Follow TV Tropes

Reviews VideoGame / The Last Of Us Part II

Go To

TheLivingDrawing Lucas the Dreamer Since: Apr, 2019
Lucas the Dreamer
06/17/2022 05:45:34 •••

A deeply flawed narrative and an unnecessary sequel.

So I finally finished this game, years after the dust settled and I honestly have no idea what to think about the game. To get the positives out of the way the graphics, visual design, and overall presentation is excellent. The music, while nothing I would go out of my way to listen to outside of the game, is also very good. The gameplay is quite fun, though it is virtually unchanged from the first game and really isn’t anything you haven’t played before. I really enjoy exploring the environment and scavenging for supplies, which really kept me going to the end. However the game suffers from a deeply flawed narrative. The story has good ideas with poor execution while the characters are very underwhelming. Most of the characters are flat, uninteresting, unlikable, or flat out uninteresting. Abby’s party suffers especially as it’s difficult to care about killing them when they were either huge assholes or uninteresting. It also suffers from being an unnecessary sequel, which isn’t a bad thing (Bioshock 2 and Dark Souls 2 are both unnecessary sequels but I still think they’re great games), but it really failed to live up to the original game. The game might’ve been better if instead of being a direct follow-up, it instead focused on an entirely new cast and story since Abby’s arc was much better than Ellie’s (though Abby becoming much more sympathetic through her relationship with Yara and Lev was a copy paste of the first game) and Ellie and Joel’s already wrapped up perfectly and did not need continuing. The game was also way too bleak and depressing, to the point of being hard to care about the characters because you know some horrible fate will happen to them or they’ll just be suddenly and anti-climactically killed off (and are hardly mentioned after), assuming they were sympathetic to begin with. The first game was very dark and depressing too, but it balanced it perfectly. The game’s first rate production values and fun gameplay keep it from being a bad game but it’s an underwhelming and unneeded followup to an excellent game.

Valiona Since: Mar, 2011
06/17/2022 00:00:00

One of the main problems with the review is that it doesn't go into very much detail about why you think certain parts of it are good or bad (e.g. "The story has good ideas with poor execution.") Reviewers deciding to "get the positives out of the way" is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, since it sends the message that they only put the bare minimum effort into reviewing it. I'll at least be honest- I couldn't find any good points about your review.

I actually think that having a sequel was a good decision, since it shows the consequences of Joel's actions at the climax of the first game, from how they ruin his relationship with Ellie to them causing him to be killed in revenge.

I personally don't think Abby's "relationship with Yara and Lev was a copy paste of the original game." In Joel's case, he and Tess make a deal to escort Ellie to the Fireflies in exchange for the guns they lost, whereas Abby goes out of her way to help the two kids who saved her life, resulting in her being branded a deserter and a traitor to the WLF.

You should break the review up into paragraphs to make it easier to read. That being said, this review reads like a stream of consciousness, and as such, is quite poorly organized.


Leave a Comment:

Top