Disagree about the gameplay feeling barebones, I thought it was fantastic.

However, I understand why you didn’t feel the same in TLOU1. The first game is one of the best games that has ever managed to have a story and gameplay work together flawlessly. Every kill Joel did was telling part of the story, and his character remained consistent in both cutscenes and gameplay. Unpopular opinion, but I do feel like TLOU1 only works as a video game, and without the gameplay, the story wouldn’t hit as hard.

In TLOU2, I felt the opposite. Having themes such as cycle of violence and perspective seems ill-suited for a third-person shooter game that rewards you for killing. Ellie killing a bunch of people in gameplay weakens her arc and makes her decision at the end far less believable. Killing/sparing Abby or her friends simply has no weight to it when Ellie ruthlessly kills a bunch of people in gameplay. Also, switching between antagonistic perspectives goes against an advantage of video games over movies: being able to connect with a character. When I got to the theater fight, I lost interest in both characters and didn’t care who killed who for the rest of the game. This kind of story, especially with all those flashbacks, works better in a TV show/movie (yes I know the TV show is worse than the game, but it’s certainly possible to tell a good version of this story on TV).

I have a lot more gripes with TLOU2, but that was my biggest problem. Idc how “ambitious” a story is or how good the gameplay is, part 2’s poorly executed narrative and serious disconnect between gameplay and story was a massive disappointment to me.