Last Of Us 2 Ending EXPLAINED - Why It's Dividing The Fandom

Why You Need To Play As Abby For 10 Hours

A huge turning point in the story happens bang-on the midway point, where after Abby has infiltrated the theatre where Ellie, Dina, Tommy and Jesse are staying - in retaliation for Ellie killing all of Abby's friends - she pins Tommy to the ground, kills Jesse and attempts to fire on Ellie.

We instead cut to black, and play the entire three-day Seattle timeline from Abby's perspective.

We see the Washington Liberation Front are an organised group with education systems, farming facilities, various social circles and homesteads. We learn Seattle is a warzone to them; a "front" that soldiers are being posted to, in an attempt to fight yet another faction, the Seraphites.

At this point you are SUPPOSED to dislike being forced to inhabit the enemy's shoes. I personally just wanted to "get back to the main story", and as each day wore on, I questioned whether this was a negative for the game or not.

Over time - and it really does take many hours in the company of someone you're supposed to hate, for the paradigm to shift - your perception of Abby and these sequences changes.

Maybe you still don't agree with what she did, but you don't hate her as a one-dimensional villain anymore. You fundamentally cannot, unless you're forcing yourself to ignore the human qualities that are clearly on display.

It's this choice - this hugely ambitious, risky artistic choice - that coupled with Joel's earlier death, lies at the heart of the game's controversy.

Many just want Abby to die no matter what, and that mentality is what Naughty Dog made The Last of Us 2 to address.