 The Last of Us 2 is an incredible game, from its refined gameplay to its stunning visuals. However, I feel the story doesn't hit the way the writers intended it to. It ends up falling flat, and ultimately I feel it disrespectful to the original story, the characters, and even the fans. As an isolated experience, The Last of Us 2 is, as I said, an incredible game. But as a sequel, not so much. Now the internet is looking for any excuse to hate on this game right now. And honestly, I don't want to add to it. My opinions on the story are my own, and while I don't agree with the direction they took or what they did with the characters, I can respect that Naughty Dog took a risk and tried something different. There are already way too many people review bombing the game without playing it, spreading hate towards the writers, and even the players that actually enjoyed the game. I would rather just sit here and say, hey, the story wasn't for me. There is still a lot to adore about Last of Us 2, and I feel like the good parts of the game are being over shrouded by the negative. And you know, if there's two things about me, it's that I like to be positive, and that I really can't play the guitar. I've had a guitar my whole life, and I've never taken the time to learn how to play it. But I thought it'd be cool to sit here. The visuals are gorgeous, with this one shot on the farm being one of the most stunning locations I have ever seen in a video game. The Last of Us is an extremely linear adventure, so it's much easier to create these beautiful set pieces for us to explore section by section, and Naughty Dog did a fantastic job at building these breathtaking atmospheres. The gameplay feels very similar to the original game, in fact, hey, Abby, you mind keeping it down? Oh my gosh, I'm trying to defend this game, you can show me a little bit of respect at least. Anyway, the gameplay feels very similar to the original game, but with a lot of added features and ultimately just a lot more weight behind it. They added the ability to dodge, which I love. I went back and played the original, and now I already miss that dodge mechanic. As well as some new weapons and craftable items, the biggest change would be the ability to go prone. Leading to new stealth options hiding in grass or underneath objects, I feel like the original Last of Us already had stealth gameplay that was ahead of its time, and actually fun. And this new one goes even further to refine that gameplay, leading to some very rewarding action. Oh, you're kinda snuck up on me there. I am very, very sneaky, sir. I see that. The game has incredible level design, with each new area having multiple buildings for you to explore and different parts to take. It's always interesting to see how different players work their way around each individual level. The cutscenes blend into the gameplay is impressively seamless and almost impossible for me to catch the moment that it bleeds over. This is one of the many examples of how extremely immersive this game is from start to finish. The attention to detail is incredible. I mean, listen to the sound of this glass shattering when you throw a brick through it. Like most games forget to add the rest of that sound, but Naughty Dog remembers. I would say that the most unrealistic part of this game is that someone still playing the PlayStation Vita in 2020. I get that it's an apocalypse, but you don't have to sink that low. I guess the Switch never came out in this universe, so they are kinda screwed. The PlayStation Vita fans hate me now, although if there's one other thing that's more unrealistic than that, it's where does all these scar characters get their matching coats from? It's an apocalypse. What did they do? Raider Leather Store? Can we just snoop around a little bit? We can snoop around, but I should be wearing the duster. No, I'm wearing the duster. That's the end of the game. I still highly recommend everyone play this game, but nothing else to behold the beauty that is the last of us Part 2. It's a game that makes me feel like I don't even need PlayStation 5. I don't need a new generation of consoles. Just keep giving me games like this. We're already there. I love that. Oh, let me play a funky beat. This next part's gonna be rough. You know, I did actually learn a few songs at one point, but it's the same songs I always relearn like two years later and then forget them again. That's not one. Wait, there was one that was like, great song. Love it. Anyway, now that I got you all warmed up, I can't really talk about the story without getting negative. I was just disappointed by it. I don't feel like it hit the way that they wanted it to hit. I never came around to liking, okay, let's screw it, spoiler alert. If you haven't played the game or you haven't read the leaks and you're in that 5% of people that don't know what happens, let's just skip this part. I never came around on Abby. I don't think they sold her to me at all. I could tell what they were trying to do. They were trying to relate her to Ellie and show that she's really not that different, but she killed Joel. I think Naughty Dog and its writing team grossly underestimated how much we love Joel because I'd give my right liver for that guy. People have two livers moving on. So rather than breaking down the entire story, I'm just going to talk about the three main characters and why each one disappointed me. And again, this is just my interpretation and how I experienced the game. It's a very polarizing adventure and many people see different sides. And I think that's because a lot of people connect with this story in different ways. I think it's easy to bring your own personal life experiences into a story of this scope. And just because I feel one way, it doesn't invalidate, it should not and does not invalidate the way you feel about it. And please feel free to leave your interpretation of the story down below. This is just briefly my interpretation of these three characters. There's a lot more I could say and I might dive into it more on my streams when I play through this game if that ever happens. Let me pretend to play the guitar and we'll start with Joel. Joel's death was handled poorly. He would never have walked into a room full of strangers, given up his name, or invited them back to his community full of children and innocent people. This is just zombie-esque apocalypse 101 things you don't do. When you meet a group of strangers, you should be really cautious and learn everything you can about them before you're alone in a room with them and before you invite them back to your community. We've all watched Walking Dead. We know this by now. Joel knows this by now. He taught Ellie everything she knows and in a way taught us everything we know about this world. He knows better. This made Joel look like an idiot and ultimately cost him his life. I know many people are mad at Abby for killing Joel, but I'm mad at Joel for killing Joel. They allowed him, the writers, allowed him to just walk into that situation because it was convenient. That's lazy. There's more I could say about Joel since he only had a couple hours in this story. I feel like he was really swept under the rug not only by Ellie, but by the game itself. Alright, Abby, she doesn't really have much of a personality. Right now, honestly try and think, what's a couple things Abby likes? I don't really know what she likes. I don't really know what she's about. And most of her story is spent in a love triangle with two other very boring characters. And this was hard for me to sit through as we already had a pregnant love triangle with Ellie's character. And I found it weird that they did this same story twice. And I get that this could have been to show these two characters have something in common, but banging somebody else's boyfriend or ex-girlfriend doesn't really make me like either of these characters more or understand either of their past actions any clearer. So they both liked someone that liked someone else. Isn't that everyone? I don't think that's really an uncommon thing that these two had that was specific to them. And I know Abby had a whole nother thing at the tail end there with a couple of kids she saved, but they saved her first. So, you know, eye for an eye. Now they're square. That doesn't justify everything else Abby did. You know what? I'm about to say it. I don't care that you broke your elbow. And Ellie loses sight of herself completely. We as players already understand and forgave Joel seven years ago for what he did, but Ellie can't seem to understand that he loves her and can't bear to live without her. Even though he's told her that multiple times. Ultimately at the point where she was on that table, Ellie was unconscious and couldn't make the choice for herself whether she lived or died for a good cause. If she had made that decision for herself and then Joel, whatever. Okay, I get that. She'd already made the choice and he screwed it up. But he found out while she was under and he said, no, thank you. And, you know, saved her life. Morals aside, yes, there are wrong things here. They're the right things here. But everyone, you and I, we can all get on the same page with seeing why he did that and understanding completely why he did. Ellie just doesn't seem to understand why. She just can't grasp the concept and is just mad at him, disregard him and writes him off as someone in her life. Her relationship was already severed, casting aside everything we experienced in the first game and now she'll never have a chance to make it right. Abby didn't take Joel away from her. Abby took away Ellie's chance at being a decent human being. Ellie, time and time again throughout this story, shows how much of a petty selfish person she is. The Ellie we met in the first game was raised and taught by Joel. Joel would have done anything to save that kid and he did. And now here's Ellie with her knife to another kid's throat, a defenceless kid threatening to kill him if Abby won't fight her. She's clearly changed. And even though there's a spark of Joel left in her at this moment that she clearly saw at the last minute and realized that this isn't what Joel would have done or what Joel would have wanted, I really don't care for her anymore at this point. So, for me, that was how they ruined two of my favorite characters in a video game at once and added a third character who I also really didn't care for much. As I said, the game itself is fantastic and it's a complete marvel to behold. I just didn't agree with the story and that's just how I interpreted it. I might play through again in a couple years and have a different experience altogether. All right, whatever. You know what? Let's open this big box. I hate opening things. I don't know. It feels like I'm ruining it. We got the art of last of us. Isn't that nice? That's nice, isn't it? Stillbook case. A bit of a spoiler there on the other side, but oh well. Oh, this is actually pretty neat. A bunch of badges. Yeah, but where's the good thing? I want the good thing. I care about no pins. This box is confusing. Here we go. Oh, whoa. This is actually a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Wow, that's actually pretty neat. That's actually pretty neato. Doesn't really look like Ellie, does it? Kind of, I guess. A little bit more like Ellen Page, then. Well, that's neat. Kind of feel like half the statue is missing. Sense. You know. Well, I'd love to know your opinion on the game down below. If you like this video, then like it. Again, you can have a different opinion. I'd love to hear it. Bye.