10 Exact Moments Video Games Should Have Ended (But Didn't)
2. The Farm - The Last Of Us Part II
The Last of Us Part II may be a phenomenal game, but it's also one that ends up outstaying its welcome, with its unrelenting bleakness proving genuinely tiresome over a 25-hour playtime.
Most players probably suspected that the game's climax would be the showdown between Ellie and Abby that we catch a brief glimpse of at the mid-way point and return to many hours later.
Having players control Abby and taking on Ellie as a stalker-type boss, not unlike David from the first game, was an ingenious subversion of expectations, and felt like the right time for things to start winding down.
After their fight, the scene shifts forward several months in time for what seems to be an epilogue, as Ellie and Dina live on a farm while trying to put their past behind them.
Tommy then arrives with information of Abby's whereabouts, and Ellie sets off for one more confrontation with her.
And so the game then continues on for another gruelling two hours, as Abby gets captured by the Rattlers, Ellie infiltrates their compound, and the two fight one more time.
This isn't to say that this extended finale isn't extremely well crafted from a technical and narrative perspective, but ending it at the farm would've felt so much more succinct.
There were two ready-made ending points here: either Ellie choosing to move on from her revenge, or leaving her decision ambiguous and wrapping up with the flashback to Ellie and Dina dancing.