Zachary Morin

The Last of Us part II is a difficult game to review, by the end of the game my feelings of the game were somewhat uncertain. The Last of Us part II's biggest strength is it's versatile gameplay, the player can tackle each situation differently. The player can go in guns blazing or be stealthy and take enemies out quietly. The sounds in the game is spectacular everything from the firing of a gun to the sounds of the currents of a stream. There are no technical issues either, the game is incredibly polished, but that is what gamers expect from a Naughty Dog title. What kept the Last of Us part II from being a solid 5/5 was the writing. Naughty Dog's games have always been known for their incredibly good gameplay and superb storytelling. The Last of Us II falls short in the story telling department falling into superficial story traps to force Abbey to be a sympathetic character and Ellie to be a villain. For example, in the game Abbey plays with dogs, but ellie kills dogs. Ellie kills people whose friends scream out in terror for once they see their fallen comrade, Where the storytelling fails is where Abbey kills Joel brutally and feels nothing after the horrific act. In the middle of the game, Abbey hunts down ellie and holds Dina with a knife to her neck about slit her throat when Ellie says she is pregnant and Abbey revels in the idea of killing Dina by saying "good". Ellie brutally beats Nora in order to get information, but after the act feels remorseful. Ellie tracks down Mel and Owen and kills them both. Once Ellie finds out Mel is pregnant she collapse with remorse. In the end, Ellie holds a knife to the neck of Liv in order to force abbey to fight. The failure in the writing is Abbey is just a disgusting character who enjoys the act of killing and just does not deserve the players sympathy. Naughty dog even fails to paint Ellie as a villain since she feels remorse in killing Mel and Nora even though they deserved it for killing Joel. The reality is the player ends up feeling more sympathy for Ellie than for Abbey. This is the opposite of what Naughty dog intended with the writing of the Last of Us part II. What saves the game is the superb gameplay and excellent sound design and polish. However, Naughty Dog can not be forgiven for ruining one of the most beloved IP's in gaming, the last of us.