8 things we could not say in the review of The Last of Us Part II – review

1. Part II – a direct continuation of the first part

Due to the nature of the advertising campaign and the strict embargo, it was easy to believe that the new story was somewhat distant from the events of the original. Say, the heroes are the same, but the events around them are completely different and have nothing to do with the plot of the first part. But this is not so: The Last of Us Part II is entirely built around the decision that Joel made at the end of the previous game. The developers directly show how his act influenced his relationship with Ally and her views on the world. And in the years that have passed between the two parts, they will nevertheless give a glimpse with one eye – albeit with the help of flashbacks.

Ellie and Joel’s complicated relationship is paid much more attention than the affair with Dina

2. Ally is not the only playable character

At some point, the sequel does the same trick as the first part: brings another protagonist of the story onto the stage. Rather, the heroine.

The game will play for Abby – the very muscular girl that the cultists tried to hang in a trailer three years ago. The gameplay for her is not so much different: Abby is stronger and moves a little differently, she has her own set of weapons and unique skills for leveling. But this is not important – the main thing is that almost half of the game remains to go for the second heroine, and her story helps to look differently at the plot as a whole.

It is with the help of Abby that the second part reveals its central theme: the ambiguity of the actions of heroes. It gives you the opportunity to look at events from a different angle: for example, talk with yesterday’s enemies, and at some point find yourself behind the curtains of an enemy faction. This is a useful and atypical gaming experience.

Due to the new presentation, the story is not as straightforward as the plot of the original: there is no usual three-act structure of the script. Instead, the game is conditionally divided into two halves, and each of these “halves” has its own plot, its own local plot and climax. Both lines complement each other, but talk about completely different events and characters, and at some point seem almost separate games.

Not everyone will like this move, of course, but it works: after completing the plot fragments of one heroine, you look at the second story a little differently.

3. Leaks misinterpreted

But there is good news: even if you caught a spoiler, don’t be upset. Due to the presentation, the perception of some situations changes dramatically, and watching how the story just goes on, the characters’ attitudes and views change, and the world goes to hell is a separate pleasure.

And the game was too big to be spoiled by a couple of videos. By themselves, the moments from the leaks do not cover the whole plot, the essence of the entire second half of the game is misinterpreted, and the fact that Internet trolls sincerely considered the ending, it is not.

4. The world of the game does not survive – he is trying to live on

The state of the world at the time of the sequel events also affects the perception of history. In the first part, sometimes there was a feeling that civilization was almost dead and there was no longer a chance for a “life as before”. But the second part does not just give hope for the best – it also shows this very “best”.

Jackson is a true paradise in the middle of a crazy world. But he is not alone

In Jackson, where the TLoU 2 story starts, there is electricity and food, children are playing on the streets, garlands are lit, parties are held and bars are working. Once in one of the houses, you are literally amazed at how much life in this place is like ours: here there is a big plasma for joint movie screenings, and neat, clean interiors, even kitchen cabinets full of bottles of wine and spices.

Changes are felt in the characters of the heroes – this can be judged by only one topic that they affect in conversation. Yes, Ellie and Dina periodically go on patrols, finishing off the zombies who got lost in the district, but for them this is more a familiar routine than an adventure. But between the “sweeps” they discuss relationships, movies and plans for the future, such as writing their own music or even flying into space.

And Jackson is far from the only such place. Each faction to be met in the game leads its own way of life, and not just degrades on the ruins of civilization. The same notorious cultists settled on a separate island, built a whole village there and set up an economy. And these seemingly small details also play on the scenario: you believe in the motives of the enemies much more when you understand what they are fighting for.

5. Not everyone will like the plot

I already wrote in the review that the plot came out controversial and probably split the audience. But only now it is possible, without fear of the embargo, to explain the reasons.

The first and possibly key: the story puts a lot of pressure on the players’ guilt. Quite often you are not given the opportunity to avoid nasty things, but then they regularly make you feel ashamed. Yes, during the gameplay you can bypass almost any enemy, but the trouble is that Part II periodically puts you in situations from which there is no peaceful way out. It would seem that it’s understandable: you have to survive in this world, “Kill or kill you”. But this mantra does not work here, because in the second part, Ally is no longer just saved from her pursuers. On the contrary: she herself returns to the offenders and herself arranges a local branch of hell in their settlements. And all these horrors would not have happened if the heroine had not had burning desire “Kill each of them”.

At some point, we are made clear that Ellie is losing control of herself. And she herself is not happy about it

And here we come to the second reason for dissatisfaction: sweet girl Ellie. Those who fall in love with her dying optimism and children’s curiosity will also be upset. Adult Ellie is clearly not the kind of person with whom you would like to stay on a desert island. Of course, it still has kindness and some ethical principles, but in general it differs little from all the other survivors, whose moral principles have long since rolled back to the level of the Middle Ages.

It is really difficult to understand the motives of her actions, operating solely in terms of the modern, civilized world. For many, the thought will surely slip through: “Yes, she got a lot of money, but why go to avenge and risk their lives, if you can … forgive and not go?” It is possible that in our educated time, many would have done so. But not a teenage girl who grew up in a world where you need to kill to survive. She is no longer a heroine, not a savior of mankind and not an innocent child, but a life-beaten man with severe trauma. And she copes with this trauma in the only way that she understands: revenge.

As a result, the developers got a more mundane, humane story about low-lying feelings, and not the salvation of the whole world. Yes, there are still moments of warmth, love and catharsis, but they are accompanied by a crushing atmosphere, cruelty and the transformation of heroes into villains. Not everyone will like this approach.

6. Compared to the second part, the first seems wooden

Often in our memory, our favorite games look prettier, more spectacular, and generally better than they actually are. And the first part of The Last of Us is no exception. The game, which in 2013 many considered the highest point of their generation, now perfectly demonstrates what step the industry has taken over the past seven years. At least in terms of technology.

Yes, the main core of the gameplay remains the same, but thanks to the achievements of animators, modelers and programmers, it works at a completely different sensual level. For example, the degree of immersion in the world is now different: thanks to crazy detail and a very competent level design, the local locations are no longer like arenas and create the illusion of a real city.

There are very few rooms in the game where, in terms of the arrangement of shelters, it is clear in advance that there will be an action now, and then an acrobatic stage. The premises and streets look like real places where people lived: with a bunch of furniture, signboards, abandoned cars, garbage and other decorations. At the same time, surprisingly, it is rarely necessary to run into a dead end and look for a way out, which is a great achievement for a game without explicit color prompts and a mini-map.

A couple of times I still had to wander in search of the right path, but, given the overall scale of the work, the creators did just fine

And the most noticeable difference from the first part is animations. I already spoke about facial expressions, but, more importantly, all the characters move very naturally, naturally, and even their body language changes depending on the context. For example, after the death of an ally, the enemies become more twitchy and tense, and, flying into the corridor on the run, they can hit the wall with their hand, push off from it and continue the pursuit. And this will happen at a random moment, not according to the script.

7. The second part is not only twice as long as the original, but also much more saturated

When the game has two storylines at once, you also need more content. And therefore it is surprising that for three dozen hours The Last of Us: Part II never slows down and does not stop surprising, juggling with a variety of situations and details.

You are sure to find something new at both the fifth and twenty-fifth hours. For the sake of a single foggy level, the developers made sure that condensation was visible on the surfaces. For a couple of hours of gameplay in the winter setting, they made physics of ice and snow. You just jumped on the rooftops, threw ropes and smashed glass to move on, and right after that the game can completely forget about these mechanics for long hours.

Moreover, it is not only about a variety of puzzles or production moments. The Last of Us II even alternates moods and genres: here you calmly speak with your partner for life, play the guitar and explore the sunny city, as if in some kind of Uncharted, and already at the next moment, a tense action movie begins, where you need to break out of captivity and fight off enemies with your last strength. A little later there will be a little horror in the dark subway tunnels or in the corridors of an abandoned hospital. And then the game will turn into a thriller, where you walk through the building to intense music: corpses are hung everywhere, and the walls are covered with blood.

Wandering in dark places here is also uncomfortable because, against the background, an unfamiliar, mysterious enemy is making a noise

Even a stage with an open world flashes just once and does not repeat, giving way to something else. For example, tours of a huge museum with a bunch of exhibits, each of which will be interactive. Or a game of snowballs, for which there is also a separate mechanics. After such a term, The Last of Us II is called “kintz”, the language does not turn around: there are too many things to touch.

With the commercials and directing, of course, everything is also in order, but much more important is that all these components – gameplay, cutscenes, peaceful and combat situations – change and flow into one another so smoothly that you don’t even notice the glues.

8. The game can be customized for you almost any way.

But if you still want to turn the game into a “kintz” or you just can’t handle the gamepad, Naughty dog provided for this as well.

Difficult aiming is one of the main features of the action. But the developers took into account that not everyone can cope with such gameplay

You can spend a dozen minutes behind the game’s settings, changing everything, down to individual mechanics, for yourself. So, difficulty levels here can be set for a number of parameters: the sliders are presented separately with the survivability of the heroes, and with the cunning or vigilance of the AI, and with the amount of resources at the levels. Even the usefulness of partners can be configured separately: for example, so that they practically do not seek help and kill enemies almost faster than yourself.

There are more exotic options: the colors and sizes of the subtitles or interface, special visual cues for people with vision problems, high contrast mode, text dubbing, and so on. You can even configure the game so that auto-guidance appears in the battle, resources are selected automatically, without pressing buttons, and each puzzle could be skipped.

Perhaps now you really know everything you need. And so many topics for discussion of one game, probably not since the release Red dead redemption 2. At the end of the passage, you get a little tired. Not in the sense that it bothers or becomes boring – just because of the concentration of events and impressions of the credits, the head swells. But complaining about this is probably stupid.

In any case, regardless of whether you like the game or not, the release of The Last of Us Part II is a real event. And it will be interesting to discuss it at least until the release Cyberpunk 2077.