They should've made a second game be about completely new characters, I said that years ago already. Now I also expected Joel to die from the trailers and hints we've gotten over the years. There's dying and dying though. That said if the story is going down the way it's leaked, with you playing as this other character and whatnot, even going as far as killing Ellie in the end (and the player themselves having to do this no less), there will be backlash. And it'll be the last of The Last of Us probably. Also, that character bashing Joel's head in is butt-ugly.

my frustration when they shoved bland nadine with chloe instead of cutter in Lost legacy, since then i have dialed down my hype for this game and the things which I feared would happen has happened like alowing unlikable character take the center stage.

And i strongly believe Neil Druckmann as a story teller or as writer is way over rated, he has yet to prove his metal.. the last of Us all about direction and moments and that credit goes to Bruce Straley. For me Amy heninng was what made new ND.. loosing her was a big loss.. I was more interested in her version of Uncharted 4, of Sam being Nates dark past. Since Uncharted 4 this studio is on decline.

This is depressing.

Pretty pleased with what i read. I didn't really like the ending of Part 1 and how Joel selfishley killed an innocent medical and robbed the whole world off the potential for an end of the pandemic, so i am glad that he gets what he deserves.

The new character sounds a bit more interesting than bland Ellie and i think the game will do everything to make us like her (though it failed miserably with the protagonists of Part 1 so... eh...).

Honestly before seeing the spoilers I thought people were getting upset over nothing again. But my god if that's the way the story go's. I gotta say... what the hell were they thinking?!

Of course there are people bringing up the politics like they always do but i feel like that's not even the real problem here.

Just the fact that we play as the person who is going to kill off the two most liked characters from the first game just feels so wrong to me. And they have to make her likeable enough so whole thing isn't a disaster. I don't know I just don't see it happening.

For starters you spend the first game and the first half of the 2nd  as not-her. Therefore she has a uphill battle to be likeable to fans who built a connection with the duo. 

Like I said before, it’s like Halo 5 but you play as Locke and he kills Chief. Locke isn’t as likeable and Chief has history with fans. It’s just not going to end well. I don’t see the franchise recovering from this. 

The Last of Us, the original game, was great. It had a decent story with exceptional acting that really elevated it. The gameplay was good, the pacing was great, and it used just the right amount of violence, without it coming off as forced.

And looks like's theryve butchered most of the that with this sequel. You take control of Joel's killer, for the second half of the game. Really?
And she's a daughter getting revenge for someone who was in the first for like three seconds and didnt have a name. It's gonna be hard to sympathize there. At least they couldve made it Marlene's daughter, it couldve been somewhat more relatable that way.

Why are you threatening moderation in your very first post and then actively promote spoilering a yet to be released game?

Personally I think people like you should be permabanned for doing that.

Heh, I was banned from the other thread even though I made sure to avoid spoilers in my posts. Feels pretty political, guess I had the wrong opinions then.

First of all, thank you to the leaker. I can't even imagine how it would have felt if I had bought the game blissfully ignorant of what's going to happen, and then seen it unfold in front of my eyes as it does, after years of anticipating this game and waiting to meet these characters again. I don't want to support this kind of thing in any shape or form.
Then, to the issues.
1)Ellie is gay. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever and we already knew this, at least if you played the DLC of the first game. It's just not really that important. Sure, there are people who have a problem with this, of course there are, but the vast majority of fans are not like that.
2)Joel dies. I kind of expected this to happen anyways, because gotta have that impact and tug on those heartstrings. It can also be said that Joel kind of carries some karmic debt from the first game as well, which kind of warrants his death. But I expected it to happen in a meaningful way. Like he trades his life for Ellie's or something, sacrifices himself in some way. Did not expect some rando coming out of the woodwork and just bashing his skull in. And to add insult to injury, I would then be forced to play as this shitbag of a character and hunt down the other character that I cared about from the original game. Who thought that this would be a good idea? It seems that people who are not actual fans don't really get this, unless they picture their own favorite franchise in the same situation. Try it out, put Harry Potter and Hermione in this scenario, or Link and Zelda, or whatever it is that you care about.
3)Ellie dies. I have seen some contradicting stuff about this, where Ellie might not die, but if it is true, then nope. Just no. Something has to remain of the two of them. Losing Joel would be quite enough for Ellie and for us. You can't just obliterate the whole thing that made this great in the first place. Maybe it should never had a sequel in the first place. One great story and that's it. How many great movies have been served well by sequels?
4)The political stuff. Let's compare the stories of the two games.
The first game: Two unlikely companions must travel a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by an infection in pursuit of a cure for mankind. A man and a girl must come to terms with their personal griefs and losses and grow to come together in the midst of both internal and external turmoil. A beautiful story, not something totally unique and unprecedented, but universally appealing and well executed none the less.
The sequel: Alphabet people and women are good people. Men are bad, and especially white hetero males. They cannot be trusted and they spend their time plotting to destroy the good alphabet people. Even in a destroyed world, they have nothing better to do. Oh, also revenge is bad, if you didn't know.

There are two notable male characters, Joel and Jesse, that are not card carrying members of the evil men's club, but they are both killed off, because who needs men. Well, Jesse is needed to give the lesbian couple a baby, so he has some use before he can be disposed of. The character who kills Joel is a transperson, so it's ok because alphabet is good and white male is evil. That's why you then get to play as your new hero, the transperson, because who wouldn't like to be a transhero that destroys white male scum? By the way, it's totally believable that in the middle of a chaotic apocalypse, this character has a managed to go through his/her/whatever transition, hormone treatments and all. It's totally not a brazen, political statement just bolted on forcefully, along with all the other similar stuff. Great story, guys. Gripping and compelling.

Now, I admit that most of my ranting is based on the just the leaks, and if those were all that we had, I would be more reserving with my judgment. However, we also have an account of what it was like to work on this project. There seems to have been a very politicized atmosphere, where any kind of questioning of the narrative has not been allowed. Get with the program or shut up. There is no doubt that Naughty Dog is completely run by the woke cult at this point and anyone working there will be forced to submit to their agenda or suffer the consequences. It's not hard to imagine some of the people going "I'm not sure that this is a direction that the fans are going to like very much" and then getting nothing but backlash and threats in return. This phenomenon has claimed many things from Star Wars to Doctor Who to Terminator to Star Trek and whatever else, and The Last of Us is no different in this regard. Another good thing tainted and sacrificed for the cause. The road to hell is truly paved with good intentions, and on both sides of that road there are all these different fandoms looking on with confusion and disbelief.