After reading stuff on this and other forums about the story (and people getting very annoyed about the direction of it), I'm still surprised people get that attached to video game characters. To me, they really are just a pile of pixels. Despite being in control of them, I'm not sure I'll ever care about a game character in the same way as I do characters in books, films, etc. Maybe I'm odd... I guess I see games as more a series of tests than stories, despite a drive now to deeper analyse games.
It varies hugely for me depending on the game, it's just that as I get older I tend more towards games that are very heavily story driven, which are just so much more rewarding when you invest in the characters.
I played COD MW 1 and 2 Remastered and fucking loved them both, having missed them the first time round. They are exciting, breathless, run and gun fests with loads of clever features that make them really stand out. 2 was so good I played right back through it again and then cherry picked missions until The Last of Us 2 arrived. It was brilliant. Did I give a fuck about any of the characters? Of course not.
I've played a lot - and I mean a LOT - of the Long Dark in Survival mode. It is exactly a series of tests to be passed - or not, then permadeath and you have to start a wholly new game. There are no characters at all, just you, trying to beat the game. It's frigging awesome.
But this, this game demands that you bother with the characters. There's really no point if you don't.
It's like comparing some sort of Jack Ryan bollocks (never read one, just to be clear), with Misery by Stephen King, with, oh, I don't know, David Copperfield. Sure, they're all
books but are they in any way comparable, really? Ones an action romp designed to be enjoyed for the good guys winning, one is an analysis of fame and hero worship with some truly horrific moments, and the other one is whatever the fuck that is about.
My long winded point is treating all games as a series of tests is to utterly, utterly miss the point of many games ... like criticising David Copperfield for there not being enough machine guns.
The Last of Us 2 is not really like anything I've played before. I haven't thought about a game so much afterwards since Spec Ops: The Line I reckon. I'm really avoiding saying too much and I can't be arsed doing more spoilers, but once again Johnny, if all you got from the first one is "too much sneaking around" then you massively missed the point and 2 won't do it for you either.