There's so much I could say about this game, and it did, indeed, teach me a lot. Perhaps I could talk about how drummed-up controversies affect our perception of games, perhaps I could talk about how expectations of "uh it's Oscarbait AAA stuf it's going to be 'good' standard good great even" can make things seem less appealing - after all if you know something is just boilerplate good, then you know, why bother?

I could talk about the modern 2 hour video essay, how they serve often to give a person a wikipedia summary of a game and prepackaged opinions so they can take part in Discourse. I can talk about people complaining about emotional manipulation, about The Gamer Struggles, about all that.

None of it matters in the face of the primacy of experience. Of going through a massive work of art like this yourself. How did this get made. How did this get made with a AAA budget. How is it twice the length of The Last of Us One. How is it all killer no filler. How does it manage to tell a story of such violence, emotional vulnerability, and depth. I don't know. People and the discourse around it could not tell me.

A masterpiece. Play it if you liked the first game. Play the first game to play this game. This will be an enduring, all-time classic.