Saddened by the reviews of The Last of Us Part II

I was going to play The Last of Us Part II next, and I'm deeply saddened by the reviews I read and heard. I play video games for their good story and / or large, open, beautiful, fully explorable worlds. If a game lacks both, I'm not interested.

There are two reasons I'm not simply disinterested in TLOU sequel, but feel very sad about how it apparently turned out. First of all, The Last of Us was a masterpiece in my opinion. The DLC Left Behind was probably the best example of a video game telling a meaningful story. I don't want to see the characters I grew to love in that game get ruined in the sequel. The other reason I'm sad is that LGBT characters in leading roles in great video games are still so rare I can't even mention one example besides Ellie in TLOU. Part II could have been another one. :(