Carlzner
Registered User
Finally beat it. Took longer than expected due to real life stuff getting in the way, you really need to dole out at least a few hours into a session when playing this game.
It's a masterpiece. There's really nothing else like it in gaming. Gun to my head I probably say the first one is better, but this one is much, much more ambitious.
Full thoughts:
It's a masterpiece. There's really nothing else like it in gaming. Gun to my head I probably say the first one is better, but this one is much, much more ambitious.
Full thoughts:
For starters... the decision to kill Joel was the only way this game could have properly been made. I'm convinced of that much. How else could a story have gone? Dina's introduced in the trailer, we get to know her in the first few hours, then she's killed off? That would have been way too obvious. I just can't see a proper story with him living through the game. As I said when playing, seeing him get murdered made me angry... angry to go after Abby & Co. Which is exactly what the developers intended, right?
I personally loved Abby. I was SO into those first few hours getting to know the WLF & her friends... Owen was another great character. The Lev stuff definitely dragged. Hard to feel attachment to that stuff but I could totally understand why Abby felt the way she did, and what drove her to make those decisions to help Lev & his sister.
That being said, the idea of putting the player in the shoes of the people you've been killing for the past 10 hours was brilliant IMO. The complaints about it are kind of mind boggling... as if the brutal-ness & realism of the game world from the first 1 1/2 games stop at the door when it comes to the families & personal lives of the hundreds of people you've gunned down along the way. I'm so, so glad they decided to turn it back on the player like that, I can't think of any game that I've played that has done something similar.
The two fights between Abby & Ellie were fascinating to me. Fighting as both characters I didn't want to go through & kill the other one, yet you are forced to by the game (Obviously it doesn't actually happen either time, it just seemed like such an interesting concept to put the player in that kind of position they don't want to be in.)
The gameplay can definitely get repetitive and I guess I understand the (few) complaints about them not innovating it enough... but I loved the gameplay for the first one so I'm not sure I would really want them to change it all that much? Feels like they added just enough to make it a little more interesting. I mean, fighting the Scars is practically a 3rd enemy type. Approached them totally differently than other humans.
It's disappointing this game got such a negative reaction because it's so, so ambitious and (for the most part) it pulls off what it's trying to accomplish.
I personally loved Abby. I was SO into those first few hours getting to know the WLF & her friends... Owen was another great character. The Lev stuff definitely dragged. Hard to feel attachment to that stuff but I could totally understand why Abby felt the way she did, and what drove her to make those decisions to help Lev & his sister.
That being said, the idea of putting the player in the shoes of the people you've been killing for the past 10 hours was brilliant IMO. The complaints about it are kind of mind boggling... as if the brutal-ness & realism of the game world from the first 1 1/2 games stop at the door when it comes to the families & personal lives of the hundreds of people you've gunned down along the way. I'm so, so glad they decided to turn it back on the player like that, I can't think of any game that I've played that has done something similar.
The two fights between Abby & Ellie were fascinating to me. Fighting as both characters I didn't want to go through & kill the other one, yet you are forced to by the game (Obviously it doesn't actually happen either time, it just seemed like such an interesting concept to put the player in that kind of position they don't want to be in.)
The gameplay can definitely get repetitive and I guess I understand the (few) complaints about them not innovating it enough... but I loved the gameplay for the first one so I'm not sure I would really want them to change it all that much? Feels like they added just enough to make it a little more interesting. I mean, fighting the Scars is practically a 3rd enemy type. Approached them totally differently than other humans.
It's disappointing this game got such a negative reaction because it's so, so ambitious and (for the most part) it pulls off what it's trying to accomplish.