The controversial story event an hour or so into the game was shocking. I must say I praise this game for being brave enough to do that. I liked seeing Ellie's development near the end of the game, but otherwise I don't think the story really offered much else of long term value. Like genuinely the only thing I really cared about story wise was seeing characters interact based on that event and Ellie's new romantic relationship. Everything else was just meh to me. Like you remove the revenge narrative then all that's left feels like an after thought. That's not to say that there's absolutely nothing else of value, but it certainly wasn't as fulfilling as the first game.

Learning about why this game was made ruined even the good feelings I had towards the story, but I will not lower my rating because of that. I will keep it at my initial rating cause that's my genuine thoughts on the game.