Spoiler Warning. In case the title wasn’t clear, this post contains spoilers for the plot of The Last Of Us Part 2. I’ve just started the game so please don’t spoil anything further for me, feel free to discuss thoughts on the early game in the comments.
I recently bought The Last Of Us Part 2 and I’d heard about what happens to Joel early in the game. I avoided any sort of gameplay footage so I didn’t know exactly how it happened. I’d heard that an important character had divided the gaming community about the game because of this decision that the developers made so early in the game.
My opinion is that that particular cutscene was nonsense.
It was built up that the new character (Abby) was hunting for someone which with prior knowledge I could assume it was Joel. Abby then leaves her team and is attacked by a massive swarm of zombies, lucky for her Joel is there to help with his brother (Tommy). Together they ride on horseback to what Abby says is a safe place. At the house where Abby’s group has made their base the two heroes introduce themselves just for suspicious looks from the group before Abby shoots Joel to take out his legs, then proceeds to beat him with a golf club.
So she did what she wanted, got the man she was after which makes sense. The bit that doesn’t make sense is that the player isn’t shown any signs of hesitation from her, no matter what fuelled her hatred there should have been some inner debate because the man had just saved her life. It turns Abby from being an interestingly motivated new character into a merciless villain as there’s no explanation other than that she must be connected to an old enemy Joel had. The fact that this scene is so sudden in its change ruins Abby very quickly.
Ellie arrives as a part of everything that happens and is kicked a bit but left alive, as is Tommy. Why would anyone take the risk that someone may potentially try to avenge the man that’s just been brutally murdered? The idiots leave both of them alive, allowing the pursuit that the game follows.
I get what it was going for but it had more of an “eh” than a “No!” sort of impact. It looked confusing more than anything.
This is a new style of post for me, I may not do more like it if it doesn’t get some discussion in comments as that’s what I’m sharing this for. Please let me know your thoughts.
LBcreative 