Warning, there be major spoilers ahead!
Yes, I know this site is typically reserved for movies, and on the rare occasion, a television series. But it’s my site, I decide what goes on here, and though I’m probably at best a casual gamer, I have quite a bit to say about what is probably one of the most highly anticipated video games in recent memory. For some context, The Last Of Us is my favorite game of all time. Maybe it was one of those right-place-right-time situations, but it became one of those pieces of media that I became obsessed with. I’ve replayed the game once a year since its release, I’ve seen all the behind-the-scenes videos and documentaries that I could find, I have the hardcover collection of the comic miniseries, The Last of Us: American Dreams, I have the art book, and the soundtrack for the main game, its DLC, and this new one. We all have one of those things that we love almost to an absurd degree, and that game was definitely one of those for me.
I was naturally excited for the sequel, but cautiously so. The ending for the original was perfect for that story, and I couldn’t imagine what could possibly be explored further. But sure enough, the folks at Naughty Dog found a way. So, coming right off the game, what were my immediate impressions? They were good! They managed to make a sequel to The Last Of Us, and not completely fall on their face – even if certain online circles would tell you otherwise because they didn’t get what they wanted. For that seemingly impossible task alone, making a satisfying sequel to that original game, it’s kind of a miracle. I’ve even played it twice already, and I can see myself revisiting it again in the future.
However, if I’m being honest, I don’t think The Last Of Us Part II quite matches the first game. Obviously, Naughty Dog shouldn’t feel obligated to capture that same lightning-in-a-bottle effect twice, that’s just an unreasonable and impossible expectation. But if we’re just squarely looking at how well it accomplishes what it sets out to do, that is where this new game falls a little bit short. Once again, there will be spoilers in this, so this is your final warning.
Basically, the fact that this is a video game ultimately hinders the messaging. It is incredibly ambitious, even more than the first game, and on paper, it is pretty much a perfect follow up. The key phrase here being “on paper.”
So, the way the game throws you for a loop is by not only having Joel brutally killed by a new character, Abby, she ends up being a playable character that you control for most of the entire second half of the game, not including a minor introductory bit near the start of the game before she kills Joel. We find out she kills him because he killed her father, the one doctor who you were required to kill at the end of the first game when rescuing Ellie from surgery. It’s been eating at her for the whole four years in between games, and she uses a lead to track him down, and gets her revenge, of course only to now be pursued by a vengeful Ellie.
This builds really well on the foundation of the first game. In a world where the line between heroes and villains are blurred, unless you’re cannibals, I guess, how do you navigate these moral dilemmas in situations that make you act on very primal, survival instincts? The decision Joel made to save Ellie is one that has rightly sparked conversations about how we might handle that situation. Some angry internet folks seem to forget that the first game made no bones about digging into how much of a monster Joel has become in this new post-apocalyptic world after he lost his daughter. I think back to that one moment where Ellie asks, “How did you know about the ambush?” And Joel simply responds, “I’ve been on both sides.” Joel isn’t dimwitted, he has no reason to think he won’t have to face the consequences of his actions one day. This is a world where everyone need to play both sides in order to survive, and that conceit is made literal in the sequel.
Playing as Abby pretty much forces us to empathize with her. It’s a bold move that I can see rubbing people the wrong way, but at the end, it’s a choice that I’m really glad the developers made. I even doubt it was a coincidence that her arc here essentially mirrors that of Joel in the first game. Beginning as a monster that slowly regains their humanity, and having most of that be rooted in a tumultuous journey taken with a young companion, who also curiously enough falls somewhere in the LGBTQ spectrum. Ellie is gay, and Abby’s companion, Lev, is trans. On the nose? Maybe, but it works.
This isn’t me arguing that this is something brilliant or new. Hell, even the first game is essentially the tough guy with little child story that we’ve seen in countless movies like Léon: The Professional, Logan, Safe, The Man From Nowhere, Gloria (one of the few tough gals in the subgenre), and it combines those beats with the tropes and trappings of every zombie movie ever made. The Last Of Us wasn’t beloved for its originality, it was beloved because it crafted well rounded characters and an engaging world where we try to find the beauty in the most cruel and harsh conditions. Same goes for this new game. If you’ve seen any movie that deconstructs the revenge genre, then nothing here is necessarily a surprise, and the messaging is not the most fresh. Wow, violence constantly perpetuates itself in an ugly ongoing cycle that is passed on from one generation to the next? Wow, everyone thinks they’re the hero of their own story, and is often dealing with things that can define them beyond the one bad thing they did to one person? The message here is fairly basic, but that’s fine, as long as it still resonates.
Which brings me to the weird way the game tires to dramatize these themes. There is a word for it, “ludonarrative dissonance,” it’s a silly term, but whatever. It essentially boils down to a clash between the effects of the game mechanics with the purpose of the story. It’s a little tough to buy into the idea that murder is bad and you should feel bad for wanting to indulge in violence when the game itself not only encourages it, but actively rewards it. You get trophies for upgrading weapons, whatever character you play mows down hundreds of people, many of which are part of an evil cult, so it’s not bad when you kill them (despite Lev providing a sympathetic perspective for a believer). And do you have any idea how satisfying it is to hit someone with an explosive arrow, and watch them explode in gloriously grisly detail? Very. Even the game’s creative director and co-head writer Neil Druckmann has shared some gifs of awesome displays of violence from the game on his Twitter page. There’s never really a moment where you feel guilty for what you’re doing. Even killing the dogs, which sounds like it should be incredibly upsetting, but it very quickly becomes just another thing you gotta do because the game makes the dogs a total pain to deal with. You don’t really have a choice. And on top of all that, telling a story about the futility of violence seems to be at odds with the very genre the game is in. Bringing back the idea that both games still provide unambiguous bad guys that you don’t have to feel bad about killing, this theme doesn’t totally work when you put it in a world that was designed to be harsh and violent to begin with. There is an argument to be made about how the games are very much about how reprehensible acts of violence can change people, and put them on a path that harms not only themselves, but the people around them, which in turn only makes the world a worse place, but when it’s all said and done, it doesn’t quite come together. It just makes more sense that my exposure to this theme has been through movies that are all set in the real world where things like flawed justice systems, and other vices of human nature can play out in a world that is otherwise civil, and doesn’t call for such extreme, self-centered acts. If the world itself is extreme, the extreme actions of the characters would seem perfectly normal.
There are a few moments where the violence does feel appropriately ugly. The killing of Joel, Ellie cornering Abby’s friend Nora, and the final confrontation between Abby and Ellie. But those moments are few and far between, and in between those moments, you are slaughtering swarms of other people. Is there a way for those themes to resonate without the hurdles that the gameplay presents? I’m sure there is, but I feel the approaches that might have worked better would simply have a harder time coming to fruition within the AAA gaming industry. There are those who call games like The Last Of Us and its sequel “high art,” and while I won’t say they aren’t art, I think they very much are, it shouldn’t be forgotten that at the end of the day, these games are still a part of the mainstream, and they don’t veer too far from the sensibilities of a highly commercial product, especially if you compare them to how far movies and books have explored similar subject matter. It simply doesn’t compare, and that’s not inherently a bad thing, it simply indicates room for the art form to grow, and though I’m not the most well-versed in the happenings of the gaming industry, I’d like to think there are people who are eager to see how they can stretch themselves and the possibilities of the technology further, following the example of the experimentation in indie games and the ambitions set by these games, and others like it.
I guess this is just a long-winded, roundabout way of me trying to say that I think The Last Of Us Part II is a really great sequel to an all-timer game that I found really, really fun, seemingly despite the attempts of the developers to try and make me feel otherwise, which feels like a backhanded compliment, but hey, considering the troubling reports of Naughty Dog’s crunch culture, and that sexual harassment allegation from a few years back, I don’t feel the least bit bad about it. I may have thoroughly enjoyed and loved many of their games, but they can afford to be knocked down a peg or two as far as I’m concerned. But I digress. Anyway, I did really like the game. I do think it is flawed, but there is still a lot to love and admire about it, from its endearing characters to the polished and engaging gameplay to the wonderful voice acting to all the details put into the world. The ending is the great conclusion to the narrative, one that despite its bleak surroundings is actually a touch more hopeful than I think people might give it credit for. And considering how well done I felt the story was, and where it left off, I actually wouldn’t mind a third installment if the developers come up with something they feel passionate about. Just, you know, treat your employees better when you do get around to it. And to everyone who’s actively, irrationally mad about some of the story choices, read more books and watch more movies.