OK I've given this two full evenings of play now, so I'm a fair few hours in and as such this isn't a snap, kneejerk reaction.
It's fine. It's competent. It works reasonably well as a videogame.
The graphics are stunning, the sense of 'place' is amazing, the world building is fantastic. 30FPS doesn't bother me in slower paced games such as this, it's not a twitch shooter or high octane racer, and the motion blur covers the worst of its sins in that regard, it's mostly a non-issue for me, and I'll take it as a trade-off for the incredible visual fidelity on display.
Gameplay wise it's solid if unspectacular, as was the previous game. The infected are creepy, and taking the various types on with the available toolkit is fun. Stealth works OK, the guns are weighty and feel pretty good, the melee is brutal and crunchy, and the crafting and upgrades are, well, just sort of there and do their jobs OK.
The puzzles are kind of meh, as I was expecting them to be, although there's still a decent sense of satisfaction in solving them.
There's an awful lot of rummaging around for supplies, it goes with the genre, I'm fine with it.
I do doff my cap to Naughthy Dog for the astonishing levels of options around controls, difficulty, and accessibility, I've managed to get myself an overall control and difficulty setup that works as well I could possibly expect given how shit I am with a gamepad.
I'm also finding the characters OK in the main, I don't actively dislike anyone so far, put it that way. (And yes of course I've got past 'the thing' that happens relatively early on.)
But holy shitballs the writing is corny and unconvincing, I've got no problems with the characters and who they are, they're just not written well.
Moreover:
ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
I absolutely do not buy their motivations. Assuming we're prepared to put aside the nonsensical Deux Ex Machinas the game spits out early on to get Joel killed, which in fairness I am, I get that the game needs this to happen so the story can happen, so fine...... But fuck me I don't buy that Ellie would set off with Dina, travel ONE THOUSAND MILES to Seattle (on a fucking horse), with the intention of avenging Joel's death, but not having any real idea of how she's going to do it, and that she'll probably get them both killed in the process.
And here's the thing, I ALREADY THOUGHT JOEL WAS A PRETTY BAD GUY AT THE END OF THE FIRST GAME, quite frankly anyone who plays TLOU1 and gets to the closing credits thinkng they've been playing as a hero needs their head reading. So I don't need TLOU2 to 'recontextualise' something I'd already determined for myself. I could understand why Joel did what he did at the end of Part 1, but he still did a really, really shitty thing, and killed a lot of decent people to make it happen.
I don't get why Ellie would feel the need to avenge Joel's death as she wants to do, since she already knew he was pretty sketchy. On top of this, she's young, she's in love with her new girlfriend, she lives somewhere safe, she's going to throw all that in the bin to try and seek vengeance on behalf of Joel?
And I'm down in Seattle with Ellie and Dina, and they're chatting like a happy young couple, what they've done, who they are, what's made them who they are, their hopes for the future, whilst they're both apparently committed to a virtual suicide mission for a reason I don't find remotely compelling. Plus, the fact the people they're hunting managed to travel 1000 miles to kill Joel in the first place says a lot about them and how fucking dangerous they are. Gah.
I'm not angry that they killed Joel, he wasn't a saint or a good guy, although the way in which he died is fucking dumb. 'HELLO MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS WHO ARE CLEARLY VERY CAPABLE OF SURVIVING IN THIS POST APOCALYPTIC WORLD, WHICH MEANS YOU'RE POTENTIALLY VERY DANGEROUS, THESE ARE OUR REAL NAMES, JOEL AND TOMMY, AND OUR CAMP IS JUST DOWN THE ROAD, FEEL FREE TO COME DOWN AND TAKE SOME OF OUR STUFF TO SEE YOU ON YOUR WAY'.
And this is after the game has brought Abby and Joel together with a series of nonsensical coincidences.
I guess there's chance for the game to flesh this all out more, maybe it'll all make more narrative sense as we push forward, but as it stands at the moment, I don't buy into, on the most fundamental level, that Ellie and Dina are down in Seattle on the mission they are.
I'm not phased at the prospect of playing as Abby later on, the time I've spent with her so far in the game makes her look like a sort of interesting character, in fairness.
So yes, there's enough decent videogame here to keep me invested, but the story and characters simply haven't grabbed me (or convinced me.....) like they did in Part 1.
Early guess? It's going to finish up as a 7 out of 10, give or take. My feeling is it's nowhere near as bad as the 'fans' are making out, but it's nowhere as good as the critic metascore suggests either.
I'm certainly not putting down my pad in disgust or anything, and I suspect I'll see it out to the end.