David Brooks is an American moderate conservative political and cultural commentator
-Per Wikipedia
He’s about as conservative as Bernie Sanders.
He is there “token conservative” in the NYT even though he’s as leftist as the rest of them.
To piggy back on a few of your points. Even if the game wasn’t woke, it still dropped the ball on gameplay. SN1 was filled with spectacular areas that were both terrifying and awe inspiring. It was almost entirely underwater with the exception of the crashed ship and the one or two small islands. SN2 had mostly forgettable areas and biomes. Nothing truly terrifying. A lot was spent on land, so much so that vehicles were tailored around it.
My biggest disappointment was the lack of the submarine. It was an excellent feature in SN1 that served as a mobile base complete with a hanger. And it was still susceptible to attack by the big baddies. In SN2 it was replaced by a more compact train thing. It just didn’t feel as amazing as the sub. Plus, as you alluded to, the map is smaller and the sub wouldn’t even fit.
Overall it was a poor follow up gameplay wise which was ruined even more by the lesbian strong black wahman.
Imagine watching a new hope and Luke fighting Vader after a few hours of lightsaber practice and winning the duel. Same thing. Even in empire he put up a good fight but that was after training with yoda and Vader was holding back because he was trying to get Luke over to his side.
Rey is just an insufferable Mary Sue. One of many reasons the sequels were crap.
The force awakens was acceptable. Not great by any means but it had some moments. The last Jedi was the straw the broke the camels back. It was a giant shit on the fans. The vanguard of wokism that destroyed everything great about Star Wars. It was at that moment I realized that Disney’s goal wasn’t to honor a great franchise but to push their misguided agenda forcefully into the masses.
It’s ok. They have their token Eastern Europeans.