#usercore

Approximately 3 days after the launch of the game, the game scored only 3.3 on Metacritic, whereas The Last of us 1 and Left Behind scored 9.1 and 8.0. People argue that the score isn’t that low because of the LGBTQ+ representation in the game. Many compare it to other games like Life is Strange, Detroit: Become Human and even the Left Behind DLC itself which all represent LGBTQ+ and still have a pretty good user score.  First of all, we think that these other games are a LOT more subtle and often “the worst you get” is a kiss scene. The Last of Us 2 takes this to a different level: Romance is very explicit and present all the time.  

Second, and most importantly: The user score is actually going UP. And that makes sense.  Within the first 3 days there were about 15,000 user ratings submitted on Metacritic. The Last of Us 1 - after seven years - currently only has ~10,000 reviews.  The Left Behind DLC only has ~1,100 as of now.  The huge gap between these numbers makes a lot of sense considering people’s reaction to the leaks a few months ago. Without ever having played it, many rejected the direction of the story and cancelled their pre-order. Neil Druckman received so many hateful messages that you really gotta question what’s wrong with some people to threaten another person like this, and even more so, because of a game.  Let’s also not forget about the hundreds or thousands of people who complained right from the start that the sequel confirmed Ellie being gay (which they probably had dismissed as “experimenting” up to then). Or those who were enraged that the game wouldn’t have multi-player like the first one, and cancelled their pre-order because of that, way before the leaks. The game had lost many supporters at that point already.

Of course there are those who simply don’t like the story. The “golf” scene and many things about the new main character in particular, at least that’s the critique we heard most often. But just because people don’t like the story doesn’t mean the game deserves a 1/10, does it? Most people would agree that the graphics are amazing, that the gameplay is fun and engaging and that Naughty Dog improved a lot of things in general. Taking this into account, the game CAN’T objectively be a 1/10. How many stories in video games suck or are pretty shallow, yet people still love the game? It’s only that the expectations are pretty high for The Last of Us, considering the success of the first game and the scale it set. So if the story disappoints for some, they dismiss the entire game as bullshit.

Honestly, maybe a small part in the disappointment also plays that the trailers are very misleading and having followed them, you’d expect something pretty different from what’s in the actual game.   

Our guess is that many, many people - without having so much as touched the game - immediately went to hate on it by giving it the lowest possible score. Just to show everyone how pissed they are. And many people also wanted to convince others of not buying the game because “it’s trash”. 

Now after those people had the chance to submit their negative review right away, the user score slowly becomes more objective. There are those who love, like or dislike it for good reasons. More and more people actually finish the game themselves (and while some are fast and have the time, the majority of people can’t fit a 30+ hour game into a single weekend, especially if they’re busy). So people have a chance to build their own opinion after having explored and experienced the game - and obviously, the game isn’t that bad. There are just as many people having a blast playing it. 

While I’m writing this, there are almost 100,000 reviews on Metacritic. The score is at 4.8 today (6/29/20) and I’m basically checking every day - it keeps getting better. 

Truth is that the game isn’t complete trash. In fact, we, personally, enjoy every bit of the game, we love what Naughty Dog did including the story. It’s probably best not to assume the direction the story will take and instead going into the game with a fresh mind, because what Naughty Dog did is definitely brave and could be seen as controversial. But we find that everything about the story and how it is told makes perfect sense. It’s a great sequel to the first one, and more importantly, we don’t think it’s random, like they had to come up with some story that feels forced in and out - it’s perfectly logical. 

A little heads up for those who haven’t played it: Just be prepared for explicit violence in this game. It’s really detailed, brutal and gory.  Here are links to articles that found out the same, and you can easily find more if you check: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/25/the-last-of-us-part-2s-metacritic-user-score-rises-32-now-that-people-have-actually-finished-it/#6b7cacce924d https://screenrant.com/last-us-2-metacritic-score-users-rising/

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