Despite its infamous reputation on the internet, The Last of Us Part II is a game I knew I wanted to play ever since I beat the first game last year and having finally done so I have a lot to say about this game. To touch on its aforementioned rough reputation, you really have to talk about the plot and game direction, something that I thought was excellent. Personally, though I like everyone else liked Joel a lot in the first one, I respect the hell out of the developers for making the controversial decision to kill him as the catalyst for this game's story, what he did at the end of the first game, though very human and understandable, was completely villainous and he deserved to face more consequences than just a strained relationship with Ellie for it.

Another controversial aspect of the game is its main theme of revenge and how damaging it can be, and while some might call it preachy, I personally thought it was spot on. This theme is displayed perfectly throughout the game's pretty damn solid story. In the Ellie part you see how the lust for revenge changes an otherwise pretty pleasant person into an obsessive, brutal and angry person, and ultimately it shows how that lust for revenge makes her lose everything in the end. Perhaps the most controversial part of this game though is the Abby section where you the game makes you play as and tries to get you to empathize with Joel's killer from the beginning of the game, the same person you spent the whole first half of the game trying to kill. I found this half of the game to be far more interesting, whereas in the Ellie section you were on the quest for revenge, in this section you play as someone who's revenge is complete and who is now slowly but surely facing the consequences of it, it's interesting and compelling to see her grow as a character while still not being able to outrun the consequences that we know are coming because of what we the player did in the first half.

But while the game has a pretty great story, where it falls short of the first game's greatness is in its characters and all that plays out between them. Unlike the first game, the character writing in this game felt much worse and seemed to rely on fabricated melodrama between the characters like Dina revealing that she's pregnant and came along anyways makes an otherwise fine character just annoying to have around, Mel and Abby being at each other's throats simply for existing is really petty and annoying, Ellie being mad at Dina for just wanting to catch up with and help Jesse recover after a long day just because it meant that she wasn't going to sleep with her that night was just overwhelmingly cringe. All these little hiccups affect how you see the characters and just feels inconsistent with how well the first game wrote characters, it makes the game seem a lot more like a teenager Netflix drama than a Naughty Dog game and it's easily my biggest problem with the game.

That being said though I haven't yet talked about the best part of the game being the gameplay. Where the first game had decent gameplay that was made to supplement the absolutely incredible story, this game feels almost the opposite. The constant tedious action of moving dumpsters or planks is gone and is replaced with tense stealth sections and heavy handed but satisfying combat. And as this is a Naughty Dog game the set pieces are through the roof with spectacle like the encounter with the big meatball looking infected or the ride through a burning warzone of a village, the game does not skimp on good action, and it made it more fun and less tedious to keep playing.

While I don't think the Last of Us Part 2 is a downright awful game like most would have you believe I can't say it's an over hated masterpiece either. My verdict is that it's a pretty good game and one that I could analyze for so long, but one with several glaring flaws that hold it back from being anywhere near as good as it's predecessor.