“Swear to me that everything you said about the Fireflies is true” … “I swear.”
These are the closing lines of 2013’s The Last of Us and words that haunted millions of players around the world. A lie that would set in motion a tragic series of events that audiences would have to wait 7 years to witness. The Last of Us Part II is exactly what it implies by the title, a direct continuation of the first game, an evolution into something much greater than it could achieve previously, and a downward spiral of hatred, revenge, and redemption quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Set 4 years after the events of the first game, Part 2 picks up with Joel & Ellie living in Jackson with Tommy where we saw them arrive at the end of the first game. Joel’s overbearing presence and his determination to involve himself in Ellie’s life however possible has strained their relationship to breaking point. Ellie has started a relationship with Dina, a fellow Jackson resident, and partakes in regular scouting duties to ensure the nearby area is free from infected and that no human threats are encroaching on their territory. When Joel does not return from one of the scouting runs, Ellie goes in search of him only to witness his death at the hands of a group of other survivors around Ellie’s age who are seeking revenge for people Joel killed many years ago.
Engulfed in rage and fuelled by revenge, Ellie and Tommy gather information on the killers and track them down to Seattle. As Ellie explores Seattle, she finds that the area is under control by a faction known as the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) who gained control by overthrowing the martial law in the quarantine zone, much like what the Fireflies were trying to achieve in Boston. However, the WLF is constantly engaged in skirmishes with another Seattle based faction, the Seraphites, who are a group of religious zealots that believe technology was the cause of the outbreak and as such live from the earth and have retrofitted Seattle as an urban jungle.
Joel’s killer, Abby, is a member of the WLF. Ellie compiles a kill list and mounts a one woman attack on the WLF to eliminate those who partook in Joel’s murder and enact her revenge one by one.
It’s a really big story. But the game is suitably large to accommodate for it. My first play of the game clocked in at just over 30 hours, which is around 3 times longer than my first play of the original game. For a game that’s mostly linear it is a humungous story; primarily about how Ellie & Abby are starting to realise that revenge brings nothing but pain and misery into their lives. Both girls have lost everything that mattered to them and come to wonder whether the ruthless pursuit of vengeance is worth the price it has cost them.
Whilst the original The Last of Us was often compared to The Road in its startlingly bleak depiction of a world torn apart by a zombie apocalypse; it was ultimately as story of love, telling the deeply personal tale of two strangers who develop a father daughter relationship over the course of a year. The Last of Us Part 2 more resembles the themes of films like Oldboy in the sense of its devastating depiction of the price of revenge and hatred. It actually manages to make The Last of Us 1 feel somewhat uplifting at times due to how dark and desperate Part 2’s narrative becomes.
These are the closing lines of 2013’s The Last of Us and words that haunted millions of players around the world. A lie that would set in motion a tragic series of events that audiences would have to wait 7 years to witness. The Last of Us Part II is exactly what it implies by the title, a direct continuation of the first game, an evolution into something much greater than it could achieve previously, and a downward spiral of hatred, revenge, and redemption quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Set 4 years after the events of the first game, Part 2 picks up with Joel & Ellie living in Jackson with Tommy where we saw them arrive at the end of the first game. Joel’s overbearing presence and his determination to involve himself in Ellie’s life however possible has strained their relationship to breaking point. Ellie has started a relationship with Dina, a fellow Jackson resident, and partakes in regular scouting duties to ensure the nearby area is free from infected and that no human threats are encroaching on their territory. When Joel does not return from one of the scouting runs, Ellie goes in search of him only to witness his death at the hands of a group of other survivors around Ellie’s age who are seeking revenge for people Joel killed many years ago.
Engulfed in rage and fuelled by revenge, Ellie and Tommy gather information on the killers and track them down to Seattle. As Ellie explores Seattle, she finds that the area is under control by a faction known as the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) who gained control by overthrowing the martial law in the quarantine zone, much like what the Fireflies were trying to achieve in Boston. However, the WLF is constantly engaged in skirmishes with another Seattle based faction, the Seraphites, who are a group of religious zealots that believe technology was the cause of the outbreak and as such live from the earth and have retrofitted Seattle as an urban jungle.
Joel’s killer, Abby, is a member of the WLF. Ellie compiles a kill list and mounts a one woman attack on the WLF to eliminate those who partook in Joel’s murder and enact her revenge one by one.
It’s a really big story. But the game is suitably large to accommodate for it. My first play of the game clocked in at just over 30 hours, which is around 3 times longer than my first play of the original game. For a game that’s mostly linear it is a humungous story; primarily about how Ellie & Abby are starting to realise that revenge brings nothing but pain and misery into their lives. Both girls have lost everything that mattered to them and come to wonder whether the ruthless pursuit of vengeance is worth the price it has cost them.
Whilst the original The Last of Us was often compared to The Road in its startlingly bleak depiction of a world torn apart by a zombie apocalypse; it was ultimately as story of love, telling the deeply personal tale of two strangers who develop a father daughter relationship over the course of a year. The Last of Us Part 2 more resembles the themes of films like Oldboy in the sense of its devastating depiction of the price of revenge and hatred. It actually manages to make The Last of Us 1 feel somewhat uplifting at times due to how dark and desperate Part 2’s narrative becomes.
For better or worse The Last of Us Part 2 does not have the kind of story I was expecting. Mainly this is regarding the new factions and their inner workings, and what happened to the Fireflies after the events of the first game. There’s also a faction that’s brought in very late into the game which we learn almost nothing about, The Rattlers, and it would have been nice to see some light shed on them (or just outright remove them as they feel like a rushed last minute addition).
Which brings me onto my first major issue with the game. Despite its monumental length, The Last of Us Part 2 only seems to raise more questions than it answers, and the pacing is all over the place. From the perspective of two girls on a revenge/redemption arc it’s fantastic. But once you begin to look outside of the core cast of characters there’s a lot of things that don’t get enough attention and as a result either feel rushed, anti-climactic, or are dropped entirely. The faction’s politics too are never properly explored in the way the first games Fireflies were. The WLF I think wants to build an empire? Or do they just want the Seraphites out of Seattle? They don’t seem content with getting by as they are, it's clear they want to thrive and conquer Seattle, so does it stop at the Seraphites or is the plan much larger than this? The Seraphites are a bit easier to understand than the WLF, it’s clear that the group have become religious extremists and as such are beginning to turn on their own members. The why of how they got to this point is explored in collectibles. But who is in charge of them? Why are some Seraphites treated differently to others? Why even introduce The Rattlers? They serve next to no purpose in the game and we learn nothing about them.
To cap it all off, the thing that bugs me the most is that Abby never dwells on or questions the fact that Ellie states that her father died as a direct result of Joel saving her life. It’s a hugely important line of dialogue that’s literally never addressed again but is incredibly important because it is the inciting incident for this whole tragedy. I think part of the reason why these things aren’t addressed as well as they could have been is a direct result of the gameplay.
Whilst the minute to minute gameplay hasn’t changed all that much from the first game in terms of what you are doing, but how it is approached is what has changed the most. You explore areas, collect resources, and engage in combat with enemies either of the infected or human variety. However, unlike the first game which was a strictly linear, Part II often opts for much larger environments with objectives in multiple areas. The clearest representation of this is downtown Seattle which is reminiscent of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy where you have a large open space with several key points of interest to explore and these can be tackled in any order. Some areas hold nothing of importance to the plot but can yield good rewards, so this encourages you to explore the environment as much as possible. Add to this more complex building architecture than in the original game and already you will be spending more time exploring areas than you ever did in the previous game.
Even areas that are linear have more explorable areas in them than the previous title did, or more complex level geometry. This is just one way the game inflates its length. I say inflate because whilst it is a joy to inhabit this world and it is stuffed with things to find, the sheer length of the gameplay sequences often put brakes on the pacing at times. My second play of the game was significantly shorter, but some sequences remained far too long for their own good.
This problem trickles into the combat too. With larger areas comes the opportunity for more complex combat sequences and more enemies to fight. The longest combat sequences in The Last of Us 1 would last no longer than a couple of minutes if you were skilled at the game due to having relatively few enemies to deal with at any one time. Part 2 however can have upwards of 20 enemies in a single encounter. One encounter even lasted me over half an hour, and I have to say it really started to drag. The fight was artificially extended (as many of the fights in Part 2 are) by having reinforcements constantly pouring into the area. Obviously because The Last of Us is primarily a stealth game, your resources are limited meaning I couldn’t simply shoot my way through. I needed to take it slow and pick enemies off strategically. What’s even worse is come the late stages of the game you’re being funnelled from one firefight to another and it simply becomes tedious.
Which brings me onto my first major issue with the game. Despite its monumental length, The Last of Us Part 2 only seems to raise more questions than it answers, and the pacing is all over the place. From the perspective of two girls on a revenge/redemption arc it’s fantastic. But once you begin to look outside of the core cast of characters there’s a lot of things that don’t get enough attention and as a result either feel rushed, anti-climactic, or are dropped entirely. The faction’s politics too are never properly explored in the way the first games Fireflies were. The WLF I think wants to build an empire? Or do they just want the Seraphites out of Seattle? They don’t seem content with getting by as they are, it's clear they want to thrive and conquer Seattle, so does it stop at the Seraphites or is the plan much larger than this? The Seraphites are a bit easier to understand than the WLF, it’s clear that the group have become religious extremists and as such are beginning to turn on their own members. The why of how they got to this point is explored in collectibles. But who is in charge of them? Why are some Seraphites treated differently to others? Why even introduce The Rattlers? They serve next to no purpose in the game and we learn nothing about them.
To cap it all off, the thing that bugs me the most is that Abby never dwells on or questions the fact that Ellie states that her father died as a direct result of Joel saving her life. It’s a hugely important line of dialogue that’s literally never addressed again but is incredibly important because it is the inciting incident for this whole tragedy. I think part of the reason why these things aren’t addressed as well as they could have been is a direct result of the gameplay.
Whilst the minute to minute gameplay hasn’t changed all that much from the first game in terms of what you are doing, but how it is approached is what has changed the most. You explore areas, collect resources, and engage in combat with enemies either of the infected or human variety. However, unlike the first game which was a strictly linear, Part II often opts for much larger environments with objectives in multiple areas. The clearest representation of this is downtown Seattle which is reminiscent of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy where you have a large open space with several key points of interest to explore and these can be tackled in any order. Some areas hold nothing of importance to the plot but can yield good rewards, so this encourages you to explore the environment as much as possible. Add to this more complex building architecture than in the original game and already you will be spending more time exploring areas than you ever did in the previous game.
Even areas that are linear have more explorable areas in them than the previous title did, or more complex level geometry. This is just one way the game inflates its length. I say inflate because whilst it is a joy to inhabit this world and it is stuffed with things to find, the sheer length of the gameplay sequences often put brakes on the pacing at times. My second play of the game was significantly shorter, but some sequences remained far too long for their own good.
This problem trickles into the combat too. With larger areas comes the opportunity for more complex combat sequences and more enemies to fight. The longest combat sequences in The Last of Us 1 would last no longer than a couple of minutes if you were skilled at the game due to having relatively few enemies to deal with at any one time. Part 2 however can have upwards of 20 enemies in a single encounter. One encounter even lasted me over half an hour, and I have to say it really started to drag. The fight was artificially extended (as many of the fights in Part 2 are) by having reinforcements constantly pouring into the area. Obviously because The Last of Us is primarily a stealth game, your resources are limited meaning I couldn’t simply shoot my way through. I needed to take it slow and pick enemies off strategically. What’s even worse is come the late stages of the game you’re being funnelled from one firefight to another and it simply becomes tedious.
Violence and humanity’s thirst for it is the theme at the core of The Last of Us Part 2. So much so that it spills out into the gameplay in quite significant ways, ways that really redeem just how long and bloated some of these sequences are.
TLoU Part 2 really wants to drive home how taking lives affects other people in the world. So, each enemy assailant has a name, and a story. If you kill someone, one of their friends will react to it with increased aggression, or even by ignoring you to try and help their ally that you’ve just killed. They will call out their names, have proper organic conversations with each other, and change their behaviour based on various factors related to how you play the game.
I remember in the original The Last of Us, I was taken back by how hard to watch the choking animation was. Focusing on your victims face and seeing the life leave their body. Part 2 goes even further with this idea thanks to your assailants having stories of their own. One particularly memorable time I grabbed a woman who didn’t see me, as I was holding a knife to her throat she begged “please don’t kill Shaun” and began to cry. Obviously needing to dispatch her and go back to hiding, I cut her throat with the knife. She started gasping for air and choking on her blood as she collapsed to the floor, it was then she tried to scream out to her friends “run away or she is going to kill you”. Obviously, they couldn’t hear her, her screams were little more than gargled whispers at this point. Shortly thereafter another survivor found her body and called out for Shaun who came over and began to weep at the death of who was then revealed to be his spouse. It was here that I needed to take a break from the game because it felt all too real. I’d actually taken a life. It wasn’t some glossy cinematic, or scripted sequence. It was organic game design telling me that I had killed someone’s wife or girlfriend and she was trying to save them in her dying breaths. Part of me felt a bit ill, and part of me was amazed at what I had just encountered.
The final enemies left alive will often try to bargain with you for their lives. There is no way to let them go either, you are locked into killing them, but you must push the button to do so and as a result commit to the action of killing someone who has surrendered to you. If you happen to have a companion with you at the time, they will often comment on your declining mental state and how what you just did wasn’t ok. Some critics have cited this as the game removing player choice, and then chastising them for doing what the game told them to do. But in reality, it’s a comment on Ellie or Abby’s mental and emotional wellbeing in relation to where they are in the story. The deeper you progress into each storyline the more scathing the criticisms become from your allies as both characters slowly start to detach from their actions in the pursuit of blood. It’s important to remember that this is not the players story, or the players actions, but the characters. At least that’s what I believe the intentions behind these features were when Naughty Dog implemented them.
The upgrades system has also been tweaked quite significantly. Weapon upgrades are fundamentally the same but toolkits have been scrapped and the visual process of upgrading weapons has become more involved, now you actually see how characters craft and apply upgrades. Whilst the fundamental act of upgrading hasn’t changed significantly, the visualisation of it has and it’s a really nice addition.
The character upgrades are where the biggest revision has taken place and I’m not sure I like it. In fact, it’s probably my biggest issue with the game. Upgrades for Joel in the original game were few in variety and highly specific, such as increased health or faster crafting times, and could be upgraded multiple times over. Joel didn’t really gain any new abilities from these upgrades, but instead made his current abilities better.
Ellie and Abby though have multiple skill trees that must be unlocked by collecting training manuals hidden in the environment (meaning you can miss them). These skill trees have headings such as ‘Special Ops’ and ‘Crafting’ and consist of 5 skills each. But these trees are less like trees, and more just straight lines. In order to unlock a skill, you must unlock ever skill that comes before it in the list. The issue here lies in the fact that most of the time the most basic upgrades (such as increased health) are an upgrade late in the list and so you must purchase the prior upgrades before getting to the one you want. I mainly play the game stealthily, so I wanted to upgrade my stealth and health early on…but in order to do so I also had to give Ellie the ability to craft smoke bombs which I only used twice in my time playing because they were useless! Things like this happened frequently and so I never got to unlock some of the better skills such as crafting explosive arrows, or incendiary shotgun shells, because I was having to spend my upgrade points on things I wasn’t going to use in order to access something that really should have been a basic feature.
Skill trees almost always have the issue of needing to unlock things you aren’t going to use very much in order to get something you will use all the time, but the thing about trees is they branch out so you can usually avoid the skills you simply will never use and still get to what you do want. But in The Last of Us Part 2 this isn’t possible because the upgrades are completely linear. I simply cannot upgrade my health capacity without learning how to craft smoke bombs, and even then I can only do it if I find the training manual and it really pissed me off.
That being said, the benefit of having a greatly expanded skill system as this means that you do have the luxury to do some pretty cool things such as craft ammo for particular weapons from your supplies. Seeing as supplies are much more frequent than bullets, this can come in particularly useful during large combat scenarios.
TLoU Part 2 really wants to drive home how taking lives affects other people in the world. So, each enemy assailant has a name, and a story. If you kill someone, one of their friends will react to it with increased aggression, or even by ignoring you to try and help their ally that you’ve just killed. They will call out their names, have proper organic conversations with each other, and change their behaviour based on various factors related to how you play the game.
I remember in the original The Last of Us, I was taken back by how hard to watch the choking animation was. Focusing on your victims face and seeing the life leave their body. Part 2 goes even further with this idea thanks to your assailants having stories of their own. One particularly memorable time I grabbed a woman who didn’t see me, as I was holding a knife to her throat she begged “please don’t kill Shaun” and began to cry. Obviously needing to dispatch her and go back to hiding, I cut her throat with the knife. She started gasping for air and choking on her blood as she collapsed to the floor, it was then she tried to scream out to her friends “run away or she is going to kill you”. Obviously, they couldn’t hear her, her screams were little more than gargled whispers at this point. Shortly thereafter another survivor found her body and called out for Shaun who came over and began to weep at the death of who was then revealed to be his spouse. It was here that I needed to take a break from the game because it felt all too real. I’d actually taken a life. It wasn’t some glossy cinematic, or scripted sequence. It was organic game design telling me that I had killed someone’s wife or girlfriend and she was trying to save them in her dying breaths. Part of me felt a bit ill, and part of me was amazed at what I had just encountered.
The final enemies left alive will often try to bargain with you for their lives. There is no way to let them go either, you are locked into killing them, but you must push the button to do so and as a result commit to the action of killing someone who has surrendered to you. If you happen to have a companion with you at the time, they will often comment on your declining mental state and how what you just did wasn’t ok. Some critics have cited this as the game removing player choice, and then chastising them for doing what the game told them to do. But in reality, it’s a comment on Ellie or Abby’s mental and emotional wellbeing in relation to where they are in the story. The deeper you progress into each storyline the more scathing the criticisms become from your allies as both characters slowly start to detach from their actions in the pursuit of blood. It’s important to remember that this is not the players story, or the players actions, but the characters. At least that’s what I believe the intentions behind these features were when Naughty Dog implemented them.
The upgrades system has also been tweaked quite significantly. Weapon upgrades are fundamentally the same but toolkits have been scrapped and the visual process of upgrading weapons has become more involved, now you actually see how characters craft and apply upgrades. Whilst the fundamental act of upgrading hasn’t changed significantly, the visualisation of it has and it’s a really nice addition.
The character upgrades are where the biggest revision has taken place and I’m not sure I like it. In fact, it’s probably my biggest issue with the game. Upgrades for Joel in the original game were few in variety and highly specific, such as increased health or faster crafting times, and could be upgraded multiple times over. Joel didn’t really gain any new abilities from these upgrades, but instead made his current abilities better.
Ellie and Abby though have multiple skill trees that must be unlocked by collecting training manuals hidden in the environment (meaning you can miss them). These skill trees have headings such as ‘Special Ops’ and ‘Crafting’ and consist of 5 skills each. But these trees are less like trees, and more just straight lines. In order to unlock a skill, you must unlock ever skill that comes before it in the list. The issue here lies in the fact that most of the time the most basic upgrades (such as increased health) are an upgrade late in the list and so you must purchase the prior upgrades before getting to the one you want. I mainly play the game stealthily, so I wanted to upgrade my stealth and health early on…but in order to do so I also had to give Ellie the ability to craft smoke bombs which I only used twice in my time playing because they were useless! Things like this happened frequently and so I never got to unlock some of the better skills such as crafting explosive arrows, or incendiary shotgun shells, because I was having to spend my upgrade points on things I wasn’t going to use in order to access something that really should have been a basic feature.
Skill trees almost always have the issue of needing to unlock things you aren’t going to use very much in order to get something you will use all the time, but the thing about trees is they branch out so you can usually avoid the skills you simply will never use and still get to what you do want. But in The Last of Us Part 2 this isn’t possible because the upgrades are completely linear. I simply cannot upgrade my health capacity without learning how to craft smoke bombs, and even then I can only do it if I find the training manual and it really pissed me off.
That being said, the benefit of having a greatly expanded skill system as this means that you do have the luxury to do some pretty cool things such as craft ammo for particular weapons from your supplies. Seeing as supplies are much more frequent than bullets, this can come in particularly useful during large combat scenarios.
I haven’t really touched on the infected yet and the reason why is because there isn’t a lot of change from last time around. You still have Runners and Clickers. The Bloater has received a slight revision making them much tougher to kill and faster moving assailants this time around. The environments you find them in are also smaller, but they have an ability to break down walls creating larger spaces. The two new infected types are Stalkers and Shamblers. Stalkers are fast moving like Runners but they also move silently so using your listen mode ability will not highlight them, it means you must be on your toes at all times whenever they are around. Shamblers are slow moving, very tough enemies that once you’re close enough will expel acidic gas to cover an area in a damaging mist that visibly burns your skin off. Whilst they can deal a lot of damage if you let them get too close they are quite easy to manage provided you keep your distance from them.
There are also a couple of instances now where infected are also thrown into the fray when fighting humans and these fights are the best in the entire game. The problem is it doesn’t happen enough. The balancing act of needing to keep moving from the infected that are running around, whilst also trying to stay put to pop a few shots off at the humans is panic inducing to say the least but it’s absolutely thrilling and totally unique.
Whilst not directly related to the infected enemies, but certainly something from the horror aspect of the game that comes through more in the sequel than in the first game is scary moments. Several times throughout TLoU Part 2 I jumped out of my seat when an infected came crashing through a seemingly locked door, or I was snuck up on by human enemies who got the drop on me. It was one of the largest criticisms the first game got that despite being firmly rooted in the horror genre thanks to zombies, there were no actual scares in it. So, if you missed out on that, rest assured that Part 2 has you covered.
Much like the original game on the PS3, The Last of Us Part 2 is among the best-looking games available on the PS4. All animations have been made using motion capture technology making everything look incredibly smooth and realistic. Character model details are insane with realistic looking wrinkles, scars, freckles, sweat, and more. It’s at the point now where they are near indistinguishable from real people at times. Environments also look incredible with amazing attention to detail in an environment this large. It isn’t quite as good looking as Red Dead Redemption 2, but it is without a doubt one of the best-looking games on PS4.
The performances from the cast are incredible with Ashley Johnson reprising her role as Ellie, as well as seeing a number of other cast members return. Laura Bailey is perhaps the show stealer as Abby though, not only does she give this new character a huge amount of depth and passion but she gives perhaps the most well rounded performance in the whole story having extreme highs and lows over the course of the game. I'd also like to give a shoutout to some of the best representation of the LGBT community in entertainment history. Whilst characters sexuality impacts on the overall plot of the game very little, it's great to see gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people represented so faithfully.
But once again I take my hat off to Gustavo Santaolalla for composing a breath-taking score. Where the first game was for a long time my favourite video-game soundtrack I feel he has outdone his previous effort with this simply remarkable collection of songs. I will without a doubt be buying this soundtrack to listen to over and over again.
I want to talk about some of the specifics of the story for a little while before I close off this review. Firstly when the switchover happens at the approximate midpoint of the game, the pacing is brought to an abrupt halt. Now whilst I certainly prefer Abby's story and gameplay sequences over Ellie's in Part 2, I can't help but wonder whether it would have been better served alternating the narratives regularly between the characters rather than playing almost all of Ellie's story, then shaping and playing almost all of Abby's story. The mid point of the game where this change happens is essentially the end of act 2 and the beginning of act 3 for the game, but what happens instead is the game then reverts back to act 1to put you in the shoes of someone else. It understandably angered a lot of people because it feels so forced.
Then comes the final act which other than the Rattlers I quite like, but the final fight between Abby & Ellie feels like it was ripped right from MGS4 and as a result I struggle to take it seriously. What is this big climactic battle between two people so broken and worn down by the events that have transpired, instead feels overdramatic and drawn out.I would have much rather Ellie accepted that she didn't need to kill Abby once she saved her from the Rattlers.
The ending itself I am a big fan of, I know a lot of people have been angered by it because it implies an unhappy future for Ellie at least. But if that is the case I feel like it's the right choice in terms of the story, there was no way this game could have had a happy ending when its underlying themes are about how revenge only destroys the person seeking it.
So, what’s the verdict? I feel as though I have spent a lot of time talking about what I didn’t like about the game, but it’s easier to illustrate what doesn’t work so well because the product as a whole is so magnificent. When Part 2 was first announced I was concerned that it would not live up to the expectations, or the insanely high bar set by the first game. Yet The Last of Us Part 2 is bigger, longer, and more complex. Is it better? I feel that’s a difficult question to answer. In a lot of ways yes, in a few ways no. Is it essential playing? Absolutely! I feel The Last of Us, both Part 1&2, can be enjoyed by gamers and non-gamers alike for the grand emotional storytelling and incredible characters.
There are also a couple of instances now where infected are also thrown into the fray when fighting humans and these fights are the best in the entire game. The problem is it doesn’t happen enough. The balancing act of needing to keep moving from the infected that are running around, whilst also trying to stay put to pop a few shots off at the humans is panic inducing to say the least but it’s absolutely thrilling and totally unique.
Whilst not directly related to the infected enemies, but certainly something from the horror aspect of the game that comes through more in the sequel than in the first game is scary moments. Several times throughout TLoU Part 2 I jumped out of my seat when an infected came crashing through a seemingly locked door, or I was snuck up on by human enemies who got the drop on me. It was one of the largest criticisms the first game got that despite being firmly rooted in the horror genre thanks to zombies, there were no actual scares in it. So, if you missed out on that, rest assured that Part 2 has you covered.
Much like the original game on the PS3, The Last of Us Part 2 is among the best-looking games available on the PS4. All animations have been made using motion capture technology making everything look incredibly smooth and realistic. Character model details are insane with realistic looking wrinkles, scars, freckles, sweat, and more. It’s at the point now where they are near indistinguishable from real people at times. Environments also look incredible with amazing attention to detail in an environment this large. It isn’t quite as good looking as Red Dead Redemption 2, but it is without a doubt one of the best-looking games on PS4.
The performances from the cast are incredible with Ashley Johnson reprising her role as Ellie, as well as seeing a number of other cast members return. Laura Bailey is perhaps the show stealer as Abby though, not only does she give this new character a huge amount of depth and passion but she gives perhaps the most well rounded performance in the whole story having extreme highs and lows over the course of the game. I'd also like to give a shoutout to some of the best representation of the LGBT community in entertainment history. Whilst characters sexuality impacts on the overall plot of the game very little, it's great to see gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people represented so faithfully.
But once again I take my hat off to Gustavo Santaolalla for composing a breath-taking score. Where the first game was for a long time my favourite video-game soundtrack I feel he has outdone his previous effort with this simply remarkable collection of songs. I will without a doubt be buying this soundtrack to listen to over and over again.
I want to talk about some of the specifics of the story for a little while before I close off this review. Firstly when the switchover happens at the approximate midpoint of the game, the pacing is brought to an abrupt halt. Now whilst I certainly prefer Abby's story and gameplay sequences over Ellie's in Part 2, I can't help but wonder whether it would have been better served alternating the narratives regularly between the characters rather than playing almost all of Ellie's story, then shaping and playing almost all of Abby's story. The mid point of the game where this change happens is essentially the end of act 2 and the beginning of act 3 for the game, but what happens instead is the game then reverts back to act 1to put you in the shoes of someone else. It understandably angered a lot of people because it feels so forced.
Then comes the final act which other than the Rattlers I quite like, but the final fight between Abby & Ellie feels like it was ripped right from MGS4 and as a result I struggle to take it seriously. What is this big climactic battle between two people so broken and worn down by the events that have transpired, instead feels overdramatic and drawn out.I would have much rather Ellie accepted that she didn't need to kill Abby once she saved her from the Rattlers.
The ending itself I am a big fan of, I know a lot of people have been angered by it because it implies an unhappy future for Ellie at least. But if that is the case I feel like it's the right choice in terms of the story, there was no way this game could have had a happy ending when its underlying themes are about how revenge only destroys the person seeking it.
So, what’s the verdict? I feel as though I have spent a lot of time talking about what I didn’t like about the game, but it’s easier to illustrate what doesn’t work so well because the product as a whole is so magnificent. When Part 2 was first announced I was concerned that it would not live up to the expectations, or the insanely high bar set by the first game. Yet The Last of Us Part 2 is bigger, longer, and more complex. Is it better? I feel that’s a difficult question to answer. In a lot of ways yes, in a few ways no. Is it essential playing? Absolutely! I feel The Last of Us, both Part 1&2, can be enjoyed by gamers and non-gamers alike for the grand emotional storytelling and incredible characters.
STORY: 10/10
GAMEPLAY: 10/10
PRESENTATION: 10/10
LIFESPAN: 8/10
SCORE: 10/10
One thing is certain though and it’s that The Last of Us Part 2 is an experience you will not forget any time soon, and the actions you take will weigh on your mind for a long time to come.