Finished TLOU2 yesterday and here are my thoughts.
TL;DR—Excellent graphics and level design. Okay gameplay. Poor story execution.
In-game graphics were pretty good. Loved the seamless transition between gameplay and cutscenes—one of the many things that helps this feel like a movie. In-game dialogue during downtime is also really nice for world building. Not a fan of the endless notes found throughout the world, which seems like an overdone video game cliché for storytelling, especially for a game that is trying to be an interactive movie.
Level design might be the some of the best I've seen in a game. Computer enemy AI was kinda meh, but I'm sure on a harder difficulty that changes. Shooting mechanics are meh. I like the addition of a dodge and ability to go prone compared to the 1st game—makes you feel a bit stealthier. Several really impressive gameplay sequences such as the truck escape with Ellie and Jessie. I'm sure there's more positives, but from what I can see the general complaints aren't about gameplay, rather the story.
In my opinion, the story felt like a bait and switch—ultimately falling flat.
TLOU was about a man, Joel, dealing with the tragedy of losing his young daughter during a pandemic outbreak. Years later, Joel meets a young girl, Ellie, who is also dealing with tragedy. Once it’s found that Ellie has immunity, the two journey across country to a seemingly friendly survivors, Fireflies, that can harvest a cure. During the journey, Joel and Ellie form a father/daughter relationship going through many trials. Upon arrival to the Firefly base, Joel discovers that in order for the Fireflies to harvest a cure, the procedure will kill Ellie. Without Ellie’s consent, the Fireflies decides to go forth, then Joel intervenes by killing several that stand in his way. The moral dilemma comes in, as Joel lies to Ellie about what happened.
Fans fell in love with these two characters and their relationship. Due to Joel's popularity, I assume most people sided with his actions to save Ellie and looked past his lie.
TLOU2 was promoted as a continuation of Ellie and Joel's story. As far as I can remember, you don’t actually control Joel (or at least very little) and he is killed off in the first two hours. Not necessarily a choice that ruins the story, as long as there’s a reason for it.
However, for almost the entire second half of the game (10 or more hours straight), we play as Abby, the character that murdered Joel. The 10 hours or so tells her side of the story, in what I can only assume is an attempt to get you to like, relate or understand her. Abby’s justification for killing Joel is classic revenge. Essentially, Joel had killed Abby’s father, who was one of the key people who was choosing to kill Ellie in order to potentially harvest a cure without her consent.
So, for half of the game, we are forced to understand a character that brutally murdered Joel in front of Ellie, leaving her emotionally scarred to the point where she is no longer the same character. Again, nothing wrong with this decision on paper.
However, it was poorly executed, as the writers gave Abby no moral ambiguity in regard to her revenge killing. After learning her side of the story, the game very quickly disapproves of the concept of revenge through its final message. We simply didn’t have enough time or moral justification to realistically side with Abby. Pretty big mistake for a character that you are forced to play with for half of the game. And leaves fans frustrated with how beloved characters were treated.
Additionally, the timeline was difficult to follow, as it jumped around a lot. Also, the story explains that Ellie suppressed her memory of Joel telling her what actually happened during the culmination of entire 1st game. Doesn’t seem believable.
Therefore, in my opinion, these are some of the crucial reasons why this story falls flat.
But many games and movies have had poor writing without suffering this much negative fan reaction. From someone who’s both been a gamer most of my life and works in professional communication (and is willing to spend this much time thinking about such a trivial issue), here’s my two cents:
We can’t group every “hater” into a single category. That’s obviously not how life works, so here’s a few notable groups that I contributing to the negative reaction:
· So, it’s likely a small portion of this group are actually homophobic and sexist
· Many (and likely the largest portion) are frustrated with the unjustified story decisions, unjustified treatment of characters, etc.—even if they aren’t able to communicate them specifically.
· Other groups are using the moment to support their own political agenda. Sound familiar?
· Then, there are trolls who have no dog in the fight and are just trying to insight outrage for various reasons. From the wise words of Alfred Pennyworth, “some men want to watch the world burn.” We’ll call them the media. Ha!
Regarding the wide accusations being made by the media that homophobia and sexism are the prime reasons for fans not liking this game
· This seems unlikely, as many past high-selling games have featured women and/or lgbtq characters in prominent roles with little or no public backlash including Naughty Dog’s (TLOU developer) last game—Uncharted: Lost Legacy, among other games like Tomb Raider, Child of Light, Alien: Isolation, Horizon: Zero Dawn, etc. This would make the group of people who are being labeled homophobic/sexist to be conveniently selective with their negative behavior. However, this is not to ignore, that there’s is a small portion who don’t like TLOU2 for genuinely homophobic or sexist reasons.
· Just because someone doesn’t like you, the game you made or opinions, doesn’t make them evil, homophobic or sexist. You could have just a crappy game or shared your opinion like an A-hole. If not the case, I should call the police on every girl that’s ever turned me down.
Regarding Druckmann
· Clearly doesn’t understand or care that he makes games for a politically diverse audience and by mixing inflammatory opinions, whether he’s right or wrong, will cause those with opposing views to fairly and unfairly pick apart his game to prove he’s biased, therefore untrustworthy.
· Additionally, he’s allowing a portion of his audience who have justifiable reasons for not liking the game to be unfairly tarnished by the media without defending them from reputation-harming labels. So, it’s making Druckmann appear as if he is biased to his cause, rather than the people who financially support him. His call, but he was the one who poked the bear.
· At the end of the day, he can share his (and his company’s) opinions through games, but he might want to be careful, as some clearly carry more weight than others and he might just lose customers trying to convince them. Don’t always assume you’re right, even if you are. Forcing an opinion on someone doesn’t work, even if it’s the truth. Parents with teenagers can probably attest to that. And if he does believe his opinion is the truth, why wouldn’t he do his best to help everyone believe? After all, his game tells us that everyone has a dark side.
My Scores:
Story 3/10
Gameplay 6/10
Level Design 10/10
Audio 10/10
Graphics 8/10
