| bananaking21 said: i do want to point out though that the winter level was the most intense thing i ever played in my life. the fact that they started it off by making you wonder whether joel is alive or dead was genius and then they show the great lengths that ellie takes to save joel. switching between these characters was pure genius. i always felt that at any given moment one of them could die. my heart beat was racing and i wasnt playing as i usually did. i wanted to know what is going to happen, i wanted it to end... i just fucking wanted it to end. i fucking wanted everything to be ok. joel was hurt and ellie is to little to take care of her self yet take on an entire fucking group of people while trying to save joel. joel was so bad ass in how he treated those two he captured. he shows that he wasnt fucking around and he isnt willing to show a thread of humanity to those who could hurt ellie, which honestly makes him human. as ellie i felt more vulnerable, as joel i felt injured but i always felt that i NEED to move on. I NEED TO. there was no joking around, its LIFE or DEATH. it was the most intense two hours i ever played in my live. this level alone makes the game the best game ever made, you could argue with that, but you cant argue with the fact that this game did so much more that we never seen before |
Like I wrote myself =>
Shortly after Ellie fights her way through the enemies, Joel is breathing heavy and the camera fades to black.
Suddenly, you're Ellie, hunting a deer. I lost it at this point. I should've seen it coming, I really should have. Was Joel dead? I had no clue. What I did know was that the brilliant masterminds behind this game just decided to allow me to play the character who'm I had been growing so fond of.
As I took control of Ellie, I instantly noticed that the feeling of the character is very much different.
Don't get me wrong, Ellie is a capable person but she lacks the physical power of Joel and it shows. (She's one heck of a marksman though).
Fast forwarding a while:
Ellie comes across two hunters who want to split the deer meet she just caught.
Ellie says that she'd trade it all for some antibiotics which has me draw the conclusion:
God damn you Naughty Dog, Joel lives. Praise the lord!
After Ellie "bonds" with one of the hunters as the other is to go and get the supplies from the camp:
It turns out that the person who'm you've been working together with is actually the leader of the specific group whose men you and Joel have killed together for the previous oh I don't know, 2 hours or so.
Turns out that the hunter is aware of a man running around with a little girl, taking the lives of his friends. As soon as I heard this: I started fearing for my life. You can see Ellie starts to shake as she backs up.
Honestly: I thought they were going to kill Ellie right there and have Joel die as he wouldn't be treated properly. However it seemed fate had other plans as this leader for some reason lets Ellie go.
After taking care of Joel and putting him back to rest, it turns out that the hunters have tracked Ellie down. Ellie then has to sneak out in order to lure them away from Joel who is resting in one of the many houses. In the midst of all of this: Ellie gets captured and a number of events follow which ultimately leads to Ellie refusing to cooperate with the lead hunter which really has you question how much she values her own life.
I had to pause the game at this point and just take a breather because we are constantly reminded of how brutal and lethal this world is. Nearly everyone we know has died aside from the two of us.
The more I thought about it and the possibility of Ellie and even Joel dying: The more intimidated I got and every section was a real pain in the gutt to play.
I wasnt playing because it was fun (albeit it was though). I was playing because I felt like I had an obligation to help Ellie get through this, to the end, regardless of the price.
This feeling drove me throughout the whole game and I must say that I absolutely loved it.
Joel wakes up and is on the look for Ellie. Ellie manages to break through and has a fight against the leader of the hunters who'm seal the exit and starts to torch the place. Once Joel gets there, Ellie is repeatedly slashing the leader of the hunter with a machete, as tears drop down her face and Joel kind of hugs her, trying to hold her calm. During this whole section, my heart was racing and I kept thinking I was going to lose one or the other. Luckily that was not the case.
Later on Ellie doesnt entirely feel the same from the get go atleast. You can tell she's distant. She starts to soften up a bit and Joel and her discuss what they will be doing after all of this. Ellie says that Joel should teach her how to swim among other things. These kinds of banter between the two characters really immerse you more and add so much to the characters themselves.
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Tl:dr => Totally agree xD
