[hider]If Abby had been solely playable and established it would've played better narratively imo. The way the opening hours play out are choppy as shit because it bounces between Ellie and Abby but doesn't really establish Abby as a character despite clearly the game wanting her to be the secondary protagonist. This creates a weird disconnect where you get the tutorial for healing as Abby then the exact same tutorial for healing as Ellie like twenty minutes later, and Abby's story is incredibly coincidental to the point where it borders on the absurd. 

If the game had spent the opening, say, two hours establishing Abby and her rapport with Owen and the WLF crew she's with, maybe have them setting up in the house, then Abby ingratiates herself with Jackson (thus serving as a way to do tutorials - maybe to gain 'trust' or whatever she crafts things, for example) and eventually meets Joel. Maybe he draws the short straw and has to take this new girl on a route tour or whatever, they get to talking, establishing rapport, getting along, and Salt Lake City is mentioned and Abby adds two and two together, realizes this is the dude, springs the trap and takes him back to the house. 

Then you can have the Ellie/Jesse/Dina stuff play out pretty normally, though maybe with a bit more combat encounters for you to apply your tutorial knowledge (and to show that Ellie is older and more experienced now) with the only difference being it's Joel and "the new girl" who didn't report in. 

Now Abby at least feels like a character and her motivations can be unraveled while Ellie goes on her revenge quest.

I dunno, I'm not much beyond the courthouse but I feel like a huge sin on the narrative isn't so much that Joel died but how poorly it was built up. If players were given time to play as Abby and get to know her a little bit, the sudden betrayal might've hit way harder.[/hider]


Or maybe I'm a stupid dumb dumb.