The Last Of Us Part II (Spoiler Review)

Revenge can be a never-ending cycle with the sole purpose to provide nothing but pain and misery to others.  As the saying goes, “To seek revenge, you must dig two graves”, and yet the game conflicts with that very thematic point, which lies at the heart of the major dissent and intensely provided critiques at one of the few major releases this year in the video game industry, a sequel to the beloved and widely acclaimed post-apocalyptic adventure tale from Naughty Dog, The Last Of Us.  After 7 long years of struggles behind closed doors, developers being churned out from the insane “crunch” culture, divisive feelings towards the story in the game among developer teams resulting in last minute changes to the script and game design, we finally have the game in our hands and this review comes from a gamer that has 100% the game and platinum it over the course of a week.  Let’s get right into it with the story itself (spoilers ahead, for those that want to go in fresh, despite being out for a month now).

To better explain this viewpoint, the style of subverting genre troupes and deconstructing character types down to their core is literally the inspiration for this tale.  This has been done successfully in the past (the best examples with films that convey this creative aspect, Once Upon A Time In The West and Apocalypse Now) where they tear down the very foundation and notion of the genres they are a part of, while providing a tale that fits this storytelling purpose succinctly with characters that are unique but go against the very notions of who they are, be it heroes and villains.  This viewpoint is necessary to consider why it ultimately fails here in The Last Of Us Part 2.  This is a story that had established characters set in their ways and those come with conceived notions that might need to be acknowledged and taken into consideration when going into a continuation of this world with these characters.  That is all undone by the convenient contrivances that drive the inciting incident of this tale.

It picks up 5 years after the end of the first game, with Joel (Troy Baker) and Ellie (Ashley Johnson) not on speaking terms over the events that transpired in the Firefly Hospital.  She and her lover Dina (Shannon Woodward) go on patrol for Infected and Hunters with their BFF Jesse (Stephen A. Chang).  On that same day, Abby (Laura Bailey) with her group of companions from the WLF (Washington Liberation Front) are on a mission to track down Joel himself.  Owen (Patrick Fugit) expressing concerns, airs on the side of caution with his concern with Mel (Ashly Burch), his pregnant girlfriend despite having a fling with Abby.  Taken back by his lack of passion for this mission, takes matter into her own hands goes to track them down.  After some time, Abby comes across Joel and Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce) on patrol as she is about to be eaten by an infected through her reckless actions.  They rescue her and find the WLF unit in time to get to safety.  What is a moment of reprieve and comradery, turns into a ugly scene of spite and vengeance as Abby mortally wounds Joel with the WLF group beating Tommy unconscious while Abby takes a moment to build up her rage, as she tortures Joel to death with a golf club.

During this time, Ellie and Dina are bonding with each other out of the winter storm ravaging the area, conveying their feelings and love for each other on a warm couch and some pot.  As soon as the storm dies down, Jesse finds them to inform them of Joel and Tommy missing from the patrol count.  They head to the last known spot where they would hold up and as they clear the rooms one by one, Ellie finds the room where Joel, Tommy, and the entire WLF hit squad are there to subdue her as Abby deals a final, definitive blow to Joel’s head.  They leave the witnesses alive, as it seems Abby was only interested in taking her vengeance out on Joel and has Ellie knocked out.  That is just the first 2 hours of the game and already people are not taking it easily if the playthrough streams are a good indication of the reception to this inciting incident.

Let’s pause and establish this point, Joel’s death is not the problem here, it is the setup and execution of that plot point that many players are not only disliking intensely over but it downright makes no sense and feels conveniently written out of character for this revenge story to take place.  To provide your first name and town to a bunch of strangers after rescuing them, it feels out of left field in idiocy and contradicts Joel’s cautious approach to strangers akin to what we saw in the previous story.  Now, the counter for that is time softening Joel up but it feels disingenuous in its execution to convey that and feels rushed to get to our revenge plot and the new characters we will follow for the majority of the game. It doesn’t help that the legacy characters are still efficient in combat and cautious in the flashback sequences, further questioning the creative choices made with these two characters.  With that established, let’s get into the meat of what will be how the game flows from narrative to game design.

This motivates Ellie to hunt them down with Dina joining initially to track down WLF and Abby for their pound of flesh.  What this does, it opens us up to the only open level section that shows the promise of what this game could have been more of, if the time and focus was put into that aspect instead of its narrative.  Essentially, you have to travel from point A to B for the majority of the gameplay runtime and it takes a while before we get to the first major plot points during this revenge tale over the course of 3 days.  As we progress further, Ellie eventually takes out her anger and vengeance on those responsible, yet it completely takes a toll on her as she is completely lost in the dark without Joel as pointedly brought up in different musical interludes.  It builds up to the most controversial and divisive part of the story and that is, the awkward and deflating showstopping switch to the second perspective of this tale, Abby.

We jump back to her perspective around the end of the first game 5 years ago, we see Abby younger and without her massive gains bonding with her father Jerry (Derek Phillips), a surgeon that has been the leading researcher to the vaccine that has been long sought after during the first game through Ellie.  Unfortunately, Jerry establishes to Marlene (Merle Dandridge) that the mutation is connected to her brain stem, meaning a full dissection of it from the host.  This means killing Ellie in the process and once Joel learned of this through Marlene, went into a rage and decidedly killed many of the Fireflies including Abby’s father and Marlene.  This is the reason Abby goes all the way to Wyoming, tortures Joel and kills him, to all of a sudden feel that this was enough and lets Tommy and Ellie go.  This is where her storyline begins for the second half of the game.

Abby is a top soldier along with her buddy Manny (Alejandro Edda) in the established and formidable WLF army, as they take part in the ongoing war against the Seraphites (Scars for short) with Issac (Jeffery Wright) leading the WLFs.  Abby has very little qualms of what she did to Joel, while the others are noticeably shaken by what she did, besides Manny.  She eventually learns of Owen’s disappearance and his traitorous actions against one of his comrades, resulting in her going after him.  Abby eventually runs into the Scars and is captured, only to be rescued by 2 outcast children named Yara (Victoria Grace) and Lev (Ian Alexander).  Despite saving them, she leaves them on their way, which only now inspires remorse and guilt to motivate her choice to be better than just a hired killer.  As Ellie is consumed by her revenge during her journey, Abby goes on an adventure of reflection and eventually redemption of who she is to finally desire to be a part of something bigger than a pawn in some turf war in Seattle.

This leads into the story overall, as it takes place over the course of 3 days in Seattle from 2 different perspectives, with a big time jump to conclude the tale at the very end.  However, it is also told from one full tale into the next one with interspersed flashbacks to provide exposition and context to the story told here.  This leads to a very laboriously slow and plodding pacing that can feel like its dragging at times and padded out in awkward ways, mainly due to the disjointed structure of the plot at play.  Where the story really suffers is the wildly inconsistent and contrived actions of the characters to move the plot along in a very disingenuous matter that was not a problem in the previous outing.  You have characters leaving items for others to find in convenient spots or time frame to get them to the next plot point, as well as being told what others are doing while you are on your own journey, to not consider possibly seeing what Tommy was doing during his war path in Seattle.  It is not helped by the abusive use of plot armor that makes what the characters go through incredulously moronic and unbelievable at times, whether it be Ellie and Dina surviving numerous death traps or Abby coming across Joel and Tommy by sheer coincidence.  All of these issues literally diminish the threatening and dangerous world surrounding these characters to a degree where certain plot beats come across as predictable and unearned (a continuing problem during Abby’s storyline).

This leads me into why Abby’s storyline falls flat as a result of these issues as well as how it utilizes a few retcon elements to make it fit parallel to Ellie’s story arc.  It is understood that the writers and directors decided to make one of the doctors that Joel murders as Abby’s motivation for revenge, however she never truly feels conflicted or even shown to be shaken by her attaining revenge at all.  A piece of dialogue or even utilizing the dreams sequences to showcase that small hint of remorse or hollow pain would have endeared her better to players and shown her to be more than just a meathead soldier with an eventual heart of gold.  This was to be offset by the inclusion of Yara and Lev as the defacto companions for Abby and her eventual redemption arc that comes across as rushed and out of left field.  It doesn’t help that she comes across as standoffish and blunt as a character at times, which makes her a bit unlikable as a protagonist especially towards her love interest and other “friends”.  Her supporting cast are given barely any screen time to understand or feel for their actions at Jackson against Joel (outside of Owens), especially with 1 quarter of the group gets killed off screen by Tommy and the Scars.  As for Lev and Yara, they are only there to humanize Abby especially as their conflict only exist to give Abby some direction in the story, despite ultimately feeling like surrogate replacements for the Joel/Ellie dynamic intentionally.  This is not exclusive to this character, as Joel and Ellie are completely deconstructed and changed as characters to fit this revenge/cycle of violence narrative being told here.

Ellie is a completely blank slate of a character, with only a few hints of the snarky yet likable teen we grew to care about in the first game.  It doesn’t help that she barely has anything insightful to share as a character, whether it be with Dina or Jesse, or on her own especially in dealing with the lost of Joel and her emotions towards seeking revenge and justice.  This showcases how uninteresting she is as a lead character without a strong supporting cast to bounce off of.  While all of this is supposed to be conveyed by the written journal entries, this shouldn’t be learned through reading but shown to us visually and the game’s narrative direction doesn’t seem concern to really showcase that during her journey outside of the few moments that do this and actually work emotionally to make her still interesting to follow along.  This is exasperated by the dull and uninteresting supporting cast for her in Dina, Jesse, and eventually Tommy as they interact in a friendly or confrontational scene throughout the story.  The flashback scenes with Joel were the few bright spots of the story that really recaptured the magic of the first game in a different light that was engaging and challenging, like a proper sequel should be. This is all completely rendered mute and hollow by the end, with her final decisions that define the most argumentative aspect of the game, its conclusion.

By the end, Ellie is compelled by Tommy out of spite (which is another contrived way to hammer the point home) to go back and finish the job in Santa Barbara where Abby/Lev headed towards, after Abby (in a very tense cat and mouse confrontation against Ellie) left Ellie and her friends for dead to find the regrouped Fireflies.  This leads into an overlong epilogue that introduces a new group The Rattlers (literal Slave Traders), a sequel setup for Part 3, and ultimately subverts the typical conclusion of a revenge tale that renders the journey pointless with Abby being given a chance at redemption with Lev and Ellie left with literally nothing except the road ahead from a revenge unfulfilled.  It really ends on a bleak and relatively destructive end for both sides that was meant to mirror the different ends to the paths they have chosen for themselves.  This is a clear case of understanding the direction and choices made to get to that point, but the way in which it was executed is highly questionable and falls flat emotionally as it literally repeats the same point of the wrongs of vengeance over the course of its 23-hour journey.  This was a messy narrative as a whole, overloaded with contrivances in character motivations and actions along with plot armor being used constantly with characters, a bloated pacing that really weighs the story down, mainly in the second half, literally 3 plot-lines worth of sequels shoved into one game, the new cast ultimately are forgettable, pointless, and fail to really matter in the narrative overall, and ultimately an underwhelming disappointing choice to take the hardest road possible to make a sequel to a tale that probably didn’t need a continuation in the first place.

After the long exploration of the plot, let’s talk about gameplay finally and here, it’s pretty much the same as the first game but with some minor improvements and embellishments that are appreciated.  It is essentially a Survival Horror adventure game with an emphasis on exploration and different combat/stealth scenarios interjected in between the narrative elements of the game.  For the positives, the gameplay elements that work with stealth and exploration are solid, especially with the inclusion of prone stance as well as environmental hiding spots that isn’t a crate or crouch level object (grass/foliage and water).  The gunplay only gets improved, once you upgrade the characters and their arsenal to really open up options to tackle many of the scenarios with overwhelming odds.  The satisfaction of utilizing the environment to gain the upper hand, quick time precision of headshots or powerful rounds that can tear a person in half, and even manipulating the infected/clickers to go to town on the WLF and eventually Rattlers is truly riveting moment gameplay that provides most of the high quality aspect of the game overall and elevates it as a whole, despite the lackluster story weighing it down.  If there were any negatives, it would be the way the game handles the dodge mechanics as it always seem to be spotty at best and unreliable against multiple enemies, actually getting the player killed unwittingly for not getting the timing right.  Other than that, the gameplay is still enjoyable to go through overall.

This should bring us into the level design of the game, as each of the environments actually varied between the open urban landscapes of shops to the suburban ruins of outskirt Seattle.  Each area is provided with multiple options to approach it, whether its through exploration, stealth, or combat scenarios as there are never no one correct way to handle enemies or get to the next point in the story.  That was when the game sparked to life and really provided the necessary enjoyment needed to progress further into the game.  If there is only one negative aspect, it is tied into the story as the final moments really causes a cognitive dissonance between the killings done by you, with the ones that happened in the story, which further contradicts the very point it is making of the futility and destructive nature of revenge.  Despite that little quibble that further adds to the issues in the story, the gameplay is solid if a bit familiar to the first game with only a few improvements made and introduced, but no more than build on the components that wasn’t broken in the first place.

The final positive aspect of the gameplay is the insane amount of options for accessibility provided to those with any form of disability to play the game at their most convenient and comfort.  This is the most comprehensive feature of a game that has ever been implement into this title and another upcoming exclusive, which is worthy of being applauded and appreciated by the developers for being genuinely inclusive (despite the story feeling otherwise about its use of it).  From visual to audio cues, along with changes to the combat elements, no one would be left out if any gamer is interesting in checking out the game. This is something that had to be mentioned and commended, no matter the views on the story itself.

While the gameplay is solid all around with very little to complain meaningfully about it, the graphics are the real stars of this show and boy, it is quite a looker.  Having played it on the PS4 Pro, it is an absolute stunner with its native 2K resolution to 4K upscale through checkerboard method (akin to Horizon: Zero Dawn) to attain a high-quality graphical look for the game overall with proper options to fine tune the HDR to look absolutely amazing.  The details in the environments along with the interactions to it are nothing short of astounding, coming close to what Next-Gen looks like for the gaming community in general.  This is about as good as its going to look on the these aging consoles and it delivers on this promise perfectly.  That being said, there were a few oddities and quibbles with the graphic aspects of the game.

The issues found in the graphics are mostly minor with a few oddities that stood out, starting with the occasional bug and glitches.  There were a few times when the game wouldn’t interaction with a drawer or object due to how fast the animations were moving.  There were also moments of backgrounds disappearing for a split second, taking the player out of the experience but it only happened randomly on occasions.  Where the personal oddities come in, are the over the top graphic ways of showing the kills, as they start out real and disturbing to eventually coming across as outlandish over the top in a B-grade gore horror film stylistically, that looked all the more funny as the same NPC soldiers/cult followers look the same after a while.  Anyway, despite those minor issues, the graphics are top notch and stellar overall.

Lastly, we get to the sound design of the game which is stellar throughout the game, from the hard-hitting impacts of the violent hits/shots to the stellar musical composition from Gustavo Santaolalla who builds on the first game’s notable score to craft new pieces that work extremely well with the newer characters.   Despite how cheesy and goofy the death growls and name calling comes across eventually (very stilted deliveries and odd ways to cheaply make you feel bad about what you’re doing),  the sound effects are brutal in all their high quality bits.  The guns sound beefy and each hit comes across hard hitting through the soundscape, especially on a surround sound setup.  The score from Gustavo Santaolalla is reliably fantastic, despite the repetitive use of some of the familiar themes or ultimately generic industrial ambient tracks that take up the more tense moments of the game.  It has a few new cues to serve as themes for the newer characters, which helps to make their scenes have some emotional punch to them, despite the very choppy and weak dialogue at play here.  Not much else to explore except, the sound design is absolutely stellar in this game from the infected providing some much needed suspense to the brutality of violence being enforced by the heavy hits from each gunshot or blow provided to an NPC.

This brings us to where this review stands and before playing the game, it is easy to outright dislike it mainly for focusing on the story being told here.  Having now gone through it with the other elements working in tandem with each other, they are all top notch to solidly well made, but it is all in service of a revenge tale that is rote, dull, and ultimately confused as to whose story matters more.  As a video review title sums it up nicely,  this is a game “at war with itself” in justifying its existence to continue the first game as well as paving the way for future installments but in the hardest and most destructive way possible that unwittingly undermines and diminish what came before, specifically in the deconstruction and damaging transformation that both Joel and Ellie go through in the flashbacks and how the story wraps up.  The gameplay in the moment is great, graphics are phenomenal in their detail-oriented environments and animations that feel lifelike at times, and the sound design is sharply on point with how brutal and impactful the violence is.  Where it really falters, is the plodding, disjointed narrative at play here that ultimately fails to answer a question that has been on the mind for some time now, was this a story worth being told? To further continue the characters we grew to love, no matter how destructive it was to them.  The personal answer to this question is unfortunately no.

SCORE: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Last Of Us Part II is a continuation of the beloved and memorable first outing that provided an emotionally unique spin on the tired but true post-apocalyptic tale with a duo that we all grew to love and care for by the end of that tale.  This is the complete opposite of what that game explored (first game revolved around love, this game revolves around hate) but unfortunately meanders on a newer cast of characters and aspect of the world that fails to resonate on any deeper level or connective tissue to the legacy characters’ journey, retcons and makes creative decisions to fit this revenge tale in a disingenuous way especially in the relationship with Joel & Ellie along with their actions in the previous title, and its slow and plodding pacing with the time jumps bogs down some really great moment to moment gameplay in action and stealth, a gorgeous showcase of graphical quality this late in the PS4 console, and a superb sound design to make those violent delights hit hard.  It is mostly a frustrating experience as the elements of something special are there, but the lack of a cohesive vision in the plot and characters overall during making this game shows in the main release, which made it an ambitious creative risk that ultimately failed to stick to the landing and is viewed in the same veins of sequels that warp the intentions and success of its predecessor to take the hardest road to continue, when there were better ways to make a continuation work in tandem with its previous outings.