I’ve seen a few discussion posts regarding this, but really wanted to get my thoughts and feelings out since I’m feeling really raw coming off TLOU 2.
I played this game when it first came out in 2013. I had never experienced anything like it game or story wise leading up to it, it genuinely felt like capturing lightning in a bottle. The lore and detail in the infected, the process of how the world falls into the one it does being so realistic and how these characters interacted very genuinely with each other, etc. were all so incredibly thought out and done. I became an instant fan and felt totally immersed in the game when I played, especially when it came to Ellie.
She felt so real and even the thoughts she was having that she didn’t say out loud felt very palpable. I LOVED the Left Behind story and really getting a look at who Ellie is when she’s more at ease and comfortable with her people. Her gameplay is so satisfying too, being able to move quicker and counter a little more easily than Joel. We also get an idea of how much Ellie grew during the time Joel was out for most of the Winter chapter. I was so impressed with her resilience and finding strength to keep moving forward despite how bleak the world was. That promise that her life MEANS something because she’s immune and can possibly help make a cure to heal the world was such an inspiring motivation, it was giving me some purpose to keep going in my own life if we’re being vulnerable here.
Then I played through Part II when it came out in 2020. I didn’t play the first one leading up to it because I was too jazzed to see where the story was going to go after that cliffhanger ending lol. I remember being so fascinated with Ellie and Joel’s strained relationship; figuring it would lead to something where they have a heart to heart, she forgives him because they’re family and they continue fighting infected while trying to expand their town/camp to others. I was not prepared for how WRONG I would be, but ultimately grateful because it’s a game about violence and how it affects the kind of people we become. I appreciated the story for what it was: the cycle of violence/abuse and where does it end? I know there are some strong opinions on Abby and while some criticisms may be valid, I genuinely liked playing as her and seeing how she’s the other side of the same coin as Ellie. It was a great way to open that dialogue of what does revenge mean to you and how does that make you any different from your opponent?
With all that, I get to my main discussion point after having played through both games back to back recently: after TLOU 2 ends with Ellie coming home to an empty house, saying goodbye to her life with Dina, Joel and anyone else she had a relationship with and walks away into the woods alone, did anyone else feel so empty for her? I understand it’s a story of trauma and pain and justice, but having to watch a favorite character of all time go through what she did and then have no one at the end? My heart broke in a way it hadn’t when I played the first time. Obviously there’s going to be consequences to her actions: Dina told her that if she went after Abby again, she and her son were leaving because she couldn’t go through it again (and I don’t blame her). But Ellie couldn’t even bring herself to kill Abby when it came down to it, she learned that it wouldn’t have solved her grief or bring Joel back.
I know that sometimes it’s just a fact of life that you can do everything right and still lose. It just feels so disheartening for Ellie to have no home to go to or family to be a part of after all she did. It also breaks me that she’s immune and if they just had the right doctor/scientist, they could make a vaccine that would stop the infection and help so many people. I would LOVE for that to be maybe the premise of a third game? It’s Ellie moving through the country bringing the vaccine and shooting infected with it so they can turn them back to human? I don’t know, I just want more for my girl lol.
Ultimately though, Neil Druckmann and his creative team absolutely knocked all of it out of the park. I wouldn’t change a thing and appreciate it for the art and social commentary that it is. I guess I wanted to not feel alone in this and that others had a similar experience after playing through all of them? I appreciate anything anyone has to offer for perspective or how you genuinely felt after all of it :)

like the idea of killing people and innocent people dying and people getting their head blown off being consider fine compared to a activity that majority of people do? even then sex literally is the reason everyone is alive so I find it crazy that torturing someone and murdering innocent people is considered not as bad as sex

"Stop doing that!"

Cosplay made by me, photography and editing also done by me

Just replayed that level where Ellie has to steal a boat. And that area is absolutely amazing! So many different ways to sneak around, it's just genius. I know it wouldn't work for every type of game, like in assault it would be easy to just hide in the water. But for example for Capture it would just be chef's kiss.

I'm just sad I solved the map and now have to wait for my next playthrough to play that map again.

Hey everyone! I just finished the Last of Us 2 for the first time, I had played before but I got distracted half way through the game due to irl stuff. I have to say I loved it! Was a lot of fun and fell in love with Seattle, Abby and her group and especially Lev, but then it got to the final few battles. A completely new group we have never seen, and I think I fought them for less than an hour, like the finale was just kinda bad. Not the Abby and Ellie stuff as I loved everything about that, but the combat was just disappointing? Or more so it was really fun then it just ended, prematurely.

It definitely was not as hype as the TLOU 1s final fights at the hospital, I did like how the infected were dynamic but again it was only for two fights. I was kinda expecting a section where you play Abby and Levs attempt to escape but no it just kinda goes from them being captured and then Ellie finds them (Also kinda annoyed they hyped up meeting the remaining fireflies and did nothing with it at the end :<).

I wish we had more time with the Rattlers, more fights or more lore or anything. They feel very much like a nothing faction, especially when compared to the hospital from the first game. Anyone else feel this way?

for me it’s-

pittsburg is my favourite

the snow is my least favourite (David nightmares)

the easiest for me is the sewers

and the hardest is probly the final chapter espically if you don’t go stealth on infected section before the hospital. like 3 bloaters!

EDIT: btw the Boston chapter also includes the city and up to tess dying

Just got a PS3 recently and I am taking the opportunity to play the original version of Part 1. I’m fairly new to the series and first started with the PS5 versions of both games.

Going through the PS3 version, I can’t stop thinking about how insane it must have been to go from this game in 2013 to Part 2 in 2020. Like, from a graphical and gameplay standpoint, the jump is incredible.

The game is really impressive as a PS3 game and I love any version of this game. I just am blown away by how much more refined the systems have become over time.

I’m not sure if this used the completely appropriate flare but it’s the best I could find.

So for context, I know a bit about TLOU however I’ve never played the games or even watched a playthrough, before you call me a poser, I’m waiting until my girlfriend, who adores TLOU, can get the games and play them for me. I’m absolutely open to spoilers and already know a lot of plot points, but I don’t want to spoil the flow of the story, and the experience of seeing it completely for the first time with her if that makes sense.

That being said I’m working on a replica of Ellie’s journal. I was just going to leave it at that but upon seeing the page about the crown Dina made for her I thought it would be really cute to make that crown and stick it in between the respective pages.

I’ve skimmed through the journal looking for other little items I could make to put with their respective pages but I couldn’t really find anything, but I also don’t know if I just don’t know enough about how this journal actually fits into the story.

So I’d like to ask, are there any pages in Ellie’s journal that include or mention something that I could create a tangible replica of to put inside the journal, or in general, as more informed TLOU fans, would you all have any recommendations of how I could make this journal a truly special gift?

Also if it gives any inspiration, she says we’re a lot like Ellie and Dina (yes I know how it ends, we’re choosing to ignore that. We’re un-dooming this couple)

So, I was looking through my homepage on yt as you do. I came across a video on mods for the ps3 version of tlou 1. It caught my eye because the thumbnail was a quite good drawing of ellie from part one, with some stuff in the background. I clicked on it and watched through.

I thought "thats pretty good, all of this dudes thumbnails have art on them, let's see if he has other fanart up".

So I googled this person's channel (I'm not naming them, you'll see why) followed by "tlou art". The first few results were cool. But then the rest of the shit he draws came up.

All of it was either of ellie or Riley. Not one of them featured any character even claiming to be an adult. The shit he had drawn was actually revolting.

Not only that he had thought like that about a CHILD (fictional or not, Ellie is a kid) but that he then went out of his way to draw and sell it! Genuinely fucking horrid.

Amongst all of this, though it feels very wrong to give him any credit. He's a good artist. In that, He knows how to draw, and it's a blatant waste of talent. It's obvious that the tlou community is very artsy. And I have no doubt he could draw cool stuff. Yet he chooses to make the abbreviation of cyberpunk.

I'm sorry, that's all. I just felt like I had to rant about this waste of a person somewhere.

I was rewatching the show because why not, and you know what? They really did turn Ellie into an idiot who needs Dina to guide her through everything every five seconds instead of this absolutely feral woman hellbent on revenge.

Like, Ellie traveled across the country with Joel for over a year and we’re supposed to believe she’d just forget to bring food? Basic supplies? Come on. Even with all that anger and grief clouding her judgment, she’s not a damn idiot. At least game-wise she wasn’t. Game Ellie was clever, resourceful, observant, and knew how to survive.

She could still make reckless decisions because she was consumed by revenge without suddenly forgetting every survival skill she’d spent years learning. But as the season went on, it felt like they kept stripping that competence away just so Dina could constantly step in and guide her.

They genuinely massacred her character as the season went on.

My wife and I are watching this together for the first time and I don't think any episode of any show has made me feel this intensely before.

I was sobbing.

Bravo to the writers on this one.

I can't even tell you how many times ive replayed this section just know its been two days. I've read all the post and watched all the videos. The problem is im a terrible.shot and with all my guns I probably only have 4 ammo and im a terrible shot. I have no supplies. I can make one molatov but I seem to only hit one of them. There's only one bottle in the whole first section and its at the end. If I stealth im able to make it tonthe second part but I die right away over there.

I did see a video about running back to the very first room and thag worked for like mintue because they're able to follow yiu in there and im just at a lost

Already tried using DLAA and turning off sharpness but to no avail.

They only appear in water effects like sweat

I’ve played through TLOU part 1 multiple on ps3 and ps4, but just recently downloaded the remastered version on ps5. I’m want to get the platinum for the ps5 version, but don’t want to commit to multiple playthroughs again. I also don’t want the game to be ridiculously easy, my question is can I play on hard/survival and still get the platinum in one playthrough?

I saw many, many cry about the fact that Ellie let Abby go, so i decided to make this post as proof that the choice that Ellie made is right and realistic.

This is not bad writing, this is what a real, complex person would do. In Seattle, Ellie was driven by pure rage and the desire to revenge Joel.

But by the time in the farm, she has changed. She didnt went to Santa Barbara for the same reason she went in Seattle. She has trouble sleeping, eating and ptsd. She looks she has the perfect life with Dina, but underneath she is not well, not at all. She thought finishing Abby would make this go all away, let her heal.

Another reason is that all through the game after Joel scene, she only remembered him in that very brutal image, she couldn't draw his eyes and all that. But when she was choking Abby, she saw him, on the porch, a good memory of him, maybe the last. That is the moment she realized that she doesnt need to kill Abby to heal and to get over Joel's death.

Also, we know Ellie began the process to forgive Joel right before the cabin incident. But sadly, she never got to forgive him. By letting Abby go, she forgave him in a way. Joel stole the big purpose of Ellie's life, we saw how affected she was when she learned the truth, it's like he stole a part of her. Now, Abby did the same when she did Joel very bad. So, in a strange way, she saw these events being the same, and she decided to forgive Joel by letting Abby go.

Another one, i think, is that she saw her and Joel in Abby and Lev. She was Lev and Abby was Joel. Ellie was so afraid of losing Joel. We can see that in the hotel in Pittsburgh, where she kills that man to save Joel. This is further shown in the ranch, during the big fight between them. I think this is the first time Ellie says that she cares about Joel, in a direct way, not indirect. Being so scared of being alone, she does not want the same thing happening to Lev. She saw herself in Lev, a child with no one else around and she knew how bad that is. Even though Ellie showed she is capable of violence like Joel, deep down she is not like that. She is the same child who wanted to save people, with empathy, with joy. She does not want Lev to go through what she went.

Of course there is not only one reason why she did that, there are so many factors that influenced her in making that decision. Maybe there are more that i did not mentioned here. This is not like fast and furious movies or some other where the protagonist goes after the bad guy, kills him and the good wins. This is a game that shows the nature of humans, the complexity of relationships and of love. Its a complex and beatiful game, not a shallow revenge story, like some wanted.

I know, everyone liked Joel, myself include, i never liked to play Abby, but i understood her perspective, why she did what she did. Joel killed who knows how many people in that hospital and we think that no one will come back for revenge? It doesnt work like that. Now, you may say Ellie should have done the same thing, no? Yes, she did. She killed Nora, Alice, Owen and Mel. Tommy did a trickshot on Manny. And now, Abby has to live with all that. I think that is worse than death.

To end this, i will use a quote i quite like, some of you might know it.

"My mercy prevails over my wrath"

insert Markiplier screaming that he is the king of FNAF

Grounded mode btw

And they both died 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Also, 84% of Uncharted players own The Last of Us

This is quite interesting and I wonder if this is because we all love Naughty Dog as a studio or just both games are good games?

I want to know if this statistics is true and wonder how many of you actually own both games? (Any title from both series) Also, why did you buy both games?

Im missing an optional conversion in the financial district chapter, not sure if my games glitched, but Ive done the hanging body one, the miltary school one, movie poster, and the one with the dead miltary people, but ive still got 2/3 done? Need help finding another