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

INCOMING LENGTHY REVIEW BUT THIS NEEDS IT… What do I even say. I’ve put off writing this for so long because I don’t think I can do this game justice in words. Well for starters, masterpiece. No questions. I have never felt more in … well ever I think? In games, in life! This game had me up at night. This game had me excited to play 1 second, then dread picking up the controller next. I was challenged in an emotional way I have never been challenged before. To say this project was ambitious is the understatement of the year. But what it was, was a game which will be spoken about for years to come. Now let me actually start to say something substantial. TLDR for my context coming in. TLOU 1 was one of my favourite games ever, but I never actually played it until a few years ago. I sat back and saw the shitstorm which was this games release from a distance (spoiler free), not having played the first at the time but knowing I would eventually. But then I’d also seen that storm gradually tide over time and though I knew the game was controversial, I also knew that the game was one of the greats if you could appreciate it. Boy did this still not prepare me for what i was in for. I went in really trying to ground my expectations and almost expect the worst. Which some could say happened, i definitely thought that. But the game knows what it’s doing and that’s how it gets you. Going in I knew that Joel died. I had also managed to figure out that it probably happened fairly early on due to the lack of Joel in the brief amount of gameplay I’d seen. So I was actually mentally prepared for this. But damn they did not hold back, I could barely look at my screen. That scene absolutely haunted me and that’s exactly what it was supposed to do though I did not know it at the time. For me, the purpose of this death being so brutal, is to set up a hatred so pure, so vile, for a character we learn to be known as Abby. Now I definitely said some absolutely brutal things about that woman. She was Joffrey to me, I hated her with every bone in my body and honestly I personally still do. She killed Joel. JOEL. It fucking sucks. At this stage me and Ellie are one and have one thing on our minds, revenge. We now have our one purpose in this game and nothing is going to get in our way until we get justice. Then halfway through the game, you are thrown the biggest fucking curveball of all time. THE GAME EXPECTS ME TO USE THE VERY PERSON I HATE SO MUCH. As soon as I saw Seattle day 1 again, it hit me and I knew why this game was so controversial. I did not want to pick up the controller. This woman had already caused us so much pain, I could not bring myself to do it. At this stage you know what the game is trying to do and you refuse to see another perspective, how could you. I am now begrudgingly using our Joffrey and even though I know the game says ‘Hey, here’s how Abby’s life has played out and here’s how we are the villains in her story’, I do not give the slightest fuck. Then you play as Abby and slowly but surely the game starts to get you. You’ll find yourself begin to chuckle at one of her jokes and then think, how could I do such a thing, what’s wrong with me. Then slowly but surely the game breaks you down, showing Abby’s brutal journey in her life. Showing her journey through tragedy and justice and eventually you begin to empathise with her. I still wish I couldn’t, but the reality is that to really digest what the game is trying to tell you, you have to open yourself up to her. I will never be team Abby, I will never look at Abby the same way I look at Ellie and Joel. But that’s okay, that’s not what I took away from the game. What I took away was that Abby went through the vicious cycle that we, Ourselves and Ellie wish to go down and even though we don’t succeed, we can see that this didn’t fill the hole in our hearts that is Joel. Throughout this essay of a review I have used the words ‘we’ and ‘our’. I’m doing this to represent Ellie and the player, when referring to the pain inflicted by Abby. The game is so personal and provoked such strong emotions from me. Now I’m not saying I know exactly what Ellie has gone through, thankfully I haven’t. But the reason I’ve done this is because the challenge that Abby presents is such a unique challenge of morality which is directed at you, the player. GF reviews described this as: “TLOU 2 provides a challenge you cannot achieve with a controller”. This is the first video game where to truly beat the game you must overcome yourself and your own emotions and that right there is something so powerful and so special. This was a journey I’d never experienced before and could never have prepared myself for. Did I, like others grow to love Abby, no i did not. I wouldn’t even say I forgive her. But what I have done is accept what she did and accept that she was dealt a hand in life and did what she believed was best and for that I cannot argue. Ellie then finishes her journey where she learns that killing Abby will not give her the closure that she so desperately wants. We see the consequences of her rage with the loss of Dina, her fingers and pretty much everything she had left :(. Fucking heartbreaking I’ve never been so sad. This is a tough game to play. A lot of people want to play a game and be happy and have fun. This is not the game for them. This is a game which takes you through a moving journey where you visualise the brutality of life with an extraordinary narrative. Honestly I’m not sure if I did a good job of putting emotions on paper with this one. I find it really hard to navigate and truly say how I feel for this game without having an hour long conversation but hopefully this says enough.