Mason McNichol

Without spoilers for a moment. The last of us 2 feels very much like a follow up to the original in every way. The characters do feel aged in a way that feels significant for the amount of time that passed between them. The world itself is a huge positive for the game. The story isn’t as good as part 1, but is not terrible (I will elaborate more in spoilers). The gameplay does stale as the game progresses. By the end of the game running through combat is better than actually playing to get to the next story beat. The gunplay/ stealth is very rinse and repeat from chapter to chapter. Another huge plus is the accessibility and options that start the game. The shear amount of options to set up at the beginning was a great touch especially the subtitles as the background noise does drawn out the dialogue at times. On to spoiler talk. The game attempts to follow Confucius’s saying of “before you embark on a journey of revenge dig two graves”. The first grave for your enemy and the second for yourself. Both of our main characters Abby and Ellie are setting out on journeys for revenge. Abby initially seeks revenge for Joel killing her father. Abby’s successful murder of Joel then trigger Ellie to seek vengeance on Abby. In Ellie’s quest Abby loses all of her friends which places the two on another collision course. Joel’s death occurs very quickly into the game (less than 2 hours). Joel and his brother Tommy save Abby from a horde of infected before Abby pulls a cruel twist of fate and murders Joel. This sets Abby up as the main antagonist of the story; but, at the midpoint of the game Abby becomes a sort of protagonist. This was an incredibly bold choice for naughty dog however for 2/3 of Abby’s play time she is not a likable protagonist at all. She starts to make a shift in likability when she encounters two children from a rival faction in Seattle who were cast out for their acceptance of transgender beliefs. Abby shows acceptance to this young boy where his mother was willing to kill him, but for Abby this does appear to be too little too late for her character to recover. Ellie on the other hand plays a more safe route in story writing she is our hero who is going on a righteous path to vengeance based on the acceptance of her friends and community. Ellie’s character does take a dip 3/4 of the way through the story to set out again for revenge leaving her family behind. Ellie was spared by Abby twice over the course of the game, but can not find the ability to mentally lay Joel to rest. The game’s final battle is another confrontation between the two leads, but this time Ellie spares Abby. The reason why Ellie spared Abby is up for question though because the game doesn’t give too much time as to what that reason is. Upon returning to her home Ellie sees her family has left her, and we have one more flashback to her with Joel. This flashback is Ellie felling Joel she wishes to forgive him for the events of the last game, but isn’t sure if she can on the eve of Joel’s death. This revelation may lead to the heightened desire for revenge from Ellie. The major strengths the game has are in its flashbacks and relies heavily on the relationship we grew to know in part 1. The present Ellie portion of the game is very safe and the interest in it definitely depends on your buy in to the revenge plot. Abby while being the bolder decision does not seem to stick the landing. This is not a terrible game by any standard Rather it is a game that dared to try something new, but fell just shy of greatness