Since the story of the first Last of Us was so well crafted and had an ending that just left me wanting to know what will happen next to Joel and Ellie, this sequel was one of my most anticipated PS4 games for years. Well, I have finally gotten around to playing it, and I must say that while it is an improvement over the first game in a lot of ways, the story was a huge disappointment, which is unforgivable for me since the story is what made the first game stand out as much as it has.
The first impression that I got when starting this game was how much more ambitious it seems compared to The Last of Us Remastered. The environments are much larger and are rendered with much more detail. There is even a semi open world segment fairly early on. The animations are also much improved. I was specifically impressed by how much more satisfying it is to dispatch enemies by sneaking up on them since you can now hear their neck snap or hear when the knife you hold up to their throat punctures their jugular vein so that you can feel exact point that the enemy is killed.
Regarding the story, there were a few parts of it that I really liked, specifically Ellie's flashback scenes. But the overall story is not as well thought out as the first game's story. In the first game, every chapter and interaction brings more development and depth to the two main characters. In this one, this seems to rarely be the case. I just felt like nothing happened to make me care about any of the newly introduced characters, but at the same time, it is important to care for them in the context of the story they are trying to tell. Because of this, the ending fell kind of flat for me and I was left a little disappointed.
In summary, If you liked the first one for the gameplay, I think playing this is a no brainer since Naughty Dog has done a good job building on it. If you like the first one for the story, then I would suggest giving this one a try; you might not feel the same way about it as I have. If you didn't like the first one, then why the hell are you reading this?
The first impression that I got when starting this game was how much more ambitious it seems compared to The Last of Us Remastered. The environments are much larger and are rendered with much more detail. There is even a semi open world segment fairly early on. The animations are also much improved. I was specifically impressed by how much more satisfying it is to dispatch enemies by sneaking up on them since you can now hear their neck snap or hear when the knife you hold up to their throat punctures their jugular vein so that you can feel exact point that the enemy is killed.
Regarding the story, there were a few parts of it that I really liked, specifically Ellie's flashback scenes. But the overall story is not as well thought out as the first game's story. In the first game, every chapter and interaction brings more development and depth to the two main characters. In this one, this seems to rarely be the case. I just felt like nothing happened to make me care about any of the newly introduced characters, but at the same time, it is important to care for them in the context of the story they are trying to tell. Because of this, the ending fell kind of flat for me and I was left a little disappointed.
In summary, If you liked the first one for the gameplay, I think playing this is a no brainer since Naughty Dog has done a good job building on it. If you like the first one for the story, then I would suggest giving this one a try; you might not feel the same way about it as I have. If you didn't like the first one, then why the hell are you reading this?