This was super fun! I always wondered how Ellie patched Joel up between the time he gets injured in the base game and when we cut back to her hunting deer. Although not so satisfying a story (she just goes out to find medical supplies and eventually does after being ambushed by infected and soldiers lol), it does well to parallel the other story and display her motivations for saving Joel, that being her and Riley's relationship, and the things Riley said to her. I think they probably wanted to have a section with Ellie during the last of us so they could include some stealth and shooting sections, where the part with Ellie and Riley is before either of them have had any shooting experience. Honestly, the Ellie/Riley part had good story, boring gameplay, while the Ellie saving Joel part had good gameplay and boring story lol. There was a part at the end of the Ellie saving Joel part where it was really confusing on where to go, and then the triangle prompt was in a place I had just looked... weird stuff

There was so much charming dialogue and cute moments... I had already seen most of it in the show which probably made it hit a little less hard too! I do remember being confused when watching the show. Honestly it worked better for me here.

Going back to this game after the part II was definitely jarring in terms of the drastic shift in gameplay + graphical quality. Once I got used to it though, it felt very natural and enjoyable. I played this on hard mode and I gotta give this game credit for being the foundation for the excellent gameplay that exists in the last of us part 2.

The variety in enemies between humans and various infected types keeps encounters fresh and exciting. The low amount of resources the game gives you also helps add desperation and challenge, where you constantly have to be thinking about resource management. I usually hate games where I'm constantly searching every nook and cranny for stuff, but somehow this game made it rewarding and enjoyable? I guess because I really needed the stuff and would constantly be cycling through it. Overall great gameplay! Love the stealth mechanics, and the variety in guns/throwables is really fun. There's still a lot of hold 'x' to move this crate or help Ellie up, but a lot of these felt a lot more necessary in this game than in uncharted where Nathan drake can fucking leap and bound anywhere and everywhere. This game creates an environment where there would naturally and commonly be obstacles blocking any given path. It kinda just makes more sense in this one.

The environments that you journey through in this game are incredible to look at. There's something very attractive and compelling about destroyed cities that are slowly being reclaimed by nature. Obviously being one of the game's main themes - the helplessness of Joel and Ellie against the forces of nature is very apparent in this game. There are several puzzle sections which I generally hate that revolve around finding a slap of wood so Ellie can cross a body of water because she cannot swim. Hell, the final thing that happens to Joel and Ellie before they are found by the fireflies is getting swept away by rapids. The premise of the game really is a natural force far too powerful for humans to combat or control taking over the world... it's tragic from a human perspective and revolutionary from a 'rest of the world' perspective. An interesting thing is that Joel is also a natural force (human), and his choice to murder Marlene and the rest of the fireflies at the end of the game kind of goes in line with this? I'm not sure if this makes sense lol but it feels like something is there. Joel is a natural force too powerful for other people to control/combat?? idk kinda sounds dumb now lol.

The best thing about this game is definitely the characters and the way the story is told. I do think that the relationship between Joel and Ellie is the most interesting in the universe, and the way their characters come to care for each other over time is really believable and fun to watch. The player also grows to care for the characters at the same time with very good pacing. Some of the cutscenes feel like movies with how good the dialogue and facial animations are. There really are some great scenes - it's just a great story. I particularly enjoy Winter and the whole sequence with David. It's chilling when you discover his ulterior motives, and the scene in the restaurant where you kill him is terrifying and satisfying even when I knew exactly what was coming. Guy is just so psycho lol and then Joel coming in at the end and consoling Ellie the way he would have Sarah... it hits.

So much has been said of the ending, and I do like it because it's so subjective and while I personally think that Joel should have let Ellie be operated on, his choice to kill everyone is motivated by anger and trauma and love, and I do think that's very human and selfish and believable, and although it's tragic, I think that's what makes it a great ending. Why do I like men doing bad things out of selfishness... red flag @ me

Idk if it's a perfect game, and it's definitely not my favourite game, but I do think the story is told super well and the gameplay is amazing... very few flaws

Having played the first 3 games like 10 years ago and really enjoying them at the time, going back to this series with the 4th game was pretty exciting for me.

I really don't remember the stories of the first 3 games either, and I definitely don't think it was a particularly large factor in my enjoyment of them. I remember enjoying jumping around from building to building, and doing incredible inhuman feats of parkour. I also remember liking the gunplay, and found it challenging but rewarding generally.

I was surprised to find that this game was really weighed down by the gameplay for me, and carried by the story. I found it extremely monotonous to mash x constantly as I was traversing a mountainside or building to get to the next cookie cutter path the game had lined out for me. It also probably does about 50 'boost' moments where you simply need to position yourself and press triangle and then wait for your NPC homie to come over and help you. It's this or mash x/triangle to get to the next area. I don't mind those mashing things when they're in tense moments, but it really feels like filler in the traversal sections. That being said I really enjoyed the new rope mechanics, and the car was also fun to drive. The stealth mechanics were strange in that the enemies are really, really helpless, and I found the shooting to be quite unwieldy which isn't really a flaw. I don't really like how so many of the weapons feel so similar also. In general this game does a lot of repetition.

The story on the other hand was pretty fun and interesting. I didn't expect Sam's justification for the entire escapade to be a lie, and it paralleled well with the fact that Nathan was also in the midst of a lie to Elena. I liked that they made Nathan a flawed character who makes bad choices while also making Elena's forgiveness in him believable. Rafe was also a fun character to watch, and I particularly enjoyed his speech when he had Nathan and Sam cornered on the cliff. The whole story felt pretty cohesive and both villains were pretty terrifying and cool. It was really crazy when Nadine fights off Nathan and Sam at the same time lmao.

The game was extremely beautiful and every area was stunning (I know those two things are the same but like they're both true), but I think the game could have used a BIT more variety in environments. Felt like a lot of mountain and jungle stuff.