The Last of Us Part II: "There Was This Sequel... Wasn't As Good."
After seven years of what felt like forever, The Last of Us Part II has finally arrived on PS4. Andā¦well, after the leaks were released in late April of this year, it has left the fanbase, and the Gaming Community polarizing, to say the least. Some cancelled their pre-orders, others gave the game the benefit of the doubt, and see for themselves, and then there were those who had no choice because they were getting paid to play and review the gameā¦Only to have mixed feelings of the story. But what do I personally think of the game, overall? Well, after playing through it for a week, and processing the entirety of the main story, I donāt think itās āthe WORST thing everāā¦But itās definitely not masterpiece worthy. Letās begin with the simple, NON-SPOILER aspects of the game:
At first, I thought there was a lot of changes made with the gameplay, since the first game. I wouldnāt say the Combat Mechanics, in TLOU1 were perfect by any means. But, for a 2013 game, they were pretty solid. Though there are times where things can get glitchy and finicky, the controls felt fineā¦In THIS entry, however, it just feels the same. Thereās little to no changes with the controls and, at times, they felt stiff to the point where I would freeze in the middle of picking items up or performing a āT poseā while getting shot at by nearby enemies (Yes, this actually happened to me during my playthrough). Granted, I do like that they gave players the Aim Assist feature, seen in the Uncharted games, which can SOMETIMES make combat a little easier, but thatās not saying much when youāre trying to aim at enemies that have the advantage. And I do feel like the jumping action was pointless, since all you had to do was run off an edge and hope to God you made it to the other side of wherever you were jumping to. Since most of the actions require you to press the Triangle (ā³) button, this action felt needless. The weaponry has somewhat improved, since the last game, with some familiar returns (such as the Flamethrower and Shotgun) and newer weapons (Semi-Auto Rifle, Hunting Pistol and Crossbow), the variety, on how you choose to kill your enemies, is literally at your fingertips. Finally, thereās a neat guitar mechanic where you use the pad on your DUALSHOCK 4 controller to strum the chords and play tunes on a guitar. A small but neat feature. GAMEPLAY: 3.5
Thereās no doubt the Visuals have vastly improved since the first game; from the far horizons of Jackson to the deep overgrown forests in the Seattle area, the environments and locations look phenomenalā¦For the most part. Some areas, however, look so bland that they all look the same just for the purpose of Gameplay. Now, I know that sounds absurd, but hear me out: Using the same environment, for the purpose of Gameplay Mechanics is FINE. However, you need to use a different variety of location designs and settings. Otherwise, the gameplay will feel repetitive at best, and lazy at worst. But I digress. Overall, the Visuals are gorgeous to look at, especially in different season settings. Of course, it wouldnāt be a Last of Us game without the Music. Composer Gustavo Santaolalla returns to give the game life with his score, which (and I know itās gonna sound crazy) isnāt as memorable as the first game, but is still remarkable to say the least. I also do like that they made him a character, in the game.
AND NOW, WE COME TO THE MEAT OF THIS REVIEW: THE SPOILERS! SO, IF YOU HAVE YET TO PLAY THE GAME, I SUGGEST YOU STOP READING, FROM HERE ON OUTā¦YOUāVE BEEN WARNED.
Iād also like to point out that NO, I have absolutely NO PROBLEM with LGBT+ representation in any form of media (Gaming, TV, Film etc), as there is a character, Lev, whoās LGBT+, and that is FINE. Butā¦itās the story that needs to get a beating in all of this. Letās begin:
Ā So, letās talk about the Story, because I have a feeling that a good number of us will agree with me when I sayā¦ITāS ABSOLUTE DOGSHIT!! ā¦I really have no idea where to begin.
This gameās writing is all over the place, and itās backwards at best and atrocious at worst. Everything from feeling sympathy for the main antagonist, Abby; because itās revealed that Joel murdered her dad while he was about to operate on Ellie at the climax of the first game (as if we were suppose to know that), to PLAYING AS ABBY FOR A GOOD TEN PLUS HOURS, A CHARACTER THAT HAD SHITTY DEVELOPMENT TO THE POINT THAT NO ONE GIVES A FLYING FUCK ABOUT HER OR ANYONE ELSE AROUND HER! Not to mention that, between Ellie and Abby, you play through flashbacks in flashbacks. This is not creative writing, this is fan fiction bullshit, and it fails FAST. Seriously, I wanted Abbyās playthrough to be done because I did not give a shit about her and wanted to go back to playing as Ellie. Canāt also forget how little to no point these characters serve in the story, from Abbyās side or Ellieās, they all range from forgettable to needless, in the end. Aside from Dina and her ex-boyfriend, Jesse (yea, heās pretty forgettable too, but at least he gets shot later on, by Abby), these characters serve little to no purpose to the story besides Story Progression that COULDāVE been done better.Ā But nothing, AND I DO MEAN NOTHING, can compare to the atrocity that is the ending of this game:
Ellie finds out where Abby is heading, months after the what happened in Seattle. Iāll also mention that, for a bit youāre playing as Abby again, however itāsā¦somewhat forgivable as itās only for a short period of time. Afterwards, youāre playing as Ellie throughout the Climax of the game. You come across a group of Rattlers who hunt down and take prisoner to lost travelers, when you [as Ellie] learn where Abby is kept prisoner. Once you find her, and her friend Lev (who TL;DR, identifies as a boy, but was born a girl, and his mother wanted to marry a guy but he refused so her mother went nuts and he killed herā¦yay?), she follows them to some nearby boats. But Ellie isnāt done with Abby yet. As the two fight it out, Ellie finally has her in the water and makes her drown. But then, for a LITERAL SECOND, she has a flashback of Joel sitting on his porch with his guitarā¦and feels guiltā¦So much so, that she lets Abby, the one person who she; wanted revenge on, set out on a mission that killed multiple people, even someone who nobody really gave a shit about (Jesse), risks just about everything to get to this pointā¦And for what? A moral epiphanyā¦Oh godā¦Ellie then returns home for Dina and their child JJ, only to find that theyāre not home. She learns that they both left Ellie, for Dina could not take the chance of losing her. And so, with her ring and pinky finger, on her left hand, bitten off by Abby, she tries to play guitar and has yet another flashback with Joel. This seems to be the last time they encounter each other before he gets axed. It, for the most part, is a nice little moment between the two, as they discuss some issues that need to be resolved. But mostly that Ellie wants to forgive Joel because he lied to her about what happened in the hospital. Afterwards, she sets out on what could be an unforeseeable futureā¦
As you can see, the story isnāt necessarily the greatestā¦In fact, it doesnāt even come close to the first gameās story (which by the way, won Best Storytelling and GAME OF THE YEAR. Yea, let that sink in). The reason why the first game was so successful is because it focused on the development and bond between Joel and Ellie. How they grew as characters and learned to endure and survive in a chaotic, post-apocalyptic world setting. And we, the fans, WANTED to see that again in this game. But instead, got bamboozled by false advertising. Oh yea, that scene in the trailer where Joel pulls Ellie back and asks āYou think Iād let you do this on your own?ā NEVER. FUCKING. HAPPENS!! Instead, itās Jesse in that position. Seriously? WHO THE FUCK CARES ABOUT THIS GUY?! NOBODY, THATāS WHO!! We donāt care about any of these characters. We just wanna see the ones we cared about grow and learn more from each other. We actually wanted to see if anything changed from these two, over the years. The closest we get to ANY of that, in this game, are the flashbacks with them; from the museum setting (which makes some not-so-subtle nods to Jurassic Park and its sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park), to the only good scene in this ENTIRE game, in my opinion: Ellie heading out to the hospital, from the first game, finding out Joel lied but having Joel confess and tell the truthā¦That was such a powerful scene, and the acting from both Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson was superb. It shows the emotion between the two, from guilt to betrayal, how both Ellie and Joel lost so many people within their lives, only to go their separate ways after a crucial and impactful revealā¦But none of that matters to Neil Druckmann and the crew at Naughty Dog. They just wanted to push ideas that nobody really cares about, especially for a game thatās set in a post-apocalyptic setting. We play games to escape reality and venture into worlds that could NEVER be real for the sake of entertainment and fantastic storytelling. These types of media are slowly fading away, and being replaced by writers who really donāt even give little to no shit about constructive writing, internal consistency, and above all else, THE FANS!! (even if they claim to do soā¦Looking at YOU, Rian Johnson)
In the midst of it all, the reason I didnāt cancel my pre-order was that I was one of the few that gave this game the benefit of the doubt. Despite only vaguely knowing what those leaks had and how they couldāve affected me, I still played it through beginning to endā¦Only to be disappointed by an entry I ā and MILLIONS more -- had waited seven years for, only for Druckmann to say āYou see this? THIS ISNāT WHAT YOU WANTED! THIS IS MY STORY!! AND IF YOU DONāT LIKE IT, YOUāRE A BIGOT!!āā¦However, to be fair, Iāll say this: donāt take my word for it. Maybe there CAN be something to your liking, in this game. Maybe thereās a little something for everyoneā¦just donāt expect me to play through ā scratch that ā suffer through this mediocre attempt of a sequel ever again. There are ways this game COULDāVE been as fantastic ā if not, MORE ā than its predecessor. I might have to do that in another essay, sometime. Til then, this the last of my playthrough of this gigantic disappointment.
THE LAST OF US PART II: 3.5/10
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