Throughout the early parts of the game, playing as Ellie, you come across a lot of seemingly insignificant non-infected enemies who have names. Like when you stealth kill one in an area, another enemy will call out to them.
Initially I thought, "huh, that's a cool little detail". Because you don't see that in big games like this that have a lot of killable NPC's. They're cardboard cutouts for you to grind through until the "boss" at the end, right?
When you get to Abby's story it becomes crystal clear why. Obviously, the reveal that Abby is the daughter of the doctor Joel kills is shocking enough. But you also follow Abby through the WLF camp, and you are forced to confront many of the characters you killed as Ellie.
Cue the shocking realization of what ND are attempting and then me setting my controller down and putting my face in my hands. The game isn't about Ellie or Abby. It's about me. It's about you. The gamer. What do you think of this? Are you willing to put your own biases and/or love for Joel and Ellie aside for a moment and understand the consequences of their actions? Are you willing to confront your own?
I mean, any game is ultimately about the gamer in one way or another, but TLOUII plays with that in a different way. It forces you into disagreeable or uncomfortable scenarios that make you question the characters, and maybe yourself if you are open to it. Perhaps there are other games that do this too, I just haven't played many of them. Off the top of my head, Assassin's Creed III or Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons have elements similar to this.
The game isn't trying to punish you or be deceitful like many people seem to be crying about. It is offering you perspectives of different characters, and allowing you the gamer to project all of your biases onto them.
It's a perfect foil to the first game, which is a singular and emotional ride that keeps you basically in the head of one man. This game is less of a sequel and more of a challenge to what TLOU does. It's saying, "hold on, you did all this shit in the first game, and here are the consequences. Not only that, here's why the character you hate may be justified in their actions."
It annoys me that many folks are either dismissing this or missing this point entirely. It's the crux of the experience of playing this game. If anything, the game is a rebuke of people like Bacon or people who watch games for a few minutes over a stream rather than actually experiencing it themselves.
I'm not saying I have any more authority or intelligence on this game than the next person, or that my opinion is any more or less valid, or even that this game isn't flawed or messy in some ways. But I do think there is a shallower, visceral way of reacting to the game, and there is way to let yourself trust it and let it take you on whatever journey it wants you to have.
It must be fascinating to be Druckmann or any of the other creators behind this game right now, seeing how the reaction is unfolding. Because it seems to be happening the way the story of their game intended.
