After playing through that shower of shit story, I’m pretty sure I could write a better story for the second game. So I did (thread) #TLOU2

The first half of the game is played from 2 perspectives. Joel+Ellie and Abby. We start the game as Abby making her way through a town fighting off the infected. However she is overwhelmed by a horde and cornered in a building.

As the horde is closing in on her and about to kill her, the zombies are shot by a group of people. They are a group of survivors. They tell Abby they are making their way to Jackson, Wyoming because they’ve heard of the settlement there, and they need a place to safely live.

Abby agreed to join them on their journey to Jackson, however the game hints at a deeper motive for Abby to want to go there other than just a place to live.

We then switch to Joel and Ellie, who are living in Jackson. Joel is ridden with guilt over lying to her at the end of the last game and with Ellie now being an adult, he decides to tell her the truth. Ellie is furious, shoves him away from her and decides to shun and ignore him.

Maria and Tommy, sensing a split between the pair, send them out on patrol together to work things out between them. On patrol we are able to see that classic Joel and Ellie dynamic from the first game, with them working together to solve puzzles and defeat the infected.

After a few groups of infected have been defeated, Joel and Ellie settle in a lookout post. Joel tries to explain himself but Ellie becomes enraged and they argue. The conversation calms down with Ellie hearing Joel out and listening to what he has to say, but she doesn’t quite

forgive him yet. It’s getting late and they return to the settlement.

This gives the game a really nice balance- you get great character driven cutscenes with Joel and Ellie and zombie killing, horror-survival gameplay from Abby and the group of survivors as they fight their way to Jackson.

There is also space here to flesh out important side characters for future games with some of the members of the group of survivors. There is too a chance to develop Ellie and Dina’s relationship back at the camp.

Ellie and Joel awake the next morning to find a group of people have been let into the camp- the group of survivors containing Abby. Over the next few days, they earn the settlements trust, helping out with patrols and providing supplies.

Abby tries to become acquainted with Joel, but he is hesitant. Ellie becomes suspicious of Abby as she watches them. The following day when Tommy is unable to accompany Joel on patrol, Abby volunteers and Maria sends her out with Joel.

They leave, but Ellie sneaks out of the camp and trails them. Abby and Joel stop as the last outpost, the one furthest away from camp. Abby suddenly becomes hostile towards Joel and she confronts him, pulling a gun on him.

It is here we learn Abby’s hinted at deeper motive for wanting to go to Jackson. Her dad was the surgeon killed by Joel at the end of the first game. (I’m ok with this motivation). Abby shoots Joel in the shoulder as she does not want to kill him on the spot, she wants to torture

him. Just as she is about to fire the fatal shot at Joel, Ellie burst in through the door and hits her over the head with a pipe (she doesn’t have her backpack and hence her knife with her as she left the camp quickly in order to track Joel and Abby). Abby falls to the floor

unconscious. Ellie rushes over to Joel and tend to him with alcohol and bandages (supplies Ellie found whilst tracking Joel down). As she is tending to him, Joel notices Abby get up from over Ellie’s shoulder and grab the gun. Abby points the gun at Ellie.

Just as she is about to shoot, Joel grabs Ellie close to him and turns around, acting as a shield for Ellie and taking the bullet. Joel slumps to the ground as Abby prepares to now shoot Ellie. The gun is out of bullets. Abby, realising this, flees the scene.

Ellie has her final moments with Joel as he bleeds out on the ground. Ellie tells Joel she forgives him and that he’s thankful for everything he’s done for her. She tells him how much she loves him, and Joel responds with ‘I love you too’ before he finally dies.

This gives Joel a good death scene, not the downright disrespectful one we got in the game. Here Joel isn’t uncharacteristically trusting of strangers, and he dies a decent portion into the game so that we actually get to play with him.

Joel has been protective of Ellie for 1 and a half games now, it would be very fitting of him to die sacrificing himself to protect Ellie.

This also negates playing with Abby after she killed Joel, like in the actual game. I don’t care if Abby cures cancer, she has just killed a much loved character- why would we want to play with her afterwards?

Ellie notices that in a rush, Abby left her backpack in the room. Inside she finds a note from her mother asking Abby to meet up and live with her mother in another settlement. Ellie also finds a map, with Seattle marked upon it.

This sets up the rest of the game, Ellie travelling to the other settlement to find Abby and avenge Joel. She returns back to the settlement to inform Tommy and grab supplies for her trip. Dina agrees to come go with her, but Maria forces Tommy to stay.

This gives the game a chance to develop Ellie and Dina’s relationship on the journey to Abby as they fight infected, gather supplies and solve puzzles together.

They arrive at the city and find letters from a woman named ‘Mary’ asking for men and supplies to be sent to a business park in the north of the city. Ellie and Dina head north, figuring they’ll find the settlement or clues as to where it could be.

They arrive at the business park just as the sun sets. They spot a large, tall warehouse building in the corner of the park with its lights on. They decide to head inside and investigate. Inside, they find an office with a picture of Abby and her mother.