throwyourbike

I don’t play video games all that often anymore and could count on one hand the number I have completed in the last decade. The original Last Of Us was one of those games. I was absolutely blown away by it. The graphics, the gameplay, the sound and of course.... the story. An absolute masterpiece. Having not completed any games since, I was extremely excited to play Part 2. I’m sorry to say I wish I hadn’t bothered. The game itself is absolutely beautiful to look at. The Naughty Dog team did an outstanding job. Like so many others though, I feel the story is a massive disappointment. Firstly, I wasn’t as annoyed about the decision to kill off Joel as I was about the manner in which they decided to kill him. This is a character who was portrayed as tough as nails in the first game yet in the sequel looks old, pathetic and weak. What a sad way for such a fantastic character to go out. I felt the new characters were difficult to warm to and I spent quite a bit of my play-through thinking how much I missed the banter between Joel and Ellie. The last couple of hours of the game dragged in for me, I was over it by that stage and couldn’t have cared less what happened. That said, I was glad that Ellie survived. As much as the writers tried to paint her in a different light this time around, they must have forgotten that the most of us had already played through a 16 hour long adventure fighting for her survival. No matted what, I was always going to want her to win out this time too. Overall I enjoyed the gameplay and loved the world. The graphics and detail are simply breathtaking. Unfortunately though, my lasting impression will be one of disappointment and sadness at the fate of two of my all time favourite video game characters.