TLOU2

 

In my opinion The Last of Us 2 is a fantastic game with a drastic improvement on the gameplay utilizing the capabilities of the newer systems. The story continues on from the previous instalment which imo is one of the greatest games of all time, however many people feel as though part 2 is very lackluster in the story department for many reasons, some of which I do agree with to a certain extent as you start to feel with how long they worked on this game the plot would be a bit better. 

To start of within at least the first hour of playing the game 'SPOILER ALERT' one
of the main characters in fact I'd say the face of the series, Joel Miller who you play as in the first game as you battle through with Ellie is brutally tortured and killed after revealing his identity to a group of people we the player have never met before. My first gripe with this along with many other people is that Joel in the first game was never the type of person especially in an apocalyptic world to go and reveal who he is to someone who he'd just met, especially with his past actions so for him to just go and do something so out of character made it a less immersive experience as it felt like they just wanted to kill off Joel without a real reason that didn’t fit his character at all. Additionally as you progress through the game you don’t only play as Ellie (Joel’s daughter figure) you end up switching at certain points to control Abby the woman that killed Joel at the start which many fans didn’t take too positively considering how large of a PlayStation exclusive icon Joel was, now all of a sudden NaughtyDog expects us to resonate with this character Abby and look at everything from her point of view. 

Additionally I believe another reason why there was and still is so much controversy surrounding this game is because Joel the white male and once lead character was given such a diminished role and instead the central focus was more on the women, Ellie and Abby and their personal goals. Since the first games’ DLC it’s been evident Ellie identifies as a lesbian and in Part 2 this is definitely built upon as we see her relationship with supporting character Dina develop as the story progresses. I think showcasing this relationship is good for gaming as a whole as we're too used to seeing the general male and female relationship with the male lead taking charge of everything, LOU2 is a breath of fresh air offering this visible LGBT representation you don't often see in these triple A games. 

As a last point I think the antagonist Abby is extremely important as most talk about her comes from her appearance as her character is a lot more built and muscular compared to the way women in other media are portrayed which I think enforces her antagonist role a lot more and is a great shift from social norms which I think more companies should try and involve themselves in. As you go more into the story and play as Abby and you find out the reason she had such a hatred for Joel and wanted him dead was because her father was a man Joel killed in the past obviously without knowing because in the time of an apocalypse many killings take place and there is no realization that these are all still people with families and going through their own hardships to get out of their own situation. Obviously not everyone will accept this and think Joel's death is justifiable but I think the reasoning behind it really opens your eyes in terms of the deeper meaning of the game and how the killing will never really stop if everyone is just constantly looking for revenge/redemption which the two characters Ellie and Abby realize at the end and end their fighting before any more killing takes place and go their separate ways. I personally think between the two games the story telling is fantastic and while I am still bothered about the death of Joel it does fit in well with the story the developers wanted to tell.