TL;DR - I think the content of TLOU2 was fine. But the delivery of it ended up causing the game to self injure itself after a while. The game has all the potential to be a flawed masterpiece, but definitely not in its current form.
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Sorry for the wall of text. I have adult ADD and Covid isn't highly conducive to my reigning it in lately.
I am trying to work on being more concise, but I kinda always end up grasping ideas that are a little out there and often feel I need to explain how I got out there so as not to distract from discussion or make others feel like I am a troll.
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Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
So the question becomes: How did this game get so many 10/10 scores when it's clearly not as good as the original?
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Most would summarize it down to paid reviews and bias. Self contained, IMO, TLOU2 had all the elements necessary to be a flawed masterpiece. But in its current state, I agree with many that I cannot consider it to be a masterpiece as many reviewers had stated and I cannot agree with many reviewers it is the best game of the generation/PS4.
ND was selective in who they rolled out the initial copies to. They probably selected people better aligned with their... approach and thought process which would be the bias part.
The payment claims aren't as obvious, but basically, being in ND's good graces so that the reviewers could get early access was kinda a form of payment (ie: Clicks from videos, blogs, interviews etc.). So if the reviewers reviewed well, they likely could get access again, but if not, they would be black listed by ND.
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In a different direction, I'd like to parallel Druckmann and Hideo Kojima.
I get that many really didn't get the concept of Death Stranding and thought it was stupid. But I followed the launch closely and it had a fantastic reddit thread about it (unlike the dirty angry reddit cesspools for many other games). Yes, Kojima has a reputation for being a video game bad boy/overrated and being self obsessed and making claims like, "I want to try and create a new genre, but I'm unsure how it will be received and I am sure it will be controversial", but even he didn't make comments like Druckmann like, "I cried through a second play through" or "I want gamers to passionately love it or hate it" which to me sounded like pure self masturbation. I can't pinpoint the difference, but I didn't hate Kojima's approach, but Druckmann's approach rubbed me the wrong way constantly. I wasn't sure I was reading too far into that tweet by Druckmann before the game's release, but I think in hindsight, my hunch is correct.
There's a lot of talk that Druckmann and some other individual at ND pushed a special SJW agenda. TBH, I didn't really feel the SJW part actually distracted from the game at all. But something definitely did go sideways in terms of what they wanted to achieve story telling wise and many blame Druckmann for that. I also agree that less would have been more. I did read a user comment that said something along the lines of, "When all the characters are sock puppets with messages, it makes to much noise and you start noticing the puppet master rather than the sock puppets or the messages." I can agree with that.
There's also the comments about how many reviewers hated how the game progressed, but understood it by the end. Unless I'm mistaking what they were hinting at, I can't help but think they're grasping at straws or exhibiting something akin to Stockholm syndrome. There is no way that this game should be this deeply loved in its current state as it exhibits issues in story telling should have disappeared from the industry even before TLOU1. I have no issues that Druckmann wanted to push narrative in TLOU2. His content was fine, not what I would have done, but his delivery, not content was the problem.
The alternate character side of the story wan't bad, but when we already know the end story from playing the game up to day 3 from Ellie's perspective, this obviously just turns into a huge side quest feeling thing from the get go. That's shooting yourself in the foot. It either should have been in the opposite order, or both stories better intertwined. Or, reveal the end story from the alternate character's side, not Ellie's.
For me at least, I felt that the story telling issues dropped the game from an overall 8.5-9.0/10 to around a 7.0/10. It's mind boggling that the game was so messy by the end and that the game kept self spoiling its own plot which frustrated the experience at the end and turned 10 ish hours of game play into a side quest/drag. This shouldn't happen at all. Shuffling the order would have made that 10 hours worth while and logical. Not pointless and dreary.
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I forget which older game had a feature where you could play the game with a re-ordered chapter set up (I want to say beyond two souls, but don't quote me). I think TLOU2 would benefit immensely from something like that. I hope they consider adding it in as an update or something.
The game ends in a manner that heavily hints at a DLC/sequel. I really hope it happens and the DLC can address the major problems with the way this game was delivered.