I feel like I'm reasonably good at picking at a game on the gameplay level, as per what works and does not and why and surface videogame essayist stuff like ludonarrative dissonance (or the rare examples of ludonarrative harmony).
I may offer you my finest insight into video games such as "Lara Croft has some sort of father complex going on" and "Shadow of Chernobyl is unintentionally about life in the collapse of the soviet union" which even by my own admission feels shallow and trite. You watch someone like Jacob Geller or Noah Caldwell-Gervais and they have fascinating things to say even on games you wouldn't expect it, like NCG on Quake.
How do I become that knowledgeable? Interesting? Analytical? about video games?
Reading up on a bunch of history/theory/philosophy should help you understand some of the themes that go into games. A heavy handed example is all the Randian stuff that went into Bioshock, whether as a pastiche or just as aesthetics.
Sometimes understanding the context in which a game is made can be helpful as well. Jack Saint has a two-parter on The Last Of Us and how it was written by an Israeli specifically on their perspective on the apartheid situation there. They're good videos that give insight into the making of those games, but will probably ruin them for you because it spells out what zionist dogshit they are.
The amount of glaze TLOU still gets from "progressives" even after Neil's blatant Zionism was laid out in the open is maddening. I guess all JK Rowling needed to do to retain some of her progressive fanbase was to just be somewhat good about trans people and everyone would probably give her a pass for all her other gross shit
Game always looked boring as fuck to me since day 0, woow a 3rd person zombie shooter on the PS3?? Never been done before!
Doesn't help that it's also a weirdo Israeli fanfiction
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/video-games/news/the-last-of-us-part-2-ellie-evolution/
Legendary interview. I'm not surprised that such outright, blatant genocidal fervor was never an issue for so many. "Progressive" Zionism is such a fucking menace
I've read those, actually and they're fascinating, allthough I disagree with the usual takeaways in the sense that I think Druckmann either didn't want to or fell flat on his ass trying to do a direct allegory. I lean towards the latter on account of being too much of a coward to get either real, weird, or real weird with it. All the "ohhh she finally forgives her tormentor" bullshit did not land at all after I've spent my time axe-murdering both the WLF and the entirely uninvolved in the Ellie / Abby conflict Seraphites, especially considering the entire plot hinges on the fact that all those unnamed NPCs you kickshoot to death as Joel and Ellie previously also had families.
What takes it back from the brink of idiot plot to me is that once Dina divorces her and literally takes the kid the whole thing gets painted as most divorced man revenge quest energy on Ellie, which is novel.