extremely surreal to see that a prevalent consensus on this is that it's an OBVIOUS uberbleak nihilist exercise in cynical ultraviolence when I feel like it's Very Clearly shooting for (but emphatically not always flawlessly succeeding at) humanist themes exploring mercy, kinship, and absolution: The last spoken line/thesis of the game is literally "I don't know if I can ever forgive you, but I'd like to try" which basically mirrors the bubbly final sentiment in Steven Universe of all things... like come on people the game clearly has a lot of faith in human compassion and optimism that we can be (and are) better than our worst impulses. We can (and should!) totally debate the efficacy of the way the game communicates these ideas. I think there are plenty of areas to criticize or outright condemn in terms of execution; the pieces written about the games fraught zionist inspirations and the discomfiting misogynoir on display in regards to a specific moment are especially vital reads--but framing this story's outlook as intentionally nihilist, player-blaming pain porn about the inescapable cycle of violence is just.. totally disingenuous to what it's clearly trying to do, imo. A story about empathy without a soft and tender pastel veneer does not render it ineffective or worthless. I would probably argue that the game's refusal to over-sentimentalize the repugnance of its deuteragonists' actions (or make their realities easily accessible/justifiable) lends more integrity to the challenge of conveying the inherent worth and potential for change within them... I feel like the game makes it extra clear that Abby and Ellie are not universalizing prescriptive ciphers for the human condition / our inescapable URGE 4 VENGEANCE and are instead very specific / detailed character studies of damaged people whose emotional processing is expressed through borderline surrealist New French Extremity interactive dream logic in a world that also presents a variety of individuals with approaches and outlooks that are direct foils to these self-destructive coping strategies!!!

lots and lots of thoughts about this game, might revisit and explore further at some point

(also feel the need to say that Naughty Dog's crunch culture is a blight on the industry and this game could have been just as affecting as a more contained and less needlessly sprawling experience)

HBO Presents: Half Life 2 - Episode 1 (FakeFactory Cinematic Mod).

While both games are surely quite good, I'm still unconvinced by The Last of Us. There's REALLY nothing I can add on top of Pansy's wonderful review.
What mostly struck me was how sanded down much of the theming of this really was, the way the second half of the game begs you to find endearment in Abby and her family struck as cartoonish in the already well-trodden realm of player implicating. What I did find assuring was how much I agreed with the game's own assessment of Joel, despite eroding the ambiguity that gave the ending any kick to begin with. Considering how much the game caters itself to low common denoms, I'm glad it didn't take the easy way out and venerate him, making Ellie's Quest 4 Revenge as dicey as it needed to be. I genuinely only wish this wasn't a roving epic where 13 hours of playtime are dedicated to hugging walls, opening shelves and picking up scraps of metal. The developers dying at their desks for this game feels uniquely frustrating to me because of how... unambitious it felt despite dizzyingly high production values?? The whole thing is enemy chokeholds in dense concrete jungles separated w/ scripted segments where someone grapples you from offscreen for going through a door. Very brave, Druckmann.

tiring. written and directed by a goofy stooge inspired by how 'palestine is evil too!!!' the game part isn't anything special this time either - third person shooting, x to melee cutscene, light crafting elements, and hours of sections where you walk slowly and characters talk at you while you hold forward - it's legally a video game. no aspect here is used for any creative or characteristic benefit of the medium, this game is begging and pleading to be a TV show. it's very serious, so it can't be very interesting mechanically. the focus here is the story - a story that, were it not in a game, probably wouldn't receive the acclaim it has. there's a very misguided attempt to show the "two sides" of its conflict and it does this by making you retread the same beats of the other already way too overly-long story again, but its central conflict is dull unless you liked the boring dad guy from the first game. i do commend the games industry for finally making a revenge story about a deadbeat dad who's a girldad Horny 4 Revenge (until she isn't) this time but i really don't think that story needed to be TWENTY-FIVE (25) hours long! any sense of impact this could've had is lost in the indeterminable sludge of its pace, especially when the gameplay is so basic. it's a story you've seen before if you've ever once watched/read a dreary post-apocalypse story where the author's idea of humanity is only seen through the lens of exhaustive, immature brutality. unironically positions killing children as a good thing in case they grow up to be terrorists mad at you, which i thought was just "morally grey" stuff but this was created by a zionist so it's likely sincere. it gets to a level i find campy in the same way that really dorky batman vs superman movie was. when it's trying to be serious it's showing you how effed up and twisted humanity and VIOLENCE are by making you kill a dog and then showing a flashback of that dog being happy. this is not serious, like what are we even doing here. people with jobs will watch and enjoy the TV show version but won't remember it after eight months. despite what critics said about it, it's certainly no 'We Love Katamari' (2005)

I’ve held off on playing this for a long time. The first The Last of Us is easily one of my favorite games ever made, but like everyone I’ve been aware of what a massive hotbed for controversy this sequel is. I even had the source of many’s frustration spoiled for me, knowing full well the reason Ellie sets out on her quest for revenge and what her ultimate decision is by the time the credits roll in advance. The only information missing was the extremely crucial why behind the latter. The thing that’s stopped me from getting the answer to that question before now is how hostile discussion around “Part II” can get, alongside simply not wanting to risk experiencing something that could potentially have a negative affect on the love I carry for the world and characters Naughty Dog had created 7 years prior. Well, with discourse seemingly having reached the best it’s going to be for a while I decided to finally step out of the blissful comfort zone of my ignorance on the matter and at last discover what all the bloody friction is about. What I found has made it easy to understand why so many were/are left exasperated and dissatisfied with the adventure, as this is a VERY imperfect follow-up to a title that’s as close to perfect as a video game has ever come to being.

A big dilemma I believe the devs likely encountered in relation to the gameplay while making this was trying to figure out how to expand and improve upon a predecessor that was basically flawless at what it set out to do and within the confines of what it needed to achieve on that front. You can really see that early on. The opening hours are more or less what I expected; a slow, largely uneventful start as the narrative goes through the process of establishing the conflict that will serve as the driving force moving forward. There is the occasional exciting set piece in the form of moments such as a thrilling solo sprint down a snowy mountain while being chased by a rapidly growing horde of the infected, but for the most part it’s just walking forward while listening to conversations and it’s not hard to wish you had more to do in these instances than merely pushing up on the analog stick. Upon reaching Seattle where the bulk of the proceedings take place though, after breaching the gates of its quarantine zone you’re treated to a rather wide, sprawling area of the city reminiscent of Uncharted 4’s Madagascar section to explore at your leisure with plenty of optional activities to engage in outside of your main objective. Enemy encounters are pretty basic in design and strictly limited to the handful of interior locations you can visit, but it’s a nice unexpected surprise nonetheless that also shows off the massive potential a full open-world Naughty Dog project has. That’s unfortunately where the experimentation ends however, because you’re quickly thrown back into the more traditional linear levels for the rest of the runtime where the only new mechanics are stuff like a dedicated dodge button against melee attacks and the ability to hide in tall grass, leading to this entire segment feeling weirdly disconnected from the whole.

That means those hoping for true innovation beyond what II’s forerunner offered will be sadly disappointed. Yet, it does make a pretty good case for why more of the same is far from a problem here. Clashes against human and inhuman foes alike become more interesting and complex via the increase in their scripted nature, usually taking place in exhilarating settings including an underground transit system lit only by the dim red glow of burning road flares (a particular highlight). Their intensity cannot be overstated either as the intelligence of the AI paired with your limited supplies can spell your doom if you aren’t smart in your approach, and right when you think they can’t get any more challenging that’s when the dogs that can track your scent are introduced. Brutal. The stages also maintain a hint of the grander scale from the introductory chapter as well, providing frequent opportunities for the curious to get off the beaten path a bit and poke around in nonessential buildings, which always reward with helpful items and the occasional hidden scenario you won’t see otherwise.

Honestly, I think the biggest issue the package has is its length, or is at the very least directly related to that. On top of overstaying its welcome by some margin, the willingness of the developers to stretch out the journey for as long as possible severely hurts the plot. There’s a point in the game, two or more actually, where they could have ended the story without sacrificing its overall moral and everything would have been fine. Don’t get me wrong, a portion of people would have still been mad regardless, but their number would be significantly lower than what it consequently ended up being instead. I’ll try to remain as spoiler-free as I can. The first instance occurs when Ellie performs an act of particular savagery to learn the location of her target. She walks away from it visibly shaken, and in a better universe Naughty Dog used the moment to say something about the violence we’ve witnessed before closing the curtain on the tale. Shockingly enough, the instance evidently didn’t actually have much of a profound effect on her at all as minutes later she’s right back to talking about her desire for reprisal and continuing on with her mission, which later finds her committing something even more heinous that she again takes nothing away from despite appearing to realize the weight of it at first. My first thought was that this was the creators attempting to ensure players didn’t walk away with the perspective that they blew their hard-earned money on a product that was too short and that it would maybe make those last few cutscenes hit a touch harder as a result. Turns out, that couldn’t have been farther from the truth as a crazy thing happens when you come face-to-face with the woman Ellie’s hunting in a tense standoff. Basically, the game restarts.

If I had to guess, I would say Druckmann and crew knew their choices for the script’s resolution would be contentious, so they decided to force a mandatory replay where you see through the eyes of the villain in an effort to make us like her. Unfortunately, not only is this a total momentum killer due to when it occurs, but you’re essentially beginning from scratch again as ”Abby” has to acquire/learn her own set of tools and skills. What’s worse is that it felt like a direct insult to my intelligence. I didn’t need to like her. I understood and empathized with the reason behind why she did what kickstarted this whole shebang. I saw it as another one of the superbly befitting gray aspects of TLOU’s world. I eventually began to come around to the idea of this shift in protagonists when it looked like the writers were setting up a scene that would mirror the one that set Ellie on her murderous crusade and deliver a powerful, poignant lesson involving not passing your pain onto others by refusing to let cycles of violence continue. That’s not the route they took either, however. It isn’t until after you’re returned to the part where the two opposing forces meet that you enter the final leg of the journey, causing the side-character they spent the last three in-game days introducing to come off as somewhat wasted.

Normally, I wouldn’t necessarily be complaining about the amount of content, especially considering its progenitor’s multiplayer was cut, if when I finally arrived at the resolution it wasn’t so ineffective and unfulfilling. All I was left with afterwards was the question of why? What was truly gained by not wrapping the tale up 3-5 hours earlier? A greater degree of excessive padding? A bleaker, less satisfying conclusion? Not to mention you’re constantly subjected to ever-increasingly graphic depictions of horrific brutality the deeper you progress that seriously dilutes the overall message so that it lands without much impact. Having covered my opinions on all that, while the mishandling of the narrative definitely sours my view of this successor to an outright masterpiece, I can’t sit here and proclaim it as completely devoid of any value. The mix of combat, scavenging, and light (lite?) exploration is still an absolute blast and from a technological standpoint this is a staggeringly impressive feat. Those seamless transitions between gameplay and cutscenes will never not blow my mind. The production values in general are beyond outstanding with photorealistic graphics, incredible facial animation, and Hollywood A-lister quality acting. Plus, it’s just rare to receive a triple-A release this provocative and surprisingly expansive, even if it is ultimately exhausting and inconsistently written. As with anything this divisive, despite so strongly documenting my attitude over the course of this review the number one recommendation I or anyone else can give you is to try the game out for yourself in order to form your own stance on it, as what is offers will effect everyone differently. Kind of a lame way to bring a close to a read this big I know, but let’s pretend I’m doing it as a means of cleverly parodying its topic, shall we?

7.5/10

Do not let amerikkkans use a boycott to be performative and take away from the genuine issue here. you can say fuck neil and nuremberg him once this is won. i urge all of you on this page to donate to the people of Gaza, leaving reviews on a game will do nothing in the face of this rampant genocidal evil.

https://www.map.org.uk/donate/donation-details/484

https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief

https://www.unrwausa.org/donate

https://support.anera.org/a/palestine-emergency

https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/secure/rr-donate-web

A melhor experiência q já presenciei em um videogame. Jamais acreditei que esse tipo de mídia pudesse me causar tantas coisas distintas e profundas. Nunca senti um turbilhão tão grande de emoções. Fiquei o tempo todo preso na narrativa, as dores e medos dos personagens são perfeitamente expostos. O esquema de flashbacks funciona muito bem aqui, cada passo nos faz misturar e rever aquilo que estávamos pensando sobre as atitudes de Joel, Ellie e Abby.
Não vou mentir, não é uma história pra qualquer um, é uma história madura e que não tenta te agradar. Em um momento cheio de histórias de heróis artificiais, puros e bondosos, TLOU2 confronta nossas percepções e entrega algo completamente desafiador, duro, mas refinado e que atinge lados que o jogador talvez nem conhecesse.
Por sair da zona de conforto da cultura pop, a Naughty Dog está pagando o preço de ser chamada de traidora e tudo que você lê por aí, mas a desenvolvedora entrega um tesouro inigualável aos mais preparados e acostumados com esse tipo de narrativa. Espero que no futuro, as pessoas que não gostaram do jogo agora revejam a obra com olhos mais atentos e mente mais aberta e compreendam a profundidade dessa trama.

this may be shocking, but ive somehow avoided a good chunk of the discourse surrounding this game since its release. so when i say that i had low expectations, that negativity mostly stems from the numbing experience that was the first game. but also because of my bottomless ire for neil druckmann. druckmann is a wannabe, constantly wanting to live up to the names of sam lake, hideo kojima, and shinji mikami. in pursuing fame, the fake auteur clutches onto the medium of video games with pitiful fingers. although he and naughty dog catch a lot of flak, the developers deserve credit for their hard work. the game looks outstanding, feels great to play, has some sick art, and has a neat scavenging gameplay loop. but as a director, druckmann deserves all the shit i and other people throw at him. the story's plot is alright, and there are also some good tidbits (ellie's missing fingers at the end was a great touch). however, the gross romanticization of misery and inspiration for the story throws all the good under the bus. the game wants you to feel bad. it wants you to feel bile in your throat, dried blood on your gamer hands, and an uncomfortable twist in your stomach. violence is cruel, revenge is cruel, but to have players succumb to it for 20+ hours paired with the discord of satisfyingly explosive headshots, the last of us part 2 fails to evoke those feelings outside of cutscenes. it fails so badly that dogs are introduced to the combat as a cheap attempt to guilt the player. which is so odd when the story is already geared for emotional compulsion.

the characters you play as are bad people. they are selfish, violent, and vengeful. they have little to no redeeming qualities outside of helping those they care for. and that's the point. i don't understand the bashing of the protagonists for being unlikeable. they're anti-heroes; you're not supposed to like them, but you root for them because of something they've done that shows some glimmer of humanity. that's probably the one saving grace of the masturbatory playtime (inflated by how almost disrespectfully long cutscenes can get). but even then, the game's idf propaganda. one half, it's a venture into a foreign land for blood. the second half, it's a disgusting dehumanization of the palestinian people. druckmann's gone on record citing the lynching of 2 idf reservists as a major inspiration to the story for this game. and it shows because it's so clearly written from a zionist's point of view. "wow look how barbaric and violent these religious zealots are. theyre so transphobic and misogynist! the wolves (IDF stand-in) are normal people; look how cool they are with their militarist regime!" at times it tries to show that the wolves (WLF) aren't as good as they seem, but it's never fairly compared to the seraphites. it's so excessively biased, only making the WLF a full-on enemy in abby's story when she wants to be her own person. it's never a complete decry of the WLF, but it's always a condemnation of the seraphites. at least the game's version of the idf are just as much of a warmonger lol.

if i could strip away the politics and my ingrained distaste for the game's creator, the game is just mid. it's a run-of-the-mill AAA third-person shooter blockbuster. it looks next gen but it plays like Sony's stuck in 2009. there's nothing special going on here. It's the first game with some new guns, skills, and enemies. the level design is improved, but the visual clutter of photorealism sometimes detracts from the enjoyability of exploration. the story did not deserve the gut-twisting and palm-sweating reactions of its players. this game did not deserve to be heralded as the future of video games. neil druckmann did not fucking deserve to be awarded as a legendary "innovator" of games for directing the same game he did 7 years prior. if this is what AAA games are expected to become, i'll just continue digging into my hole of indies and classics. developers are being abused, neglected, and vacuumed into obscurity just to put out something to fulfill the dreams of the vainglorious. the games industry is fucked.

alas, im but a measly gamer... i dont know what's right for gaming. hail druckmann, the savior of the medium! we've truly found gaming's citizen kane! finally, our hobby is legitimized in the world of art!!1! miss me with that bullshit. im going back to silent hill 3 or some other good stuff.

A complete failure.

TLOU2 relies on shock value & subversion as its inciting incident. Two very dangerous writing tools if handled poorly. If you're going to spite the audience, there better be a pay-off. So naturally TLOU2 spends its entire game maligning one character and whitewashing the other after the latter tortures a man to death. It's a game whose main theme is "revenge is a caustic cycle." A story about showing humans not as black & white, but as shades of grey. Meanwhile, TLOU2 has a pure evil, crazy cult that wants to murder a child, which the director's waifu protagonist triumphantly murders. It's such abysmal story telling that beats you over the head with its message, without a scruple of self-consciousness.

TLOU2's shortcomings present themselves so frequently it's easier to list the things it gets right. The gameplay has (mostly) been improved from the first game. The TLOU1's largest problem gameplay wise was the human AI. It's not only fixed but can be impressive from time to time (even if many of its best moments are scripted). Though the ability to enjoy the gameplay is inhibited by the constant, barely interactive walk & talk sections TLOU2 doubles down on from the first game. These Cinematic Gameplay Events™ are so numerous you'd be insane to replay TLOU2 on a regular basis, even if you loved the mechanics. The game looks amazing considering the hardware it's on. It sent multiple devs to hospital due to extended crunch periods, but, still, it looks nice!

Pretentious. Proselytising. Derisive. It's a narrative-driven game where the story struggles to stick out above fan-fiction.

It takes a phenomenal amount of courage and confidence to make games that you know will disappoint, confuse, and anger people, especially when the reason is because those people love your previous games, and they are so attached to the characters and their memories that they don't ever want them to change.

But Naughty Dog does it, consistently, and with aplomb, delivering some of the most sculpted, crafted, affecting set piece games that exist. While it's impossible to ignore the specter of crunch required to create this level of detail and scope, it does not erase the admirable work and palpable love that has been poured into this game.

Like the first game, this is a game about love, but it's a much more visceral experience, bringing you through the lowest dregs of experience that can be attached to love. However, the value of the journey matches the cost.

This game really wants you to regret your murder spree, subjecting you to scenes that are downright grotesque at times. Yet they went out of their way to not only reintroduce, but refine the third person combat so it feels better than ever. Putting aside the story, it never knows how to reconcile the tension of those two desired emotions: you shoot an enemy and it gives that satisfying red “blink” on the cursor, only to listen to them scream in agony for a solid 30 seconds.

“Ludonarrative dissonance” was a popular topic around the time of the Uncharteds: much electronic ink was spent asking how Nathan Drake could yuk it up with his body count. But if The Last of Us Part 2 teaches us anything, it’s that a light-hearted pulp hero shooting an entire standing army is less disingenuous than a gratifying shooting gallery that demands you THINK about what you’re doing.

“Don’t you feel terrible about shooting this dog?” My brother in Christ, you put the dog in the game to be shot!

(We’d also like assurances that the people behind that one awful arm scene are doing all right)

Warning: This essay contains visceral descriptions of mental illness. What was initially intended as more of a critique of The Last of Us Part 2’s narrative became something much more personal, and I don’t want to give a false impression of what this is based on the website it’s posted to. To reiterate, this is intensely personal. Proceed with caution.

What would you do if your life’s purpose was pulled out from under you? How do we find solace in a world that seems to revel in taking everything it can from you? Is it worth living when stability is the only thing protecting you from cold uncertainty? Fundamentally, these questions define both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2. While these extremely open-ended questions are answered in appropriately differing ways in both games, they are used as the backdrop to frame almost every character action in them. In the same way that Joel’s yearning to maintain the only thing that resembles stability in his life endeared many players to the first game, Ellie’s quest of seemingly aimless vengeance polarized many when playing its sequel. It tests players’ willingness to go through the same things its characters go through rather than taking more than a few safe roads. It helped me realize my own answers to the questions it asks of Joel and Ellie, and it’s difficult for me to go more than a day without thinking about them. I love The Last of Us, but The Last of Us Part 2 is bolder, more poignant, and unforgettable.


Despite this essay primarily being a gushfest about The Last of Us Part 2, I still believe the first game displays a large amount of character complexity, but I think the response to its narrative was born out of a character that one can easily relate to. The only thing that stands between Joel and his closest loved one is three people that are about to kill her. Would you not do the same to preserve the last person tethering you to sanity? Personally, I believe that there are very few people in the world who wouldn’t make the same decision in Joel’s shoes. This isn’t to say that this makes Joel’s character simple or easily read, it makes him painfully human. Through all of the murder and zombies, we all see a bit of ourselves in Joel. Framed ambiguously, this contributed greatly to the success of The Last of Us’s narrative with a wide audience. It was a perfect storm of relatability, shock value, fuel for disingenuous water cooler talk, and just plain good character writing. People talk about the negative effect that The Last of Us had on Triple A games, but as far as I’m concerned, studios should take more cues from its simple yet effective writing.

It seemed to most people that The Last of Us Part 2 was a shot into left field compared to the first game, but where else could the series feasibly go? The events of its narrative are bold for high budget games, but I struggle to think of a more natural continuation from the first game’s story. Joel even foreshadows the events of the second game when he tells Ellie how broken he was after losing Sarah. We’re not privy to the 20 years between Joel’s loss and him meeting Ellie. The theme of retaliation against a brutal world is obscured by this time skip to show its evolution: finding solace in what little mercy the world has given you. In that way, both games in this series represent two sides of the same coin. There is solace to be found in Abby’s part of the game, and her story is kind of like an abridged version of Joel’s story in the first game. This time Naughty Dog even included the part where the character finds little meaning in a path defined by hate, almost to yell at the player what they were supposed to learn from Joel. There is much to be said about Abby and how her life is destroyed in different ways compared to Ellie, but honestly I’m not extremely interested in her as a character. I like it in the same way I like the first game, but it doesn’t affect me in a strong way. Ellie’s story wouldn’t work as well without Abby’s, but its value to me is almost entirely predicated on how it improves Ellie’s character.

Perhaps my initial response to this game was so different because of how I see Ellie. Ellie, in my experience, is the closest any fictional character has ever come to accurately portraying my mental illness. The willingness to go to great lengths to show people that the world can be just as grim to them as it is to you, even at the expense of your own wellbeing, hit impossibly close to home for me. My depression isn’t defined by withdrawal, but lashing out at others so they can feel the same pain I do. The fear that everyone will either abandon me of their own volition, or do so before I make peace with it is one that permeates my waking thoughts. I’m not proud of this urge, as it gnaws its way into the way I interact with others. It imparts a hostility to my interactions with others, as my inert response is that they will leave me or hate me. It doesn’t sit well with me when I gain a sick satisfaction out of pushing people away, and just ending it before I get too attached. The few people that I can’t push away despite my best efforts are the only stability I have, and I’m not sure what I’ll do when I lose them. So when Ellie returns to the world all the violence it has shown her because it took away her stability, it made more sense to me than anything anyone has done in any other story. It spoke to me like no doctor or therapist or counselor has ever come close to doing before. All I needed to know was that I wasn’t alone in what I felt; that all the emotions I feel so ashamed of were validated in a strange way, and done with so much uncomfortable accuracy. When the end of the game revealed its hand, and Ellie was left with exactly what she had feared the most, I felt more fear than I had in any enemy encounter. It was as if the writers of the game dispelled the facade with which they were communicating to me through, and told me the bitter truth of my life. This game’s narrative certainly didn’t fix me, but it allowed me to accept that I’m not the only person who bears this curse. It’s the curse of remembering people through their polar moments, only recognizing the best and worst that someone has shown you. It’s focusing on that bad until you lose them, and then reaching out desperately for the good that you ignored the whole way.

I’ve attempted to rationalize The Last of Us Part 2 being my favorite game through the lens of its holistic qualities, believing that its characters, themes, and gameplay were markedly better than many of its competitors. It was my attempt to bridge the gap between what I knew as the most profoundly touching piece of media I had ever consumed, and what most others saw as a solid third person action game. The truth is that for most people, that’s exactly what this game will be. Like most Naughty Dog games, its appeal comes from the combination of many things done well. There will always be a stealth game with more depth, a more complex character study, and a more focused narrative. It’s easy to be ashamed of a story you like almost strictly based on its emotional resonance with you. Recognizing that it’s that story’s ability to reach out and comfort you beyond the very text that contains it is when you let go of that shame, and it’s where that story’s true value lies. Allow yourself to love and be loved by the stories you read and the characters you meet.

I am incredibly disappointed in my personal decision, back in 2020, to feed into the outrage of the leaks and ignore the game at launch, despite my initial excitement. While far from perfect and fails to match the cohesion of the first title, the mostly successful narrative risks Part II decides to take can only be understood through a proper playthrough.

I find myself grappling with the narrative and structure more than anything given how fine-tuned and excellent the gameplay experience itself is. There seems to be a collective tired attitude towards the onslaught of cinematic Sony titles (rightfully so), but Naughty Dog is undeniably the peak of this direction. A realistic level of fluidity and weight to the combat and high attention to detail pairs well with the unavoidable insertion of cutscenes. Similar to the first, there's a toll to your actions as a player that would not have the same effect in any other medium, even if the delivery is awkward at moments (quick-time events, for example).

To summarize the problem, the narrative's delivery is largely disrupted by the structure, mainly boiling down to Ellie's section in Seattle. The game's opening is shocking yet effective, but the following 10+ hours feel poorly utilized. I appreciate the growing severity in her kills that leads the player to question the necessity behind enacting revenge, but your days in Seattle are mostly uneventful and incredibly repetitive. Ellie is forced to follow along the clues Tommy have left behind, with very little else happening in between. The flashback sequences, which are incredibly meaningful and effective in piecing together the moments between the two games, feel like a direct acknowledgment of the slowness, as very little plot progression is made to entertain the player in between. The enjoyable gameplay sequences keep the player stringing along, but even this aspect had its lower moments; Mainly, the open area segment when Ellie first arrives in Seattle, carrying over one of the weakest and blandest aspects from Uncharted 4.

Abby's route mostly resolves these issues, but suffers from the absence of an "end-goal" that consistently drives the plot. It makes the events feel relatively insignificant when compared to the ongoing Wolves vs Scars conflict and the tension in Ellie's hunt, but that insignificance is critical to humanizing her character. The moments are not equally engaging, but convincing, which is a worthwhile trade-off for the goals of the game.

Poor structure and consequently characterization stand out far more given how exceptionally executed these factors are in Part I, where the clear end-goal allowed for time spent to develop the relationship of Joel and Ellie and their interactions with the sparse yet memorable side cast, while narrative progress was still being made. The majority of Part II's side cast feel like plot devices to fuel the grief and fury of Ellie and Abby; That isn't to say their interactions are not believable nor engaging, but they never create a level of emotional attachment established with the cast of the first game.

Fortunately, these flaws are the sacrifice for an exceptional thematic continuation of Ellie's journey. I cannot understate the importance that physically playing through the game has on your perspective towards Ellie and Abby's actions. It goes beyond understanding their fuel for revenge, but the misery of watching their lives spiral into chaos as they act on these feelings. The switch in protagonist is not a shallow explanation that there are two sides to every story, but a greater comment on how the first-person gameplay experience forces us to attach ourselves and root for a side, where our actions and emotional attachments are irrational.

Not only are these feelings irrational, but most importantly, inconsistent. If time reverts and events change, where Joel now forces himself into the emergency room, and Abby is now at the side of the doctor, would he make the same decisions? Abby's physical presence does not change the fact that killing the doctor will leave the child fatherless and spark a thirst for revenge, but the ability for Joel to know beforehand may have led to a completely different ending where Part II cannot exist. This is the main aspect of the narrative I feel is misconstrued, that Ellie's vicious killing of Scars and Wolves is contradictory to the stance she takes in the end, as if that itself is a flaw when in actuality it's the point. If not for Ellie, Abby's interactions with Lev and Yara is Naughty Dog being as blatant as possible. I find boiling the game down to the shallow conclusion "Revenge is bad" does a disservice to the numerous moments throughout the game where Ellie and Abby's humanity are challenged, and that their development as characters is not so linear in their realization that their actions have consequences. The final few scenes could not be a more horrifying yet beautifully portrayed depiction of inconsistency.

Even after the sweeps of controversy that consumed the launch of Part II back in 2020, I find myself satisfied with Naughty Dog's consistent level of quality and effort to take risks in an era of Sony that feels stale and safe. I love the Infected world of Last of Us but am looking forward to how ND's talent can be handled in a new series going forward.

Like a lot of art, TLOU2 is very polarising. For me however, it’s one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had. It feels weird to say that about a game which is so dark and harrowing, but its ability to create such an emotional experience by dealing with morality and grief in thought provoking ways is something truly special. The narrative pulls you in so many different directions and I even tried to go against what the game was making me do in a couple of gameplay sequences. The writing is exceptional, the voice acting is sublime and the expertly crafted cutscenes do a fantastic job of conveying characters emotions. These diverse characters, for the most part, have interesting personalities and really help with the world building. Moreover, the dual perspective narrative enables you to experience both sides of the story when coming to your own conclusions about different events or characters. However, it took a while for me to develop any sort of connection to the characters I was introduced to midway through the game and the narrative lost a bit of momentum for me here as well as in parts of the game’s chaotic last two acts.

TLOU2 gives the gameplay of its predecessor a much-needed facelift. Movement and hand to hand combat feel much more fluid, superb level design enables a whole host of viable approaches to each scenario and the sound design used to immerse and guide your encounters is a gold standard for the industry. What’s more, new enemies introduced into this game like dogs that can smell you out, spice up encounters in a welcome manner. Though I wish more new enemies were introduced late game too, as you’ve seen pretty much every enemy there is a third of the way through the experience. Regardless, this doesn’t stop you always being on edge venturing into new locations, thanks to the game’s incredible atmosphere and world building, with little details like letters and graffiti really immersing you in the setting. The game quickly teaches you that you are never safe from an infected encounter, even pulling you out of a crafting menu at one point for a fight.

Speaking of crafting, the attention to detail and animations for the gun upgrades is such a fantastic inclusion. Gunplay itself is a slight improvement over the original, but still feels a bit stiff and outdated compared to the best in the cover shooter genre. Some other gameplay gripes I have include your immersion breaking partner who darts across the screen when you are trying to hide from enemies, many upgrades and supplements having little effect, the act of scavenging being quite repetitive and human boss fights feeling uninspired.

God damn this game is gorgeous! Gorgeous in its beautiful vistas and in its bleak, dark, overrun settlements. The art team really outdid themselves with the attention to detail they have put everywhere. There is a constant juxtaposition in the game of hope and despair and the visual design really feeds into this. The story paced in a way so that just when you get sick of grimy infected corridors and stormy urban environments, you are thrust into flashbacks where characters relive some of the favourite memories which provided much needed context to what happened between the first and second game. This effective pacing stretches to the gameplay too, as just when you are starting to get sick of doing something, you are thrust into doing something completely differently. For an experience, this long, it really helped keep encounters fresh, only really starting to lose steam in its slightly drawn-out end.

Not many developers have the budget or patience to create a game like the Last of Us Part II. It has its flaws, but for me personally, the phenomenal narrative, sublime visuals, attention to detail and brutal gameplay make this an unforgettable experience that’s a must play for any gamer that enjoys single player experiences.

2020 Ranked

(spoilers ahead)
Full disclosure, I wasn't a fan of the first game and really only became interested here because the leaks and shitstorm showed this one was at least gonna be actually daring and interesting. Most of the sentimental drama beats still comes off broad and manufactured to me (though nothing here is worse than the opening of the first game in that regard imo), but it's also much less of an issue since it feels like there's much more to the story than that. The first Last of Us was a kind of paint by numbers drama, but Part II feels much more like archetypal exploration, almost feels like it should be set to a folk song. A parable of generational trauma reverberating and spreading through vengeance and violence. Characters again do unbelievably awful things in the name of love, but it's even hollower this time around. Instead of at least a desire to save or heal, it's a misguided rampage to preserve memory and legacy of people who never would've wanted this in the first place. The gameplay is almost certainly Naughty Dog’s best, maybe just behind Crash Team Racing. The wide open spaces allow for much more choice and freedom in its stealth sections, and the weapon progression feels genuinely varied and valuable. There’s even an actual genuinely horror vibe boss fight. But the dissonance between player and character builds as the game progresses, an increasing alienation from Ellie’s actions in a way that far outstrips anything the first game did with its medium. The way the final act comes together to give you some form of moral high ground by having you fight inhumane slavers made my eyes roll, seeming in the moment a cheap unearned redemption moment. But even though the universe hands her on a silver platter a justification for her journey out west and a noble purpose to letting her bloodlust dissipate, in the end, she just can’t help but reopen the wound again, not even really sure why she’s doing so anymore.

The narrative isn’t without a pretty sizable amount of issues though. The targeting toward capital G Gamers renders this with too much excess and redundancy in getting its point across to you (and it’s not like it’s enough to make them get it anyway). The degree to which Abby is propped up by the game’s second leg to get you to like her is almost comical, and shaving the edges off the (poorly done, but still present) ambiguity in Joel’s decision at the end of the first game is perplexing. People’s reverence of Joel can’t fully be attributed to their desires to live out noble anti-hero fantasies, it was also a product of the first game doing the bare minimum to prod into his past actions and disturbed morality, as well as making any opposition to him in a way that invites or even encourages cop outs and justifications to his actions. Even though I agree with Part II’s assessment of him, it feels less like justified metanarrative comeuppance of his fans and more like a backhanded slap to someone looking at something you invited them to look at. The sheer brutality never feels like the game is revelling in bloody exploitation, but it does feel like it doesn’t justify its purpose past a certain point, becoming excessive more than anything else. Ellie's bloodlust leads to as many compelling emotional and narrative beats as it does to overwritten worked through backwards contrived bits of character parallels and torture porn. This isn’t a story that requires a subtle hand, but it is one that could have benefitted from being less broad with its uses of characters and big dramatic beats.

So it’s pretty good. But just watch Spider-Man 3 and you’ll get a better work about the cycles and self destructive forces of revenge and forgiveness.

CANNOT hold up on a second playthrough and I understand the reservations people have about its blocky, awkward storytelling, but I think everyone's aim is off. Good narrative in a game doesn't mean 10+ hours of self-serious cut scenes, and should extend to how the 'story' is delivered via play as well. And that's the thing: holy hell does this thing play like blood and pain and laughter all at once. It's not as tight as the first one, but that was a linear corridor of simplistic AI and repetitive beefcake chokeholds — a consciously retro angle on the action genre — where this is an accelerating mess of burned bridges and pointless anger, in short, the ideal sequel whatever way you look at it. The Polygon review is right when it argues this says nothing beyond the standard revenge text (that revenge is empty) and that the first game fit into a time along with Spec Ops and Hotline Miami where reflexively implicating the player in game violence was en vogue. But where that reviewer is happy to dismiss this sequel on those grounds as well as, implicitly, the revenge format in general, a more generous reading of this game is due. Yes, of course, it's dumb, and yes, horrifically violent, and so but great, but let's return to how and why the procedural logic of the game bears on the player, and what this means in terms of level and AI design that in fact works to consciously thwart their sense of being in control over their actions, in short, to keep them in a state of violent panic. Because in this panic, in this blind rage propelled not by thought but by rapidly accumulating mistakes, this is the game, and this feeling of nervous blood and cackling ecstasy and tears summoned not through cutscenes but by play, this is what cannot be achieved in another medium and this is where criticism needs to be directed.

The Last of Us Part II is a technical wonder. Naughty Dog made full use of the PlayStation 4’s and Pro’s power!

The voice acting is incredibly strong, the motion capture is pure quality, the graphics and animations are on top and the soundtrack is bombastic.

Most importantly, the story didn’t completely resonate with me, personally. Some directions felt like they were forced and a few characters were written out of character. Sometimes, when they brought up some topics like Lev being a transgender, they didn’t even scratch the surface and I think that is wasted potential.

The gameplay was rather simple and easy, not exactly my cup of tea, but it’s still fun.

One of the best things of this game is its accessibility. It was possible for a blind player to platinum this game and I think that is something each and every single game should at least TRY to accomplish.

EDIT after a replay:
The story resonated with me a lot more, so I’ll give this game 1.5 extra stars.

Vengeance as a preordained impulse. Ellie exists as an emblem of trauma and the player as the casual observer to her building pain and guilt, only extending a hand to act out her violent and reactionary compulsions through button prompts and extensive combat sections. It's horrifying to witness and partake in, but bleakly honest to how rage can drive a person to the limit of their foundational moral standards. The game doesn't force the player through these tribulations as punishment but to underscore the dissonance between how we perceive a character and what they want and how ultimately the player is rendered powerless against the sheer density of said character's desire to fulfill their own needs. Ellie, as her character is expressed by her creators, essentially is an unstoppable force and for better and worse the player is seemingly culpable in the rampage that follows from years of gathered wounds and the traumatic event that sparks the fire. It's difficult to fully accept how this unwavering dynamic shapes this sprawling, brutal, and droning depiction of the cyclical chain of violence and the endless ripples that emanate but the outcome is a streamlined, urgent, and anxious experience that bravely tests patience and comfort levels.

This game is minutely orchestrated to make us feel the weight of our actions however it's not a shallow critique of the player or the characters as many have labeled it but rather acts as a vehicle for perceptive empathy, where through exploration of its dense cityscape and weaving through religious/militant societies, we form our own thematic narratives of what it means to forgive and to understand what drives a person to animalistic madness in a world beyond saving. You get out of this game what you put in. It can be manipulative and cynical, one that tests the line between acceptably nuanced and crudely exploitative. It's in the viciously realized second half where players will either be moved by the innate thesis of what Druckmann and his team have patiently built up or will emotionally tap out and be disgusted by the extent of which they have chosen to take its nihilism. Once the game barrels towards its unyielding finale, I found myself exhausted but utterly immersed. As the executor of Ellie's monstrosity I had become a mere shell of all the atrocity I had committed throughout the game. As the hypnosis of obsession took hold, it rang in my mind the wailing of grief and shrieks of pain I caused and the haunting stillness of Seattle left in disarray.

On a spiritual level I can understand the disdain towards this. In its searing closing set-piece I found it painfully difficult to go through with the final actions and considered stepping away, out of fear that the entire thematic arc I built up in my mind would fall apart. I was at an emotional impasse in which the developer's concluding decisions skirted between satisfying the majority and sacrificing my good will or coming through with the grand ambition from the rest of the game for something special. For me, they made the right choices in the end. This is a massively self indulgent and exposed work of art not unlike how a filmmaker such as Von Trier or Bergman frame their characters as thematic devices; tools to enact the verbosity of human savagery and suffering. On top of that the rampant crunch culture that infects the industry at large reared its ugly head as I marveled at the masterfully designed visual compositions, intense attention to detail of the city itself, and the peerless facial animations that enhance the already terrific cast (Bailey and Johnson give two of the best performances of the year).

This game, to many's disappointments (and my own initially), ruptures the brilliant ambiguity of the first's ending. Why this works is because this is no longer about whether or not a cure is possible or the moral cost of such a cure, but bluntly asks if this is a world deserving of a cure. Despite humanity persisting through resourcefulness and the binds of community it remains eternally tied to the bonds of systemic oppression. The true villain is the idea that we can ever "go back" to the normality that defined past generations' idea of capitalistic order. Chasing the notion of the "American Dream" amidst the rubble of our destruction. Reality is, as showcased by the divide between communities, nothing has changed. Nature has just taken control and has chosen to wipe away the debt. Flawed ideologies are still rampant but are now weaponized by the primal instincts to survive at all costs. Part II acts as a possessed refraction to the previous entry's concept of the perseverance of hope amidst pastoral landscapes. The first game had giraffes and a colorful "road trip" structure to hammer in the expansive nature of Ellie and Joel's journey. In contrast, this is a pitifully inert plateau crowned by the aching consequences that acting from ardent and undying love alone can bring. The rotted, stinking corpse of aforementioned giraffe.

Anyways, most certainly will be game of the year. I both dread and anticipate the inevitable replay on PS5. I doubt anything from 2020 in all mediums of art (film, tv, music, etc) will effect me as deeply and irrevocably as this.

Gameplay. It’s…fine. It looks more visceral than the first, but otherwise it doesn’t really feel that much different from the first game, I didn’t feel like I was playing it much differently. It’s basic, but flashy enough to be satisfying in it’s best moments, though it doesn’t evolve much and starts to feel repetitive towards the latter hours of the game,

Story. I went into this open minded. Crayon eaters crying “woke” aside, I do think this story is a downgrade from the first with a lot of cheap, manipulative, grimdark storytelling, a lot of one note, unlikeable characters who make a lot of frankly baffling decision-making, all very much reminding me of what The Walking Dead dropped off into, not to mention a structure that felt completely out of order, bringing all narrative momentum to a halt at points, and to top it all off, a pretty bad case of ludonarrative dissonance, trying to make you feel guilty for your violent actions, but giving you no alternatives to dishing them out as mindlessly as in any other shooter game. That said, the story had it’s highlights. I thought every part featuring Joel was great, they really show his growth from the first game and I really don’t get why there are people who think this game was disrespectful to his character. Surprisingly I liked Abby the most out of the new characters, the moral teeter totter that made up her character was fascinating to me, never feeling manipulative or hammed up like almost every other new character in this game, so was her relationship with Yara and Lev. Even still though, your sympathy for her feels like it’s meant to be somewhat ambiguous and begs more player agency over where it ends than what we were given.

I don’t vitriolically hate the game, but I did find myself taking frequent breaks from it to play Tears of the Kingdom and Risk of Rain 2 instead, so what does that tell you.