This game is literally amazing. I've seen so many people complain about the story or the second half of the game, but I personally loved it all. I will admit when I first started the Abby segment, I was frustrated and wanted to get back to Ellie. But after the first hour of her section, I stopped wishing I was playing as Ellie and it made Abby's section almost as enjoyable to me as Ellie's part. By the time I finished her section, I genuinely cared about Abby and her motivations. Just throw away your bias towards Ellie at the start of Abby's part and accept that you're playing as her for the foreseeable future and it makes the game so much better. Naughtydog somehow made me care about Abby and I applaud them for that. Don't believe what people say about the game having a bad story or terrible second half. The game is about revenge, and it perfectly captures that theme throughout. I was gut wrenched during all the heavy moments. Just play the game because it's amazing.
Now I want to go over some negative things people have said about the game, SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE ON OUT
People say Joel's death was rushed and too early, but you have an entire game where you play as him and explore his character and growth. Besides, the entire story of the game is centered around Ellie's revenge quest, so Joel has to die relatively early. And even with an early death, he comes back a decent number of times in flashbacks, which was pretty nice to see.
People argue Ellie's immunity wasn't important in this game, and that's pretty true. But I don't see that as a flaw. Ellie's immunity was one of the most important parts of the first game. It was what led the entire story of taking her to the fireflies. But following the ending where Joel kills the doctor and takes Ellie, her immunity has no impact on the rest of the world. Because the game says that the only surgeon capable of making a vaccine is now dead, so I don't see a way that they could've made her immunity a large part of the story without counteracting the ending of the first game.
A lot of people also don't like the game because of the "agenda" that they claim was forced down their throats. There's a lesbian couple and a trans character. So what? It's not even like they're forced on you. Lev's whole thing about being trans isn't even his biggest character trait. It is briefly mentioned because the main focus is on his conflicted ideals of being a seraphite. Dina and Ellie are a couple. It's not forced down your throat. They just happen to be lesbian. And if you genuinely don't like the game because both of the main characters are women, then grow up.
Another thing is people feel that the game is too dark and doesn't have enough happy moments. Again that's not a flaw. The main theme is revenge and its cost. So obviously loss is ever-present throughout the game. That's to be expected. Characters die because they get roped into Abby and Ellie's conflict, which just further presents the theme.
People don't like Abby and feel that she is a pure villain. She is literally doing exactly what Ellie is doing. She hunted and murdered Joel for killing her father, exactly what Ellie does right after. If anything Abby is more humane because she didn't kill Ellie or Tommy, whereas Ellie killed everyone. I get having resentment towards her for killing Joel, but by the end of her section I didn't want her to be killed by Ellie because you see the parallels between them and how Abby is as justified as Ellie. In my opinion, people who got to the end of the game still hating Abby and wanting her dead ignored the story and character development of her section just to get back to playing as Ellie. People also say that her and her father are monsters for trying to kill Ellie for the vaccine, but that's dumb. The vaccine would have saved millions and Ellie literally says multiple times, that she wished they had done it.
People say that Joel's death marks the end of "good guys" and that after that all the characters are bad guys. Joel isn't a good guy. He's selfish throughout the first game, and stops the fireflies from making the vaccine. I feel that it was the right choice, but objectively it is selfish. And even if it does mark the end of the good guys, that's also kind of the point. Ellie isn't meant to be a good guy. She is on a murder quest to kill Abby and her friends. Abby was on a murder quest for Joel.
And some people say that you cut between Ellie and Abby too much? And that you're constantly having one persons story interrupted by the others. But that's just not true. You have the very start as Ellie to introduce characters and concepts, then the first swap to Abby pretty early to also introduce characters and concepts. I'm not completely sure, but you maybe go back and forth at this point 3 times just to show Ellies patrols and Abby finding Joel. But the story was not nearly developed enough to where a switch would interrupt plots (especially since their stories cross over at this point). After that you play the full three days as Ellie, then switch and play the full three days as Abby. Its one swap in like 15 hours of gameplay, and its to show what the two characters are doing during the same time period. Then you get Ellie at the farm for a very brief time showing what happened after Seattle and setting the foundation for Ellie's revenge messing up her life with Dina. Then you swap to Abby just to show that they made it to Santa Barbara and show them getting captured. Then back to Ellie for the rest of the game as she searches for Abby. I count 7 total switches. The last section of Abby in Santa Barbara before getting caught maybe wasn't totally necessary, but I also don't think its inclusion worsened the experience. Overall, this just really isn't true unless its about the chronological version of the story, but you're meant to play the original first anyways.
