Godfather is not a fun movie. 2001 isn't a fun movie. They're still interesting.
Haven't played it the first one kinda bored me.
Point if a game though is to have fun. If the ending isn't fun that's a problem ymmv.
Ending sounds fine gonna come down to execution.
The first game was bleak as well. It basically spends the whole game building a relationship between you (as Joel; a bitter survivor who lost his daughter 20 years earlier) and Ellie, as a surrogate daughter.
It promises hope of his redemption and hope for a cure for the zombie epidemic the whole way through and then suddenlyat the end it has you making a terrible choice to protect Ellie by murdering a hospital full of people and dooming the world to the zombie apocalypse by denying them a cure.
I mean it was bleak.
But they absolutely nailed that landing. The slow burn to the grim conclusion. The way they left it in the hands of the player to mull over the ethics and morality of that terrible decision. It was amazing.
The characterisation was on point too, and not just the main characters; also the supporting NPCs.
I'm serious when I say it was the best game I think I've ever played. Definately in my top 3. No other game (and indeed no other media) had had me introspective and reflective of it after absorbing it like that game. It haunted me for a long time afterwards.
I'm glad it wasn't spoiled for me before hand - I came in blind and came out the other end blown away.
It highlighted just what the medium of computer games can do. Unlike a movie where you watch it, you're actively involved in the action. You're not questioning a characters actions as they unfold in front of you on a acreen, you're questioning those actions as you control them participating in them.
It features on nearly every best games of all times lists for a reason man.
I own it but the poor PS4 gathers a lot of dust. We use the Xbox to watch everything and rarely console game now.
Even though you likely know the ending (which makes the game) it's still worth a play through to see how the devs worked the character arcs, had you along for the ride in the relationship, got you invested and then had you make a terrible choice based on that investment.
Going in blind, I was shaking as the credits rolled. Very few works of art have had me thinking about them afterwards as much as that game. I get that you have no 'choice' in the outcome, but you dont have any in a book or film or painting either. Playing it gives a unique perspective to feel what Joel 'feels' a lot more personally, and to invest more in his eventual terrible decision.
I honestly feel that giving the player a choice (instead of railroading the player) would have lessened the impact. It wasnt so much about your choice; it was about you living someone else making that choice.
It just worked on so many levels.
I see what they went for for in the squeal, and while it mostly worked on me, I did find it heavy handed at times. It was uncomfortable, and intentionally so, and that isnt necessarily a bad thing (it can in fact be a good thing). There were controversial decisions for sure (turning the protagonist into the antagonist and vice versa) but they largely worked for me.
I compare it to the disconnect with other games (like Uncharted) where you play a likeable roguish charming goofy adventurer... who racks up a kill count of literally hundreds of people by the end of the series, who you mercilessly slay with no remorse or second thoughts from literally the opening scene of the 1st game.
Video games have struggled with mass murder, heroes seeking revenge on BBEG's for some slight, dehumanising the 'bad guys' and ultra violence for so long (even with protagonists, and in genres where it doesn't fit), and this game is itself a critique of those tropes, as well as shining a light on how we see and choose to empathise with those we hate.
I really liked it. Not as much as the original, but I really dont get the hate.
This is a flawed way of looking at it. Those sites you mentioned in the latter category only allow reviews from people who bought the game from that particular site. It's an incredibly self-selecting sample and not at all an accurate measure of a consensus opinion. And even those sites don't require that you finish the game to review it, just bought it.There are two sets of reviews. Sites that let anyone post reviews have tons of 0s. But on sites that only let you review once you've bought the game, the ratings are pretty high.