MardiganX

If it wasn’t for Starkiller’s excellent turn as Son of a Preacher man Deacon St John I would have lost interest in the story a long time ago, so I do want to see how it plays out as the bigger narrative driven missions earlier in the game were brilliant and I expect / hope there are a few more like still to come. Thanks @Uncle Mike I will get a few story focussed ones done and pick away at the side stuff naturally if I am close to them after main missions. Oh and I’ve still not taken out a horde. I flirted with the big one at the old saw mill trying to plan the best use of all the little environmental tricks it has for you to use but other than taking out what I turned out to be a scouting party with the big petrol tank I got absolutely ripped to ribbons. Do horde locations end up being marked on the map at some point when you are actually equipped to take them on?

Question about how much I have left and some later gameplay ‘additions’ There is definitely a step change in the threat of the environment now but the way it’s handled has annoyed me rather than drew me further into the world and what I have left to play.

The fuck?!!! It just reenforces my earlier post on how much better the game could have been if it got the balance between narrative progression and world development / opening a bit better.

This has been an odd one. I only picked it up a couple months ago and have went through phases of being totally hooked on it and then dropping it like warm, shit filled nappy. Granted my replay of Last of Us was an unfair interruption but that aside it’s been a really weird playthrough for me. Echo the points already made around the early hours being very draining, almost to the point where it could put a lot of people off the game completely. I guess that’s what has stuck with me all the way through it, that in taking so long to really hit its groove I’m never truly invested in things the way I should be. Only now as things feel like they are building toward the final stretch do I have a real pull to keep playing, which is something I should have felt well before the additional camps started opening up. There is no denying that it’s a really beautiful game with incredibly fun gameplay but the pacing of both the world opening and story (which is now great by the way) is very poorly judged. I’m looking forward to what I have left to play and tackling some proper horde action alongside that, but it’s just a shame that had these unbalanced elements been handled better this could easily be classed as one of the PlayStations finest games.

Amos. All characters are called Amos.

Left Behind done. Sufficiently hyped about next month now as if I wasn’t before. God, it’s going to be fucking spectacular isn’t it?!!

But she was unconscious when the Fireflies got her after almost drowning. She then doesn't wake until after the hospital so has no idea what happened and certainly didn't volunteer to go on the operating table in the knowledge she would be sacrificing herself. Yes, she may have done that anyway but its very deliberate that she is not given the choice. Ellie also has no idea the extent of what Joel has done, only that she doesn't believe his version of events. If she knew what he did to keep her alive she would be horrified and it is THAT truth that I think will be revealed in the sequel. So Ellie accepting what Joel tells her even though she doesn't truly believe it doesn't tarnish her goodness, for want of a better word Ellie has no idea how twisted and dark Joel has become to keep her in his life... only that what he is telling her is what he needs to hold onto and she cant take that away from him or confront the impact it would have on her if she pushed him on it. That's my final statement on it started Left Behind last night so will have an update on that soon.

I’m pretty sure I took your perspective when I first played the game seven years ago. This is my 4th playthrough now and I could not be more certain that Ellie knows. And I will kill everyone in this fucking hospital if that’s what it takes to prove it

Fuck me @Talk Show Host if you were Joel you would have caved with that little speech of Ellie’s wouldn’t you? We don’t need that moment to confirm anything about Joel’s feelings. He made those perfectly clear with his final gameplay actions. The end scene is about Ellie dealing with the fact she knows Joel is lying. Even when he first bullshits her in the car you can tell she is like ‘no chance mate’ but she lets it slide and then that is cemented with the final moments leading up to “Ok”. Its absolutely open to interpretation I agree, which all the best endings of anything are. But having Ellie as anything other than knowing Joel is lying, for me anyway, is a complete slap in the face of her journey as a character.

But surely that then suggests that regardless of everything she has been through and what she now has with Joel she ends the story as young, naieve, vulnerable girl craving a protector which she absolutely is not. Part of it is also Ellie knows how much it would hurt Joel if she revealed that she knows he is lying. That is why that final scene is played from Ellie’s perspective as she looks at Joel now full of life and hope. She knows it would crush him to take that away by doing anything other than accepting what he tells her.

I do really like this, however. Trusting someone because you love them is less powerful than accepting a lie from someone you love because you know what would happen if you didn't and for me that is where Ellie ends up. Joel loves her like he did Sarah and to keep her in his life (even when it is not the best thing for humanity) he is prepared to lie to her. Ellie loves Joel so much that she will accept him not telling her the truth because the alternative is too painful to even think about. Ellie actually believing Joel when we know he is lying would be a dis-service to her character. She is smarter than that. Which makes the choices they both make at the very end utterly beautiful and tragic at the same time Of course, this is all open to interpretation and it just shows how incredible the story is that it can have players coming with different views likes this. But I prefer mine

Re-play done I was wrong. The ending is as much about Ellie in what she accepts when she makes Joel swear what happened with the Fireflies was the truth. She knows its a lie but she doesn't push him. She knows what pushing him on it would mean and so... "Ok". That's it. No melodrama or dragging things out, just a grounded, thought provoking ending. I totally forgot that feeling of Ellie watching a vibrant, enthusiastic Joel bounding ahead over fallen trees, talking hopefully about the future and then something I missed before. That last 'climb' is the first time Joel goes first then pulls Ellie up (I think). Everything before then is him pushing her up and carrying her and now its different because as he says, he now was something to keep fighting for. Epic game, epic story and just wonderful to play through all over again. Spoilered for specific reference to final gameplay section...

That is just fucking brilliant! Bring it on!!

How is this game seven years old? I appreciate it’s the remaster I am playing through but still, seven years and it still feels as fresh and solid as anything recent. SPRING I don’t want it to end. I’m exactly where Joel is right now, where he says to Ellie they can go back to Tommy, I just don’t want what we have to be over. I know it’s close and it’s the right thing to do but I don’t want things to change Having Left Behind waiting is like the only thing keeping me from saving the game where it is and just leaving Joel and Ellie to settle in Salt Lake City and go hunting and shit. Like in Friends where Joey puts The Shining in the fridge or doesn’t want to keep reading Little Women. That’s fine where you are guys, just stay like that please.

The best part about this replay is that I have never played Left Behind and have that to look forward to once this run is done