Having cooled on TLOU in my most recent replay I wanted to revisit the sequel and see if my feelings changed at all. I originally rated this game a 3/5 and that was primarily due to the weak narrative.

To be clear, I don't think the story is bad because they killed Joel. I think Joel got what he deserved and I think reckoning with the consequences of the first game is super important. It's a bold choice and I'm glad they took the risk. The problem is, I'm forced to play through 10+ hours of Ellie's revenge quest before switching perspectives and the pacing of that just sucks. I don't really care about avenging Joel in the first place and systematically killing everyone involved is pretty fun gameplay wise but tiring story wise.

This could have easily been solved by switching back and forth between Abby and Ellie. It's not hard. They do it in the beginning and they telegraph the switch back to Abby. So why delay it so long? I firmly believe the story would have been way better off swapping back and forth. When you do switch back to Abby, I'm not surprised or anything (I mean, obviously since I've already played it once). It is more a feeling of relief. Abby's section is way more fun. The setpieces are better, Abby and Lev are more likeable characters than Ellie, and it only feels like it drags toward the end because Ellie's section in the beginning is so damn long.

Then, switching back to Ellie and seeing her throw away everything she has just to go after revenge again is a big no for me dog. I really don't believe Ellie would actually make that decision, and the climactic fight against Abby is one of the worst parts of the game to me. At least she does let her go in the end, but what a waste. I understand what the story is trying to do, I really do. I just don't find it compelling in the least.

If I'm shitting on the story this much then why did my rating improve? Freed from the burden of paying attention and caring about the story, the combat is even more fun. Especially against zombies. New game plus means you can ignore a lot more of the looting slowdown in each area, so I flew through Ellie's part as fast as I could to get back to Abby's part. What a ride. I love all the setpieces in the back half of the game, especially the ascent and descent of the skyscraper down to the hospital. Fighting just feels so fantastic and visceral. Hard to feel bad about killing folks when killing folks is so fun. Even the epilogue is great when I set aside the shitty narrative. The combat really kicks up a notch and it's a real highlight of gameplay until the final fight.

All in all, I prefer this game to TLOU. The first game has a rock solid, moving narrative but it doesn't do anything original. This game at least takes a ton of risks. Many of those risks don't pan out, but enough of them do. I applaud the willingness to not play it safe. Most importantly, the gameplay is fun as hell. It's still slowed way down by looting and it has all the typical Naughty Dog BS when you try to do anything other than what they intend, but overall it's a blast. Glad I revisited it.