this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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The Last of Us
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I agree while the gameplay is entertaining, I think the overall experience and message is left up to the type of person playing it a bit. For myself and plenty of others by the end, we just wanted Ellie to let it go. We saw how many lives Joel’s love for Ellie destroyed and how the need for revenge destroyed more and then the need for even more only took more lives in a world where lives are more precious then ever. I personally was begging the game to let me stop hurting Abbie. I have also read others opinions that they were angry they weren’t allowed to finish Abby off. I feel those people let the revenge become their focus just like Ellie, and maybe missed the point. They left themselves sitting in that empty house just like her because they couldn’t see the hate accomplished nothing but more grief. But I’m just some guy, and everyone might see it differently.
I agree with you 100%. I think the game does this especially well when it comes to major deaths and cuts scenes, like with Whitney, Abby vs Ellie in the theater, etc. But I think the game falls a bit flat when it comes to the attempts in standard combat to make you feel bad. They have people yelling other people's names and try to have the characters talk in a way that humanized them, but it ultimately falls to ludonareative dissonance because gameplay is really fun.
So anyway, I think I just see both sides of this argument, and I totally agree with you that the people who wanted to kill Abby at the end missed the point.