Cole Webb

SPOILERS!! LOOK. We all loved Joel. Sad what happened, honestly. However, it has ALWAYS been about Ellie. The plot of the first game sets up her story very well so this makes sense. The gameplay, graphics, and combat are all greatly improved in part 2 so suck it up and embrace playing as Ellie. Of course nobody wanted Joel to die. But that’s the apocalypse man. People die and it sucks. BUT. Finish it out and play the rest of the game because you’ll see why Naughty Dog chose this controversial route. I’ll be honest, at first it pissed me off but I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. This game challenged my views on violence, vengeance, and perspective in a way not many games have. You want so badly for Ellie to kill Abby and the wolves responsible for Joel’s murder that you’ll kill dogs and torture unarmed enemies. The game shifts characters from Ellie to Abby a little bit less than half way in and at first it’s a rough transition. We just saw her kill Joel after all. This was an excellent narrative move though - from this we get to see the other side of that brutal golf club incident. Joel killed Abbys father - Ellie’s surgeon from the first game - so Abby killed him. Ellie and Abbys quest for vengeance are not that different, we only choose to view Ellie differently because we had a whole first game to get to know her story. In reality, there are no heroes in the last of us. Instead, we see how humans perpetuate a vicious cycle of vengeful killing that only hinders mankind’s survival in a crumbling world. This heavy philosophical narrative is pretty upsetting but that’s the point. As dark and depressing as it is, it’s still an amazing story with lots of fun gameplay. Just try to keep an open mind.