It was a mix. I watched the first 2 hours in a stream, I played some parts of the game and also watched a friend play it. My friend shared his copy. I was never going to buy it but he really wanted to play it. So he bought one just to give it a benefit of a doubt. So we were playing sections of the game in turns. After we finished the play through, we were both disappointed at the game.

And for the score, I phrased that poorly. Let me rephrase that. I do not agree with the reviewers giving this a 9-10/10. It is a severely flawed game. In my opinion there is nothing really good in this game that can make up for the massive flaws it has to justify such a high review score.

Despite the first game being a clunky mess, the experience it provides was something that was not too common for its time. Till this day, it still holds a special place in my heart. I still play that game. The critical acclaim it got aligns with the value that I find in this game.

Now will I purchase my own copy of TLOU2 and play it again? Absolutely not. It's a terrible follow up to the first game and just disrespects the legacy of the first game which was its really good story telling and compelling characters.

I just finished the game. I have both love and hate for it. 8.5/10

here are some reviews with interesting thoughts :) After 38 hours, The Last of Us 2 is my Game of the Year too (together with Persona 5 Royal).

by the way: more editors are criticizing the fanboy-wars on meta and the lousy zero quality-ratings of the people.

Meta is criticized! it needs new rules. The site has become much more popular in the last few days, it benefits from fanboy-wars/1-star hate ratings. Is that why they don't do anything about it? Obviously yes, in the first 24 hours, over 20,000 1-star hatred ratings were received for this high-quality game. the most comments are fanboywars. game-bashing become religion.

Metacritic wont make any changes or they risk going the way of GameRankings which honestly I preferred over Metacritic.

And the meta keep increasing, now it is 4,1

Seems like 40k negative and 20k positive so far. And with positives growing faster with more people playing.

I heard someone saying that MC is blocking low review scores or beginning to filter some of the user reviews. If true that could further skew these already fucked up user ratings. But who the fuck cares at this point.

The review score for The Last Of Us 2 is as accurate as it is for any other game. Skill Up is a Youtube reviewer. He's not even on MC. The other two outlets are sites that don't give out scores. The same condition, the condition of these 3 entities having no effect on the aggregate score at Metacritic, that you are saying is skewing the accuracy of the score, applies to every game that these three entities review. Your argument would only make sense if their reviews were excluded exclusively from the metascore of TLOU2.

I am just saying to get a full accurate review score is for all review scores to be accounted for. Now 2 (and many more) publishcations don't give out scores. Is TLOU2 really a 95? when two of its worsts reviews are not accounted for? That's sort of my point. Example: If you are a follower of Polygon, Metacritic would be incredibly misleading to that individual. Hence my ordinal post. Same can be said if you are someone who doesn't care for Polygon, than Metacritic is a better guideline. Its all over the place. User Scores are clearly worse as its just a bunch of fanboy wars giving 10/10s and 0/10s for there brand of choice.

Latest Reviews :

100/100 from "The Digital Fix"

""An unparalleled masterpiece, there has never been a game as deeply, as hauntingly, as viscerally engaging as The Last of Us Part II before and perhaps there will never be another like it again. As I closed the game, thinking back on the things that I had seen and the things that I had done, perhaps there should never be another like this. I am not sure I am prepared for what could come next.""

Overall
Naughty Dog’s bravest, darkest masterpiece to date and one of the greatest games of this generation.

https://www.thedigitalfix.com/gaming/review/the-last-of-us-part-ii/


95/100 from Gamecrate

""If you are the type of person who is going to raise a stink over Ellie being gay or Lev being trans or the game suggesting that self-centered individualism is toxic, and you know who you are, just stay away. This game isn’t for you.

But for everyone else, this is one of the greatest masterpieces that the PS4 has produced. I’ll admit, I came into this title with a skeptical eye, ready to knock it down a peg from all the praise other critics had been giving it, but even with that pre-existing bias, I can’t deny that this is an amazing game, and you should play it.""

https://gamecrate.com/reviews/review-last-us-part-ii-games-can-be-better-we-can-be-better/26042


95/100 from Forbes

""But it’s stunning. It’s important. And it’s a deeply well-told story to the point where I genuinely cannot fathom why anyone who has fully beaten the game, not just heard the spoilers, not just watched a streamer snark their way through it or watched ripped YouTube cutscenes, doesn’t appreciate what it has achieved here. But again, I can only offer my own opinion and my own defense of what I think is a must-play as a huge fan of the original, even as someone who loved the characters they’ve murdered and maimed and morally compromised here. It’s remarkable, and it will stay with me a long while, just like the first.""

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/22/the-last-of-us-part-2-review-ps4-dig-two-graves/#17da09443ca9


For the ones who believe some Critics are biased(which could be even true, AND THIS HAPPENS FOR EVERY GAME), going too high or too low, you can do like in the football statistics, and remove, for example, the top 15 Scores and the 15 bottom Scores from Meta. And you know what would happen ? That The Last of Us Part II would get most probably 97 on Metacritic ;) You truly believe a percentage of Critic are biased ? Remove their Scores from Meta, as I did, remove those 30 Scores, the 15 Top and the 15 Bottom, it's like IT WORKS IN MANY MANY STATISTICS. It's very easy to get an idea about the real quality of a Game, in general, instead of talking nonsense for pages and pages. Enjoy the Masterpiece.

Lev was a trans? I just thought he was a kid...