First off, I want to start off by saying this games story is ass, this killed my love for Naughty Dog to bring us any kind of competent or amazing story in their future, "Let's tell of a story of how revenge is bad by killing off Joel in the first 30 minutes of the game giving him next to NO SCREEN TIME in that 30 minutes, have Ellie be held down watching the scene unfold like holding down Guts to watch his lover get assaulted and murdered and pretty much for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON LET HER LIVE and be like "Nah, we got Joel, there ain't no way she'll be comin after us." To which Ellie sets out on this grand adventure to Seattle, Let's have her kill just about everyone in her way accompanied by her girlfriend (who is not important) who knows she is pregnant or at the very least late for her period (Which should at the very least make you have some type of caution ESPECIALLY IN AN APOCOLYPSE) but just says "Nah, I love Ellie and I'll do anything, even put my unborn baby at risk for the sake of her vengeance" So they murder about the entire population of Seattle (Infected or Not) while being Hellbent on finding Abby (The ugly looking chick with huge badass muscles. Yeah her face is ugly don't give me that ♥♥♥♥) Killing her friends along the way of trying to find her. (One who is SUPER pregnant and DEMANDS to be on the front lines of battle (Her death is absolutely deserved and I felt nothing when Ellie ends up killing her, I'm really supposed to feel bad for murdering a Pregnant chick who wanted to be in battle in the first place? Yeah sorry, I was more saddened killing dogs.) Characters are just randomly killed off in this game (Main Ones By The Way) and never spoken of again. (Great character building there Neil Cuckman) You end up not really caring ESPECIALLY by this games ONE AND ONLY ending where Ellie finally has her cornered, she finally has her chance to end it all, Killing off Abby and finally finishing her vengeance journey, Then all the sudden during the QTE Sequence... She has a flashback of Joel... then says "Go, Just Go..." Followed by her sobbing, and weeping... then she goes back to where her and Dina were staying with their newborn baby... then finds her gone... she leaves, defeated, broken, and nothing like the Ellie we knew and loved... and the credits ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ roll... Sure people do change in the future, and I absolutely imagine Ellie had a tremendous change after watching Joel get murdered before her eyes, the only Father Figure she really had in her life during all the apocalypse, dead before her eyes... and because she learns the true meaning of Christmas, she just let's Abby go. And by the way Abby shows ZERO remorse or concern after she murders Joel by the way, she was hellbent dragging her ♥♥♥♥♥♥ group of people across multiple places, allowing a pregnant woman to join the fight, two timing her with her boyfriend, and going through the flashbacks with her she gets to play with dogs, pet them, be kind to people, THEY REALLY want to manipulate you into liking Abby, And I'm sorry, WHEN YOU MAKE US WATCH A MAIN CHARACTER THAT WE GREW TO KNOW AND LOVE (despite all of the signs at the end of TLOU Part 1 showing he was Selfish, Angry, and Completely hellbent on having Ellie be his surrogate daughter figure since his died in the beginning in a very emotional scene at the start of TLOU Part 1.) Most people aren't going to just instantly be like "Ohh Abby good character, I love Abby, YAY ABBY" The only relationship of hers I liked was the one where she met up with Lev and that other character I couldn't remember the name of. It started to seem a little like the last of us again (only 15-18 hours ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ later) And the final thing I need to address about the story is this... WHY WOULD YOU ONLY EXPLAIN WHY ABBY DID WHAT SHE DID... 15-17 HOURS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ LATER AFTER SHE MURDERED JOEL?!) One big thing that could have saved this games story if it was just Rearranged. If we got to start the game like normal, And once we start playing as Abby and she starts looking at Jackson from a distance we could be like "Ohh interesting, why is she looking for Jackson? Does she know someone there? Is she looking to hurt someone, or find someone who went missing? Who knows, but now I am Interested." Then we get to experience a few flashbacks learning about her character, learning about her group and friends (Despite them being unlikeable or just not important at all) Learning about her past and learning who her father was? Then when you hit us in the face with that (what was supposed to be) shocking death of Joel, and we are there asking "WHY?! WHY?!" You then hit us with the flashback of Abby, in the hospital after Joel escapes with Ellie, Letting us feel her pain and anguish and why she was hellbent on looking for revenge, THEN playing as Ellie and Abby respectively through their adventures leading up to their ultimate "climatic" battle with that ♥♥♥♥ ending OR BETTER YET, how about giving us two ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ choices?! Would it have been so hard to at least have two endings that could satisfy both parties? No... The story you made and the lesson you chose to teach us was this... "Revenge is Evil... But only for the character we wanted it to be bad for, Not for Abby" who brutally murdered Joel, and felt absolutely ZERO remorse over the death, not even a hint of regret, or an acknowledgment of dialogue where she could have at least said "Is this what MY father would have wanted?" NOTHING just Niel Cuckman going "AbBy GoOd ChARaCteR, LoVE HEr NoW!" That is all I'm going to say about the story, It's trash, and I never want to see it after I finish my entire playthrough of this... BUT THERE IS A CHRONOLOGICAL MODE!!! The damage was already done, it doesn't matter to me anymore...

However, What I inevitably got this game for was it's absolutely brutal combat, The gore in this game is gruesome, People screaming when their hands get blown off, blood splattering on the ground and the walls, Abby and her muscular form absolutely pummeling people with her fist (I refuse to pick up any melee weapons as Abby, it's too funny watching her punch throats and stomping skulls) The ragdolls when shot and killed with their respective weaponry all feel good and satisfying to watch happen, Burning people alive with molotovs, the infected and living enemies fighting each other in some arenas, The Shambler was kinda cool, but pretty easy to fight when they are by themselves or have two of them. The new Cult faction is pretty interesting (Not story wise) but to fight them they are. And because I have this (apparently) rare condition in my brain that allows me to deter Fiction from Reality, I can enjoy violent combat and realize, it's not real life I'm watching and I shouldn't just go out and do said things to random people on the streets like unfortunately most of the world does anyway. Exploration is still kinda fun, but there are clearly buildings just there for you to walk in and literally do absolutely nothing in and that gets ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying pretty quick.

Overall this game is an absolute mixed bag for me, The obvious problem is the story and what a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ jumbled mess it is, They didn't make me want to care about Abby and her crew of degenerates, I didn't wait 7+ years to play as Abby, I only wanted to see where Ellie, Joel, and the rest of the crew was going to end up. I expected Joel's End... But not like this, not in the first 30 minutes making all my motives for completing the story just not there, Instead only looking forward to blowing stuff up and violently murdering people or infected in my way, or not even in my way where I would just go out of MY way to go murder them. This is what broke the back of Naughty Dog for me, Uncharted games were amazing, Jak and Daxter were a lot of fun, TLOU Part I was very very good... and TLOU Part II... Just made me realize the direction most companies were going to start heading with their franchises stories.