SPOILERS FOR TLOU 2 LEAKS!!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DONT WANT TO BE SPOILED!!
I know we don’t have context and what not, but from my understanding the first half of the game you’re playing as Ellie, and then you’re playing as a new character named Abby. Now I don’t know if there are any sort of cutscenes about Abby in the first half of the game to explain who she is, and tbh it doesn’t really matter to me if there are iz he end result is the same.
So, from the announcement that there was going to be a second game and then subsequent trailers and content release, I prepared for Joel dying. I knew that was going to happen, it was pretty obvious it was going to. I’m even okay with how he dies in the leaks, as brutal and awful as it is.
BUT, then I’m forced to play as Abby, Joel’s murderer, right after these events, to then go hunt Ellie down and do the same to her, is a bit.....odd. Frustrating. Annoying. I get that Joel killed her dad (the surgeon I guess from the first game) and she wants revenge. I get that eventually Joel’s past would catch up with him, it wasn’t like Joel was one of the GOOD guys, he was a pretty grey character. However, that did not stop him from being one of my favorite characters, nor did it stop me from falling in love with the dynamic between Ellie and Joel.
So after killing Joel and being forced to play as Abby, I’m somehow supposed to empathize with her? To enjoy playing as her? To enjoy chasing down another favorite character I have an emotional attachment to? I’m supposed to like her? To WANT to play as her? To want her to succeed? To want to continue playing the game for me to literally kill another character I like? Why would I want to do that? Why would I even want to replay a game that forces me to play as a beloved character’s murderer?
I get what Naughty Dog is trying to do, the whole revenge is a never ending cycle thing. Yeah, that’s nice and all, but it could’ve been executed so much better (AND HOPEFULLY IT IS!)....it would’ve been so much better if we initially started as ABBY. We don’t know who she is or how she ties into our world. We know she wants revenge on some people for killing her dad and some of her people but we don’t know WHO. We go on a hunt for them, maybe believing it was the fireflies, and Ellie and Joel are also hunting the fireflies. Us, the player, believe Abby is on the same side as Joel and Ellie, we have a common enemy: the fireflies. We become attached to Abby, her struggles, her anger, her need for revenge. We want the same thing as her. They eventually come across one another. We think, oh cool, we’re gonna team up with each other! But jokes on us, Abby is now looking at her father’s murderer. We’re shocked, we’re conflicted, we’re confused, and we don’t know who should win. Abby kills Joel, and we have so many conflicting emotions. It switches to Ellie’s POV, she wants revenge on Abby now. And the cycle continues.