The Last of Us Part II - Initial reactions after completion

"An Eye for Eye makes the whole world blind"

It's just hit midnight as Tuesday turns into Wednesday 29th July 2020 and I sit here digesting this experience. A short while ago, I just completed and rolled credits on The Last of Us: Part II and now I'm sitting in my room with my thoughts and flicking between the digital 'The Art of The Last of Us: Part II,' the in-game bonus content and the physical Dark Horse book that came with my special edition of the game.

I wanted to put my thoughts down on paper, so here we are.

This rollercoaster has beaten the shit out of me mentally and emotionally, as I'm assuming it has with a lot of other's who took this wild ride with Naughty Dog's latest epic. My thoughts are clicking all over the place.

My initial thoughts as I stared at the credits were that I wanted to just replay the series again. That, and "Did this just surpass the Metal Gear Solid franchise as my favourite video game franchise of all time?" I sat there hopeful that there would be something after the credits, hoping for something. Anything. Not because there needed to be, but because it was dawning on me that this journey was actually ending. And it's been one hell of a journey.

It all began when I saw the first reveal trailer for TLOU2 with the rest of the world. I decided not to watch any trailers, clips, previews or read articles - and also managed to avoid leaks and spoilers in the lead up the game's eventual release. It is possible, I am living proof. And I'm pretty certain doing this gave me a much better experience as I've found going in blind usually does with most forms of entertainment.

I'll be writing here in much the same way. I haven't yet rushed to the internet to see what else was said, because I think it's important to formulate my own opinions, uninfluenced.

I'll just go through some of my thoughts as they arise and jump from point to point, scribble things out, and start over - much like Ellie's journal when she's trying to find the right words to express herself. I'll try and guide you through what this game meant to me, and how I interpreted things from my perspective. 

Aptly named 'Part 2' - This is a story of two halves. The first part we already know is a continuation of Joel and Ellie's story from the first game in the series. The other half is from another perspective which I didn't really understand at first but was very intrigued by this directive decision. The mystery woman, Abby. Shades of Metal Gear Solid 2, when Hideo Kojima abruptly placed us in the shoes of Raiden. Why are we here? What exactly is going on? Yet even playing this fairly short segment was enough for me to start building rapport with this initially questionable character.

By the time you see what happens to Joel when put back in the shoes of a defenceless Ellie, I questioned why the game tried to make us feel any connection to this heel, Abby. She remorselessly puts an end to Joel's life as Ellie watches on in pain to the closest thing she had as a father figure get repeatedly smashed in the head till his end.

I didn't see it coming. It happened so early in the game and needless to say was emotionally heavy. This would be the act that began a focus on a vendetta.  A cycle of violence. But not a new one, although it may have appeared that way from Ellie's point of view - even she knew that this vendetta was rooted elsewhere in Joel's past. But in that moment, the only thing that mattered is vengeance.

So we play through the equivalent of 3 days as Ellie, intertwined with some flashbacks and segments that include Joel - which I thought was a nice touch, because it bridges some of the gap between what happens at the end of the first game, and the meat of what we're presently experiencing. Eventually, she gets wind of Nora at a hospital - then finding her way to the aquarium, shooting a dog, then  Owen and Mel, and putting an end to them too, not knowing that Mel had been pregnant. It soon after dawned on me. An eye for an eye, I was certain Dina wouldn't make it to The Last of Us: Part 3. We see Abby make it to the theatre where Ellie and company had hidden, and Jessie is the first one to die.

Unexpectedly to me, the game after those initial 3 days has you switch to Day 1 from the point of view of Abby. One of the moments which resonated this shift the most for me was actually one of the more subtle examples. When I first play as Ellie, and enter the aquarium - I defended myself by shooting a vicious dog which had attacked me. A nameless mongrel. However, as you take control of Abby and build a bond with Alice the dog, it's equally devastating when it dawned on me that we, as Ellie had killed the same dog.

Although I found myself relating most to the character I was in control of at the time, I found myself to be on team Abby more so than with the characters I'd seen grow from the beginning. Abby had lost her father (a good man, was doing what he thought could save humanity and put an end to the infected), and sought out justice - and in the process ends up losing her love interest, her friends, outcaste by her community, and even get's her dog shot. John Wick only needed one reason, Abby had many. Eventually, finding herself in a situation where the only thing that mattered to her was Lev. As that's all she had left. Very much like Joel's view on Ellie. She was the only thing that mattered to him, so much so that he would be willing to make the same selfish decision again to keep Ellie alive.

Abby shows great restraint, in a telling moment, when going on the hunt for Ellie, and shows mercy on Dina, her child and Ellie. For me, at this point it was over. Abby let them live, and I'm glad we didn't have to kill Ellie. Done.

There is a brief respite when Ellie is on the farm, and she picks up a young baby. The first questions to cross my mind were, "Is Dina dead?" and it weighed on me for a while before going down the stairs where Ellie calls out for her. I enjoyed the remix of a popular Johnny Cash song that played as Ellie turned on some music. Everything was set, Ellie, Dina and JJ had a house of their own, out of the way with sheep and tomato plants. What more could you want? Tommy also appears as very much alive but more like a wounded animal. He's bitter and wants that revenge still. Ellie, still tormented by the thoughts of Joel. Something inside Ellie, her PTSD perhaps, would not let it rest and she ends up going on one final hunt for Abby. As a personal preference I very much enjoyed the silenced SMG that is available late in the game, as much as I loathed The Rattlers - just a bunch of assholes running around San Bernadino, California.

I think along with many differences, the characters of Ellie and Abby both had a lot in common too.

One of the reasons I enjoyed this experience so much was because it gives the player feedback on themselves. It puts me in a position where I have to react very quickly, a true reaction.

As a stickler for audio it would be a miss for me not to mention the incredible score for the game, along with the sound design that made everything from the sound of wind to the chink of chains impeccable. 

--

I remember first seeing the teaser trailer for this game, and the audience losing their mind once we'd figured out what was in the works. I remember everything in between. Now here I am, once it's all said and done, the world is a different place. Timelines intertwined and engrained.

The word I would use to describe this experience through TLOU2 would be intense. Everyone knows this. However, a word that my brother used to describe it seems to be unshakably true. The Last of Us Part 2 was polarizing.

 This game has broken me, like Ellie's ability to play the guitar, at least in this moment.

Death Stranding - The First 10 Hours

So it's safe to say I've sunk in about 10 hours now, but I very much doubt I've progressed in the actual storyline as much as some others might have in that time. I will be guiding you through my thoughts without intentionally giving too much away in regards to story - but fair warning ahead, this post will contain what could be considered spoilers, so just to be on the safe side:

!SPOILER ALERT!

Now that I've gotten that out of the way I can tell you about my experience, in the latest world conjured up by Hideo Kojima and the Decima Engine.

Firstly I just want to say, I like that the game reminds you of the hours played after making a delivery. It's a nice simple feature that I think more games should employ, and it's the reason I know I've hit 10 hours. Within those hours, I've had a lot of thoughts that I wanted to jot down and this is what I'll be sharing with you in this post.

Again, I will mention story beats but I really don't think it's as important as what my own personal interpretation (or yours will be) of what Death Stranding is. So let's start with the obvious...

The Landscape:
It's the first thing I notice, and it is beautiful. As a fan of Horizon Zero Dawn, I was especially excited to see what Kojima Productions could do with something like the Decima Engine. I knew we were in for a treat, but upon seeing this first flow of water in the picture above, I stopped to just take it in for a moment. After 4 years of waiting, we were finally here.
But in all honesty, the picture doesn't do it justice, because accompanying this imagery is the sounds of wind breezing by, and ground crunching underfoot as you move through different terrain. Do I go as far as to say, 'best landscape ever'?

Traversal / Gameplay / Features:
I'm quite pleased to announce that I took to it straight away. Possibly because I was just walking at a normal pace, as you would in real life. For me it was because I felt like a tourist in a foreign land, looking around at the peaks and valleys and lush greenery. You have the freedom to run too, keeping in mind your stamina. But as the weight on your Sam increases, it becomes more work to move, keep balance, manage your stamina, observe damage to your boots, and preserve the load on your back. The challenge of this is also scaled against the type of terrain or obstacle you have to move through (or over, or around) which is where the tools in your loadout are vital.

As strange as this sounds (even to me) I felt like such a boss, when I was able to do something so simple as to place 2 ladders to form a bridge connecting one piece of land to the next, which were seperated by a wide stream. I just read that sentence back. Still sounds strange, but it was so satisfying creating this nifty shortcut in the game. There was a small rock in the stream, and I was able to place the 1st ladder so it connected to that rock, and after going across, placed another ladder to the other side. Buildin' those bridges. Moving on...

Another feature is calling out to 'other Sams' - that theoretically are in the same space as you but in another dimension. The connotation being that there are other players occupying the same space in their game world. You are able to call out to them by using the touchpad, and if it so happens that you are not alone, you will hear back from them. Very cool concept and execution. So far this has aided me in locating ladders and ropes left by other players and I'm interested to see how/if this feature allows you to do more once my Sam's chiral network bandwidth increases.

So far I've had two (mandatory) encounters with BTs - those floating dark figures you may have heard about. The Odradek Scanner, connected to BB starts to flash and blink - getting faster as your distance to a BT gets shorter. The gameplay here is that of a mix of stealth, minesweeper, and a game of 'Hot & Cold' - with elements of 'What's the time Mr. Wolf?'
I'm curious to see who actually understood what I was trying to say there, if you did - be sure to send me a tweet and let me know @Mau2X15
'What's the time Mr. Wolf?' - because every time you move, you lose sight of the BTs, and then when you stop moving you can once again see their positions.
It's an intricate game navigating any areas with BTs and Kojima Productions did a great job on building tension throughout this portion of the experience.

My first encounter with BTs went pretty badly because I panicked. I decided to run and was swarmed by the creatures from the black drip, and swept away by the blackness - and ended up running and jumping for my life between sinking terrain to get away from that giant monster that was after my life! I survived, but barely.

The second encounter went a little better, but was probably even more tense than the first. Between you being cautious, BB getting stressed out, and possibly protecting precious cargo - you can really feel the atmosphere's stranglehold on you. I know I did.

Something on the other end of the spectrum is Sam's place of Zen in the world of Death Stranding... The Private Room.

I particularly enjoy spending time here between runs and chilling in the private room, just looking around while Sam occassionally breaks the 4th wall and points you towards things you should check out. It's isolated, and even meditative space for you and Sam with the option of selecting music tracks you may have acquired. It's a grounding experience and let's Sam (and myself) take a breather. I can use these opportunities to stand up, stretch and maybe go make a hot drink in the real world, whilst Sam can knock back a couple of Monster energy drinks and boost his stamina gauge by 25% - some good R&R goes a long way before returning to the order at hand.

The Lingua Franca / My Understanding of terms:
With this world, comes a lot of new conceptual learning and tutorials. It's a lot of fresh ideas that really helps to flesh out your surroundings. It's nothing so overly complicated but it is high in volume because it is essentially like learning the language of the world. Lots of new information will pop up in boxes or on the lower right hand corner of the screen and I made sure to use the 'Share' feature to take screenshots and review them later.
Now my understanding of some of the following terms are just that. My understanding. How I interpret what these elements are may differ to someone else's - some of which are more universal to understand than others.

I was quickly introduced to the word 'timefall' - in a physical sense it is rain, but with qualities unlike the rain we are accustomed to. The drops of timefall will age anything they encounter and then return to normal when they hit they the ground, so it's heavily emphasized that it's not advisable to be in the timefall for very long. I think there may also be a link between timefall and BTs.
BTs are Beached Things, or the paranormal entities you should avoid at all cost!
BB is that Bridge Baby you carry around, which in actuality is just a device (which looks like a baby in a Pod) that is able to detect BTs using echolocation (similar to the way Dolphins or Whales use sound to communicate). There's clearly a lot of thought that's gone into this, and I'd be genuinely interested to hear about how these ideas came to fruition.
I could be here for a while explaining more but those are the basics, and maybe in another post I'll talk more about other terms/concepts like, 'voidout' for example.

The Social Strand System / Chiral Network:
I think this is the real world term for the mechanic - in the game it's reffered to as the Chiral Network. The strands that bind us. So the S3* is what allows other players to interact with your world and provide you with some help along your travels. So calling out to other Sams, could guide you to a ladder placed by someone else which you can then use. If it's particularly useful, you can choose to give it Likes, so that more of those player's constructs appear in your world.

What I particularly found great satisfaction in was encountering a package in the world that originally a player in Japan had set out to deliver, but were only able to carry for a certain distance before placing it in a shared locker for safe keeping - for whatever reason they couldn't carry on. Since then it had changed hands twice, moving towards it's final destination. I was the fourth person to get a hold of it. I happened to be not so far away from it's final destination and decided to accept the cargo thinking, "this is going to be great! I'm part of the story of this delivery that 3 others before me have taken part in!" - in some way I felt connected to this mission. Not to mention the hefty sum of 'likes' I would get.
Then it started to rain.
I really did not want to mess this up, so in my mind the pressure was building - in a weird way I didn't want to dissapoint these other Porters, whom I'd never met. With not knowing enough about the world and the connection of Timefall to BTs, that aspect started to play on my mind, "I really hope I don't encounter them now..". It also made me think that maybe the cargo was cursed? Maybe it causes timefall which is why it's passed hands so many times. Did the others go down because of it? The story began to write itself in my mind.
I am happy to report that I did manage to succesfully run the last leg, and deliver said cargo. This notified the other players, and we all shared in the reward of this delivery which was oddly satisfying.

The shared lockers in the world also allow you to donate or receive items players leave behind so there is a sense of not being so alone in the world, and genuinely helping one another.

Something more selfishly rewarding is leaving the Private Room and being notified of all the players that may have used or liked something you placed in the World. Like those two ladders I left to create that bridge...

Personal Interpretation / Symbolism:
I keep finding myself talking about the fact that there's a lot of things left to you to interpret. Along with that there is also a lot of symbolism used which I quickly became familliar with.
An upside down rainbow in the sky was a sure sign of danger, something that I don't think is explicited spelled out (or maybe it was) but it's easy enough to get the hang of.
As mentioned earlier, the BB is supposedly just a piece of technology and Deadman's character tells you not to get so attached to something like that. Is Kojima using a metaphor for our attachments to our smartphones and other devices? I wouldn't put it past him. It's just one of the things that I thought about.

There is a part of the game very early on, which was very close to the chest for me - where Sam has to take the corpse of the President (who is also his mother) to the incinerator for cremation. Although it appears that Sam has no strong feelings of connection to his mother, I felt very compelled to carry out this task properly. It's personal for me because I lost my father earlier this year. I found myself being extra careful moving with the President's body on my back, and being very respectful because this really hit me deep. I felt somehow less connected to Sam Porter Bridges but that didn't matter so much because the mission was to carry out this final task - and it was the task I felt strongly connected to, because in many ways I could relate to carrying this load.

There's a lot of meaning you can derive from the game you play through and this is a world where Kojima intentionally tries to create rooted meaning. Now, that may be something completely different player to player, but it's defintely there. This is one of the reasons I feel that this is more than just a game, it's an experience. To call it just a game almost doesn't do it justice.

Other things of note / Cool Features:
Upon first starting the game, I was personally very happy to see the Kojima Productions intro in a game for the first time. It's a little animation of the mascot, Ludens planting a staff into the ground which then unravels the flag of Kojima Productions. The first game of many I'm sure.

The Codec is Back. This might not mean much to other gamers but as a die hard fan of the Metal Gear Solid series, I was smiling from ear to ear to see Deadman using the Codec to communicate with Sam. Brought back some nostalgia feels for sure, and I'm glad that this is how characters interact with your Sam. So with that all said, I guess that leaves the one question that everyone seems to be asking...

What is Death Stranding?
The critics seemed to be divided when the game was first played by those who were sent a copy. On November 1st 2019, the embargo went up, and I thought the word was generally good. Still divided, but good. Now the public had a chance to see what their favorite influencers thought. But having now played it for myself, I don't believe for a second that anyone could have told me what I was going to feel, think and experience in my first 10 hours of exploring the game.

At it's core, it's an experience about Isolation and Interpretation. Connections and Communication. Sure, it helps that the game looks beautiful, and runs smoothly - but if you're going to get hung up about improving framerate or nitpick about what could be done slightly better - I really think you're missing the point.

I love Death Stranding. Yet I've decided not to recommend this game. Generally speaking. Not because any part of it is bad or that I don't enjoy it, but simply because I can't guarantee anyone else that you'll understand what you find. Or find what I found. Or even like it. If you do want to give it a try, my advice would be to go in as blind as possible. I don't recommend going out of your way to watch someone else play it because I feel it would rob you of the intended experience. Finally, make up your own mind on what Death Stranding means to you. I hope I've helped you understand just a snippet of what it means to me.

Thanks for reading! :)
-@Mau2X15



Notes:
*- Whilst writing about the Social Strand System I used the term S3 - I just realised that this was the same acronym used in Metal Gear Solid 2 to refer to the Solid Snake Simulation. Coincidence?

The Death Stranding World Tour

I woke up at 4:50am, right as my alarm started to sound off because today is the day I get to meet Hideo Kojima as part of his Death Stranding World Tour at Stables Market in Camden Town.

I was going with my brother, and my friend (whose brother also came along). For the purposes of this impromptu blog I won't use any names because I haven't really asked or told anyone that I was going to go ahead and blog publish something about it.

It was somewhere around 7am when the four of us arrived at Chalk Farm road, there were just about a 100 people in the queue before us, right along the wall next to the gate entrance of Stables Market.

My brother brought me back a chai tea latte from the nearby coffee shop, knowing full well that we were going to be there for a little while.

It was starting to become a rainy morning in Camden Town, but that didn't stop Hideo Kojima from coming out (unexpectedly) to greet the line of fans that were queing up outside! This lifted everyone's spirits and he was followed soon after by Yoji Shinkawa - lead character and mecha designer for the Metal Gear series. They passed by with one of their camera guys to film a snippet for their vlog of the World Tour. It's comparable to seeing unicorns out in the wild, because it just doesn't happen!

Soon after the rain really started to come down and a Mexican wave of umbrellas started to go up from the front of the line. Whilst we were in the queue we were given a raffle ticket number, which I was hoping was for a chance to win some Death Stranding merch - but it was just to ensure that we had secured our place in. By 10am the queue had been moved forward and by 11am we were inside the  first holding area. I decided to snap a couple of pictures of the interior.

We flicked through the merch brochure and my friend's brother decided to order a mini Ludens figure which he ordered with one of the staff who were walking around with their devices. We spoke with one of the PlayStation staff and she filled us in on what the process was going to be and informed us that the guy who was first in the queue had gotten there at midnight! That's some commitment.

Just as we were having this conversation, we spotted through the window behind her, Hideo Kojima and his PA running along the perimeter of the building opposite us.

The line was slowly snaking around now, and we were getting closer to what we assumed was the location of the photo op. I decided to leave for a moment and as luck would have it I bumped into Mr. Kojima's translator - Mr. Aki Saito, whom you may have seen before as he's been with Kojima Productions for many years now. He's one of the voices on the 'Metal Gear Integral Podcast' featured in the MGS4 game. I had watched him interpret for Mr. Kojima the night before on the BAFTA live stream, and events prior to that. I have nothing but good things to say about him, and after the brief conversation we had (where I asked things like: "It must be difficult is it not, trying to pay attention to 3 languages and having to translate everything right?" To which his response was: "Not at all, since I'm the one writing the scripts!" followed by a wink and cheeky smile) he thanked us for coming out. I said "We'll catch you around!", and shook hands and went to rejoin the queue. Genuinely cool dude.

The excitment was building now, as the many screens around were playing the launch trailer from the game, as well as concept arts that will be featured in the upcoming art book which is scheduled for release in January 2020. Our group started talking about our ideas and theories about the game and it wasn't too long before we made it to the front of the queue where the staff member informed us that Mr. Kojima will not be signing anything today but will happily take any gifts offered to him.

We were soon ushered into the next connecting building, and it was explained to us that once we get in, we must put our bags down on the left side of the next room, and when ready could approach the set to have our picture taken.

Once we were in, on the other side of the holding room, in front of a black drip Death Stranding themed backdrop stood Yoji Shinkawa on the left, and Hideo Kojima surrounded by their staff. It was at that moment I figured out that we'd be getting a picture with both these legends!

The setup was very professional; they had their own backdrop, flash umbrella (don't know the technical term for it) and cameraman. You weren't permitted to take any pictrues with your own camera or  phone, but would be provided with your picture at the end.

I carefully placed by my bags down on the left side of the room, and kept calm - using my varied and vast experience of meeting pro wrestlers to my advantage. There's nothing worse than getting overexcited and then botching your one attempt at a picture (like my friend did).
After I put down my things I was greeted by Aki Saito who remembered me straight away and was very gracious before asking if I was ready to have my picture taken. It was time.

I walked up to Yoji Shinkawa, shook his hand and said "Ohayo Gozaimasu" and then shook hands with Hideo Kojima and said the same, which put a slight smile on his face as he also greeted me back with a 'Good Morning' in Japanese. They put me in the middle of them, I put my arms around the two figures that have been such an integral part of not only my gaming - but my life. With my embrace reciprocated, we faced the cameraman in one of my genuinely most happy moments, as reflected by the true smile beaming across my face.

It was worth losing sleep, it was worth waking up early to wait in rainy Camden Town - but none of this had even crossed my mind because I just met HIDEO KOJIMA!

I thanked them in Japanese for this truly precious moment, that will live with me now for as long as I can remember. For some reason they also thanked me in Japanese and seemed very happy, which was priceless for me.

The group as a whole seemed very positively charged after this encounter with The Boss. Next, the PlayStation staffer would take us through into the next room for the Death Stranding Experience. I'm choosing not to delve into the experience here for several reasons, but I may post about it after the game is released, so keep a look out! For me, I had just met one of my heroes so I very much doubted that the best was yet to come.

My Thoughts are ALL IN

 I've been thinking about ALL IN since we finished watching the Pay-Per-View. Then I would stop. Then I would think about it again and say to myself, "What a great show!"

I'll start by saying that at the time of writing this, I have not seen ALL IN Zero Hour but did hear as to what took place and plan to catch up with it very soon.

One of my biggest anticipations was what the set would look like, what the ring skirts would look like. I was pleasantly surprised when the opening shot was of Justin Roberts. Either I hadn't known he was going to be the ring announcer or I just forgot. Whatever the case, I knew that we were going to be in for a treat with this man announcing people to the ring! The scene spoke high production value. It was great to see TGIF and Crackerbarrel  as sponsors for the event - and I loved the incorporation of an actual Crackerbarrel in one of the matches later on in the night!

The first match match was a solid opener for me, I'd seen Matt Cross wrestle multiple times - mainly in Lucha Underground, and MJF was a face I was seeing for the first time. What stood out was he used Josh Bodom's pendulum piledriver from the middle rope. Usually for me, that means game over - but not this time! I'm giving the match a thumbs up.

What really talked me into mentally investing into the Stephen Amell match was an episode of "ALL US" - in particular, the comments Christopher Daniels made about the perception of Pro Wrestling being easy. I felt that promo. It was real to me damnit! I admire Amell's search for a challenge, but I also knew that CD was going to show the world why he dresses as a ring general. The match itself was very entertaining, and I found myself again, invested. I was ALL IN. When Daniels rolled himself onto the table I said, "He's goading Amell to feel froggy and make that jump!" and he rolled out of the way, sending Amell plummeting down to earn some more stripes. In the end, I didn't expect Amell to get up from taking the BME - nor did I on paper expect this to be more than a filler. How wrong I was about that. Thumbs up and Respect!

The Women's 4 Way match, rather misleadingly billed as 'Four Corner Survival' has strong connotations of victory (or defeat) by elimination. This was more of a Fatal situation, than a Survival one. Tessa Blanchard would pick up the win, against Chelsea Green, Madison Rayne and Britt Baker in a match that was (as cliche as it sounds) awesome. It was a touching moment when Tessa was surrounded by her family, and when the Women raised each other's arms up to show the world that Women's wrestling  is ALL IN.

The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship match graphic came up on the screen at the beginning of the second hour of PPV and my immediate (and innately programmed pro wrestling mentality) thought was, "Isn't this on way too early? This could be the last match. This could end the show!" - before quickly reminding myself that there was no setlist for this show and just went back to enjoying myself. Which wasn't hard because how epic were both men's entrances? But I'll get to that in a moment. First I just wanted to say, what a wonderful job BTE and 'Ten Pounds of Gold' did collaboratively to promote this championship match using YouTube. What a build up! As Nick Aldis may have pointed out, I found it really hard to know for sure - who was going to win. On the one hand there was Aldis, who has the brand on his back, and would be able to stamp a great victory as the NWA representative on this platform. On the other hand is Cody. The son of a son of a plumber. Who's father had previously held that championship that had meant so much to him. It would make a terrific story. Not to mention there was a part of me thinking that, Cody was one of the 3 hands with the pencil. But then the counter argument would be, that could be why Cody loses. Or perhaps ultimately it'll be the NWA's decision? It was hard to make the call. I was invested. I was ALL IN. Now, getting back to the entrances - they were so appropriate, and you could see the emotion in Cody's eyes as he was flanked by Tommy Dreamer wearing the yellow polka dots, Diamond Dallas Page, Glacier, and other members of the Nightmare Family. Non got a louder pop than Pharaoh. The definition of entrance. Cody would get into the ring and take his spotlight in front of the 10,000+ fans 'they' said couldn't be drawn. What a picture this was now. Goosebumps. Aldis would be walking out with Jeff Jarrett, Sean Daivari, Samuel Shaw - an impactful contingent. This was a big fight feel for sure. Both men put on a great display in my opinion, and there were sprinklings of drama which culminated with Sean Daivari eating a picture perfect Diamond Cutter. The blood on Cody's face only added to the story, along with the use of the Figure-4-Leglock  it reminded me of one of the greatest NWA World Champions of the past. Speaking of submission holds, when Aldis had locked in the Cloverleaf, what stuck out to me (in a good way) was the commentators references to all who had been beaten by Aldis - which really helped steep everything we were watching in some deep history. We were watching history in the making, and history would be made when Earl Hebner's hand hit the mat to count the 3. What a moment. No theme music. Brandi's face. Sounds from the Sears Centre. Cody being presented with the Ten Pounds of Gold. Bobby Cruise announcing a new NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion. 'Kingdom' by Downstait begins to play over the PA System and the crowd erupts to this as everything sinks in. This is how you do professional wrestling the right way. This moment will live forever.

To use an example that Taz often uses, there were no lack of flavours for ALL IN. Meaning, if you ran an Ice Cream store, you would want to have a few different flavours. You can't run on just vanilla. I think this is a good analogy as this show had a good variety for all types of professional wrestling fan, including the next match which was a Chicago Street Fight. Joey Janela was a face I'd never seen before but was glad for the introduction as he put in some solid work with Hangman Page. There were some pretty crazy spots, like the powerbomb off the ramp and partially through a table. I think the Rite of Passage from the ladder, through the table took the cake though. Or is it Ice Cream in this case? Then came the Sports Entertainment, and I was very much entertained! The rise and ressurection of Joey Ryan - a segment that perfectly encompasses the Sports Entertainment side of professional wrestling. Which by the way was probably (for me atleast) completely comprised of story building through episodes of BTE. It's a good thing because it continued to round out what this show was providing. A little bit of everything. If this match and segment were an Ice Cream Cone, it would be dual flavoured.

Getting back to BTE for a moment, I enjoyed seeing Jay Lethal's struggle with his alterantive persona. Seeing him as Black Machismo on the night was great for me, and reminded me of his time from promotions past. The cherry on the cake was that he would be accompanied to the ring by Lanny Poffo and donned Randy Savage's ring gear.

This was another great moment of the night, coupled with the fact that he would be defending his ROH World Championship against Flip Gordon who was teased to not be part of the event. This match was a little bit of a surprise for me as I hadn't seen that Flip had won the Over the Budget Battle Royale during ALL IN Zero Hour. It was good to see Brandi Rhodes out there again in a different attire from when she was managing for Cody's match. My God, totally forgot to mention the elbow drop she took from Aldis in that one! Brandi is awesome.

Pentagon. Omega. This was the dream match I was looking forward to the most. One of the things I enjoyed very much before the match even got underway was Justin Roberts announcement of Kenny Omega - it still blows my mind as to why he was let go. I don't know. I look forward to reading his book even more now. No one announced the Undertaker better than Justin Roberts. Pentagon Dark is my favorite in Lucha Underground dating back to Season 1 and the early story with Vampiro. Kenny Omega has been a proponent in professional wrestling that has Changed The World as of late - this was for me a true definition of crossover. It was everything I thought it would be, and delivered a solid performance. 

The Fear Factor piledriver to Kenny on the ring apron stands out when I think back to the match. I popped for the spot where Penta was to break Kenny's arm. [I'd love to see Pentagon vs. Zack Sabre JR]. When the lights went out after the match, my heart was pounding pretty hard in anticipation. It was actually believeable that due to the fact that it was the first show produced by the promoters, a light out was entirely a possibility. The commentators did a great job. As soon as the lights were back on it didn't take more than a few seconds to realise that P2J had arrived. Again, I was not at all expecting that Jericho would be a part of this show in any form because of his past comments but - there we have it. Thumbs UP!

The first time I saw the Villain persona was in December 2013 at Tidal Championship Wrestling show in Elephant & Castle in London. It was practically 'Party' Marty Scurll - clean shaven, heel, and a promo that made him seem so much larger than life. The beginnings of a Villain, in front of less than a couple hundred people. Seeing his development over the past 5 years (mainly at RevProUK shows) and then getting to see him live at WrestleKingdom 12 was a proud moment for one of our own. This match reaches that same air for me. I remember telling my brother as we watched, "With this arena, this production value, this is what it would look like if Marty Scurll was on Monday Night RAW with the same gimmick, music and all." Not that I ever want to see that to be honest. Even though Okada felt it was time to send Scurll to 205 Live. That was probably one of the most memorable spots that night, you know the one. Where Okada signals '2, 0, 5' before unreeling the ripcord of a rainmaker. Only overshadowed by the ALL IN Umbrella opening at the right time to stop the Rain. Thumbs up!

 

The final match of the night would be The Golden Elite (The Young Bucks & Kota Ibushi) vs. Rey Mysterio, Rey Fenix & Bandido. Goes without saying, something was up during Rey Mysterio's entrance - because it took way too long to get everyone out there. The only other downside was the fact that they were running behind schedule and wouldn't have enough time to enroll everything they had in mind for the Main Event. Nonetheless they did the best they could with what they had - which seems to be a recurring theme. And that was still pretty good. Part of me wants to think that the reason the Bucks would go on last was to adjust on the fly so if they had to deal with time contraint, they would do it on their watch. I loved Rey Mysterio's Wolverine attire, got to see Bandido wrestle for the first time, and seeing Kota & Mysterio in the ring at the same time was an incredible crossover. Thumb's still Up!

There's a few things I thought were worth noting and highlighting about the overall show. One of those being that the production crew, did an amazing job. The commentators were stellar, the referees were from various promotions, the camera crew did a solid job with the shots, and the set staff really helped bring ALL IN to life. There are probably various other aspects that I'm not even aware of but it must take a great deal of effort that goes into producing an event such as ALL IN. It felt like a labour of love and passion for Professional Wrestling.

I saw some really cool Tweets and content in the aftermath of ALL IN, and things are still happening as the dust settles. The only thing I know for sure is - as we were told at the start of the night, this event was a love letter to Professional Wrestling.
I'm ready for ALL IN 2.

ALL IN 2018