Now that the review embargo is lifted on TLOU Part 2 I think it's more important than ever to read actually in depth reviews and not pay attention to or even positively acknowledge the mindless "10/10 BEST GAME EVAR!!1!!1!1" reviews you see everywhere.
To give you an idea of how bad the embargo was, you could not discuss the second half of the game (the last 12 hours technically, but the game seems to be about 25-30 hours long so it's basically the second half), and you could only use 3 scenes from the game in the reviews.
The problem with practices like this, especially in this case, is that it prevents just about any discussion of the story which is important in a narrative driven game that wants to be "cinematic".
There aren't any easily accessible reviews that go into any detail (even now) about any significant story points, there is one claiming that most of the spoilers are false, but I'm sure that's not true with all of the leaked cutscenes and even official gameplay footage essentially confirming them.
A bad ending (and story in general) can completely ruin what should be a good game. TLOU would've been a much better game if the whole thing (including the whole point of the journey) wasn't following the Fireflies for hours only for them to not be where we thought. It might be about the journey, but a journey filled with boring stops to a bad destination is not a good journey.
Unfortunately a lot of more in-depth critical reviews don't rely on a simple score system so you won't see them affecting the score on Metacritic (what a shit site that's become).
I can tell you that I'm not interested in the gratuitous violence in the game, or the very shallow "revenge bad" message that Naughty Dog wants to give us. It's like asking 6-year-old kid why lying is bad. They might give you some really basic explanation like "it hurts people" but really the answer is because their parents told them it was wrong. They won't have the life experience to actually understand what's so bad about it. I don't know about you, but I have no interest in spending $60 to play a drawn out glorified revenge fantasy, I wouldn't pay $20 to see a 90 minute movie like, I'm sure as hell not playing a 25 hour drawn out version of that. For a game that wants to engage you in hours of uber violent revenge they really want shoehorn in the "hurr durr revenge ackshully bad" message as if we're all idiots who don't think that violently murdering people is bad.
Even the first game's message wasn't so basic and shoehorned in. You can argue it's the "mankind is the real monster" trite you see in a lot of post apocalyptic stuff, but that's a pretty shallow interpretation (not just for TLOU but for most similar stuff). It's about people doing what they need to do to survive. Aside from the cannibal pedo (and his crew to a lesser extent) and power tripping security force there are very few characters of significance who actually enjoy or engage in particularly monstrous behaviour (given the circumstances).
If the game turns out to be completely different from what we've been shown and heard, then I reserve the right to change my mind, but I'll be watching playthroughs of it to decide if I'm interested.
My source for information about the embargo is Forbes, who I usually can't stand, but I think this is one case where they're actually right https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikka...gs-about-the-last-of-us-part-2-review-scores/
It's interesting how they didn't get a review copy but some mindless drones who write the very basic 10/10 reviews full of blowing smoke did. Naughty Dog must really be trying to silence criticism still.
Of course I don't mean people can't enjoy the game, but 10/10 reviews that make very little commentary other than the usual buzzword salad filled with words like "breathtaking", "innovative", etc. or calling things masterpieces without justifying why they believe they should be called such.
Just read real reviews (or watch in-depth videos by more critical people, not people who blow smoke like crazy and try to be funnt), don't listen to some jackass on YouTube who praises everything or some magazine or website who hands out absurdlyh scores without properly explaining why the game deserves them. And ultimately decide for yourself if at all possible.
This isn't meant to be a rant against TLOU Part 2 specifically, but that's a game stuff like this pertains to a lot. Especially given Naughty Dog's attempts to silence any criticism, including taking down memes of all things.
Just make sure you do your research and form your own opinion on something, not just TLOU2 but any game. Don't just assume something is perfect because some idiot on YouTube or some guy in a magazine or on a website afraid of making the publisher mad says it is. Just because someone disagrees doesn't make them wrong. I don't care if you think this or any other game is 10/10, just be able to legitimately back up your claim with real examples, don't talk about how "cinematic" or "breathtaking" a game is.
To give you an idea of how bad the embargo was, you could not discuss the second half of the game (the last 12 hours technically, but the game seems to be about 25-30 hours long so it's basically the second half), and you could only use 3 scenes from the game in the reviews.
The problem with practices like this, especially in this case, is that it prevents just about any discussion of the story which is important in a narrative driven game that wants to be "cinematic".
There aren't any easily accessible reviews that go into any detail (even now) about any significant story points, there is one claiming that most of the spoilers are false, but I'm sure that's not true with all of the leaked cutscenes and even official gameplay footage essentially confirming them.
TLOU Golf spin off anyone?
A bad ending (and story in general) can completely ruin what should be a good game. TLOU would've been a much better game if the whole thing (including the whole point of the journey) wasn't following the Fireflies for hours only for them to not be where we thought. It might be about the journey, but a journey filled with boring stops to a bad destination is not a good journey.
Unfortunately a lot of more in-depth critical reviews don't rely on a simple score system so you won't see them affecting the score on Metacritic (what a shit site that's become).
I can tell you that I'm not interested in the gratuitous violence in the game, or the very shallow "revenge bad" message that Naughty Dog wants to give us. It's like asking 6-year-old kid why lying is bad. They might give you some really basic explanation like "it hurts people" but really the answer is because their parents told them it was wrong. They won't have the life experience to actually understand what's so bad about it. I don't know about you, but I have no interest in spending $60 to play a drawn out glorified revenge fantasy, I wouldn't pay $20 to see a 90 minute movie like, I'm sure as hell not playing a 25 hour drawn out version of that. For a game that wants to engage you in hours of uber violent revenge they really want shoehorn in the "hurr durr revenge ackshully bad" message as if we're all idiots who don't think that violently murdering people is bad.
Even the first game's message wasn't so basic and shoehorned in. You can argue it's the "mankind is the real monster" trite you see in a lot of post apocalyptic stuff, but that's a pretty shallow interpretation (not just for TLOU but for most similar stuff). It's about people doing what they need to do to survive. Aside from the cannibal pedo (and his crew to a lesser extent) and power tripping security force there are very few characters of significance who actually enjoy or engage in particularly monstrous behaviour (given the circumstances).
If the game turns out to be completely different from what we've been shown and heard, then I reserve the right to change my mind, but I'll be watching playthroughs of it to decide if I'm interested.
My source for information about the embargo is Forbes, who I usually can't stand, but I think this is one case where they're actually right https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikka...gs-about-the-last-of-us-part-2-review-scores/
It's interesting how they didn't get a review copy but some mindless drones who write the very basic 10/10 reviews full of blowing smoke did. Naughty Dog must really be trying to silence criticism still.
Of course I don't mean people can't enjoy the game, but 10/10 reviews that make very little commentary other than the usual buzzword salad filled with words like "breathtaking", "innovative", etc. or calling things masterpieces without justifying why they believe they should be called such.
Just read real reviews (or watch in-depth videos by more critical people, not people who blow smoke like crazy and try to be funnt), don't listen to some jackass on YouTube who praises everything or some magazine or website who hands out absurdlyh scores without properly explaining why the game deserves them. And ultimately decide for yourself if at all possible.
This isn't meant to be a rant against TLOU Part 2 specifically, but that's a game stuff like this pertains to a lot. Especially given Naughty Dog's attempts to silence any criticism, including taking down memes of all things.
Just make sure you do your research and form your own opinion on something, not just TLOU2 but any game. Don't just assume something is perfect because some idiot on YouTube or some guy in a magazine or on a website afraid of making the publisher mad says it is. Just because someone disagrees doesn't make them wrong. I don't care if you think this or any other game is 10/10, just be able to legitimately back up your claim with real examples, don't talk about how "cinematic" or "breathtaking" a game is.
We built the cars first. Ask Mr Ford 
