What an amazing game. I'm kind of surprised how effective it was considering they purposely tried to make you hate who you were playing for like 90% of the game. I came around on Abby by the end, but it's really hard to like Ellie in this game. Her own words perfectly encapsulated how I felt about her at the end of the game. I don't know if I can ever forgive her, but I'd like to. I don't know if I'll ever be able to play through the game again though. I already hated Ellie for pretty much all the decisions she made in her section, then they went and humanized everyone you'd brutally murdered and tortured.
My one gripe with the game is how the characters are able to shrug off major injuries and then just walk thousands of miles through hostile terrain. Sure, you can survive getting shot in the face, penetrated by a branch, getting your fingers bitten off, multiple stab wounds, and brutal arm breaks if you can get to a functioning hospital, but none of those are injuries you can just rub some dirt on.
As much as I would love a Last of Us part 3, I really want to see what new IP Naughty Dog can come up with. I'm not sure what genre I would be most interested in. Maybe a Sci Fi or Fantasy RPG? Maybe something with an open world? It's hard to have a compelling narrative in an open world game, but with how much I enjoyed the open world section of LOA2, I could see Naughty Dog pulling it off. They could also go the opposite direction and do a straight up narrative drama like Telltale Walking Dead, or Detroit: Become Human. I'll be excited for pretty much anything they decide to do.
I like all of this! New IP from ND would definitely be rad. But in regards to The Last of US story, I feel like Ellie's arc is incomplete. She needs some kind of redemption. I like the idea @DoubleA_Ron mentioned about her in a Joel-type role. I would absolutely love to play as a 40-yr old Ellie and see what has unfolded in this world during that time jump. Give me the overly sarcastic Ellie as a quasi Ellen Ripley/Sarah Connor mash-up, ALL. DAY. LONG!
I think the redemption is that her choice to break the revenge cycle mirrors Abby's. Abby is about to kill Dina (after Ellie kills all of her friends, when the timelines finally sync up), but chooses not to hoping to break the revenge cycle. Ellie refuses to kill Abby when she certainly could have at the game's climax ultimately breaking the cycle. Now, we could argue that redemption and simply not killing for revenge are two different things. But in this world, it might be the best we can hope for.
Man oh man. I finished it a couple of nights ago and had to take some time to process. This is truly one of the best games I have ever played in my life. The fact that this game played on my base PS4 and ran and looked like it did was truly astonishing. Other than maybe a weird rope physics thing once or twice, this this thing performed perfectly.
I do think it was a bit long. I thought for sure that after Tommy showed up and Dina was yelling at him on the porch and Ellie looked at the map....cut to black, I thought that would have been a great ending. The entire last sequence, honestly, felt like the last season of Breaking Bad and Walt fighting the Nazis. Tacking on a superfluous set of bad guys so the main character has people to kill that you do not give a shit about just to further the plot.
I ended up loving Abby. Well, love might be a bit strong but by the time I got back to the theater and I had the fight with Ellie, the first time we grappled and I found myself pounding the square button like "yeah, fuck you Ellie!" and then I caught myself. Holy shit, they got me. I certainly disagreed with some of Ellie's choices but the fact that I actually wanted some revenge for Abby's sake was impressive considering how I felt about her after she bashed Joel's brains in with the golf club.
There is so much stuff I want to say but this will end up an even more giant wall of text. I did listen to the first half of the fellas coverage of the game. I think I must have a play style closer to Jim then A.Ron. I played on normal and got my ass kicked! A lot! I related to how he said he would get himself trapped in a corner and then just surrounded by enemies. It wasn't until pretty far in the game when I realized that in most encounters, you can just run the hell away. Or through the area. I don't think one time was I holding triangle for one of the ladies to shove open a door and was interrupted by an enemy. I think if you get to that point, it usually lets you past so you can make that narrow escape. I was also too precious with my weapons. Also also, I literally did not realize until fucking Santa Barbra that if you hit x and push down, they will do a quick 180. That would have been a game changer.
One last little detail that I was glad I caught and I'm sure most people did but I haven't seen anyone mention it. Everytime the Wolves go out, they always have the exchange "May your survival be long." and "May your death be swift." Playing through the hospital level as Abby, you already know Nora's fate thanks to Ellie. Nora says to Abby for what I think they both realize is probably the last time, "May your survival be long." And Abby says "(sigh)...and may my death be swift." Did she damn Nora to a long and torturous death at the hands of Ellie??
I can't stop talking about this game. Lev rules. I think the sections with Abby and Lev were the best. And I think it's hilarious when in the middle of this...war on the island and shit's on fire everywhere and factions are killing factions and I'm trying to sneak through fighting as little of my people and as little of his his people as I can, I shoot one person in my path, while hiding by the way. One little shot from a pistol while surrounded by allllll of this chaos and magically "Hey its Abby!" As if the next line would be "I know that gunshot anywhere!"
Glad you enjoyed it @Murderbear . I still think about it 2 months later and after 2 playthroughs. I think I’m going to do another soon— just such an excellent story
I'm dying to play it again. I just finished the official podcast listen, and boy, I already loved both games, but this made me appreciate them both even more. Hearing those involved talk about their decisions and thought processes is enthralling. I can't recommend that enough. It is an awesome listen. Now I just need to stay away from everyone that hates this thing and feels the need to yell at you about why you are wrong for loving it.
I'm dying to play it again. I just finished the official podcast listen, and boy, I already loved both games, but this made me appreciate them both even more. Hearing those involved talk about their decisions and thought processes is enthralling. I can't recommend that enough. It is an awesome listen. Now I just need to stay away from everyone that hates this thing and feels the need to yell at you about why you are wrong for loving it.
Yea the pod was reallllly good. Especially hearing the access who played Ellie gearing up for the Joel scene.
Also, I was choking up when they were going over the prologue of the 1st game and when Neil had the actor playing Joel reshoot the scene when Joel’s daughter dies and what Neil was looking for.
Almost done! Bought to go find Abby I believe, but I’m really ready for the game to be over. I’m only going back to it bc I listened to Off the Clock and agreed with a lot of what the Boyz said. And With all the crap that is going on In US, I find it hard to really engage with the game that stresses me out more every night. I do like the game and may go back and play it again.
Almost done! Bought to go find Abby I believe, but I’m really ready for the game to be over. I’m only going back to it bc I listened to Off the Clock and agreed with a lot of what the Boyz said. And With all the crap that is going on In US, I find it hard to really engage with the game that stresses me out more every night. I do like the game and may go back and play it again.
You are like 95% of the way finished, so hang in there. I remember that feeling though and probably would have been fine if the game ended on the farm. But it also would have lacked what you eventually will get to. And that would be a damn shame.
Welp, kinda wished I didn’t finish it. Gosh #1 was so good, the story, the actions of characters, motivations...#2 let me down. Lol guess I’m a romantic cause I thought we were going to make up with Abby. Really bummed we would fight her after she’d been tortured. Interested to see what the Boyz thought of the ending.
Welp, kinda wished I didn’t finish it. Gosh #1 was so good, the story, the actions of characters, motivations...#2 let me down. Lol guess I’m a romantic cause I thought we were going to make up with Abby. Really bummed we would fight her after she’d been tortured. Interested to see what the Boyz thought of the ending.
Yeah, in a way, this is what I want more of though. I can imagine that Neil Druckman and co., wanted to give Ellie and Abbie happier endings and fought that urge. I can't get this game out of my noggin. Similar to the first, except this one has even murkier choices. It does a similar thing that Breaking Bad did, where you want to chart back everything like dominos knocking each other over. "Well if Abby killed Ellie at the theater, no one would have saved her and she would have died on that post on the beach.: "Yeah, but the only reason Abby was in that position to begin with was because Ellie couldn't leave well enough alone and murdered all of her friends." "Right, but the only reason she did that was because Abby killed Joel." "But she killed Joel since Joel killed her father." "Yep. But no one was upfront about the consequences with Joel from the onset about Ellie being a sacrificial lamb for the Fireflies." etc etc.
Welp, kinda wished I didn’t finish it. Gosh #1 was so good, the story, the actions of characters, motivations...#2 let me down. Lol guess I’m a romantic cause I thought we were going to make up with Abby. Really bummed we would fight her after she’d been tortured. Interested to see what the Boyz thought of the ending.
Yeah, in a way, this is what I want more of though. I can imagine that Neil Druckman and co., wanted to give Ellie and Abbie happier endings and fought that urge. I can't get this game out of my noggin. Similar to the first, except this one has even murkier choices. It does a similar thing that Breaking Bad did, where you want to chart back everything like dominos knocking each other over. "Well if Abby killed Ellie at the theater, no one would have saved her and she would have died on that post on the beach.: "Yeah, but the only reason Abby was in that position to begin with was because Ellie couldn't leave well enough alone and murdered all of her friends." "Right, but the only reason she did that was because Abby killed Joel." "But she killed Joel since Joel killed her father." "Yep. But no one was upfront about the consequences with Joel from the onset about Ellie being a sacrificial lamb for the Fireflies." etc etc.
I’m having trouble finding the closure of the last Abby Ellie fight. Shouldn’t Abby be coming to finish Ellie off, just a vicious vengeance cycle.
Here’s how it happens, Abby makes it to Catalina just as Lev dies of dehydration. In her desperation she finds out that Catalina is not a Firefly safe haven but another enemy compound where she is tortured and put in the hole. There she has ptsd and flashbacks of being crucified with Lev to be finally freed, but instead of water being offered it’s a fight to the death! Abby escapes after the Scars take Catalina in their island hoping strategy to spread their religion throughout the Pacific.
I just hope Abby can finish the job after she fights through the entire Jackson compound to reach a Joel Jr Dina and Ellie.
Favorite things about the game - the Jackson and Seattle settlements, even the Scars settlement was cool! I would love a game where There was an open map and I had roles or could perform side quests for those communities.
Dogs gave me the most trouble, only thing I could do was plant an ied and sneak to another area. But most of the time I was too slow for that. When a dog found me I had a hell of a time killing it.
In the end I enjoyed the game and the beauty of the game. It creeped me the fuck out a lot and had a lot of fun weapons and action. Story was a let down, but I appreciate Abby and Wolves Fireflys Scars Jackson crew and now I don’t have an affinity for any of them. If I could pick a settlement to play in I would chose wolves.
Welp, kinda wished I didn’t finish it. Gosh #1 was so good, the story, the actions of characters, motivations...#2 let me down. Lol guess I’m a romantic cause I thought we were going to make up with Abby. Really bummed we would fight her after she’d been tortured. Interested to see what the Boyz thought of the ending.
Yeah, in a way, this is what I want more of though. I can imagine that Neil Druckman and co., wanted to give Ellie and Abbie happier endings and fought that urge. I can't get this game out of my noggin. Similar to the first, except this one has even murkier choices. It does a similar thing that Breaking Bad did, where you want to chart back everything like dominos knocking each other over. "Well if Abby killed Ellie at the theater, no one would have saved her and she would have died on that post on the beach.: "Yeah, but the only reason Abby was in that position to begin with was because Ellie couldn't leave well enough alone and murdered all of her friends." "Right, but the only reason she did that was because Abby killed Joel." "But she killed Joel since Joel killed her father." "Yep. But no one was upfront about the consequences with Joel from the onset about Ellie being a sacrificial lamb for the Fireflies." etc etc.
I’m having trouble finding the closure of the last Abby Ellie fight. Shouldn’t Abby be coming to finish Ellie off, just a vicious vengeance cycle.
I mean, isn't that the closure you wanted? That Ellie, in the midst of drowning Abby, realized that nothing good has come from her revenge quest, and succumbs to try to regain her humanity by letting Abby live. Abby had already crossed that bridge when she let Ellie live in the theater. That wasn't a lesson that Ellie had learned yet, but something about that final confrontation (I think the lost fingers was what did it) snapped her back into place. There was plenty of closure for me. Despite dying to know what is going on with all, the surviving characters. We have an idea with Abby, but for Ellie, it is an open book.
Welp, kinda wished I didn’t finish it. Gosh #1 was so good, the story, the actions of characters, motivations...#2 let me down. Lol guess I’m a romantic cause I thought we were going to make up with Abby. Really bummed we would fight her after she’d been tortured. Interested to see what the Boyz thought of the ending.
Yeah, in a way, this is what I want more of though. I can imagine that Neil Druckman and co., wanted to give Ellie and Abbie happier endings and fought that urge. I can't get this game out of my noggin. Similar to the first, except this one has even murkier choices. It does a similar thing that Breaking Bad did, where you want to chart back everything like dominos knocking each other over. "Well if Abby killed Ellie at the theater, no one would have saved her and she would have died on that post on the beach.: "Yeah, but the only reason Abby was in that position to begin with was because Ellie couldn't leave well enough alone and murdered all of her friends." "Right, but the only reason she did that was because Abby killed Joel." "But she killed Joel since Joel killed her father." "Yep. But no one was upfront about the consequences with Joel from the onset about Ellie being a sacrificial lamb for the Fireflies." etc etc.
I’m having trouble finding the closure of the last Abby Ellie fight. Shouldn’t Abby be coming to finish Ellie off, just a vicious vengeance cycle.
I mean, isn't that the closure you wanted? That Ellie, in the midst of drowning Abby, realized that nothing good has come from her revenge quest, and succumbs to try to regain her humanity by letting Abby live. Abby had already crossed that bridge when she let Ellie live in the theater. That wasn't a lesson that Ellie had learned yet, but something about that final confrontation (I think the lost fingers was what did it) snapped her back into place. There was plenty of closure for me. Despite dying to know what is going on with all, the surviving characters. We have an idea with Abby, but for Ellie, it is an open book.
I don’t think it was Ellie losing her fingers that stopped her, it was the flash back of Joel on the porch which was when they started their healing (compared to the flashbacks she had been having of Joel’s beaten face that was tormenting her this whole time)
Welp, kinda wished I didn’t finish it. Gosh #1 was so good, the story, the actions of characters, motivations...#2 let me down. Lol guess I’m a romantic cause I thought we were going to make up with Abby. Really bummed we would fight her after she’d been tortured. Interested to see what the Boyz thought of the ending.
Yeah, in a way, this is what I want more of though. I can imagine that Neil Druckman and co., wanted to give Ellie and Abbie happier endings and fought that urge. I can't get this game out of my noggin. Similar to the first, except this one has even murkier choices. It does a similar thing that Breaking Bad did, where you want to chart back everything like dominos knocking each other over. "Well if Abby killed Ellie at the theater, no one would have saved her and she would have died on that post on the beach.: "Yeah, but the only reason Abby was in that position to begin with was because Ellie couldn't leave well enough alone and murdered all of her friends." "Right, but the only reason she did that was because Abby killed Joel." "But she killed Joel since Joel killed her father." "Yep. But no one was upfront about the consequences with Joel from the onset about Ellie being a sacrificial lamb for the Fireflies." etc etc.
I’m having trouble finding the closure of the last Abby Ellie fight. Shouldn’t Abby be coming to finish Ellie off, just a vicious vengeance cycle.
I mean, isn't that the closure you wanted? That Ellie, in the midst of drowning Abby, realized that nothing good has come from her revenge quest, and succumbs to try to regain her humanity by letting Abby live. Abby had already crossed that bridge when she let Ellie live in the theater. That wasn't a lesson that Ellie had learned yet, but something about that final confrontation (I think the lost fingers was what did it) snapped her back into place. There was plenty of closure for me. Despite dying to know what is going on with all, the surviving characters. We have an idea with Abby, but for Ellie, it is an open book.
I don’t think it was Ellie losing her fingers that stopped her, it was the flash back of Joel on the porch which was when they started their healing (compared to the flashbacks she had been having of Joel’s beaten face that was tormenting her this whole time)
You are probably right. As I was writing that post, I thought I recalled something else happening in that moment. But it has been a month or so since I beat it and couldn't recall what it was.
Comments
My one gripe with the game is how the characters are able to shrug off major injuries and then just walk thousands of miles through hostile terrain. Sure, you can survive getting shot in the face, penetrated by a branch, getting your fingers bitten off, multiple stab wounds, and brutal arm breaks if you can get to a functioning hospital, but none of those are injuries you can just rub some dirt on.
I do think it was a bit long. I thought for sure that after Tommy showed up and Dina was yelling at him on the porch and Ellie looked at the map....cut to black, I thought that would have been a great ending. The entire last sequence, honestly, felt like the last season of Breaking Bad and Walt fighting the Nazis. Tacking on a superfluous set of bad guys so the main character has people to kill that you do not give a shit about just to further the plot.
I ended up loving Abby. Well, love might be a bit strong but by the time I got back to the theater and I had the fight with Ellie, the first time we grappled and I found myself pounding the square button like "yeah, fuck you Ellie!" and then I caught myself. Holy shit, they got me. I certainly disagreed with some of Ellie's choices but the fact that I actually wanted some revenge for Abby's sake was impressive considering how I felt about her after she bashed Joel's brains in with the golf club.
There is so much stuff I want to say but this will end up an even more giant wall of text. I did listen to the first half of the fellas coverage of the game. I think I must have a play style closer to Jim then A.Ron. I played on normal and got my ass kicked! A lot! I related to how he said he would get himself trapped in a corner and then just surrounded by enemies. It wasn't until pretty far in the game when I realized that in most encounters, you can just run the hell away. Or through the area. I don't think one time was I holding triangle for one of the ladies to shove open a door and was interrupted by an enemy. I think if you get to that point, it usually lets you past so you can make that narrow escape. I was also too precious with my weapons. Also also, I literally did not realize until fucking Santa Barbra that if you hit x and push down, they will do a quick 180. That would have been a game changer.
One last little detail that I was glad I caught and I'm sure most people did but I haven't seen anyone mention it. Everytime the Wolves go out, they always have the exchange "May your survival be long." and "May your death be swift." Playing through the hospital level as Abby, you already know Nora's fate thanks to Ellie. Nora says to Abby for what I think they both realize is probably the last time, "May your survival be long." And Abby says "(sigh)...and may my death be swift." Did she damn Nora to a long and torturous death at the hands of Ellie??
I can't stop talking about this game. Lev rules. I think the sections with Abby and Lev were the best. And I think it's hilarious when in the middle of this...war on the island and shit's on fire everywhere and factions are killing factions and I'm trying to sneak through fighting as little of my people and as little of his his people as I can, I shoot one person in my path, while hiding by the way. One little shot from a pistol while surrounded by allllll of this chaos and magically "Hey its Abby!" As if the next line would be "I know that gunshot anywhere!"
Also, I was choking up when they were going over the prologue of the 1st game and when Neil had the actor playing Joel reshoot the scene when Joel’s daughter dies and what Neil was looking for.
Here’s how it happens, Abby makes it to Catalina just as Lev dies of dehydration. In her desperation she finds out that Catalina is not a Firefly safe haven but another enemy compound where she is tortured and put in the hole. There she has ptsd and flashbacks of being crucified with Lev to be finally freed, but instead of water being offered it’s a fight to the death! Abby escapes after the Scars take Catalina in their island hoping strategy to spread their religion throughout the Pacific.
6.5/10