The Last of Us (2013) was a game that rocked me to my core. Its remorseless world and heartbreakingly heartwarming story left me hungry for more long after the credits rolled. The Last of Us Part 2 continues the story, giving us long looks at many different characters as their relationships and internal struggles shift and change. Gameplay satisfied with new ideas and locales and while the game gets a lot right, there are a couple speed bumps along the way both in narrative and minor gameplay decisions.
NARRATIVE
Part 2 is set five years after the end of the original. We mostly assume the role of Ellie throughout the game and see her new relationships and how her relationship with Joel panned out during the five-year gap. The good parts of the narrative are when we get moments with Joel and Ellie. Watching the bond between them grow stronger was something that made the first game so good and kept people, myself included, on board with the duo. In Part 2, the tension and tenderness between them were great and was again further propelled by the returning voice-work of Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson. I also liked the messages and questions the story presented to players. In a violent post-apocalyptic world, it is interesting to ask when rash decisions are made, who is right, and who is wrong? Everyone is desperate and wants to protect the ones they love and walking in someone else’s shoes may in some ways justify choices they have made. It was a nice way to tackle that kind of material and an interesting route for a game like this to take. As Ellie is mostly the star of the show here, I thought it was great seeing her tested as hard as she was when she made choices that tipped her moral compass.
The presentation and graphics in Part 2 are top-notch. Cutscenes blend into gameplay near seamlessly and the environments are beautiful down to the last detail. The time Naughty Dog took to build out how a twenty-five-year-old overgrown world would look is extremely impressive and immersive to play in and explore.
Now, while things look great and the story has good ideas, it does have its negatives. Coming off a masterpiece in the eyes of almost every fan of this series, Naughty Dog had a big hurdle to get over. When the bar is set so high, it can be easy to come up short trying to one-up your previous work.
The story structure was one thing that felt segmented and a bit broken; with the pacing being the biggest culprit. There were times when it didn’t completely break momentum but there were moments when it dragged the story to a near-complete halt. As these parts of the game progressed I got out of that rut and started to enjoy them but it was something that stood out like a sore thumb.
Another big issue I had was the use of supporting characters. There are new characters introduced and I am all for that, but when there are well-established and liked characters that get pushed aside it is a huge bummer thinking about the possibilities of what could have been.
GAMEPLAY
Looking at gameplay in Part 2, it’s great, bringing with it all the things that made the original so fun to play. It is brutal, bloody, and tactical, with returning favorites in both guns and equipment; with new ones brought in to spice things up. Equipment needs to be mastered and used correctly in the right situations to make it through fights and Part 2 sets its fights in great play spaces. Fighting in broken, multi-storied buildings added verticality to the action. I had times where I worked my way up to a second floor and when I was seen, I hopped over a balcony and landed in a flooded area of the first floor. After diving below, I was able to work my way back up and behind the enemy. The different paths of engagement in these sections made me feel that even in a linear story game, I had some real freedom in combat.
The bad side of gameplay for me actually came from quick-time events. I do not mind quick time events here and there when they are used to truly give us something worth seeing. For example, in my God of War review, I said they were used to display Kratos’ strength, and for me, that worked. My problem with QTEs here is that there is an overindulgence of them. Tapping a button to push off a clicker, fine, choking out someone, cool, but when I am prompted to hold triangle every time I come to a shelf that needs to be moved or a garage door that needs to be lifted, I start to get tired of it and it starts to feel cheap and slows things down unnecessarily.
WRAP-UP
One other thing that I felt was missing from Part 2 was the unique game set pieces the original put us in. Being stuck in the chain trap and having to shoot infected inverted or the part where you snipe infected as Ellie, Henry, and Sam run to safety were stand-out moments and Part 2 never brought any of those to the table. The core gameplay was fun and improved in some ways, and there are big moments in Part 2, but that wow factor never came around to the degree it did in the original.
The Last of Us Part 2 brought a narrative with a dark tone and posed questions of right and wrong, and how that looks from other people’s perspectives. While it does fail in moments with pacing and did somewhat waste established characters, it still managed to pull me in and keep me invested to see where the characters I love would end up. Gameplay introduced great new additions in arsenal and fights within interesting and fun areas. While some new stand-out moments were absent and the use of QTEs got out of hand, it didn’t take away from the satisfaction of blasting and slashing through groups of enemies even with its twenty-four-hour runtime. If you are a fan of the original game I strongly suggest playing this one, if to only have your own opinion of it. For me, I enjoyed The Last of Us Part 2 and I would welcome a third game from Naughty Dog if they choose to go that route.
Score: 8.8/10
gamegrounds.blog 