Ellie is shown doing countless horrible things on her way to get revenge, killing dogs, random people, etc. The game never shows all the horrible things Abby probably did on her way to get revenge, instead the game only shows Abby at her best, and Ellie at her worst. It's unbelievably biased storytelling. Abby is seen petting dogs, playing fetch with dogs, saving some random kids, etc. Ellie bad cause Ellie kill dogs and never plays fetch with them! How people fall for this blatant manipulation and bias is beyond me.

It took Joel and Ellie a year to bond, they travelled across the country together, and by the end you understand why Joel did what he did to save her, whether it was right or wrong. Abby has zero justification to do what she did, she saved those kids out of her own selfish guilt and nothing else. Imagine if Joel had only known Ellie for one day, and then proceeded to wipe out the fireflies to save her, it would make no sense and feel rushed. Which is exactly how they wrote Abbys sorry excuse for a story, they tried desperately to make her a parallel to Joel by showing her saving some kids and standing against a group to do so, but they rushed it so hard it felt unearned and not genuine at all. If anything, it makes her look even worse as a person who acts without thought or remorse.

And this isn't even taking into account the countless actions and decisions that the characters make that nobody with half a brain would ever make. These characters do things that make no sense, stuff the characters would never do. The plot relies on the characters making consistent wrong choices, and convenient coincidences to drive the plot forward. Druckman forced them to do last minute rewrites, and it's painfully obvious at some parts in the plot that barely make sense if at all.
The last minute rewrites to make the game more "inclusive" as Druckman was self admittedly inspired by anita sarkesian and wanted to make changes to reflect her views. Sarkesian believes all games are sexist, racist, and not inclusive enough.

Because in the zombie apocalypse the truly important thing is two lesbians, gender confused children, biology defying muscular women, pregnant women fighting frontline combat, and a male character whose only purpose in the story was to be a sperm donor and then was killed off because his usefulness as a male character was gone. All father figures are killed or taken out of the picture like Jesse, and Joel. The game released on fathers day weekend. Surely just a coincidence right?

You know a game is bad when their own employees leak the plot changes before release in an effort to warn actual fans.

Why the fuck are there two separate subs for ONE franchise like TLOU1 and TLOU2 are completely different universes?? And why is this subreddit actually letting people vent and shit on the game while the other one acts like criticism is illegal?

Finally got around to playing the last of us part 2 and though there are issues from a game play perspective (hate the points of no return, the second tutorial and the fact you can’t run in the “non combat scenes”) from a story perspective I don’t get the hate everyone lumped on Abby. Honestly the whole game shows the “before you set out on revenge dig 2 graves”. The thread through the whole thing was “they killed us so we kill them, because we killed them so they kill us” without end.

If there was any character at all I disliked the most it was Tommy, he straight up said “we need to let it go” and then he’s the one pushing for it.

The only characters I actually felt sorry for in the whole thing were Dina, Yara and Lev. They were the only truly sympathetic characters in the whole thing.

Also don’t agree with those who say Abby’s dad was a good person. Even if it truly was the only way (and unlike the trolly problem there was no guarantee it would even work if he had done it), him not giving Ellie the choice is straight up against medical ethics.

I do really like how Abby deal with Lev, no judgment just acceptance.

Yeah, this was probably said before a couple times but I‘ll say it anyway: Druckmann isn’t the kind of Person who can be Director of anything without having a superior and it showed in his „Opus Magnum“ and in the Backlash that it sparked. He couldn’t take the Blame, nor the criticism or the responsibility for purposely disappointing Customers who were loyal to Naughty Dog for years. A true leader knows when he has to set his Ego aside for the sake of a project and when to admit wrongdoings. Like George Lucas for example who minimized Jar Jar‘s role in the prequels after the character got backlash and he knew that he can‘t fight them because they determined the success of his product. Or the classic Example: how Bruce Straley knew that no one would‘ve played a Game centered around Revenge if God of War already existed at the time, without giving the Player something unique in comparison.

You all really out here crying about wokeness in a game with two prime smoking hot girls as the main characters?

We got Ellie.. a cute, fiery 19-year-old barely legal brunette who you get to watch fuck Dina in that raw farm sex scene. You see her making out, undressing, and going down on another girl. Then you’ve got Abby, yeah she thick, jacked, super muscular, and the kind of strong woman who could pin you down and wreck you… But she still gets shoved in her place where she belongs and gets fucked doggy by Owen in a cutscene like the good little submissive whore she is and girls are supposed to be like.

The game literally serves you hot lesbian action + badass ripped female who still knows her role when a man steps up. Let me remind you the most beta man you can ever find who literally would ditch his pregnant wife just to tab Abby and y’all still call it “woke”?

Bro, if watching barely legal girls exploring each other and a thick muscular queen dominating everything except Owens dick makes you seethe and call it woke… maybe get your testosterone levels checked instead of review bombing?

This game gives you exactly what gooners want wrapped in an insane story. Barely legal teenagers exploring each other bodies and killing zombies like it was a snuff film. But sure, keep crying about “the woke message".

Sorry if this is a few years late but just got around to playing it and the controversies back then was probably spread from little gay femboys.