I think this video does a good job at explaining what druckmann vision was when he made the story.
However, the main issue people have with the game are the ways this vision fails to achieve what it wanted.
"They killed joel to make you feel like Ellie and hate Abby"
Except it doesn't. This won't make the players hate Abby, it'll make them hate Druckmann, and in some worst cases just disconnect from the story altogether and stop caring rather than sympathizing with Ellie.
"players were struggling with the morally ambiguos actions taken by joel in the last game just like Ellie"
Except we weren't. Its just a game, no one will struggle with the morality of the whole thing for too long - some even fully agreed with Joel thanks to some poor world building. And ultimately it was a forced event, aka something the author wanted to happen we had 0 input in, no reason to feel personally conficted.
"the player begins to question if revenge is worth it"
Except we dont. Revenge bad is one of the most overused moral points in drama. We've known its not worth it for a long time now (at least when it comes to fiction). All thats left is watching a long long campaign that you know full well from start will be just misery porn that will culminate in "revenge is bad" at the end.
"naughty dog wants to challenge you to play as someone you hate"
Except we don't hate her, we just don't care about her at all. If anything her arc is what makes players hate her since the bad writing unknowingly makes her out to be a complete sociopath.
"the game wants you to understand that when she killed joel she was in that same pain you are now"
First, we are not in pain, we're probably at a point where we feel nothing but detachment from the story and want the credits to roll already.
Second, yeah, it was obvious from the very beginning the reason she killed Joel was pretty personal, and it wouldn't be surprising if he had it coming considering his past and all.
So, since i already understand this, can i skip this 10 hours section and go to next plot point already?
"Their intention in making you play as two characters with two separate stories was to cause a complete loss of subjective self-identity when their timelines merge"
Its a linear game where we have no input to the plot. And for a while now we've already been disagreeing with pretty much every course of action from the characters. We've already lost any form of subjective self-identity in the game for a long time now, along with our interest in it.
Well, it was still a pretty educational video.
Now i understand why some people like this game. Basically there are two types, the ones that get too easily affected and sucked in by fiction, and the ones that are a little harder to break.
If you're the former, you'll fall right into the emotional traps of the game even if they are pretty cheap, if you are the later you'll see through everything from the beginning and the game will just become a cringe slog where all the flaws end up standing out even more.