History VideoGame / TheLastOfUsPartII

** Meanwhile, Seraphite POWs are sent to holding cells where they are interrogated and tortured to death. The methods are left up to the imagination, but they manage to terrify the normally fanatical Seraphites.

** [[spoiler: Ellie drops Nora into the spore-filled lower level of the hospital with her, dooming her to be infected. A chase gives way, but Nora doesn't make it very far because she can barely breathe. Ellie offers to make it "quick" or "so much worse." She refuses to give Ellie information that can lead to Abby, and Ellie exacts revenge by smashing her repeatedly with a pipe. Nora does end up giving up Abby's location so Ellie may have kept her word about a quick death, but between Nora's agonized sobbing and Ellie's murderous rage, this indicates it was anything ''but'' quick.

** [[spoiler: Ellie drops Nora into the spore-filled lower level of the hospital with her, dooming her to be infected. A chase gives way, but Nora doesn't make it very far because she can barely breathe. Ellie offers to make it "quick" or "so much worse." She refuses to give Ellie information that can lead to Abby, and Ellie exacts revenge by smashing her repeatedly with a pipe. It cuts off after the third blow, but Nora's agonized sobbing and Ellie's sheer, murderous rage indicates it was anything ''but'' quick.]]

** [[spoiler: Ellie drops Nora into the spore-filled lower level of the hospital with her, dooming her to be infected. A chase gives way, but Nora doesn't make it very far because she can barely breathe. She refuses to give Ellie information that can lead to Abby, and Ellie exacts revenge by smashing her repeatedly with a pipe. The only saving grace is that Nora may have had a quick death after that; Ellie told her that if she gave Abby up, then she could make her death quick without letting her turn, but we don't see if Ellie kept her word.]]

* IncrediblyLamePun: Despite the game's relentlessly grim atmosphere, groan-inducing puns make a return to lighten the mood every now and then, although it's not Ellie who's telling them this time around. Joel of all people cracks one in the prologue in an effort to cheer up his still-crestfallen surrogate daughter, and Dina also comes up with some.
--> '''Joel''': What's the downside of swallowing a clock? It's time-consuming.

* PoorCommunicationKills: On both sides of the conflict, barely ''anyone'' bothers to sit down and just talk things out rationally, not even a MotiveRant, often being too blinded by the need for vengeance to listen to reason. [[spoiler: Abby never tells Joel why she's trying to kill him, she just shoots him on sight and beats him to death. Ellie isn't any better, killing three of Abby's friends before they can explain themselves (though admittedly because they try and attack her first when she has them at their mercy) and by the time she does realize why Abby did what she did, Abby's come to try and avenge her friends and the two are too caught up in trying to kill each other to see reason anymore. Even more so at the end where they're both too tired and wounded to be in any position to fight each other and by all rights, should just talk it out. But Ellie once more re-engages the conflict for one more fight.]]

** Though Ellie is lesbian and Dina is bi, neither of them understand the LGBT connotation of rainbows upon seeing a few of them in Seattle, including the pride flag itself inside a gay and lesbian bookstore.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Deconstructed ''thoroughly''. Ellie goes off on a revenge-fueled rampage after [[spoiler: Joel is killed by Abby]] and mows down soldier after soldier to reach her goal. But the second act of the game has [[spoiler: the perspective shift to Abby, who is understandably angry towards Joel, as he killed her father and possibly doomed humanity by saving Ellie in the last game. The enemies Ellie killed were Abby's friends and compatriots in the WLF, so naturally, she's ''pissed'' when she confronts Ellie at the theater. Also throughout the story (most prominently in Abby's campaign), the story confronts the dangers of demonization of entire groups.]]

* RevengeIsNotJustice: [[spoiler: Abby wants revenge because Joel killed her father, the surgeon who going to sacrifice Ellie to make a cure for the outbreak. Once Abbey kills Joel, she gives Ellie a reason to want revenge and everyone in Abby's group believes she went too far in killing Joel. They understand her reasoning to kill Joel but decree that she went too far in beating him to death. Abbey even agrees in the end by saying it didn't bring any peace or bring her father back. Ellie also realises that killing Abby won't undo the damage done to her or bring Joel back. She ultimately decides to spare Abby so she doesn't lose anything else in her life.]]

** Abby comes across a derelict ferry where some of the crew and passengers mutinied against the captain over how to deal with potentially infected passengers on board. While the mutineers murdered many of the sick passengers before being killed by the captain, the mortally wounded captain wondered if they were really right when he started to hear infected trying to break into the bridge during is last moments. However, given how much time has passed, it's impossible to really know the true answer.

* PhotoMode: With more filters and frames than in''[[VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPart The Last of Us Remastered]]''. Once again, Creator/NaughtyDog held a contest for it in 2020.

* ProductPlacement: There's ''a lot'' of surprisingly intact [=PlayStation=] consoles to be found in abandoned homes. One of the Wolves, Whitney, is even seen playing HotlineMiami on a [=PlayStation=] Vita several times, with Abby even asking her about the game she is playing. At least she has the decency to mutter "[[SelfDeprecation stupid video games]]" while walking away.

The game was released on June 19, 2020, after being delayed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and a major ContentLeak. The story for a potential sequel has been outlined but ND has no immediate plans to develop it.

** If you walk up to a Clicker while grabbing another enemy, human or Infected, the blind Clicker will snatch the enemy from your grasp and rip out their throat instead of your own.

** [[spoiler:It’s never outright stated what happened to Abby and Lev, but after completing the story, the main menu screen becomes a casino off the coast of Southern California, implying that they found the Fireflies safely]].

** Unless you neuter it in the options menu, the enemy AI is ''terrifyingly'' good at its job of making your life a living hell. No nook or cranny is safe from their investigation while they're looking for you, they usually cover each other well enough to make it difficult to take them out individually without alerting the whole group, and once open combat breaks out, their well-rehearsed teamwork ''will'' get you flanked and surrounded before you know what hit you if you aren't constantly aware of your surroundings. And woe betide you if they brought guard dogs.

* ArtisticLicense: For the most part, the traversable areas in Seattle are [[ShownTheirWork accurate]], though there are a few artistic liberties taken for the sake of gameplay and story and/or to keep things lawyer-friendly, such as removing building names (like the Polyclinic), changing building names (Hotel Sorrento to "Serevena Hotel", Washington State Convention Center to "Seattle Conference Center", Nordstrom to "Norkirk", etc.) adding buildings (the Hotel Blacray), replacing buildings (the Capitol Hill gas station is noticeably bigger than its real-life counterpart), and changing the interior of existing buildings (the Synagogue is IRL a former Methodist Church; the in-game Seattle Waterfront Aquarium's exterior is accurate, but the exhibits inside bears no resemblance to its real-life counterpart).

** AI is as competent at fighting the PlayerCharacter, as it is inept at fighting [=NPCs=]. This becomes painfully apparent whenever WLF soldiers and Seraphites go up against each other, and ''especially'' when humans are attacked by infected. A single clicker, sometimes even just a measly runner, can wipe out a whole squad of heavily armed soldiers [[CurbstompBattle with nothing in terms of meaningful resistance]]. Soldiers simply running from cover to cover as clickers chase them, Benny Hill-style, instead of fighting is also common.

** [[spoiler:Abby]] suffers from acrophobia (fear of heights). [[spoiler:If you're walking on a ledge while playing as her and looks down, the view blurs and stretches and Abby begins to pant anxiously.]]

** In the hospital level, in the section where Ellie [[spoiler: is about to confront a coughing, slowly dying Nora]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Rlbjp-jFA Ellie does not]] look straight at them, trying to avert her gaze as much as possible (no matter how you turn the camera and it happens even in photo mode). Given that this scene is [[spoiler: where she savagely beats Nora for information on Abby and immediately afterward she's incredibly shaken by what she did, it's a small but significant detail on just how this revenge journey is damaging her.]]

** The audience also knows that during [[spoiler:Abby's playthrough on Day 2, that she narrowly escaped Ellie's wrath - Ellie spent the entire day looking for her and unbeknownst to her, they were both in the same location. The Rat King's screams [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgnN9ZZ9Y_o can actually be heard in the background]] during Ellie's interrogation of Nora, implying that Abby was fighting for her life just minutes away from Ellie at that very moment.]]

** Several Seattle landmarks appear in the game; the in-game Pinnacle Theatre is based on the real-life Paramount Theatre, the Washington Conference Center appears as the Seattle Conference Center, The WLF's base is Lumen Field in Seattle (renamed [=SoundView Stadium=]), the Seraphite's “island” is the Queen Anne neighborhood that is half-submerged and surrounded by flooded water, and the Seattle Aquarium and the Great Wheel feature prominently. This is basically {{Inverted}} with the Space Needle, as Seattle's most iconic building only makes a brief appearance in the penultimate level set in Seattle.

** Jackson and the area around it are in the winter covered in snow, giving the clear feeling of incoming death. Not surprisingly the infected are the most plot critical here as their relentless assault [[spoiler:on Abby, Joel and Tommy gives Abby the opening to exact her revenge on Joel.]]

* EvolvingTitleScreen: There are two title screens, one for pre- and post-game completion. The former shows a small boat moored in shallow water during foggy weather, foreshadowing Seattle's grim atmosphere. The latter shows [[spoiler:the boat's final destination, a sunny beach near Catalina Casino on Catalina Island]]. This serves as a [[TheStinger stinger]] to the game's story, indicating that [[spoiler:Abby & Lev made it to the supposed new home of the Fireflies, while the [[CueTheSun sun breaking through nearby fog]] shows us that Abby and Ellie have both [[EarnYourHappyEnding let go of their pain and are on a path to healing]].]]

** The flashback to Ellie's 16th birthday contains a nasty one [[spoiler:when a startled boar suddenly charges past her in a dark and foreboding part of the museum. Made particularly effective by all the supplies you can pick up before it happens [[RedHerring despite no actual fight happening in the chapter]].]]

* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler:Ellie keeps Joel's broken watch in a dresser drawer at the farm where she's living with Dina and JJ, showing that she still can't let go of him, and by extension can't let go of her revenge quest.]]
* TrappedInASinkingCar: [[spoiler:There's an on-the-rails sequence in Ellie's storyline where she and Jesse get caught in an ambush when they're driving a car. Jesse swerves into a pond and the car starts to fill up with water, forcing him and Ellie into a struggle to get out. They make it out all right though.]]

* ArtisticLicense: For the most part, the traversable areas in Seattle are [[ShownTheirWork accurate]], though there are a few artistic liberties taken for the sake of gameplay and story and/or to keep things lawyer-friendly, such as removing building names (like the Polyclinic), changing building names (Hotel Sorrento to "Serevena Hotel", Washington State Convention Center to "Seattle Conference Center", Nordstrom to "Norkirk", etc.) adding buildings (the Hotel BlacRay), replacing buildings (the Capitol Hill gas station is noticeably bigger than its real-life counterpart), and changing the interior of existing buildings (the Synagogue is IRL a former Methodist Church; the in-game Seattle Waterfront Aquarium's exterior is accurate, but the exhibits inside bears no resemblance to its real-life counterpart).

** AI is as competent at fighting the PlayerCharacter, as it is inept at fighting [=NPCs=]. This becomes painfully apparent whenever WLF soldiers and Seraphites go up against each other, and ''especially'' when humans are attacked by infected. A single clicker, sometimes even just a measly runner, can wipe out a whole squad of heavily armed soldiers [[CurbstompBattle with nothing in terms of meaningful resistance]].

** As in the first game, attempting to fire an empty gun will result in the enemies noticing the clicking sound and attempt to charge you in response, which would be artificial brilliance… except for the fact that you can immediately switch to a live gun and pop them real quick, rinse and repeat, and they’ll never grow the wiser from it.

* CommonplaceRare: While it's understandable that working duct tape or sharp blades have become a rare find in the post-apocalypse, the low number of empty soda cans in the post-consumerism US can be a bit perplexing. Even with only some of them being intact enough to be turned into jury-rigged suppressors, you'd expect more lying around.

** The game gives players a huge range of options to adjust its difficulty according to one's personal preference (such as the ability to manually adjust enemy AI), giving gamers who aren't good at this sort of game a decent chance to enjoy its story without worrying too much about combat. The litany of accessibility features can also be used to make the game much easier to play even if you don't need them for their intended purpose. A lack of difficulty-related achievements only makes this more attractive to casual gamers.

* ArtisticLicense: For the most part, the traversable areas in Seattle are [[ShownTheirWork accurate]], though there are a few artistic liberties taken for the sake of gameplay and story and/or to keep things lawyer-friendly, such as removing building names (like the Polyclinic), adding buildings (the nonexistent Serevena Hotel), replacing buildings (the gas station doesn't exist there in real life), and changing the appearances of existing buildings (like the courthouse).

* CommonplaceRare: While it's understandable that working duct tape or sharp blades have become a rare find in the post-apocalypse, the low number of empty soda bottles in the post-consumerism US can be a bit perplexing. Even with only some of them being intact enough to be turned into jury-rigged suppressors, you'd expect more lying around.

** The audience also knows that during [[spoiler:Abby's playthrough on Day 2, that she narrowly escaped the wrath of Ellie - Ellie spent the entire day looking for her and unbeknownst to her, they were both in the same location]].

* EarlyBirdCameo: On Seattle Day 1, Ellie can find a FEDRA wanted poster with several mugshots on it, including Isaac's.

* FinalDeathMode: A new Permadeath difficulty setting is added, making it where the game has to be completed in one run without dying.

** Just like in the first game, opposing human characters will talk among each-other or yell at you if they're alerted to your presence, and you can invoke this.

*** [[spoiler: Abby and her father have a bonding moment with an escaped zebra from the Salt Lake City zoo, as Joel and Ellie did with giraffes from the first game.]]

** In the Seattle Aquarium restaurant, there is a note from the Seraphites to a teenager they are trying to recruit, warming him not to adopt his father's weaknesses. The corpse of the father is in the room clutching a letter explaining how the boy took his younger brother and fled to join the cult, using the same phrase.

* MenuTimeLockout: Averted, just like in the first game, where you can be interrupted while accessing the inventory menu and crafting materials by enemies. There's one specific instance where there's a pre-scripted JumpScare when you access a certain weapon upgrade workbench in a (supposedly) empty building and get ''grabbed from behind'' by an enemy from out of nowhere. The same is likely to happen [[TooDumbToLive if you're dumb enough]] to tweak your weapons while there are still enemies in the area, as not all workbenches are in safe territory. On higher difficulties, Clickers can actually hear you open your inventory if you're close by.

* ProductPlacement: There's ''a lot'' of surprisingly intact [=PlayStation=] consoles to be found in abandoned homes. One of the Wolves, Whitney, is even seen playing on a [=PlayStation=] Vita several times, with Abby even asking her about the game she is playing. At least she has the decency to mutter "[[SelfDeprecation stupid video games]]" while walking away.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Far down the cynical side. While the first game could be very dark, it overall still had a message of hope and multiple moments of levity and humour. This game, while it does have lighter moments, also has a habit of taking any sense of optimism and hope the player may have and smashing it into pieces. In the end, [[spoiler:Ellie loses almost everything important to her, even after deciding to end her own revenge.]]

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: While replaying previous levels in NewGamePlus, you can sometimes pick up ammo for the submachine gun in boxes labelled "rifle." However, by definition submachine guns are only designed to fire pistol ammunition.

** As in the first game, attempting to fire an empty gun will result in the enemies noticing the clicking sound and attempt to charge you in response, which would be artificial brilliance… except for the fact that you can quickly switch to a live gun and pop them real quick, rinse and repeat, and they’ll never grow the wiser from it.

* BittersweetEnding: More bitter than sweet; both Ellie and Abby go through complete and utter hell and are considerably worse off than where they started. Both of their futures are uncertain and left open, but they do get some measure of peace in the end.
** [[spoiler:Ellie has survived and ultimately decided to end the CycleOfRevenge, however Joel is still dead, and she murdered a lot of people, and she also lost two fingers and her switchblade in her final confrontation with Abby. Her loved ones are either dead, crippled, or have abandoned her. In the epilouge, Ellie returns to Wyoming, only to find that Dina has left and taken the baby with her (having previously pleaded with Ellie to let go of her desire for revenge and warning her that she might not still be there when she returns). Finding that she can't even play the guitar anymore (the last link she had left with Joel) due to her lost fingers, she abandons the guitar and leaves the farm. That being said, Ellie has made peace with Joel's actions, and has forgiven herself for her survivor guilt and for pushing Joel away for years. In the final scene, she heads off to an unknown destination, though she still has Tommy, Maria and Jackson to return to]].
** [[spoiler:Abby has succeeded in avenging her father by killing Joel, but it brings her no catharsis. Her revenge quest has directly led to the deaths of her closest friends, including Owen, the man she loved. She is outcast from the WLF, her only home, and forced to run away with Lev. Several months later, Abby follows a tip about a possible reorganization of the Fireflies that leads to her and Lev's capture by slavers. In the end, she is spared by Ellie but both her and Lev left injured, malnourished and with no one turn to. Despite this, she has survived the ordeal and regained her humanity. Abby gets closure for her father's murder and finds new purpose in caring for Lev. There is also Fireflies' new location tip they can follow, and upon completing the game, the main menu background shows their boat beside Catalina Casino, indicating that the both of them may get a new beginning]].

* ForWantOfANail: Joel saving [[spoiler: Abby]] in the prologue, unintentionally setting off the game's events.

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Apart from its size, the viability of the concept of turning a football field into a farm is pretty questionable in general. While smaller or amateur fields sometimes are simply soil and grass, the playing fields of large football stadiums are generally comprised of several feet of artificial grasses, rubber, shock absorbers, textiles, crushed stone and drainage pipes, with compacted soil only comprising the very deepest foundational layer. It would be impossible to grow plants or pasture animals without digging everything up and replacing it with soil and planting grass, which while not impossible, would be hugely difficult and time-consuming, even with unlimited access to modern construction equipment.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Taken UpToEleven compared to the first game, where the infected are sidelined in favor of focusing on atrocities committed by the human characters. The only habitants we see within Seattle are the [[ArmiesAreEvil WLF]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist military]] and the [[ReligionOfEvil Seraphites]]. Both factions are at an outright genocidal war with each other, both are not hesitent to attack outsiders on sight, and [[spoiler:Abby's playthrough]] shows that just simply being apart of the factions isn't all that great. You also got [[spoiler:the Rattlers near the end of the game, who kidnap random survivors and submit them to [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave labor]] and ColdBloodedTorture]]. And that's putting aside the main story focusing on the RoaringRampageOfRevenge Ellie and Abby go through that not only gets a '''''lot''''' of people killed or seriously injured but also damages their relationships with their loved ones.

* PrettyLittleHeadshots: You thought the first game averted this? Let's go over how this one averts it [[UpToEleven even harder...]]

** The announcement trailer had Joel walk into a house to find Ellie surrounded by bodies, and she tells him she plans to kill all of a certain group of people. This scene never happens in the game [[spoiler:because Joel is ''dead'' by that point in the story, and Ellie is out to avenge him.]]