This is my first review, so let me open it by sounding like a pretentious asshole for a minute: I thought the first Last of Us had great writing - for a game. The ending really blew me away, but otherwise I thought the story was mostly just competent. I loved the gameplay, but I thought some of the acclaim was a little hyperbolic.

By contrast, The Last of Us 2 is well-written, no qualifiers necessary. It may be the best written game I’ve ever played. When I started the game, I found it hard to stop playing because I wanted to see what happened to the characters next. I’ve never had that feeling from a game before. Maybe I haven’t played enough games.

Regardless, this is a beautiful adventure story, and a work of great empathy. Each side of the conflict is humanized, and even when the game eventually introduces some truly irredeemable bad guys, your forced to wonder if there aren’t a few real human beings among their ranks.

I don’t really know how to write about games, but I know the experience of playing this one will stay with me for a long time.