I just finished it and am desperate for some non-woke discussion(you'll likely have issues with any reviews you read/listen to due to the "wokeness"). I was thinking I'd kick off a Spoilers thread seperate for thems who havent played yet.

For a non spoilers I'd say it was a worthwhile play through and I'll play through again. I prefer the first game story wise. If you are worried about the SJW associations with the game I think it will only bother you if you want it to. I like the game play mechanics very much. I'll put my story feelings in a spoiler thread.

I am a little late to the party as I usually am with media in general but I just finished Last Of Us II.

I am a video game player from the way back times when Pac Man ruled the Atari 2600 and nobody wanted to be the big red bomber plane in COMBAT. That said I am not a GAMER!!!! in hard core terms of Pwning Noobs on COD or spending every waking minute gaming etc. I have however played a great many games in my life and a few of them, not a lot mind you, but a few have left a mark on me. The Last of Us was one of those games.

The original Last of Us was hard game for me to start/play because I had just had a daughter. Spoilers aside its a rough first act and overall theme in that regard, but a wonderful one with wonderful characters, messages etc. Truly an amazing experience if you have never played it.

So how about the much anticipated sequel. Well we all know it was mired in controversy both with how certain characters progress as well as the political / woke overtones associated with it. So how does it play out for real in my opinion.

Well lets get the elephant in the room out first. There are political/woke overtones to be sure. They are, however, not quite as heavy handed as you are lead to believe, IMO. Ellie being gay was never an issue in the first nor, IMO is it an issue here and I found her relationship one of the more endearing, well written things about this game. Its some of the other stuff that tries to interject itself but overall don't worry so much about the SJW aspect of the game as its not as pervasive as you may believe.

The high points of the game are as follows.
-It is a beautiful game. Great set design, great animation, great mood great world building. Its just technically a very good game and frankly that is what you should expect from Naughty Dog.

-The music, the sound design in general for that matter is incredibly well done. Wonderfully atmospheric and goes a long way to bringing you into the story.

-The gameplay, while dated, is still fun and builds a sense of stress, anticipation and fosters different play styles. Its a fun game IF you like games of this sort. If not it will be an exercise in tedium for you. This is NOT a run and gun experience, although when it is, its pretty fun.

-The little things. Good lord there is so much attention to detail regarding the little things. The footprints in beach sand, water falling on your character, fire, it just goes on and on. It doesn't approach Red Dead 2's obsessive compulsive level of detail but damn its impressive the amount of time that was spent on the little things and those little things, however subconsciously add to the experience greatly.

-The game is still as visceral and violent in "SOMEWHAT" more realistic terms. It fits the bleak narrative and world well.

-The LITTLE stories in the game. The ones told through side missions, letters, notes, items/corpses etc. in the world. If taken the time to seek these out, read them, experience they are pretty wonderful and do a ton to flesh out the world. Very Fallout esqe in this regard. Don't marathon the game, savor the small stuff.

How about the MEH....
-The "open world" areas are largely meh, set dressing and boring. They should have either been cut for brevity or expanded greatly IMO.

-The mechanics of the game. Its a survival horror game and I understand that certain mechanics are necessary to build tension etc. but how many of you have actually BROKEN a crowbar..... EVER......much less every twenty minutes or so? How about a fire axe? Also its the end of the world and I get we cannot carry an armory of weapons and gear but I feel like I could muster the effort to carry more then a single Glock 19 magazine of ammo at a given time or a handful of rifle rounds, but like I said its a survival horror and interjecting more "realisim" would take some of the horror/tenseness out of the game. I get it, I just don't like it.

-THOSE GODDAMN DOGS!!!!!!!

How about the bad....
-The story is a MESS!!!! I get where they were going and I don't necessarily have an issue with the core idea but its implementation is a MESS. There are just SOOOOOO many little issues and areas of the "story" that just either don't make sense, don't give the player any control or simply have plot holes galore. Combine this with an ending sequence that is so full of WTF that would have NEVER Happened how it did given the character development up to that point. The point is the story is pretty much a mess especially compared to the first game.

-The Characters.....there are soooooo few likeable characters in this game, even previously likeable characters are no longer so. Frankly I liked Dina, Jessie and Joel.......I think that is it. Its hard to spend a fairly long game full of unlikeable characters.

-The message. I won't get into it, but the message of the game has been told time and time again and frankly as I said above was told poorly in this game. The first game was all about redemption, true love and making hard decisions for those you love while coming to terms with your own losses, sins and inadequacies. The Last of Us I really had a lot of wonderful themes at play. This one............yeah not so much. Its kind of a slog to the end.

So is it complete shit??? NO far from it. Its an extremely well crafted game in many ways and certainly worth the play through if games such as this are your bag. The problem is from a thematic, emotional standpoint its simply a pale imitation of the first game and that is what made me sad in the end.

So for $60-$70 bucks.......HARD PASS. For $20-$25 bucks......give it a go, its a good game at this price.

So now its on to either finishing the METRO games or Ghosts of Tsushima which at the rate I go I should be finished sometime around 2026

Take care, shoot safe,
Chris