Gaming clique

[MassDebater]

Last year, just after finishing it and on a different forum, I went off on this massive rant about everything I hated about TLOU2. When MD and everyone else has finished with it I’ll try and dig it out.

I finally got around to completing it yesterday, took a week or so break from it when I got to that thing in the hospital with Abby, it was properly doing my head in!

So, unless any others are still playing it, feel free to rant away

[Duffers]

Had a little dig and found a few of my opinions on TLOU2 from another site. Just reading them again is reminding me how much I hated that fucking game.

The relentlessly grim tone got pretty wearisome after a while. The game has a very simple moral about the cycle of violence and revenge, but it hammered it home with all the subtlety of an axe through someone’s face (which I did more than once). By the end I honesty expected one of the main characters to turn to the screen and say “you know, the real monster is revenge...” or some such shite.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

What I liked:

The setting - game looked fantastic and I loved just exploring Seattle, scavenging for stuff and seeing the aftermath of the plague;
The core mechanics hadn't changed much from the first one, which isn't a bad thing. Combat was still great, sneaking around taking out fools never got old;
A nice diverse range of supporting characters;
Scar Island;
Dina;
Abby;
There were a few moments that forced me to put the controller down and think about what I had just done.
Not having to stop every few minutes to move a ladder or push a bit of wood across a river.

What I didn't like:

As I said before, this game has a very simple moral but bludgeons the player over the head with it. I get the feeling this is a game that believes itself to making some grand statement when really it's very simplistic;
The violence - I've been playing games for over 30 years and am pretty desensitized to computer game violence but there were a few cut scenes that made me feel uncomfortable and a few of the fight scenes, especially the very last one I just didn’t want to take part in. A lot of it felt gratuitous and unnecessary; Story felt bloated, there was lots of padding and flashbacks upon flashbacks upon flashbacks that added very little. Could definitely have been trimmed down a little;
Weak supporting characters - other than Abby I couldn't care less about the other WLF members.

~~~~~~~


As I said, I enjoyed the mechanics of the game. But I cannot buy into this view that the game says anything profound or challenging, it’s just misery and gratuitous, unnecessary violence.

~~~~~

I think my biggest issue with the game is that it doesn’t actually ask the questions or make the points it seems to think it makes. The first game asked questions around the breakdown of humanity in extreme circumstances and how far a person would go to protect someone they cared about.

This one had a paper thin moral about violence spawning more violence and tried to dress the message up with endless and unnecessary brutality. For me it used violence in place of actually saying anything. It was exhausting to play through, I genuinely didn’t want to take part in the very last fight on the beach. I wished there was an option to skip and go home.

[KratosBaggie]

That's a great post, Duffers.

The story wasn't believable at all. Why travel across the country, risking your life, just to seek revenge? It's actually really pointless when you break it down.

[Big Daddy Cool]

The travelling stuff was far fetched. Its supposed to be a dangerous world but you get characters travelling hundreds of miles on their own without consequence like Ellie towards the end. You can tell they lost one of the main writers from the first game.

[Salter Spring]

I found TLOU2 went on for far too long, my interest started to wane towards the end and I just wanted to get it finished and so stopped enjoying it.  I also agree that some of the cut scenes were boring, as were the playable flashback scenes, in fact I found those particularly hard work.  It’s a shame as there was a very good game in there somewhere.

[Duffers]

I found TLOU2 went on for far too long, my interest started to wane towards the end and I just wanted to get it finished and so stopped enjoying it.  I also agree that some of the cut scenes were boring, as were the playable flashback scenes, in fact I found those particularly hard work.  It’s a shame as there was a very good game in there somewhere.

The fucking flashbacks! I swear there were flashbacks within flashbacks at one point!

[KratosBaggie]

I found TLOU2 went on for far too long, my interest started to wane towards the end and I just wanted to get it finished and so stopped enjoying it.  I also agree that some of the cut scenes were boring, as were the playable flashback scenes, in fact I found those particularly hard work.  It’s a shame as there was a very good game in there somewhere.

The fucking flashbacks! I swear there were flashbacks within flashbacks at one point!

Naughty Dog loves a playable flashback - See Uncharted.

[Salter Spring]

I found TLOU2 went on for far too long, my interest started to wane towards the end and I just wanted to get it finished and so stopped enjoying it.  I also agree that some of the cut scenes were boring, as were the playable flashback scenes, in fact I found those particularly hard work.  It’s a shame as there was a very good game in there somewhere.

The fucking flashbacks! I swear there were flashbacks within flashbacks at one point!

Naughty Dog loves a playable flashback - See Uncharted.

These ones were so boring though, iirc there was one in a history museum which bored me to tears, it just went on and on and on…

[KratosBaggie]

I found TLOU2 went on for far too long, my interest started to wane towards the end and I just wanted to get it finished and so stopped enjoying it.  I also agree that some of the cut scenes were boring, as were the playable flashback scenes, in fact I found those particularly hard work.  It’s a shame as there was a very good game in there somewhere.

The fucking flashbacks! I swear there were flashbacks within flashbacks at one point!

Naughty Dog loves a playable flashback - See Uncharted.

These ones were so boring though, iirc there was one in a history museum which bored me to tears, it just went on and on and on…

They're not the best. It doesn't really add anything to the story.

[MassDebater]

Interesting points.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I do understand the over long critique, should have ended when Ellie went back to live with her girlfriend and the baby, which would have ended it on a high. I also didn't want to take part in the last fight as it felt forced. Totally understand the violence views too, when I first started playing it I said to my nephew that some of it was totally brutal, the Joel killing for one thing.

Yep some of the pointless run down the corridor and open the door scenes added nowt. Also could have done without the sex scene.

Have to say one of the things I enjoyed most was the breaking glass, at times I found myself just putting car windows through, little things and all that!

That all said I enjoyed it and would give it a solid 8/10