THE LAST OF US PART II [2020] PS5 REVIEW

🏆  MASTERPIECE  🏆

The positive:

💗 Intense pace, mature tone & impactful character drama

💗 Love the Storyline despite being so different from what I expected

💗 Despite a bad 1st impression, I ended up loving Abby as a protagonist

💗 Masterclass on level design & sandbox based enemy encounters

💗 3D audio is awesome & overall sound design is amazing

💗 Free Ps5 patch 4K/60FPS & light dual sense features

💗 You can always come back to replay it over and over again

The negative:

👎 There should be some sort of early warning that Abby & Ellie get equal screen time to ease players into the concept of playing with the villain half of the game

👎 There are many questionable design choices

👎 The Climatic theatre fight should be cinematic instead of forcing you to fight Ellie

👎 While Enemy AI is brilliant, companion AI's constant repositioning during stealth encounters forces you to ignore footstep sounds as you hear them all the time.

👎 DualSense features are quite limited compared to other games

The Last of Us Part II is Naughty Dog's greatest achievement: It blends state-of-the-art technical prowess with unique storytelling mechanics, using an intense pace, mature tone & impactful character drama: and the results are staggering. With advanced enemy AI, engaging gameplay & satisfying combat, gorgeous visuals combined with amazing level design that encourages both exploration and immersion, killer audio design, and an insane amount of attention to detail. Part II is probably one of the most polished & impactful videogame experiences out there. But given the way Naughty Dog decided players were to experience this sequel, it's easy to understand why some die-hard fans of the original despise it. 

A SHOOKING IMPRESSION

I was so eager to experience the sequel that I preordered the game and played it on Ps4 despite 30FPS looking like slideshows to me now. I watched the trailers, but I ignored everything else, especially the leaked content and previews. I wanted to go in fresh to get the full effect. Upon completing the sequel, my 1st impression was not positive. Despite having experienced one of the most polished games and having written full pages about the amazing technical prowess I had encountered, there were many questionable design choices, and I was left with a horrible feeling of emptiness and despair. I'm writing this in 2023 It has been 3 years since released, so by now everyone knows that Joel dies at the start of the sequel, but as I went in fresh, I was shocked not only by his early demise but the brutality of the execution deeply affected me because I established a deep blond with him and Ellie during several playthroughs of the original. I remember shutting down the PlayStation and going out to get some air, it is a unique and powerful scene. 

After coming to terms with the opening events, I fully embraced Ellie's revenge quest, I was 100% behind her, I felt her anger, the rage, I wanted to get this group of people and make them pay for being so cruel and ruthless. But as you descend into madness while you follow Ellie's downfall as she keeps losing it as the body count piles up, you start wondering if it's all worth it, all this killing and violence, and everything she has to endure. And as you get closer to your nemesis and reach the climax, Naughty Dog shows the player what the game is about: empathy. This was not the revenge story you figured it was, the characters have to go through a complex internal change to break the endless cycle of violence and revenge. So the game forces you to experience the story events from the villain's point of view, which I find brilliant today, but back then was confusing and made me hate the game, especially when they force you to fight Ellie at the theatre, I was ok with being shown the other side of the coin, but back then that was too much,  I felt that asking the player to understand the Villain values and what drives them was ok but forcing you to face Ellie as the villain and try to kill her was asking too much of the player, I felt the concept moved from empathy into role changing, you are supposed to kill the protagonist you like while playing with a Villain you still don't like. I was confused and disoriented about why Naughty Dog made those design choices. 

As soon as I got my Ps5 did a 2nd playthrough and I was blown away by the smooth framerate 60/4K, and the dualsense & 3D audio features. I was surprised about how much I enjoyed playing with Abby, the gameplay, and her overall storyline. I remember the 1st time I hated every minute of her story because I wanted to go back to Ellie, I figured it was a small flashback but I never imagined both characters would get equal screen time. So knowing this helped me just relax and enjoy the game and I loved it! since then I completed the story several times and come to love everything about Part II. I ended up liking Abby so much that I would love it if Part III were to focus entirely on her.

A BEAUTIFUL APOCALYPSE

The sequel takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Seattle, long after the city’s famous landmarks have crumbled, with exteriors overgrown with lush greenery, and their interiors filled with fungal-based aggressive creatures. Meanwhile, factions of survivors have teamed up for scrapping and murdering one another for territory and resources. It’s all realized with a stunning presentation of the world and its characters, with amazing visuals and an insane level of detail & lifelike animations.

The quest for vengeance sees Ellie through sun-dappled forests, riding her horse over glittering streams, and exploring moss-covered storefronts and long abandoned beautiful apartments. There are handwritten notes left behind by people during their last moments, these lore insights encourage exploration. I like how she scribbles notes of her own in a journal as well, including lyrics for original songs she may someday set to music with the guitar Joel gave her.

Without going into a fully open-world level design, Naughty Dog was able to meticulously design chapter-based sandboxes, making them feel cohesive, but not overwhelming. Players are encouraged to experiment with different tools & weapons and to use the environment to adapt & overcome enemy encounters. The combat arenas often feel like characters themselves given how much personality they exhume.

I love the way Naughty Dog uses the larger conflict between the WLF & Scars in Seattle to avoid the fatigue that usually comes with long story-driven games. Even though it took me about 30 hours to complete it never dragged or felt padded out thanks to the large cast and Naughty Dog’s efforts to give each of them the screen time and story arc they deserve. Bringing so many perspectives gets the player invested in the story as it allows the game to illustrate the larger ideas and conflicts in this world.

A HARDENED SURVIVOR

To survive in this ruthless world, we see Ellie transition from an innocent teen into a hardened survivor that kills everything that threatens her during Part 1. Now she has become a more efficient killer, her ability to adapt and overcome every situation is remarkable. But now she is not only killing to survive, using superb MOCAP expressions and body language we discover that she experiences rage and anger when she disposes of her victims. She’ll leap from a hidden spot in the grass to slice open an enemy’s throat or crowbar their head open, exuding all the cold precision of a lifelong killer. She’s quick and methodical, covering ground in seconds if she has to by jumping, climbing, smashing through windows, squeezing through small passages to break contact when chased, and pulling dumpsters to create new pathways. 

The game has a strong focus on combat and stealth experimentation, as you traverse areas full of enemies. Fighting against zombies is both satisfying and stressful, but killing those creatures never made me feel guilty. People are a whole different story. Ellie can grab enemies from behind, tell them to be quiet, and then stab them in the throat. It felt very close and personal in a realistic way I never experienced before, I played games with tons of gore and blood with realistic depictions of dismemberments and all and It always felt like "killing things in a videogame" but TLOU Part II makes you feel everyone you kill is a person and you quickly start to develop doubts about the revenge quest because of this realistic approach to violence. There’s a heaviness to the combat. Things happen slowly and deliberately, giving you a chance to consider what you’re doing. 

By giving every human enemy a name and the ability to communicate with each other more effectively during combat encounters or while searching for you, you feel you are fighting a real coordinated enemy force instead of dumb bots in a videogame. The Washington Liberation Front enemies, seeing a friend or loved one dead on the ground, would immediately switch up their search pattern, taking note of recently downed enemies and possible escape routes the killer could have taken from that spot. Simply hearing my enemies verbally work through their plans, rather than just going about their patrol routes, instilled so much more tension into every fight. The enemy AI is brilliant too, forcing you to keep on your toes in every fight.

Actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson once again bring the characters to life with so much heart and honesty in their performances as Joel and Ellie, respectively. Ellie is, without a doubt, the protagonist of Part 2, she delivers some of the most human moments that the sequel serves up.

CONCLUSION

The Last of Us Part 2 is a masterpiece worthy of its predecessor. It delivers a layered, emotionally shattering story using an intense pace, mature tone & impactful character drama. The advanced enemy AI, engaging action stealth hybrid satisfying combat, gorgeous visuals combined with amazing level design that encourages both exploration and immersion, killer audio design, and an insane amount of attention to detail are just a few of the colossal accomplishments. Part II is probably one of the most polished & impactful videogame experiences out there.