The Last of Us Part Two Review: Fantastic Gameplay Ruined by an Atrocious Story.

When I reviewed my favourite video game of all time, The Last of Us, I said that, whether I loved, hated, or had mixed feelings about the sequel, I would always find myself returning to the original game because of how incredible it is.
While that is still true, whenever I do replay the game I will have to pretend that The Last of Us Part 2 never happened.
Seriously, what the hell happened with this game?
The graphics and gameplay are amazing, as expected, but the story is absolutely god awful, literally spitting in the face of Joel (Troy Baker) and Ellie’s (Ashley Johnson) relationship.
Before I get into the onslaught of terrible things about this game’s story, I’ll mention the great stuff first.
As I said, graphics and gameplay are near perfect.
There were numerous times where I was hating the story and was thankfully distracted by beautiful scenery or an amazing action sequence.
Crafting was well handled once more and I liked the more personal touch to enemies that made them feel like real people when I fought them.
The new kinds of infected are great to fight, especially the one that was teased but not revealed in the State of Play presentation.
Other amazing set pieces see you fighting through a burning village and a car chase, both of which are thrilling.

I can at least say that the gameplay of *The Last of Us Part 2* is good.

Along with this, Gustavao Santaolalla’s score is amazing, again as expected.
As for the story, there are a couple things I like about it.
Some of the new characters like Dina (Shannon Woodward), Jesse (Stephen Chang), Yara (Victoria Grace) and Lev (Ian Alexander) are likeable.
Not to the extent that the characters from the first game are but they are enjoyable for the most part.
Also, some of the scenes during Ellie’s initial revenge quest are very compelling.
Then there are the flashbacks to Ellie and Joel’s time in Jackson, which are the best parts of the game by far.
However, the rest of the story is absolutely horrible.
Written by Neil Druckmann and Haley Gross, the story sees Joel and Ellie living in the town of Jackson.
After an act of extreme violence, Ellie leave for Seattle to seek her revenge, as the writers try to create a message about the cycle of violence.
Sadly, this is a message that falls flat over on its face.
The ending to this game makes no sense whatsoever and completely derails any notion of vengeance being a bad idea, which is what the story was trying to say.

ellie should have killed abby — *The Last of Us Part 2* does a terrible job at trying to tell a story about revenge.

The build up to this ending is just as bad, with the inciting incident that causes Ellie to seek vengeance being driven by poor character decisions and feels like it was done for shock value.
A large part of why The Last of Us Part 2’s story is so bad though comes down to one, individual word.
Abby.
Played by Laura Bailey, she is the mystery woman from the trailer that introduced the Seraphites and she is, in my opinion, the worst video game character of all time.
She is completely unlikable in every sense of the word.
Naughty Dog tries to make you sympathize with her but every attempt fails spectacularly.
The story follows both her and Ellie’s struggles with revenge and the damage it causes but Abby never shows any remorse or regret for her actions, unlike Ellie.
She came across as a complete psychopath at times, making her almost impossible to care for, yet the writers try so hard to make you do so, which fails entirely.

fuck abby — I honestly cannot remember the last time I hated a character as much as I hate Abby.

Given that she is the most important character in the game next to Ellie, this is a huge problem and that problem culminates in a boss fight before the third act of the game that left me feeling insulted.
Not to mention that the game’s trailers misled and lied to us on multiple occasions.
The Last of Us Part 2’s story is just atrocious.
The game spits in the face of Ellie and Joel’s bond, the characters’ decisions make no sense, the inciting incident is not justified, Abby is an unbelievably terrible character, and the ending completely undoes any message they were trying to create.
The graphics and gameplay may have been amazing, and some story elements may have been good, but the majority of the story is so bad to the point that I never want to play this game again.

The Last of Us Remastered Review: My Favorite Video Game of All Time.

Naughty Dog is one of, if not my absolute, favourite video game studios.
The first game I played on the PlayStation 3 was Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and I have kept up with that brilliant series as it has continued over the years.
But, I think we can all agree that Naughty Dog’s undisputed masterpiece is their 2013 game The Last of Us, created by Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, which was remastered for the PlayStation 4.
The tale of Joel and Ellie travelling across a post-apocalyptic America is the height of video game storytelling, with many emotional and heart bounding scenes.
There were numerous times I cried during my first play through, even in the first 20 minutes, which is something no video game has ever done for me.
Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson both give enthralling performances as the two lead characters, with the game following their growing father-daughter bond in both its positive and negative consequences for the two.
This culminates in an ending that is so morally ambiguous that it makes the simple line of “Okay” crushing.

okay — The ending of *The Last of Us* leaves you conflicted but that’s what’s so great about it.

It is not just Joel and Ellie though because almost every other character is exceptionally written.
From Joel’s partner in crime Tess (Annie Wersching), to his estranged brother Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce), to the paranoid Bill (W. Earl Brown), to brothers Henry (Brandon Scott) and Sam (Nadji Jeter), and many more, the characters of The Last of Us are some of the best in video game history, with Joel and Ellie right at the top.
The story accompanying these characters is also enthralling, which shows how amazing the writing is because the story could have easily become very cliched.
There are so many zombie games out there, many with save the world plot lines, so it would have been easy for The Last of Us’ story to fall into this cycle of mediocrity.
However, with the game focusing on the fantastic growing relationship of its two leads, and having a new type of zombie never seen before, the game jumps over the mediocrity scale by a wide margin and leaving it completely in the dust.
Having the source of the infection be the very real Cordecyeps Fungus was a stroke of genius and it makes for some incredibly scary enemies to fight.
Speaking of, the gameplay in The Last of Us is also amazing and accompanies the brutal story well with its likewise brutal conflict.
Fighting Clickers, Runners, Stalkers, and Bloaters throughout is a constant nerve wracking experience.

clickers — The Clickers are one of the most terrifying renditions of zombies ever put to screen, be it a movie or video game.

This culminates in a flooded basement segment some time into the game that is absolutely terrifying the first time you play it.
But it is not just the infected that you have to worry about because people are even more dangerous and, whether you go in using stealth or go guns blazing, it is almost always an intense experience trying to take them out.
Although, it is probably best not to go in all guns blazing on Grounded Mode because, if you try to do that, you will die… a lot.
Seriously, Grounded is an incredibly difficult mode to beat the game on.
I must have died around 100 times in the final, brutal combat sequence of the game.
What makes the combat of The Last of Us so satisfying though is its intensity.
You can just feel every punch that Joel dishes out.
Also, when you play as Ellie during the winter segment, which is my favourite level of the game, she is realistically much weaker than Joel, making gameplay a lot harder, as you have to think of new ways to get around or kill enemies.

ellie and joel baby girl — The Winter segment is gripping, with its emotional conclusion being a turning point in Joel and Ellie’s relationship, and the point where their personalities flip.

Helping the intensity of the combat is the reward of it you feel from scavenging and then crafting from various materials, creating Molotov cocktails, nail bombs, smoke bombs, and med kits to help you throughout the game.
The supplies needed to make these things are also fairly spread around throughout, adjusting the quantity based on the level of difficulty you are playing at.
Upgrading your weapons is also fairly handled, based on how much you scavenge as well.
Materials to build weapons is not the only thing you can find scavenging though, because there are also various notes and pieces of information that create side stories about people trying to survive in the outbreak.
One of these stories is about Ish, who I didn’t find much about on my first play through but on subsequent ones, where I made sure to scavenge, he became a very fleshed out character, even though we don’t meet him in person.
Accompanying this fantastic level of story telling and gameplay is the incredible soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolla, who deserves just as much praise as Druckmann, Straley, and the rest of the creators for adding to the game.

walk in the woods1 — Santaolla does an incredible job with the music for the game and I cannot wait to hear his soundtrack for the sequel.

All of this combines to make The Last of Us an emotionally intense experience that is, without a doubt, my favourite video game of all time.
Accompanying this masterpiece in the Remastered addition is the DLC, Left Behind, which mostly details the last happy moments shared between Ellie and her best friend Riley.
Just like the main game, Left Behind is fantastic and a worthy addition to the story.
So, as you can expect, I am incredibly excited for the sequel, which will be released tomorrow.
Unfortunately, a lot of story details were leaked about the game and I accidentally stumbled across one of these spoilers the other day.
I don’t know if what I saw is true or not but, even if it is, I won’t allow it to taint my experience of the game.
And whether I end up loving, hating, or even having mixed feelings about the sequel, The Last of Us will remain an incredible experience for me that I will constantly find myself replaying for many years to come.

The Last of Us Part 2: Most Cinematic Gameplay Trailer Ever?

This year at E3 I have been anticipating numerous trailers for upcoming games and have not been disappointed.
The trailers for Kingdom Hearts 3 and Overkill’s The Walking Dead were fantastic and have me really hyped for those games.
The one game I was anticipating above all else though was The Last of Us Part 2 and, let me tell you, I was not prepared.
Coming into E3, I was hoping for either another story trailer or some gameplay from The Last of Us Part 2 and was pleasantly surprised when Naughty Dog gave us both.
The trailer starts with a cinematic of an older Ellie, played by Ashley Johnson, at a dance, most likely in Jackson, Tommy’s camp.
For starters, these graphics looked incredible as always, with Naughty Dog improving even further from their previous games.
The trailer introduced us to two news characters here, Jesse, played by Stephen Chang, and Dina, played by Shannon Woodward from Westworld.
Dina is shown to be Ellie’s new love interest but I do wonder how long this will last since Neil Druckmann has said The Last of Us Part 2 will be a game about “hate” and something has to motivate Ellie’s thirst for vengeance.
Anyway the tender moment ends between Dina and Ellie when Dina states, “oh, Ellie. I think they should be terrified of you.
This statement is proved to be 100% correct because, after this, the trailer dissolves into absolute, epic insanity as it transitions to gameplay footage and wow, just wow.
This is, without a doubt, the most cinematic gameplay I have ever seen.
I know that sometimes developers show much more advanced gameplay than is actually involved to get people to buy their games but if The Last of Us Part 2‘s gameplay is even a fraction close to what was shown then it will be absolutely incredible.
It starts off simple enough with more stealth mechanics like being able to hide in grass and bushes, like the recent entries in the Uncharted series, but so much more comes as well.
You can dodge enemy attacks, you can grab a bottle or weapon while running, sneak through gaps in cabinets and you have to pull arrows out when they hit you, this gameplay has everything.
Even better, or worse depending on your stress level when playing, the enemy NPCs are a whole lot smarter than they were in the previous game.
They check for you under cars and some will even not hesitate to shoot you when you are holding one of their people hostage.
Every single element of this gameplay looks fluid and like a movie, which I really hope is the case of the finished product because that could make The Last of Us Part 2 have potentially the best gameplay of any game I have ever played.
As for speculation about the game’s story, it does seem to mainly involve the cult we saw in the previous trailer.
This cult is still shown to be doing the disgusting practice of hanging and gutting people for an unknown reason.
If I am right and the last trailer we saw was in the past then that would mean this cult would have been doing this for 20 years at the least, which is a disturbing point.
Also this cult seems to constantly be referring to Ellie as a “wolf” for some reason, we will probably get more details on that later.
Another interesting thing is that we did not see Troy Baker return as Joel in this trailer.
He was mentioned briefly by Jesse but he made no personal appearance sadly.
I hope the fan theory that he is dead and this is why Ellie wants revenge is not true.
Overall, this gameplay trailer was incredible from start to finish.
It went from a tender moment between Ellie and her new love interest to violent and insane gameplay that looked incredibly cinematic.
If I was not already as excited for The Last of Us Part 2 I sure am now.