The Last of Us Part II (PS4) - Video Game Review

In late April of this year, leaks that spoiled the story of The Last of Us Part II leaked and I had the great misfortune of hearing what most of the leaks were (although I did not see any of the leaked content first-hand). Since those leaks, The Last of Us Part II has been an incredibly polarizing game as people have jumped to conclusions over the direction of the story. I will be the first to admit, that I was one of those people as I was incredibly upset about what Sony's Naughty Dog had planned for the two wonderful characters in their first game. I was wrong to leap to assumptions as this sequel not only crushed my bias, it exceeded any and all of my original hopes. I cannot stress this enough: do not check out the leaks before playing this game, and if you were unlucky like I was, please play this game through to the end before rushing to judgement!

One final forward before I get into the thick of things. This game will be pretty hard to avoid spoilers however I'm going to limit things as much as possible. I played the original Last of Us directly before playing this one and highly recommend doing so before booting up the sequel. Lastly, for clarity, I reviewed The Last of Us Part 2 on the PS4 after purchasing it on the online PlayStation Network Store.

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General Information

The Last of Us Part II was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was originally released on 19 June 2020 for the PlayStation 4 and is a PlayStation exclusive. It is a direct sequel to the original Last of Us. Like the original, it is a third-person action-adventure game, however I'd say that this one is more in the survival-horror realm than its predecessor was. Considering I am reviewing this game so shortly after release, it has not yet won any notable awards, however I expect that will change by the end of the year. As of 17 July 2020, the game retains a 94 Metacritic Score.

The Story

The game picks up four years after the events of The Last of Us where Joel and Ellie are now living in Jackson, Wyoming as part of a large settlement. The Cordyceps pandemic remains an ongoing problem, but it remains but a backdrop to the true story. If the first game's themes were all about love and survival-at-all-costs, this one is undoubtedly about revenge and grief. 

After about two to three hours of game-time, a major character in the story is killed and Ellie must go on a mission to Seattle to hunt down the victim's killers. In Seattle, Ellie will find a whole new type of fresh hell as the crumbling metropolis is currently a battleground between the militaristic Washington Liberation Front (aka the WLF) and the fanatical Seraphites (throw in a few hundred clickers and infected and stir for approximately 10 minutes...).

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The WLF had no idea what was coming for them when Ellie rode into Seattle...

Surprisingly, Ellie is actually one of two characters the player will control (excluding a very brief moment as Joel in the beginning). The other protagonist is Abby, a tough soldier who will intersect with Ellie's story on numerous occasions. I started out hating Abby's character and longed to return to playing as Ellie when I first started playing as her, however the game organically introduces Abby's world in a way that eventually had me not only caring for Abby just as much as Ellie, but also missing playing as Abby as well.

From a critical perspective, I found the initial four to five hours of the game a little jarring, however the game rewards patience. I think the story was incredibly well-crafted, although there were some times where I got a little annoyed with having to deal with yet another set of infected or WLF/Seraphites as I wanted to advance the plot. There was one part in-particular that involved Ellie getting to a hospital that seemed to take ages, but I would not go so far as to say that this game is too slowly paced. 

My only nitpick with the story was probably the character of Dina, who is Ellie's love interest in the game. I can't voice all of my reasons for disliking her here (see spoiler comments), but for someone that literally just got romantically involved with Ellie one day prior to the start of the game's story, I found it unbelievable that the two were already deeply in love and that Dina was willing to join Ellie on what amounts to a suicidal rampage.

If you thought the original game was raw and brutal, then you ain't seen nothing yet. This is not a happy game, and those that play this thinking there's a pot of gold at the end will be sorely disappointed. Despite that, the story Naughty Dog tells is incredibly heart-felt and there were more than a couple of points where I found my eyes getting watery for some reason. By the end of the game, I found myself needing to go on a walk and just think. 

The Gameplay

The Last of Us Part II retains nearly all of the features of the original and expands upon them with new gear, skills, and weapons. Stealth is improved as Ellie/Abby can use foliage to crawl under so as to avoid being seen by patrols, while areas are more expanded so players can use all sorts of routes to navigate through. There were more than a few occasions where I pondered whether to try and duke it out with the WLF or squeeze through a cracked wall in a nearby building.

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Strike now or stay in the bushes? Decisions, decisions...

Mobility is arguably the greatest gameplay addition to the series as characters can now jump, low-crawl, and squeeze through tight areas. Naughty Dog uses these seemingly small additions and really went to town with them as I never felt out of options when it came to navigation. Realizing the enemies can make use of such abilities too really caught me off guard too! I recall a particularly gruesome firefight where it took me ages to realize a WLF sniper had clambered his way to the roof of a building. Clickers and infected are even more frightening too when you see them literally crawling through cracks in the wall while howling for your blood.

There are additional enemy variations too that brought further depth to the game. First of all, enemies communicate a lot more than they used to. Every enemy NPC has a name and they will call out your position as you run through an area (the Seraphites will communicate via coded whistles, which I found fascinating). The WLF will use dogs to track your scent, which made sneaking much harder, while the Seraphites have gigantic fighters that wield massive weapons (I affectionately named them "Gertrudes" as most of them were women and looked like giant Slavic wrestlers). The infected have some new additions to their roster too that will have you running for the hills.

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Gertrude brings the pain

The combat felt great and was a bit more lenient on ammunition use than the original game. I was never starving for ammo, but I also didn't feel like a Call of Duty dude-bro with unlimited bullets. I was constantly strategizing what combination of weapons to keep at the ready while also keeping an eye on my craftable weapons (Abby's pipe-bombs are the best). A minor annoyance I had (and this was in the original game too) was that there were numerous times where Ellie/Abby aren't able to take ammo from their victims' weapons. I understand that ammunition is scarce, but there were whole areas where guys I killed all seemingly had empty magazines! It hurt immersion slightly, but I also understand and enjoy the sense of fighting with little on-hand.

Audio/Visual
There were numerous points in this game where I could see that the developers at Naughty Dog truly cared about the effort they put into making this game. Scenery from Jackson's snow-covered hills to Seattle's dilapidated Chinatown each were packed with an incredible amount of detail that is more and more impressive as I think on it. When it comes to character models, I would vehemently debate that this game even beats out games like Detroit: Become Human. The facial animations are so impressive that I felt like was watching a movie during certain cut-scenes while the voice acting is top-notch.

Music remains appropriately minimalistic, but really added to the atmosphere of the game. Sound plays a big role in this game as sneaking around requires listening as much as looking. There was one part of the game where I was in a dark office building with Stalkers that had me so nervous I never wanted to leave my little corner of safety. Hearing them grunting and skittering around without being able to see them put me on edge and made me as scared as I imagined Ellie was.

Micro-Transactions/Downloadable Content
There is no DLC currently available and there appears to be no DLC in the works for the future. Despite that, this game lacks a multiplayer mode like the original (as of 17 July 2020). From what I hear, a multiplayer mode will be coming in the future (likely when this game is inevitably ported to the PlayStation 5). I haven't heard anything solid, but I would assume that the multiplayer portion of the game will have some sort of DLC like masks/hats/emblems and such. I am hoping that Naughty Dog does not lock things like weaponry behind a paywall again as that sorely hurt my view of the original's excellent multiplayer.

Replayability

There is a New Game+ mode, which you're definitely going to need to play if you want to completely upgrade all weapons and both protagonists. There's also a host of collectibles that range from scattered documents to trading cards and state coins.

Despite all of that, I have to admit that I personally am hesitant to dive right back into the game. The game's impressive story left me exhausted by the end. I'll certainly replay it at some point, but I feel like I need to spend a week watching cartoons or something before I do...

The Best of the Best: Ellie's birthday was so touching that I would replay the game just to get to that part again.

The Worst of the Worst: I know this will be my second time calling her out, but Dina would be my worst gripe about the game. She wasn't awful, but she was also the only character in the series that I didn't find completely organic to the story. By the end of the original Last of Us, the bond between Ellie and Joel felt earned and real. Although Dina's and Ellie's bond is different, I just felt like there were aspects of this relationship that were rushed.

Would I Recommend?

*****

I would certainly recommend although I would caution those that struggle with seeing violence depicted in a media format. There are some truly horrific things that are done to people in this game and I understand that's not for everyone. With that being said, those that can stomach it are in for a real treat with this game. If you can play this game, you should do it as soon as possible.

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• Joel's death left me furious and I was totally down to roleplay Ellie's rage against Abby and the WLF. When I got to Seattle I made it a point to kill every WLF member I could (this actually caused me to die a few times in some areas as there were a couple sections where endless waves of WLF soldiers kept coming). I honestly didn't see how I could like Abby, and it wasn't until near the end that the game convinced me.
• The first "boss fight" against Ellie was fucking hard and not just because of the difficulty but because I didn't want to kill Ellie. When I screwed up and died as Abby, I was kind of like "can we just have the story go this way?" After seeing the game through to its end though, I'm glad Naughty Dog said "no, keep going."
• Speaking of endings, my heart broke seeing Abby and Lev strapped to those poles on the beach. The powerhouse that is Abby was reduced to a rail-thin shell of her former self. The Rattlers didn't even let her keep her signature ponytail... That final fight was on par with the Solid Snake vs. Ocelot/Liquid Snake fight in Metal Gear Solid 4 for me.
• My other issues with Dina: Apparently morning sickness only takes effect when you tell others that you're pregnant. The fact that Dina was freshly broken up with Jessie (and pregnant with his baby) the day before linking up with Ellie made me cringe so hard on Ellie and Dina's love for each other. It felt forced and maybe it was supposed to. As Ellie, I felt like I was the rebound and I think Dina would've gone back to Jessie if the poor guy hadn't gotten shot in the face.
• Who else thought the farm scene of Ellie looking over the hills with JJ was the end of the game?
• Poor Yara by the way. After getting her arm shattered and amputated, she gets killed in less than twelve hours after her operation. Lev's big sister was a champ through and through.

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

*Amazon. (2020). The Last of Us Part 2 game cover image. Retrieved from: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Us-Part-II-PlayStation-4/dp/B07DJRFSDF. 
**Swisher, K., & Galloway, S. (2020). Ellie in Seattle image. Polygon. Retrieved from: https://www.polygon.com/the-last-of-us-part-2-guides/21291801/seattle-day-1-collectibles-ellie-artifacts-trading-cards-journal-entries-workbenches-safes. 
***Sakellariou, A. (2020, June 29). The Last of Us Part II Seraphites image. ScreenRant. Retrieved from: https://screenrant.com/last-us-2-cult-scars-seraphites-history-explained/.
****Game Pressure. (2020). Seraphite boss fight image. Retrieved from: https://guides.gamepressure.com/the-last-of-us-part-ii/guide.asp?ID=54756. 
*****McKeand, K. (2020, June 22). Ellie sunset image. VG24/7. Retrieved from: https://www.vg247.com/2020/06/22/the-last-of-us-2-ending-story-discussion/.