Speaking of expectations, I blame whoever in Naughty Dog and Druckmann for this PR nightmare that they are experiencing. Looking back at how they communicated with the fans about Joel and Ellie's involvement in this sequel was downright hilarious. From interviews to trailers, they just played fans so hard.

If you don't want anyone to have any expectations, should have started a new IP.

What exactly did they expect? An older joel to go on another side kick adventure with an older ellie? I don't think many people gave much thought about what to expect from the sequel. 

So you are saying i'm wrong?. State of mind and distractions alters a game experience completely. There are different factors that can heighten and lower the experience. How you approach a game is huge factor.  What i'm saying is the game itself isn't the issue, there is a reason many love it. Those that don't and reacted like joe, is unfortunately on their own doing and the way they chose to play the game and the mindset they went in with in the first place. I loved thed first game, played it multiple times, platinumed it, so how is it  some one like myself can be proud with what the team did on the sequel? I saw no real flaws in the game, everything was done in painstakingly detail and there was a though process behind everything implemented. When all this drama settles, they will look back at this game and time, and as a gem badly misinterpreted. 

And that's where a lot of people will disagree with you.

Also, it is pretty early for you to say that this is a misunderstood masterpiece when it hasn't even been out for a year.

Let's see if it can even come close to the success of Kojima's MGS2 stunt and maintain some sort of relevancy after more than a decade.

Joel has done terrible acts of the past, killed innocent,  that he is ashamed off. And the end of the first game didn't resonate well with everyone. And nothing was justified for joel commiting such acts at the end. He did not have to brutally kill everyone. But i guess since the game shows that murder and death is a common thing without much hesitation,  there could be some people who didn;t feel anything by joels actions and the only thing on their mind is ellie and joel. Joel kiling the surgeon was a grave mistake, maybe blame it on the writers, even the death of marlene could be questioned.  I saw no laziness in the writing at all. They had to tie the sequel to the first, and show that actions have consequences. And people expecting joel and ellie to have another duo adventure are kidding themselves and don't truly understand the world of "the last of us". 

Also people act like the first game had no issues, pacing problems.  If i was to nit pick, i can find things wrong with the game. I have been playing the first remastered aswell, and for someone reason find it hard adjusting to the old game. Maybe i should just leave my amazing experience with it in my memories. I never would have thought i would have been applauding naughtydog for how the made abby. I did not expect to like her or have emotions resonate. Even the scenes of joel and ellie were amazing, abby and lev, and watching ellie evolve.I understand some people want another game with ellie and joel, but you just can't do that. This isn't uncharted, Ellie and joel had they're run together. There is no way those two could have surpased what they did without being a basic repeat. This game had to be about Ellie and go in different ways. 

The criticism of the story generally goes deeper than "we preferred having a story like in TLOU with Ellie and Joel". You might want to watch/read some, it will show you what people highlighted as narrative issues that broke immersion in TLOU2.

But to contribute, you will see that the primary issue was that people did not buy into the vengeful drive that animates certain characters and for which they (the characters) are not questioned. Another criticism is how the main leaked scene plays out too easily and is not believable.

But what about the gameplay. It;s greatly improved on the first, from the Ai, to the addition dogs, crawling and hiding mechanics, the whistling by the scars.. just playing the game itself tells a story. I know people keep hyping the cutscene narratives, but there is much more than that, same with the first game. By the end of it, i was so satisfied and ready to do another player through. And just like the first game, when you played it once, you know the story, the following play throughs becomes more about the focus on gameplay. And like the first, the immersion in  gameplay is on its own a 10/10 experience. 

Most people, according to reviews and reddit forrums, do agree with me. I'm pretty sure that those who didn't like it are in the minority. 

Agree to disagree. Also, reddit is not the only sphere where you can get a discussion.