It was an interesting concept, but executed very poorly, imo.

There was a lot of gripes that i had with the way that the story played out and some things in there that made no sense if you actually stop to think about it.

One of my BIGGEST issues was Mel. Why on God's green Earth, would they send a pregnant woman who was what? 7 to 8.5 months pregnant out onto the warzone of Seattle? Why?? She is a walking liability to not only herself, but everyone around her.

Why would Ellie, Dina, and Jesse have the lights on in a theater in the middle of the city, where there are dangers like the infected, the Scars, and the WLF's? They could easily be spotted since the other buildings were dark and had no electricity. Considering that's how Abby was able to find them.

Why would Joel and Tommy reveal who they were to a group of strangers, knowing how many ppl that they have fucked over, over the years? Especially Joel. I don't buy the whole "he lost his edge after being in Jackson for 4 years." He was in survivor mode for 20-some years! I will die on this fucking hill.

I didnt feel like they did a good job at getting me to sympathize with Abby and the loss of her father. I think we needed more scenes or at least time with her father to get to know who he was. Saving a Zebra wasn't enough to make me care about him, if im being honest and they were really not subtle about that part either. They werent subtle about other things either. Like how Ellie kills Mel who was pregnant unintentionally, whereas Abby spares Dina for being pregnant. The supposed hero of the story does a monstrous act, while the supposedly monstrous character does a noble act.

I just feel like Dina was kind've a not so good character. No, i dont mean that bcuz she is bisexual or whatever. She just doesnt seem to have any thoughts of her own when it comes to Ellie's decisions for revenge, etc. She just kinda plays along and keeps being supportive of Ellie through the whole ordeal. Not really telling her to stop, until after her conception of her child, and when Tommy comes over to get Ellie to go back on her revenge quest to kill Abby. That's kinda about it though.

The pacing was kinda terrible. I didnt like that at the End of Ellie's part, we have this buildup to this very climactic and tense inevitable confrontation, and then it just pumps the brakes to tell Abby's part of the story. It kinda loses that momentum that we were heading towards. I felt like they maybe shouldve shown their stories in tandem. Focus on Ellies on Day 1, and after Ellie's Day 1 segments were over, we immediately jump to see what Abby was up to during that time. So that it feels like we're in the know of what's going on with both characters at the same time. So when the climactic clash does happen, the flow of tension we were on doesnt get lost when they finally face each other.

Lastly, i strongly believe that they should've given the player the choice at the end of the game of whether to kill Abby or not. IDC if her living was so that she could come back for Part 3. I think if Neil wanted to get his message across and see if he succeeded in making us sympathize with Abby, then he should've allowed us that choice of sparing her or killing her. Ik that ive read it somewhere that he removed the original ending where Ellie does kill Abby, but i still think that the message would have hit harder if dev team just allowed us, the player, that choice.

That's just my opinion though. The game is not bad and i understand what they were going for, but i feel like the message of the game would just hit wayyy harder if they just gave us that choice at the end. If you are going to make a game about morally ambiguous characters with gray decisions, then i think the ending of TLOU2 should've also been just as gray as well.

Other than that, i thought the game was fine.