"The Last Survivor" was born as a dark horse in 2013, and Naughty Dog also became the AAA game team with the most narrative god at that time, and the second generation became the blockbuster work that everyone expected this year. Under such a clear, costly, technical and top production team, this is obviously a battle that can be won by working steadily, so I don't know why I have become the biggest street rat in 2020.
If you want to compare the two works together, 1 is a must-see strong file on the list, and 2 is to use the cost of Hollywood grade to make a very bad film, leaving aside the great improvement of the picture, the only thing left is very obvious mistakes and contradictions.
Plot contradictions
The core of the game's plot is "revenge and forgiveness", which I think should be understood by everyone who has played it, after all, he is so obvious that you can't see it. There is nothing wrong with this core, anyway, many novels, comics, and movies have been used, and can have very good reviews, but the problem of Survivor 2 in the end is "lack of persuasion".
The death of Joel, which is often mentioned, is not a problem, like this IP to talk about revenge and forgiveness, if it is not Joel, it is really difficult to reach the height of generation 1. It would be a bit bloody for you to pop up a new gang, kill another supporting character, and then continue to slaughter joel Ellie? So it's easy to predict that Joel will die, and how to die is just how to deal with it, although the death is not good, but it is not the core of the problem.
It is clear that this game wants to portray both sides as having their own grievances, so they have to become enemies of each other. The player can only watch them fight each other at the same time, and give the player a needle in the heart.
Abby's desire to kill Joel is indeed reasonable, and if you take the perspective of Firefly, Joel is indeed like a murderous maniac, and for Abby it is still killing his father's enemy, which is indeed the background that can convince the player. Therefore, if this kind of plot is properly arranged, it is actually impossible to surpass the previous work.
But the problem lies in the arrangement of the plot.
Lack of event foreshadowing
Through a perfect plot arrangement, the previous game successfully persuaded the player to make an objectively unjust choice. That is, in saving the world and Ellie, Ellie was chosen. And in the camp of objective justice, there are big kills, which is also the place of the 1st generation of gods.
The plot arrangement of the second generation is very bad. The game's preparation for important turns is either no or pitiful, like the death of the important Joel in the early stage, actually did not have any ink on Abby, one second was still fighting with Joel, and the next second suddenly began to play Jolf ball, which came unexpectedly, directly leaving the player with a full head of question marks and hatred for Abby.
Joel's death should be one of the most important twists in the game, not only writing the favorite character of the previous game, but also taking on the plot turning point of the game. He opened Ellie's main line goal, and also triggered a conflict between Abby and his friends, which can be said to be the opening condition of the two-protagonist line. So as long as it is not handled properly, there will be a great probability of causing a rebound, which is something that the knee wants to know, but this section is hastily closed, then it is difficult to pull the player's emotions back.
Plus the inexplicable pregnancy of Tina, the death of a teammate, betrayal, forgiveness, etc... They all give a sense of violation of the plot, and even more dilute the connotation that this game wants to express.
Spooky plot arrangement
After the djelf ball is over, the player standing on Ellie's side is certain, which is something that can be expected. So the game puts the Ellie line in front until they suddenly cut the Abby line when they meet, which is unacceptable to the player. After all, the player is Ellie at this time, the side of the fire that wants revenge, and it is only one shot or one knife for the player.
At this time, the player only cares about how Abby will die, so cutting to the perspective of killing the father and the enemy is a very destructive action, and he chooses to cut at the climax, it not only pours cold water on you, but also pours slag, I rarely see the plot is so against the player. This leads to a painful experience later on, "Why should I play a character I hate?" Questions fill the second half of the game, and it's no surprise that Abby's past is at all.
Later, it was hard to hold out to the climax point again, thinking that I could finally get revenge, but it backfired, and the result was to operate Abby to deal with Ellie, which is how to make the player accept it? The result is that everyone is very Ellie Fang, so there are many players who operate Abby to play suicide at this time.
Although the message in the Abby Line is that "the Wolf Gang are not bad people, they have their own grievances", you will gradually get to know the members you killed before playing Ellie. But this is undoubtedly a kind of "look at who you just killed" taunts to the player, just to increase the player's sense of guilt, and the result is to make the player who has entered the Abby line already very unhappy to add fuel to the fire.
Strange character growth curve
Compared to the previous game, the supporting characters have become quite a lot, and there are more than a dozen supporting characters in the two storylines. But it is not as full and existential as the previous work. Like Tina and Jesse of Ellie's line, their motivation for following in the game is only because of Ellie, the character growth curve is very flat, always feel that it does not matter whether there is or not, so they eventually become tools for plot advancement.
Jesse, in particular, comes and goes quickly, always feeling that even without this character will not have any impact on the overall plot, and because of his appearance, there is also a meaningless love triangle plot, dragging down the entire emotional rhythm of revenge.
The supporting roles of the Abby line are even less to talk about, the Ellie line has been killed, and the player is even less likely to care about the growth curve of some people who will die, not to mention that they do not have any growth curve.
And Uncle Tommy's transformation is even more unacceptable to many players, he changed from a gentle uncle who did not want Ellie to take revenge, to an evil uncle who did not continue to take revenge on Ellie in the north. The level of this transformation is really too big, as if it was forced to change in order to let Ellie stage the final forgiveness journey, so that the character has a complete sense of disgust at being consumed.
The growth curve of the two protagonists is also very abrupt, Ellie is bent on revenge until the end, even the big war in the middle, and does not feel any goodwill atmosphere in her heart; and Abby only saved two scars, it was difficult to escape from the final gang war, knowing that her friend was killed was also a few hours before the confrontation with Ellie, and before the confrontation also decisively exploded Jesse and Tommy's heads, it is difficult to see a hint of forgiveness from it.
So in the end, whether it is Abby's letting go or Ellie's forgiveness is an incomprehensible operation, how to say that Ellie and Abby are not the player's God perspective, although they have their own grievances, but in the plot they have only met three times in total, not only are they completely unfamiliar with each other, the other party is the enemy who killed your friend, in the case of almost no intersection of the emotional line, how to make the player accept the forgiveness answer?
summary
Personally, I think the concept of the overall plot is not bad, and it is really quite deep to interpret revenge and forgiveness from the perspective of two opposing characters. But the problem is that the plot arrangement is very broken, and then there are too many bridges of emotional changes, resulting in an unconvincing ending.
The protagonist of this game is obviously not Ellie but Abby, so as long as the player can clearly understand the reason for Abby's motivation, and persuade the player to accept Abby's revenge, from which the idea of "although I like Ellie, but Abby is indeed doing the right thing", then the plot will be very meaningful. But unfortunately, because of the random plot arrangement, Abby played from the beginning to be unloved by players.
Then the feeling he wants to convey is not interpreted in the slightest? I must say that there is.
One of the things that impressed me was the Sniper Bridge, where the player controlled Abby to advance a sniper who had killed a lot of wolf gangs. And he also exploded his friend's head in front of Abby's face, at this time Abby's emotions are very clear, fear, anger, revenge, all in one, you obviously know that Abby is absolutely on the sniper bar, and you agree. But as we get closer, we find that the sniper is not our favorite character "Tommy" in our previous game? I didn't want to kill him, but I knew that Abby had hatred and was reasonable, and the struggle I experienced was very unique.
I think that if this experience of inner struggle can be skillfully connected throughout the game, then this game may really reach the height of the first generation of the plot.