Shane Baker

I first began playing the Last of Us 2 with a completely open mind but was disappointed by its mind numbingly dull story. Don't get me wrong, the Last of Us 2 gameplay and its visuals were absolutely stunning. Even some of the random dead NPSs scattered throughout the game managed to pull at my heart strings often enough, particularly the pregnant woman who needed medical supplies, who left 30 something odd tally marks on the chalk board, and who's husband went out scavenging to find supplies but was shot by a Seraphite and bled to death. It baffles me how these 2 characters we would never get to meet had a long-lasting impact on me more so than Abby's revenge or any of her friends. As was expressed in the first sentence of this review, the story for this game felt incredibly forced and therefore felt very dull to me. The story seemed to drive all the characters instead of the other way around. Let's just begin with the most blatantly uncharacteristic plot driven action taken by Joel and Tommy. First off they would never willingly give up their names to a random and very suspicious group of young travelers. Not only that, I have a hard time believing they would even consider Abby's suggestion to flee to their "safehouse" in the woods to begin with. Let's also not forget to mention that this is all happening during the harshest season of the year over what is actually a very stupid revenge plot, let me explain. Abby's father was killed by Joel which is explained in the beginning of her playthrough and although you would think that this should help us feel some sort of compassion over these tragic events, we feel absolutely no sympathy or shouldn't because she reveals she is aware that her dad is about to kill an adolescent girl. We the players are expected to believe that she becomes absolutely shook over her father's death, especially after she expresses she shares no compassion at all for young Ellie's life. None of these motivations really add up and it doesn't stop there. The second worst part about the story is the fact that everything happens coincidently. Joel literally walks straight into Abby on the brink of her death and even trusts her and her entourage of friends to find refuge AND EVEN puts himself in the most vulnerable position between all of them. Joel saves Abby and she doesn't even stop to think, "hmm, maybe this guy isn't actually that bad?". Instead she grabs a shotty and is like "hah, bye bit#$%!" There are so many more problems with this game but this review is getting long. If I could suggest any visual reviews that go into even more depth, I would suggest NakeyJakey or even Upper Echelon Gamers among many others because they really do go into detail on this botched story. Thank you for reading. My score 1/5 or 3/10. Just was not compelling story telling and does the first game absolutely no justice!