I have never liked a Naughty Dog game. Despite third-person, linear, narrative-focused action games being my favourite sub-genre, I have not enjoyed any of Naughty Dog’s catalogue, despite them being one of the most important developers within the genre. The first Last of Us bored me to tears, same with every single Uncharted game. I kept desperately trying to get into them but the trite, cliched stories and uninspired gameplay have always prevented me from finishing any of them. None of them felt inspired in any way, the art direction and characters were bland, the gameplay is just there because it's a game and it needs gameplay so here’s a gun or something. I was really not interested in the sequel to a game I already did not care for at all.
That is until the entire plot of The Last of Us Part 2 leaked back in 2020 and I was surprised by how interesting and different it sounded. Killing the beloved protagonist of the first game within the first hour in the most unceremonious, horrific way without him even getting to say any last words to his surrogate daughter Ellie sounded like a unique way to open up a sequel. What sounded even more intriguing is playing as the person that kills him for a large chunk of the game, again something that I have not seen done anywhere else before in such a fashion.
However, the game came out and there was an uproar about the very aspects that intrigued me. People did not want Joel to die within the first hour; they didn’t want to play as his killer; they didn’t want Joel and Ellie’s relationship to be relegated to flashbacks. The rather unpleasant online discourse mixed with the fact that I am just not a fan of Naughty Dog in the first place has put me off from checking it out for a while until a recent drought of narrative-focused games has hit me which finally prompted me to just play through it and form my own opinion.
As I’ve said, I am really not a fan of the first game. Despite the excellent performances and animation, the story was just so tired and uninteresting and the gameplay seemed like an afterthought to separate the plot development and cutscenes with some shooting here and there. The plot is something I have seen a million times before and with characters that failed to engage me. Joel was just another scruffy video-game protagonist with a tragic past and a hardened exterior and Ellie was just another bratty kid. The voice actors brought them to life but the writing did nothing for me.
Before I go into the story, I want to briefly touch on the visuals. This is the most impressive looking game I have ever seen. The characters all move and emote like real people. There is no janky animations and the cutscenes are directed like a film and are beautifully shot and edited. The level of animation work that went into the cutscenes is beyond impressive and it allows the actors to give it their all; there are so many subtleties in this game in terms of the performances and without the mind-blowing graphics the story would not translate as well as key character motivations, reactions, and emotions are expressed through the animation and performances. The emotional beats would not hit nearly as hard without the excellent performances and the equally excellent translation of those performances into the cutscenes. Extremely impressive work. The lighting is also superb throughout with my favourite bits being the golden sunset towards the end of a farm and the very harsh red lighting of hallways to punctuate the violence. Okay enough about the obvious, let's get into the story.
So when Joel got killed at the beginning of Part 2 and I actually winced and got a little upset I started thinking: wait what? Did I actually care about the first game? I know for a fact I did not which required some digging into the inner workings of my brain and why I suddenly cared. In fact, I really want to understand why I like this game so much more than any other Naughty Dog game so if this review sounds like me thinking out loud please bear with me.
The ending of The Last of Us is the only part of the game that really struck a chord with me; it’s probably one of my favourite endings of all time despite existing in a game and story I really do not care for. Joel is told that the only way to get a cure out of Ellie’s immunity to the zombie virus would leave her dead and Joel has bonded with her over the course of the game so much he cannot let that happen. So he essentially massacres the hospital where she is held and saves her and then lies to her about what he did. The ending is left ambiguous which is beautiful in its own right, but even more poignant with the sequel’s exploration of said ending as well as the themes of revenge and the cycle of violence.
The loss of Joel is felt greatly throughout, and the ways the rest of the deaths are handled are similarly bleak and abrupt. Important side characters get killed before you even realize what happened and do not get dramatic speeches as they die. There’s just a *bam* and they’re dead. That is it. What makes Joel’s death all the more painful is the fact that, throughout the game, flashbacks are sprinkled in that further develop his and Ellie’s relationship after the events of the first game.
These flashbacks are well handled and tell a coherent and heartbreaking story in which Joel is eventually forced to confess to Ellie about what he did. This is told out of order and the writers smartly sprinkle these flashbacks throughout. So for example, right after multiple hours of Ellie committing acts of senseless violence the game will cut to a peaceful, happy memory with Joel, juxtaposing the two effectively. Some of my favourite moments in the game were these flashbacks; the one towards the end where they finally show the dance that takes place right before the game starts (a little confusing, I know, but the unconventional structure works) is one of the best cutscenes I think I've ever seen. The lighting, music, and performances in this scene are just unbelievably great and I loved it.
This flashback structure is brought back in a powerful way at the very end of the game; right as Ellie is about to drown Abby she gets a split-second flashback to Joel sitting on a porch, playing guitar. She decided to not go through with the murder, putting an end to the cycle and the flashback extends into a scene where Ellie finally decides to attempt to forgive Joel for his actions and I can’t say that that didn’t have a profound emotional impact on me. Reserving this flashback for the end is key to communicating Ellie's character arc; the game is ultimately about forgiveness and her deciding to spare Abby is a reflection of her letting go of the violence and, deeper down, forgiving Joel.
The violence in general is brutal and serves a very specific purpose. Sure there are still shooting galleries, but they are filled with details that make the game’s central message stick more. The incredibly detailed death animations, the fact that enemies will sometimes yell their friend’s name as the player kills them, all work in tandem to make for a very unpleasant killing experience. This game made me truly disgusted by my own actions and I was pleading for the violence to stop as I was nearing the end, exhausted by the brutality just like the characters. The last section of the game drives this point home.
Abby and Ellie are both so beaten down and broken by the violence they have caused and the final showdown is not a triumphant boss battle but rather two broken characters trying to get closure. Abby is suffering from months of slavery and torture and looks broken, unhappy, and does not want to fight Ellie, again making this final fight not an action scene but a dramatic moment of reflection on each character’s actions. This is the only game that has successfully made me not want to commit another act of violence in a game ever again and I applaud it for that.
The whole time I was playing I was questioning whether or not this mission was even worth it as the excellent performance from Ashley Johnson conveyed many subtle moments of doubt and hesitation. and this came to a head in a section where Ellie has to extract information out of Abby’s associate by torturing her with a blunt weapon. This is obviously simply a cutscene until Ellie prepares to take a swing at the dying woman and the game stops her and flashes the “Square” prompt, forcing the player to partake in the violence. The player has no choice; neither does Ellie at that moment as she is hellbent on revenge and does not see any other way to resolve her grief. This button prompt floored me; I genuinely did not want Ellie to do this, I didn’t want any part of it, and yet I had no choice. By the end of my time with the game, I grew to detest her bloodlust and the final fight with Abby felt like a chore instead of a fun gameplay segment. I mean this in the best possible way, I was exhausted by the violence as were the characters and the game has communicated its point effectively.
None of that compelling character drama is present in Abby’s lengthy section of the game. There is some allusion to her grappling with the consequences of her acts, but her overall story does not feel like it builds on that act. It’s a rather bland story that tries to mirror the first game and almost feels insecure with the player liking or caring about Abby. Two kids are introduced that Abby is supposed to care about and thus appear likable. The problem is, neither Abby nor the kids are very well developed or memorable in any way and the game does not make a case for why you should care about them beyond just the fact that they are kids. The guitar soundtrack from the first game is also very present in Abby’s entire section, much more so than Ellie’s and it feels like a blatant attempt at emotional manipulation. This whole section could have been handled better and could have also been trimmed down or cut out entirely and it would not affect my enjoyment and attachment to the story in a negative way. I understand that the whole point of the game hinges on seeing the conflict from both sides but I had no issues being invested in Ellie’s story without Abby and the entire section was clumsy and poorly handled.
This is also where I started noticing some of the other issues, primarily the pacing. Let’s just rip the bandaid off; this game is way too long. I know Troy Baker himself would scoff at me for saying that (there was some brief drama surrounding this issue with him), but I can’t sit here and tell you that all 20 plus hours of this game are justified. Another way this section hurts the pacing is it stops the story, which has been picking up steam for a while and finally gained momentum, and rewinds time so you can play as Abby around 10 gameplay hours before she meets up with Ellie. This frustrated me as I was getting really into Ellie's story and right as it is about to get exciting the game stops and makes you play as Abby for 10 hours or so. But there is more to the pacing issues with this game beyond just the narrative structure.
The gameplay in isolation is simply not strong enough; the combat is fine enough and brilliantly animated but the exploration is a joke. So much of this game is walking through abandoned stores and looting supplies and I grew tired of it very quickly, just like in the first game. The levels themselves are just so incredibly long and could have used trimming; I do not like the first game as I’ve said before but the pacing in the sequel was a step-down. If I am to spend so much time traversing levels I would like something to actually do in those levels. Take the new God of War, for example, a game that borrows a lot from the first Last of Us. That game is a lot longer and yet it does not feel as long as it consistently breaks up just walking with engaging environmental puzzles and character banter and also genuine exploration. For a large chunk of Ellie’s sections, she has nobody to chatter with so what we are left with are occasional mutters that simply react to what is going on or direct the player; not exactly on the same level as Kratos’ and Atreus’ entire character relationship being built through dialogue during gameplay and exploration.
Unfortunately, that is another problem that runs deep throughout this game: none of the character relationships (outside Joel and Ellie) are very well developed. I ended up caring so much for Ellie by the end but was left cold on her relationship with Dinah which felt more like a plot device than anything. Dinah and the baby exist only so that Ellie has something to lose by going on her revenge spree, Tommy is only there to make that happen, etc. Dinah and Jesse are likable, interesting characters but the story could have used more of them to really flesh out their relationships. The performances are, again, absolutely stellar but the writing is lacking. The relationship between Ellie and Joel was handled very well and I was invested through the flashbacks alone, but I cannot say the same for many of the other core relationships in the game. It makes me wonder if I really did get attached to the characters in the first game and thus, by extension, here.
Despite the numerous flaws, The Last of Us Part 2 was still an immensely powerful experience for me. I was shocked at how invested I got by the end and that is largely to do with the excellent presentation and performances. The structure could have used some work but it is a bold direction to take, especially in the sequel to a very popular game and I applaud them for taking the risk. It paid off in many areas, but unfortunately did not automatically make Abby an interesting or likable character and I ended up not caring for her or her companions. However, this is ultimately Ellie’s story and she makes for one hell of a compelling and complex protagonist. The ending of the game, similarly to the first part, had a profound emotional impact on me even if the experience as a whole was not without its issues.
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