MAJOR SPOILERS

First of all, let me just say that I think this game is brilliant; it’s daring, it’s ambitious (maybe a bit too ambitious) and is worthy of standing alongside the original (even though I still prefer the original). The gameplay genuinely improves upon its predecessor, it looks incredible and you certainly get your money’s worth.
Some of the criticisms I’ve seen are accurate: it’s not a perfect game and it’s not a perfect story. There are parts of the game where the story gets a bit stale, the endless amount of looting and exploration really drags the whole thing out even more than it needed to and there are some story beats and character moments that I didn’t think were particularly well executed or just didn’t peak my interest/investment the way it intended.
It should also be said that for a game that tries to say something about senseless violence (and in particular senseless violence in video games), the message of anti-violence becomes a bit muddled when the game literally forces you to commit horrifically violent acts throughout the game.
What I want to do in this review though, is to discuss my opinion on the themes of the story, the character development of the two leads and in particular, the ending and a certain character’s death which a surprising number of people took offence to and/or completely missed the point of.

It makes perfect sense for Ellie to spare Abby’s life in the final fight. This game is not only a tale about the futility and self-destructive path of seeking revenge, it’s also about perspective and empathy. The game isn’t exactly asking you to like Abby (and her campaign does go on slightly longer than it needed to), but what her story does is at least get you to understand her. You understand her motivations and empathise with her. Her story is there to imply that her and Ellie are not so different. Both Ellie and Abby lost father figures (Abby quite literally lost a dad), both of their lovers left them because of their obsession with revenge, the people they cared about either ended up dead or hurt, both fought against organisations that weren’t as ‘evil’ as they initially thought and they lost the peaceful lives they wanted to have all because they let their vengeance consume them. The only difference is that most of Abby’s campaign is about her trying to redeem herself by protecting Yara and Lev and eventually forming a relationship with Lev that mirrors that of Joel and Ellie’s from the first game. But in both cases, their need to have vengeance hacks away at their humanity.
Heck, the opening scene with Joel playing that Pearl Jam song to Ellie literally tells you what’s going to happen: “If I ever were to lose you, I’d surely lose myself”. Ellie realises this before she is about to kill Abby, she realises that killing her would solve nothing and in fact would destroy the very last piece of her soul. I think it’s also possible that she realises that if she kills Abby, Lev would probably want revenge and come after Ellie, and thereby giving way to another endless cycle of violence. I think it’s a well realised character arc, and one that I totally get behind.

By the time the final fight had come around, I actually wanted to put down the controller and refuse to fight Abby cause I realised they are both victims of someone’s else’s selfish and destructive behaviour and I was over the moon that Ellie came to this realisation, too.
Joel is the reason for most of this happening and he’s certainly not the good-hearted dad that people seem to think he is. He might think the world of Ellie, but he has done some truly despicable things. I like Joel as a character a lot and I completely get why he does what he does, but there is a small part of me that knows he had it coming to him and it was only a matter of time before his anger and bitterness caught up with him.

The more I think about this game upon reflection, the more I like it. The fact that it’s being so fervently and passionately discussed among people is a fantastic thing and helps video games be taken more seriously as an art form. It gave me a whole new appreciation for it and I realise the creators put a lot of thought into giving this sequel a reason to exist and a new story to tell. This is their vision and this is what they wanted to say. They could’ve taken the most easiest and safest route and tell another Joel and Ellie adventure, but that would’ve been pure fan service and not leave it’s players with anything to think about. Not to mention it would’ve completely defeated the purpose of this series, which is to explore the morality of the human condition and make us realise that not everything is as black or white as it seems.