Gaming

I think different people have different reasons for disliking it.

For me it’s the writing. Specifically: the first half does it very best to make you hate a specific character, then the the second half has you play that character. I get what the writers were trying to do. The problem I have with it that is doesn’t make for a fun game. I don’t want to play a character I hate.

The writers were so intent on making a specific point that they forgot that they were making a video game. A video game is different from e.g. a movie in that the player is a part of the story, they take on the role of the character they are playing.

For this to work there has to be some part of the character the player can identify with. When playing Ellie, the player can identify with the rage she’s feeling. For Abby, there’s nothing to identify with. She’s mad that Joel killed her father but Joel was entirely justified in killing him. Her father was a bad person and deserved to die.

It makes it very hard for me to put myself in her shoes. As a result I just didn’t enjoy playing as her and quit the game after realizing that it wasn’t just a short section but the entire second half of the game.