https://www.cybersport.ru/games/articles/ona-ne-pro-lgbt-i-socialnoe-ravenstvo-o-chem-na-samom-dele-the-last-of-us-part-ii

Dream game

Fans of the first part will probably remember Ally’s unusual dream to go into space. A charming and childishly naive idea surprisingly contrasted with the horrors of the post-apocalyptic world and all that the girl had to see from childhood.

In The Last of Us Part II, they did not forget about this trait and, moreover, paid a lot of attention to it. In one of the scenes, Ally and Dina will be in an abandoned bank. Stepping over heaps of wet, moldy dollars, a friend will ask the main character, what would she spend millions if money in their world still meant something. Ellie will answer immediately, without wasting time thinking: “I would fly into space.”

By that time, Ally will already experience a terrible shock, which will prompt her to embark on the path of revenge. Revenge the heroine will be stubbornly and cruelly, but at the same time and methodically – with cold calculation. I am convinced that it was precisely this dream that helped her not to lose her mind and maintain sobriety of judgment – albeit stupid and unrealizable, but still reminding the protagonist that even in such a gloomy world there are things for which it is still worth living.

Dina’s plans are much more prosaic: she will say that she would spend money on the farm. And this is the difference between the characters: Ellie is the creator. She writes paintings and songs, loves music and dreams of great achievements. And therefore the measured rural life will not suit her – in one of the scenes of the game you too can be convinced of this.

In addition, heading to Seattle, Ellie will make various sketches in a notebook – solely for aesthetic reasons. She really sees the beauty of the world and is struggling to capture it, even in the pursuit of revenge. And at the moment when Ellie loses herself – when she gives vent to hatred and dives into it with her head – then drawings will disappear from her book, and this is a damn powerful reception.

By the way, the reason that Ellie’s childhood daydreaming has been preserved contrary to any logic is the present that Joel gave her for her birthday. And I’m sure that you will remember the scene of his presentation for a very long time: to pass The Last of Us Part II is worth at least one for her.

Revenge game

Revenge is the main dish of The Last of Us Part II, which is served here both hot and noticeably cooled. At first glance, this is a hackneyed video game plot: the hero was offended, and he goes to take revenge, makes his way through nine circles of hell and finally does justice – an eye for an eye.

But Mahatma Gandhi wrote that this principle would make the whole world blind – and The Last of Us is an epic illustration of this quote. This game is not about revenge as such – it is a game about how revenge cripples a person’s soul, without, in essence, bringing any satisfaction.

Revenge cannot be fair when it comes to inhuman, monstrous acts. An attempt to avenge them only sets in motion a vicious conveyor of violence, because of which all participants will sooner or later be blind. You ask: what to do in this case, if not to take revenge? The answer to this question is sought by all the heroes of The Last of Us Part II.

Game of love

Love is the main supplier of drama in world art. Because of love, people decide on crazy actions, and therefore it’s so easy to build plots of books, films and video games around it. In The Last of Us Part II, the theme of love is key, and here I’m not just talking about Ally and Dinah.

The first part of The Last of Us, in essence, was a game about parental love. In the introduction, Joel’s daughter died right in his arms, after which he locked himself in for many years. The meeting with Ellie allowed him to throw out all those unrealized feelings that lived in him, and their strength was so great that Joel was ready to deprive mankind of the cure for the infection in order to save Ellie’s life.

In the second part, the theme continues, only now we can look at Joel’s parental love through the eyes of an older Ellie. I assure you, the conflict between fathers and children begins to play with new colors when you can look at it from all sides.

But what love is stronger – to a partner or to a “parent”? Or to god? What to do in a situation in which loved ones find themselves on opposite sides of the barricades? Is it possible to betray your ideals if this can save someone who is dear to you? The Last of Us Part II will try to answer all these questions by modeling a variety of situations and exploring how hatred and love can intertwine, pushing us to crazy things.

Game of obsession

The very concept of obsession as if does not carry a negative meaning, because if you say that you are obsessed with, for example, Picasso’s paintings, those around you can only shake their heads respectfully. However, excessive immersion in one area invariably leads to the fact that you lose something in other areas, and The Last of Us Part II perfectly illustrates this principle.

Having completed the great odyssey in the first part, Ellie settled in Jackson and found there everything she could dream about: shelter, friends, family and work. There was even a place for creative self-realization! But the heroine will leave all this behind, setting off in pursuit of revenge.

It is important to understand: if the heroes had no choice in the first part – the fate of humanity depended on them, then in continuation Ellie has the opportunity to stop at any moment and just return home, to where her relatives will wait. But Ellie is obsessed with revenge and during the game will sink deeper and deeper into hatred of the enemy, thus depriving himself of a chance for a peaceful life.

The further you move along the plot, the more clearly it will be clear that, surrendering to this hatred, Ellie acquired an endless source of strength to move on, but lost much more. In Part II, Ellie will lose at home, family and friends, a sense of beauty, talent for playing the guitar, and, in the end, the meaning of life. Such is Neil Drackmann’s comment on why obsession is the road to nowhere.

It sounds fresh, I do not argue, but it should be so. After all, the story of Ellie is not the only argument for the game in this debate: passing Part II, you will come across amazing stories about what a person who is fixated on some idea is capable of. And no one will reveal the “correct” position to you – a philosophical question, and you, as a player, are free to make your choice based on the outcome of the plot.

Game of the Post Apocalypse

Human relations in The Last of Us Part II come to the fore, but this does not negate the fact that Naughty Dog managed to make an excellent post-apocalypse game. The landscapes of the destroyed cities in the first part prompted many to start using the Share button, but even more impressive were the stories that developers filled that game with.

Making his way through the world destroyed by the disease, the player sooner or later realized: even when mushroom zombies began to walk around the planet, the main danger was still a man – because he, unlike everyone else, is capable of treachery and meanness. There is no unity in the face of universal danger: the original showed that after the end of the world people will not be able to avoid senseless strife.

The Last of Us Part II picks up this idea and effectively develops it, showing us people’s attempts to build a new civilization on the ruins. Hence the attendant problems: conflicts between the two groups, the struggle for territory and power, the confrontation caused by a thirst for profit.

The notes and various scenes in Part II allow the player to put together in their head a whole book of stories about how this world gradually collapsed, and all of them, of course, will be in very dark colors. It is not so much the events that scare them as their realism. People who from the first days rushed to ruin the apartments of neighbors, liars, manipulators and murderers are shown by The Last of Us Part II, and there is no desire to argue with it, because we see similar stories, albeit on a smaller scale, every day in news bulletins.

If you play without reading through the papers, then Ellie’s joy from meeting with infected people will seem illogical to you. After all, these are monsters! But if you try to delve into this world, then everything will quickly fall into place: after all, if you have a crowd of infected people in front of you, it means that you will not be faced with meeting people. And this thought in itself calms.

The Last of Us Part II is a multifaceted game in which everyone can find good food for thought. The declared theme of revenge is a leading one, but not defining for this title, and the notorious propaganda of unconventional relations, which everyone is afraid of for some reason, you will not even remember when the credits go. Naughty Dog was notoriously hypean, showing a provocative trailer, but this is the essence of the marketing move, which allowed to attract even more attention to the game. In fact, in it lies a lot more events that are worth seeing with your own eyes any fan of video games.