Whether this game is Vindicated by History depends GREATLY on what happens with the next Last of Us game. One of my least favorite phrases is \"It\'s the journey that matters, not the destination\" mainly because I have NEVER heard that argument said in such a way that wasn\'t being said in a condescending manner but another reason is that, the destination is arguable the most important part of the Journey. Hamlet ends with most of the cast dead including the lead character, Romeo and Juliet ends with the two leads dead and The Last of Us Part 1 ended with Joel kidnapping Ellie and refusing to let her do the one thing she wanted.
And yet, there are VERY few people who take issue with these choices with many even seeing them as satisfying conclusions. By contrast Mass Effect will forever be haunted by how it\'s series ended, Rise of Skywalker ended so badly that the rumors that Disney is going to reboot their half of Star Wars has begun to gain a lot more traction and the Godfather Part 3 is still seen as a story that hurts the other two films simply because it exists.
I\'m not saying that will happen with The Last of Us when we get to Part 3 but Part 3 NEEDS to be great and make good use of the first two parts that wraps up the whole story.
One issue I have with TLOU 2 is that it rather unfairly tries to get us to side with Abby over Ellie almost to the point where I wonder if someone at Naughty Dog hates her character or something. At the end of the game she\'s lost her surrogate father, her lover has seemingly left her with their child, her best friend is dead, the last time she sees her surrogate uncle ends in an argument and she lets her father\'s killer go.
Abby loses a lot too but the issue I have with it is that the game rather unfairly sides with Abby. We\'re suppose to see Ellie killing Abby\'s friends as her crossing a line but Every Single One of Abby\'s friends that Ellie personally kills is all in an act of self defense and she\'s horrified by what she\'s done.
All of them had a chance of living had they only lied to Ellie about where Abby was or had just shown Ellie that Mel was pregnant. They all brought what happened on themselves and yet the game tries to frame it like Ellie is in the wrong and Abby is in the right.
And it\'s not like Abby is a terrible character but the way she killed Joel, after he risked his life to save her, and how she sleeps with Owen who\'s in a relationship with Mel, who\'s caring his child, and her line \"We let you lived and you Wasted it!\"
It\'s really the best way to get us to like her or her friends. I like her relationship with Lev but and again and I don\'t think she\'s as bad as some fans make her out to be but those moments I just mentioned are to big for fans to overlook.
At the time of this writing She-Ra and the Princesses of Power just ended and that show, spoilers, ended with the two leads, Catra and Adora, ending up together romantically. But before that Catra was the series main antagonist and who was such a toxic person that Adora had to cut her out of her life in order to break the cycle of abuse. But even before her heel-face turn Catra was still showed that she was cable of being a good person who cared for others but was so blinded by her hatred that she couldn\'t see that hurting those she loved was hurting her.
So, yes, Catra was a conqueror who emotionally abused those close to her but still, IMO, comes off as more likeable and symptomatic then Abby. And the show doesn\'t give Catra any special treatment despite being a creators and fan favorite, she loses as often as she wins and the show calls her out on her toxic behavior and highlights that was she does to others and herself is wrong.
Abby in TLOU 2 almost shows no real signs that she regrets her killing Joel while Ellie is terrified by what she\'s done and what she\'s becoming. The deck is unfairly stacked against Ellie and if you need to knocked down one character in favor of another that\'s not a good thing.
However, these are just my opinions and I\'m honestly not even that big of a fan of TLOU 1. I think it\'s a great game but it\'s not one of my all time favorites so I\'m honestly not as bothered by Joel\'s death and I can see why TLOU 2 played out the way it did. But how TLOU 2 is seen down the line depends greatly on what Part 3 does. If it continues the story of Ellie and Abby then it NEEDS to find a way to make BOTH characters work that DOESN\'T favor one over the other. Just my opinion.
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I'm Embarrassed and Disappointed in Myself (New Game Plus Thoughts)
In my initial review, I expressed my mixed-to-positive thoughts on the game. The gameplay mechanics and visuals were excellent, and my thoughts on these elements have not changed. I have completed New Game+, however, and I wanted to write a follow-up to express how much my views on the game's story has changed.
The mistake I made on my first playthrough was thinking the story would follow Ellie in a straightforward adventure. While I knew that Ellie was not innocent, I also felt that she and Joel drove the center of the series' heart. The sequel, however, asks gamers to look into the perspectives of otherwise traditional adversaries, and the biases I developed not just from TLOU but the games medium as a whole drove much of my initial dislike for Abby.
Roger Ebert once stated that games are not art because they must always put "fun" above everything else. In other words, games don't often ask players to deal with hard story points that sacrifice fulfillment for greater impact. Having played the game again, I realize that much of my initial feelings were driven from a lack of comfort in the risks the story took, and I'm embarrassed for the ignorance I illustrated in my initial review.
The narrative is by no means perfect. There are a few contrivances in the later stages of the game, and my complaints on the pacing still stand. However, playing the game again made Ellie's crimes and Abby's gradual Heel–Face Turn more apparent in a way it did not when I still had the biases from the first game. What I once saw in Abby's backstory as "insincere" and "dishonest" was a deliberate and careful request for gamers to see beyond traditional biases in games. Long story short, I now appreciate the writers' risks, and I love the game for it now, but I can see how players can get upset with the game's plot.
Ultimately, your enjoyment comes down to three questions.
If you said no to any of these questions, then this game is not for you. Having given it a fresh look with NG+, however, I have come around to loving this game, and I can see this game's overall approaches to the narrative being Vindicated by History.