I know one of the main concerns at Naughty Dog is that perhaps some players won’t empathise with her. I think I empathised with Abby sooner than a lot of players will. The fact Ellie can’t hear Abby and friends vouching for her to live, only for her to then go and kill a lot of them later on, is desperately sad to me. I also liked that the game covers up a lot of that scene until much later. I think a lot of people would expect this sort of act to take a few more hours to build up to, but it’s swift and unrelenting and it hits you hard (it hits him harder lol). I didn’t really feel sorry for him, but that scene stressed me out. SW: Yeah Joel’s death was a mix of emotions for me. If you really have that connection with Joel, why doubt the writers now? This developer creates some of the best characters and stories in games. But surely the fact they care so much about a fictional character’s death is just testament to the writers at Naughty Dog. I’d also like to touch on the reaction to his death that played out across social media: people were really angry about the spoilers. The writers do a brilliant job of putting you on her side at that point, which is where you need to be for the later stuff to have such an impact.
You can’t help but hate these newcomers who did this to him. But still, when he’s lying there on the floor, leg shattered from a shotgun blast, hair sticky with blood, you feel what Ellie feels. His fondness of Ellie doesn’t absolve him of his sins. Ellie asks how he knew it was an ambush and he replies, “I’ve been on both sides.” He’s a killer and a torturer. Even outside of the final scene of the first game, there’s that bit where they’re ambushed by raiders on the roadside.
He’s devoted to learning Ellie’s interests so they have some common ground. I love that he keeps a book, An Idiot’s Guide to Space, on his bedside. Joel obviously isn’t a good guy, but there’s a kindness in him and he does care about Ellie. She’s with this group who feel like side characters, but you really bond with them over the game. You control her quite early on and you don’t understand her motives. I just wanted to soak in it.Ībby’s introduction is smart. I had to laugh because the game is like, “press L1 to gallop”, and I was like, “I don’t think I will”. KM: Yeah, that opening is beautiful - the writing and the visuals. You get introduced to Abby, and of course, Joel faces a squelchy demise. What did you think of the way the game deals with the next few hours? A lot happens. Also, the entire opening sequence, when you’re riding through the sunset, is just stunning. And it sets up this tension that Ellie is, at some point, going to find out. You know from the get go that the game is going to deal with this lie. I loved it, though I do think the actual "game" has a significant jump in quality once the human enemies are introduced. His lie to Ellie at the end of the first game was arguably his biggest sin - outside of potentially dooming the world - but now he’s lying to himself as well. “I saved her,” he tells Tommy, his brother, as the camera cuts to footage of the corridor, slick with blood and dead Fireflies piled up. It’s really understated - a stark contrast to the prologue of the original - but it tells you more about Joel as a character than the opening of the original. But no, it opens by directly dealing with the end of the first game: Joel killing the Fireflies and lying to Ellie. I fully expected the game to open with the winter dance, something bad to happen, and for a revenge story to spawn from that. Kirk McKeand: It’s interesting how Naughty Dog left this breadcrumb trail to follow in the trailers, misleading players a bit.
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