The Last of Us Part II is a disappointing followup to the first Last of Us, with a confused narrative and plot points and gameplay mechanics that actively work against the themes it is attempting to convey.
The game is not subtle in its theme of "revenge bad" yet, for a game that is so heavy-handed with this message, it's gameplay is glaringly incongruent with the story's attempts to push such a theme and actively undermines itself by placing the player in situations where killing all the enemies in the area is the only option. This in stark contrast to the first game, where the act of killing was treated with great weight and seriousness. The most frustrating aspect of it is that it's clear the writers were aware of this, yet did not put any effort into rectifying them beyond a surface level. For example, the game has a gimmick where if the player kills all the enemies in an area except for one the surviving enemy will stop attacking beg for his or her life. Yet, rather than giving us an option to spare the enemy, the enemy simply transitions back into its "attack" mode after you've waited for long enough. In one Let's Play I watched, an enemy dropped over dead after it was done begging even though the player hadn't done anything. It's very sloppy game design, especially for such a hyped followup to what is considered one of the greatest games of all time.
The story itself also fails to be consistent with its themes and feels like it was written by someone who just took an "Intro to Philosophy" class. Despite the attempts to make her seem sympathetic, Abby is at several points shown having bouts of unapologetic sadism including showing no compunction about murdering a pregnant woman and (while her motives for wanting to kill him are understandable), choosing to murder Joel in the most cruel and overly gruesome way imaginable. As a result, the attempts to make her seem sympathetic later in the game come across as incredibly forced and only made me hate her more, not helped by the disgusting favoritism the game shows towards Abby over Ellie. Ellie kills and pregnant woman and feels bad, and the game treats her like she's like gone unforgivably overboard yet Abby attempts to kill a pregnant woman and shows no remorse, and she effectively gets off scot free. The section where you're forced to play as Abby against Ellie feels like it was deliberately crafted to piss players off, rather than the stroke of narrative genius like the writers seem to have thought it was.
In short, The Last of Us Part II feels like an index of ways to make your game as unpleasant to play as possible. The heart of The Last of Us feels like it died with Joel and while I don't disagree with the decision to kill Joel (in fact I was expecting it going into the game) the way it was executed left me feeling very unsatisfied and not engaged. If there's one kind thing I can say about this game it's that the graphics look good, yet that ultimately rings hollow when I've seen other games do much more than this game with a lot less.
Also, screw Naughty Dog for treating their devs like trash.
A game with interesting ideas that utterly fails in execution
The Last of Us Part II is a disappointing followup to the first Last of Us, with a confused narrative and plot points and gameplay mechanics that actively work against the themes it is attempting to convey.
The game is not subtle in its theme of "revenge bad" yet, for a game that is so heavy-handed with this message, it's gameplay is glaringly incongruent with the story's attempts to push such a theme and actively undermines itself by placing the player in situations where killing all the enemies in the area is the only option. This in stark contrast to the first game, where the act of killing was treated with great weight and seriousness. The most frustrating aspect of it is that it's clear the writers were aware of this, yet did not put any effort into rectifying them beyond a surface level. For example, the game has a gimmick where if the player kills all the enemies in an area except for one the surviving enemy will stop attacking beg for his or her life. Yet, rather than giving us an option to spare the enemy, the enemy simply transitions back into its "attack" mode after you've waited for long enough. In one Let's Play I watched, an enemy dropped over dead after it was done begging even though the player hadn't done anything. It's very sloppy game design, especially for such a hyped followup to what is considered one of the greatest games of all time.
The story itself also fails to be consistent with its themes and feels like it was written by someone who just took an "Intro to Philosophy" class. Despite the attempts to make her seem sympathetic, Abby is at several points shown having bouts of unapologetic sadism including showing no compunction about murdering a pregnant woman and (while her motives for wanting to kill him are understandable), choosing to murder Joel in the most cruel and overly gruesome way imaginable. As a result, the attempts to make her seem sympathetic later in the game come across as incredibly forced and only made me hate her more, not helped by the disgusting favoritism the game shows towards Abby over Ellie. Ellie kills and pregnant woman and feels bad, and the game treats her like she's like gone unforgivably overboard yet Abby attempts to kill a pregnant woman and shows no remorse, and she effectively gets off scot free. The section where you're forced to play as Abby against Ellie feels like it was deliberately crafted to piss players off, rather than the stroke of narrative genius like the writers seem to have thought it was.
In short, The Last of Us Part II feels like an index of ways to make your game as unpleasant to play as possible. The heart of The Last of Us feels like it died with Joel and while I don't disagree with the decision to kill Joel (in fact I was expecting it going into the game) the way it was executed left me feeling very unsatisfied and not engaged. If there's one kind thing I can say about this game it's that the graphics look good, yet that ultimately rings hollow when I've seen other games do much more than this game with a lot less.
Also, screw Naughty Dog for treating their devs like trash.