You nailed how I felt about TLOU2. Completely nailed it. Everything about the game is near masterpiece level. The graphics, design, the attention to detail, including throwaway, mundane things (I'm looking at you snowball fight and playing with the dog...played with the dog for way longer than I probably should have). That's not even taking in to account the story, which as you stated, made you question what kind of interactive experiences you wanted to have in games going forward.
There were so many beautiful, amazing moments in this game. Moments that were nuanced and didn't try to bash you over the head to make you feel like it was supposed to be a beautiful moment. Then there were moments where they went so overboard to make said moments as awful, sad, depressing, and traumatic as possible when it felt like they could've taken another approach.
And honestly...that's where I feel this game succeeded the most. It's a gritty, brutal revenge story involving two people on the opposite side of their own revenge missions, and the fact that Naughty Dog was able to show both stories, show the atrocities both characters committed, but make you understand their feelings and thoughts on a fundamental level that made their actions make sense, is such a fine line to walk. It's seriously impressive that they could simultaneously make you hate each character but sympathize with them at the same time for the things they did.
Like I said before, this game is a near masterpiece, and like you said before, I felt awful during the entire (very long) playthrough, but I'm happy I saw it to completion.
When Abby asked what people's favorite Uma Thurman movie was, I immediately said "The Truth About Cats and Dogs." Did not expect her to mention it! I had such a crush on Janeane Garofalo.
My absolute favorite character in Mass Effect is Tali (so much so that I named a cat after her), but I had a huge, shit eating grin on my face this entire episode when Wrex came back and talked mad trash as he took the piss out of everyone in each battle. Truly one of the best characters in all of video games.
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