Reddit's largest subreddit dedicated to The Last of Us Part II has completely turned against the PS4-exclusive sequel, and its users have hated the game for numerous reasons for a while. Normally, subreddits dedicated to and named for a single game are echo chambers of praise and optimism leading up to that title's launch and thereafter. Sometimes, though, users devolve these spaces into the exact opposite, spending their collective time voicing their displeasure with their once-beloved game and its developers, but no other community has abandoned its original intention quite like the r/TheLastOfUs2.
Along with being brutal, chilling, and all of the other well-worn adjectives that critics and fans perpetually ascribe to the game, The Last of Us Part II is widely described as controversial. That descriptor's not off the mark, with the game's controversiality being reflected in its Metacritic scores. The aggregate of over one hundred critic reviews spell top marks for the sequel as part of a perceived games industry conspiracy to boost AAA sales, while tens of thousands of disapproving user reviews openly attributed to review bombing very loudly reject that warm response. At the helm of this movement to prevent, overshadow, or otherwise dent The Last of Us Part II's success is r/TheLastOfUs2, which has been the game's most vocal community of detractors since the game's plot leaked in April.
On r/TheLastOfUs2, the diatribe against its titular focus is centered around players' denouncement of the game's story - namely (spoiler warning), the onscreen death of The Last of Us protagonist Joel at the hands new playable character Abby and protagonist Ellie's ultimate refusal to exact revenge. That substantive critique on its own is understandable, but it's long been joined by a chorus of players whose vocabulary regarding the game doesn't much extend beyond "forced agenda" and thinly (if at all) veiled hate speech against the game's themes and characters. That second group's weirdly preoccupied by Abby's musculature and gender - that is, when they're not railing against Ellie's homosexuality and working their favorite pejorative for Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann into wherever it will fit, like below:
“Bad Writers” upvote this so Neil Cuckmann can show up in the results every time you search for bad writers, it’s about time D&D had some company from TheLastOfUs2
We’re all upset. Not because of trans/lesbian/whatever the fuck in the game, but because this awesome character was taken from us far too soon. Thanks for being such a dope character. Say hi to Sarah for us. #JusticeForJoel from TheLastOfUs2
Essentially, the undefined overlap between players who are only unhappy with the story and the forever bitter bigots that fight for ideological footholds wherever they can on Reddit has intrinsically tied vocal anger at The Last of Us Part II to alt-right political extremists (in the kind of, "Is this a Venn diagram or circle?" kind of way). This banal hatred has latched itself onto genuine disdain for the game's plot on the subreddit since almost immediately after the leaks, as evidenced by popular posts like this one that applied the now-poorly aged adage, "Get woke, go broke," linking the game's controversial stance that women and gay people exist to a wildly misinformed poor sales forecast.
For those otherwise innocent players who have sat down, put time into the experience, and simply, truly just didn't enjoy the game, it's an incredibly unfair association to be forced to weather and navigate if they want to discuss it with actual like-minded individuals. In due time, the trolls will declare their sound defeat as a tactical victory, recede from r/TheLastOfUs2, and wrap their vitriolic tentacles around the next piece of entertainment that scares them. Until then, rational minds are better off avoiding that particular corner of Reddit for a while, but not without taking a moment to note what transpired there and how.
Source: Metacritic, r/TheLastOfUs2