5/5 ★ – DrippyHippy's review of The Last of Us Part II.

Ok... after sobbing uncontrollably for the past couple of days (huge over exaggeration), I've finally worked up the courage to review this game. And in my true and honest opinion, this game is a masterpiece. And I'll never understand the hate this game gets and I will defend it until the day I die. While it doesn't hold a candle to the first game, it still stands as a worthy sequel in every single way imaginable. First of all, contrary to popular belief, the gameplay is much better especially with the new addition of various different weapons, new craftable tools like suppressors or pipe bombs, and skill trees. These all add many different interesting and fun tweaks to the encounters and considering how many of them there are in the entire 24 hour campaign, it makes for a much better overall gameplay experience. I think the main standout combat aspect in this game is by far the stealth. While I didn't go into encounters stealthily that often, whenever I did, It felt insanely stressful and realistic yet super satisfying when clearing entire hoards of enemies with your knife. The enemy variety includes a few more than the first which just had fireflies and zombies. Along with the enemies from the first game (excluding the fireflies), you can fight 2 different factions, a new cortecept called the shambler, and a really cool boss fight with the Rat King. And while this may not seem like much at first glance, considering how often the enemies appear (excluding the rat king) and how vastly different each enemy attacks (Ex: Rifler, Heavy Attacker, Rusher, etc), its a major improvement and adds even more variety to the encounters. Another thing I really like about this game is how much it rewards exploration. For a game such as this, resources are key which also makes exploration a key component to this game. And sure you can just blow past all the buildings and just go on the main path but if you do, you will consistently be unprepared for the encounters and you wont get the full experience of the game. Not to mention the fact that you'll also be missing out on collecting supplements which upgrades your skill tree, parts that help you upgrade your weapons, and most importantly, you'll be missing out on the beautiful yet baron and gruesome world naughty dog has crafted. If you don't take your time with this game and explore every nook and cranny of this world, I can assure you you're gonna have a much worse experience. Speaking of which, the world building in this game is unlike any other and is one of the most immersive gaming experiences I've ever had. The setting that naughty dog has created is so baron, brutal, hopeless, yet so beautiful at the same time which in my opinion is where most of the magic comes from in this game. Graphically, this game is one of the best looking games I've ever seen and can easily compare to games like Red Dead Redemption II. For a game as beautiful, detailed, and graphically stunning as this, you'd expect the game to be riddled with bugs and glitches. However, that is absolutely not the case for The Last of Us II. I played this on an old ass PS4 and experienced not one single bug/glitch throughout my entire playthrough which speaks volumes especially in the modern day where we get insanely glitchy and messy triple AAA games on a regular basis. Moving onto easily the most controversial aspect of this game is the story. And I will never understand why people hate it as much as they do. Spoilers but near the beginning of the game, Joel gets killed by Abby. And since he barely got any screen time, it got people worked up. However, in my opinion, I'm fine with this considering he had enough time to shine in the first game. Even though I would've loved to see more of Joel and Ellie's relationship after the first game, at the end of the day, this is a game about Ellie and her quest for revenge. Joel had the first game and now it's Ellie's time to shine. Also, another controversial aspect about the story is playing as Abby however I think it is very necessary since it perfectly embodies the phrase "The hero in one story may be the villain in another" which was by far the standout story aspect in this game along with Ellie's revenge quest. Different perspectives is something we rarely ever get to see in games so I'm really glad naughty dog did this and nailed it as well as they did. All in all, The Last of Us Part II tells a fantastic story that tackles themes of revenge, regret, punishment, grief, brutality, and love in some of the best ways imaginable and is easily one of the greatest stories ever told through the format of a video game. The characters similarly to the first game are absolutely fantastic and are some of the most fleshed out, relatable, and thought provoking characters we've ever seen in a video game. Ellie and Abby both have outstanding character arcs and are only elevated by the brilliant voice acting from their respective actors. Also, the new characters in this game such as Dina, Daniel, and Lev are superb characters that I just don't have the time to do an in depth look at but definitely should be mentioned when talking about this games characters. Overall, The Last of Us Part II is a triumphant accomplishment in the world of video games and is by far the best game of the 2020's so far. I will defend this game until the day I die fuck all you haters this game is perfection. If you own a PS4/PS5 and haven't checked out this game yet, I really don't know what you're doing. I seriously can't recommend this game enough.