The Last of Us 2: Major Disappointment

Hey Guys, it's been a week since the Last of Us 2 was released. I beat the game in one weekend because I was compelled to see it through to the end. This is because of how disappointed I was throughout my time with the game. I'm going to let you know ahead of time that I will be spoiling the game because I need to explain why I did not like The Last of Us 2 not because of the PC wokeness in the game but because the game fails as a sequel.

Expect to see this scene in the game, but heavily altered and very misleading....

SPOILERS AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION
Alright, now that the warning is out of the way let's get to the point. This game feels like an incoherent mess.

I hated how Joel's death was handled. I understand how brutal the world of The Last of Us is, but this is still a work of fiction and the death of a beloved protagonist must be taken as to not anger a fan base. By that, I mean that a death must be handled in a way that best suites the character in a dignified way. Sure, it can be argued that Joel was not much of a hero to begin with let alone that he possibly doomed mankind by the end of the first game. However, through the 15 hour journey that we spent with him in the first game it's impossible not to feel sympathy for the poor guy. We see him lose his first daughter and then here he is traveling with a young girl across the country progressively seeing her as his own daughter by the time the game is over.

Then, we probably seem him for a total of less than 30 minutes before he is brutally executed with a gold club. As if he wasn't all that important.

Look, if Joel was going to die I would have been fine with it. I'm never against killing a protagonist as long as it serves importance to the plot and it's handled properly, but there was no buildup nor "goodbye" for Joel. We don't get those buildups until after his death has occurred.

This leads up to my second point: the organization of the story.

I did not like playing 10 hours of Ellie and 10 hours of Abby. By the time you reach Ellie's conclusion before playing as Abby, you already will feel burned out. Then, having to play 10 hours as a hated character in order to reach the present time in the story is just unnecessary.

If they were going to do this, they could have easily swapped back and fourth between Ellie and Abby, so that there stories would coincide in a much more fluid pace. Splitting up the story in two was just a terrible design choice.

I get why they did it. However, I see no reason why I should feel a sense of guilt over Abby's loss. She's no better than Joel. In the flashback with Abby and her father, Abby literally told her father that she WOULD NOT WANT her father to perform the surgery on her if she was in Ellie's position. How can you possibly want players to empathize with Abby if she literally had that same thought process as Joel!?

By the end, we see that revenge is such a forced theme here. Ellie loses everything, Abby got her revenge and is now off to live a life with Lev with the same relationship reminiscent of Joel and Ellie. I have a lot to complain about the ending because Ellie deserved so much better. You don't just go on a revenge quest for months and just let it go at the very last minute. Let alone she went on this revenge quest in order to stop her nightmares and alleviate her PTSD. This was just a dumb plot device.

It would have made a more potent ending if Ellie got her revenge then lost everything! It would have made for a more ambiguous ending if Ellie did the right thing to avenge Joel and what becomes of her as a result of her vengeance.

In conclusion, I don't believe The Last of Us 2 is a bad game. Its gameplay is a more refined version of the first game. If you liked the gameplay from the first game, you'll love this one. However, the story is just a mess that could have been told in a different manner and different choices could have been made.

The trailers have lied to us all. I'm expecting some overly angry fans to file lawsuits against Naughty Dog over the trailers vs the final game.
Till Next Time!!

Resident Evil 3 Remake: A Downgrade

Hey Guys! I bet you all thought I was dead. Since I was gone, I believe I only had two new posts. I apologize for my absence, and I'm back in the saddle again. I've missed so much in these two years and will have plenty of time to relish in those times, but I really want to talk about the Resident Evil 3 Remake. Strap in folks because I really need to vent about this game.

This is my copy I got from Best Buy. Notice RE3 and Resistance have to be downloaded separately.

Before I begin, I will not be spoiling the game and this is not a review. In addition, I'm not going to be tearing this game to pieces. I actually enjoyed my time with Resident Evil 3, but the glaring issues keep if from living up to the standard of what a remake should look like when compared to Resident Evil 2 Remake.

Let me start with the elephant in the room, Nemesis has been hyped up by Capcom since they showed the reveal trailer of him with the flamethrower. Don't worry! No false advertising here! Well, sorta.

I'm going to be as nice as possible when I say this: Nemesis is a glorified cameo in this game. His appearances either have you running from him or fighting him as a boss fight. However, his boss fights are entertaining, but they are far and few between. I can argue that his boss fights are probably the only challenging aspects of the game.

To those of you who absolutely hated Mr. X in Resident Evil 2 Remake, you'll be thanking the heavens that there won't be some giant, unkillable monster following you around. For those of you who actually enjoyed Mr. X in RE2 because he added tension to the game, you will be disappointed.

And this is my main issue with Resident Evil 3 Remake, there doesn't feel to be nearly as much tension as RE2 Remake. RE2 was a true survival horror experience while RE3 does feel a lot more action oriented. Not saying there isn't survival horror elements within the game, but there just isn't enough of it. Sure, you can argue that the original RE3 was also a lot more action orientated as well, but this is supposed to be a re-imagining. Capcom didn't have to stick close to the source material.

I know what some of you may be thinking, "But it's just a personal preference! Some of us like the action that RE4 introduced into the series to begin with!". Alright, I can agree with this statement. Resident Evil 4 was my first game in the series that I've played, so even I can admit that I didn't really get my taste of the true survival horror experience until I played Code Veronica for the first time, but it doesn't excuse the difficulty.

What I mean by this is that Resident Evil 3 Remake is a lot easier compared to RE2. Nemesis doesn't follow you around until you hit a set piece and add in the fact that you can dodge attacks make this game a breeze to complete. I literally bought this game on Sunday and beat it the same day on Hardcore. Don't believe me?

Sure I got a C, but I still finished the game in under 6 hours.

As I mentioned earlier, the only challenging aspect of the game is Nemesis's boss fights. I would say more than half of my total deaths came from those boss fights.

Once you get used to using the dodge mechanic, you will pretty much be unstoppable. I've seen clips of people literally just rolling through zombies without a scratch. It's no wonder Capcom removed sub-weapons and made the knife unbreakable because it would be virtually impossible to die unless you mess up. However, it is skill based. You have to have a good sense of timing in order to execute the dodge correctly, so I wouldn't call it overpowered.

Regardless, this makes this game a speedrunner's wet dream. This game is incredibly short. While you can take your time by searching for unlockable, it doesn't add too much time to the total completion. Resident Evil 2's length was also short, but it had replayability.

Resident Evil 3 really struggles in the replayability department. Sure, you unlock harder difficulties once you finish Hardcore and can unlock an even harder mode after beating Nightmare, but not everyone is up for that kind of challenge. In addition, you unlock the shop which you can use points you gathered throughout your playthrough to get things like infinite ammo. This makes the game even easier to get through.

To summarize, Resident Evil 3 feels like it could have been added as DLC to Resident Evil 2. They are using the same engine anyway and you even get to visit some familiar places from RE2, so why shouldn't it have been DLC? Although the game itself is very much enjoyable, I can't be pressed to recommend it at its current price point.

By the way, I only played maybe an hour of Resident Evil Resistance. It's fun, but I don't see much lasting appeal to it in the long run.
Till Next Time!!