Apparently an unpopular opinion, but I think part 2 is one of the most compelling and thoughtful examinations of the cost of violence ever made. To be clear, around the halfway point, I wanted to throw the controller across the room, but I came back to it the next day. It had to grow on me, but i think it's a fucking masterpiece.

For any other steam deck players, I had luck getting rid of the audio stuttering by changing the audio options to "display speakers" and "stereo."

I played it on my Steam Deck, 30 FPS average with lots of audio crackling, apparently because of the CPU load. I played the game in hard mode because I was afraid survivor and grounded would break the balance.

The gameplay is great: it was insanely fun outsmarting the infected, circling around the clickers, burning the bloaters. Against those enemies, stealth really was a challenge and I had to manage my stress level (stalkers and runners were especially hard to deal with in the sewer); I'm convinced I would not be able to finish this game in permanent death as certain sequences took me 5-7 tries to do correctly (optimizing to use the least amount of gear or straight up surviving). It was really hard to aim well enough on a controller to be able to do headshot with consistency (this game with a controller and a mouse must feel like heaven to master).

Stealth against humans is way too easy though: you can easily never use your weapons and just throw a glass bottle against the wall, cleanup with a bomb or a Molotov, and you will never be punished when doing a stealthy kill if you take too long which basically means that shiv are useless for anything other than doors (I did not buy the ability to get off the grasp of clickers with shivs).

The hostage mechanic felt so cool, but I rarely used it because I felt like I couldn't afford to waste bullets because of the resource scarcity. I would have loved the game to be more punishing and to force me to spend my gear; I was never spotted and I am horrible at stealth (hello Cyberpunk 2077).

On the writing side, the game shines even more. I was so heartbroken when Sarah was murdered, when Tess sacrificed herself, when Sam turned and Henry killed himself, when Joel said horrible things to Ellie, when he murdered all the fireflies, the surgeon, Marlene in cold blood.

And that's where the game shines! It shows you this great dynamics between Joel and Ellie, this growing bond that is so precious. You despise and love Joel: you despise his lack of moral, his emotional immaturity (not wanting to talk about the hard stuff and lying to Ellie) but you understand where it comes from, you understand why the violence happened.

This constant tension, this gray area makes the game so real and gripping; you can only look with a mix of disgust and support as you're ripping your way through the enemies in the hospital with savagery.

What Joel did is unequivocally wrong and selfish but I cannot judge because I know full well I'd probably have done the same thing in this situation. Well, I'm not sure but I can see it.

This game really made me understand the complexity of moral and decision, the conflicting goals and the harshness of survival. I highly look forward to playing the sequel.

EDIT; I think the right difficulty for me is the "Survivor" one, grounded looks to hard without a mouse.

The TV show is superb as well. Proving that video game adaptations can be good if you just frickin' follow the source material.

Still the best synthesis of story and gameplay I've seen. The game's phenomenal at attaching you to characters through gameplay (and it tells you early what exactly it's gonna do with that, too).

The sequel does it too, but in a very different (and very bold) way.

A really incredible game even if I haven’t tried the remake.

The second one is better still, but not everyone agrees.

Apparently an unpopular opinion, but I think part 2 is one of the most compelling and thoughtful examinations of the cost of violence ever made. To be clear, around the halfway point, I wanted to throw the controller across the room, but I came back to it the next day. It had to grow on me, but i think it's a fucking masterpiece.

I'm like 75% through the 2nd game and I honestly don't understand what everyone was screaming about. The gameplay and level design are insanely detailed and better than the 1st game (which was still really good.)

Well I guess people are mad about some story decisions.

But it’s thanks to those decisions that the second is so great as you can feel the pain and the anger of the characters.

Why did you want to throw your controller? Was there a very hard part? I'm playing on normal difficulty so so far nothing has been THAT hard. Only a few situations with infected where I ran out of ammo and barely got by.

2 also manages to improve on the gameplay in big ways, hardly a moment that isn't engaging and interesting and I never felt limited, and some very cool and atmospheric settings.

Also, grown Ellie is one of my favorite characters ever, so much well executed, human, relatable nuance, and that's a take that has nothing to do with her sexuality.

I have heard nothing but good things about the game, though I have not tried it. But somehow I feel put off at the idea of milking a sequel from the original when its narrative ended so perfectly. I can't argue that it is a correct or reasonable reaction, just a gut feeling. Someday I should play the sequel, if just to see how that feeling changes.