[Part 2] Anger over Lev & Yara’s Mom’s Murder and the Nihilistic Narrative

Upon replay of Part 2 I had been really enjoying the game until the Seraphite Island mission to rescue Lev & Lev/Yara’s mom.

I’m pretty angry about how Lev & Yara’s mom was found murdered and immediately abandoned. Lev’s alibi is that they had a tussle, and mom died accidentally. Yara and Abby accept this alibi at face value, and despite the mission to save Lev’a mom, the 3 immediately abandon the mother’s body and flee . If the murder was an accident, I would expect more remorse. Based on the crime scene and the response, one can assume it was actually a murder. Lev had motive , means and the circumstances did not seem accidental .

To me this is a critical character event for Lev & Yara, and for Abby. Abby’s redemption arc relies on saving Lev, a murderer? And Abby’s story is incredibly nihilistic. A major mission is to save Yara from Compartment syndrome, only to have Yara killed 2 scenes later (I liked Yara more than Lev). Yara and Abby sacrifice themselves for Lev – but what redeemable thing has Lev done?

In short, while I found myself more drawn into Abby as a character, and found Abby’s narrative heretofore engaging, the moral of Abby’s story is extremely nihilistic. Abby’s major missions (saving Yara and saving Yara/Lev’s mom) are for naught. And ultimately Abby sacrifices almost everything to save a rather selfish and despicable character, Lev , who has no redeeming value besides archery skills.

Caveat: To avoid sounding too negative, I’ve appreciated how engaging the characters have been, the story and dialog are even more engaging the second time around, obviously the game is fun and a technical achievement. But i can’t get over the unredeemable characters and nihilism.

What did you think about the murder scene and how it contributes to the moral of the story?