The Last of Us 2 - SPOILERS!!!

The Raging Bile Duct wrote: »

I'd find a highly virulent dose of diarrhea more entertaining than that lad.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

So, I’m finally done and Last of Us 2 is… grand. It really should have been so much more than grand. All that money, the efforts of everyone involved, the hours or overtime the developers had to endure just to make a game that’s… grand.

I’ll start with the gameplay because it’s where I don’t have many issues with the game. Being a bit cynical about the triple A industry’s penchant for using the same gameplay templates I was surprised how much I enjoyed the core gameplay loop. The shooting is fine, nothing special. Combined with the stealth and the gadgets though and it elevates it. I enjoyed playing Ellie more, but I think I just loved the proximity mines way too much. The set pieces mix things up just enough to keep things interesting, it’s no Resident Evil 4 but the combat never bored me. After the very slow 2 hour opening that was awfully paced once the game opens up proper and lets you play it, I was having a lot of fun.

Then there’s the writing and this is where all the problems are. First the world and setting. The infected feel completely perfunctory. They are there because they were in the first game, but this game could have been set in a world without them and you wouldn’t know they were there. They are window dressing and just serve to mix up combat situations. They are used so little that I kind of wonder why they are such a threat as they seem on the verge of extinction.

And then there’s the main plot and characters. Ellie is just a complete psychopath. She feels like a caricature of a real person. She is such a blood crazed psycho that she destroys that suspension of disbelief. Abby comes across better, but her redemption arc feels so forced and basically amounts to a save the dog moment. Both leave so many bodies in their wake that it’s hard to emphasis with either of them. None of the character arcs were interesting and their struggles were either boring in the case of Abby or made no sense in the case of Ellie’s murderous rampage.

My biggest issue however is the theme of the game. The game spends 20+ hours telling its story and, in the end, basically says nothing. Violence is bad, cycle of violence whatever. We all know violence is bad and it takes everything away from both characters. Yawn. It’s not interesting. Compare that to the Last of Us which is an interesting character study. Ellie and Joel’s rocky relationship grows throughout the game and Joel is fascinating as a deeply flawed character given a chance at redemption. He is presented with a choice at the end of the game where both options are awful. We can’t say the choice he made was right or wrong but the reason he made it, his own selfish desires, was reprehensible and the game is left with Joel’s selfishness and lies going to eventually ruin the relationship that was built over the game. It’s a brilliant and subtle character study that is completely at odds with the sledgehammer approach of violence = bad of the sequel.

And to cap it all off this all happened because Abby’s dad was a drama queen about the bullet I put in his toe.

And the biggest tragedy of the Last of Us 2 is that it shouldn’t have been made. It adds nothing to the ending of the original game which ended brilliantly where it should have. It should have been called Part 3 because like the Godfather Part 3 it’s an unsatisfying cap stone to a saga that didn’t need one. During the PS3 era we had Naughty Dog give us two new IPs, Uncharted and the Last of Us. The PS4 era had Naughty Dog give us two sequels to these series, Uncharted 4 and the Last of Us Part 2 (disclaimer, I’ve not played Lost Legacy) that felt shoehorned into their respective series. Both series main plotlines had reach their logical conclusion and the sequels feel unsatisfying and out of place in a series that didn’t require them to be there. They added nothing.

Now imagine Naughty Dog were given the freedom to make something new, the game they wanted to make. I really do feel that they were mandated to make new entries in both series. There’s a huge amount of talent on show in the making of both games and it’s a shame it was kind of wasted on Uncharted 4 and the Last of Us Part 2.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I honestly question if Neil did. I mean he is hardly going to say in an interview to promote the game that he didn't want to make the sequel but was mandated to by the company that employs him. Maybe someday we will find out the truth behind it..