3.5/5 ★ – alcoholicgoat's review of The Last of Us Part II.

Very mixed feelings on this. Ultimately it is a good game but there were points that either tested my patience or made me roll my eyes. It does shape up in the end though. Probably gonna spoil it since if you clicked on this review, you probably know what happens. Vertical slice: it's a VERY low 7/10. I did ultimately appreciate it, but it's case by case. If you are interested, go into it expecting a playable Blood Meridian. Everyone here is a violent amoral person in an insane and cruel world. It's 30 hours of violence. Okay, spoilers. Joel's death is still kind of frustrating. I'm fine with him dying, but act 1 is pretty fucking bizarre. Okay, if you want to do the inciting incident, maybe you could have staged it a bit better? I'm not gonna regurgitate people's talking points, but it is a hard pill to swallow. I'd rather it be Tommy who kills Joel inadvertently than Joel himself. Ellie Day 1 is a slog. Putting a massive explorable Seattle in the beginning of act 2 is a huge mistake for pacing. I assumed I needed to scavenge, but that's not the case. Just b-line it. You'll be fine. Act 1 in general had pretty slow pacing and veered into wattpad fanfiction territory. Like furry porn comic level writing (or so I've been told). I also found the characters were a bit grating at times, until I realized what was happening. Dina was weirdly apologetic about some guy abandoning his family to join the fireflies, and I realized later on she's pretty naïve and ultimately that's her character flaw. The exact same thing happens to her and she realizes how shitty it is to be on the receiving end. I think the characters do gradually kind of get more tolerable but it's way more apparent in this game that they function as plot devices rather than as characters. They also do not make anyone in Abby's group sympathetic at all (except Mel). If that was the intent, Neil you failed. The game in general does improve more when these huge setpieces come into play. I was constantly playing out these amazing sequences that are very much inspired by Children Of Men, True Detective, Apocalypse Now, and even Spec Ops The Line. The combat here is really engaging and tense. I'd honestly say I'd rather "play" Part 2 over Part 1. The midpoint of the game is really well built up to, and I will admit shifting to Act 2B is a massive slump. I get the flashback is from Abby's perspective, but her dad is genuinely a shit human being. I kinda wish the game directly called him out instead of using that painfully on-the-nose Zebra cutscene. Everything is his fault. "Sins of the father" and all that. While that is subtextual, I really really wish it was prominent. Abby Day 1 is fine. Again, I hated almost all the characters. Manny is an asshole, that creepy incel dude is a shitstain, Owen is a bit of a bitchass, Nora I feel nothing towards and Mel is the only one who is sympathetic. My interpretation for Abby, and her story is she's more or less let herself get brainwashed, along with everyone else in the WLF. All of her friends drank the kool-aid and I'm choosing to believe that characters like Manny aren't really supposed to be "likeable" since he condones murdering children. It's more an illustration of how far gone these people are into delusion. The WLF are animals (haha pun) and their conflict with the Scars is just a pissing contest because people need a reason to fight. It does comment on human nature and the cycle of violence, but I actually kinda like the WLF/Scar conflict. Jeffrey Wright is also a pleasant surprise here. I wish we got more screentime with him. Super interesting character. Abby herself I find does get better as her segment continues. More or less realizing what she's been doing has added up to nothing, and I think there is a level of remorse that she feels following her killing Joel. I liked her and Lev. That was super interesting. Her physique didn't really bother me (until Fat Geralt compared her to him, like bro her arms aren't that big). My favourite sections were definitely Seraphite Island and the Sniper shootout. Those were amazing. Very little to complain about (yeah, knowing Tommy is still alive does remove some tension but whatever). The end of act 2 boss fight is pretty awesome and intense. Super well staged and visceral. I do wish Abby's upgrade tree wasn't wasted, though. She has like one more section in California and I felt a bit cheated with that. Act 3 is fine. Post-apocalyptic California is a cool setting art direction-wise, and while the Rattlers were a bit underdeveloped, I thought they were pretty well used and realized. I found the Rattlers very interesting, especially Fat Geralt. Makes me wonder who he was prior to the outbreak and how exactly you wind up like that. One element about that mini subplot that I actually enjoy a lot is the fact that there's this huge conflict that happens in the background while you look for Abby. Arguably liberating and destroying an oppressive militia is just not something Ellie is consciously thinking about or concerned with (she still does it, but it's an afterthought). Now... the end fight. It is brutal. Reminded me a lot of The Revenant. I liked how primal it was. Thematically it worked. I knew every major plot point going in, and knew the ending was coming. I actually don't mind it. And I'm gonna sound like a massive dickhead here, but the game isn't "about" revenge (it is, but hear me out). The game's theme is finding purpose. Ellie's purpose is revenge. Abby's is too, but it extends to violence and that's all she exists for. Her purpose fades from revenge to taking care of Lev and finding a home for both him and her. Ellie hasn't found her reason to live yet. Ellie from Part 1 would be way more concerned with liberating a bunch of slaves, and I like that contrast. I think she lets Abby live because she realizes it'll never end and it won't fix anything. Killing for the sake of it. Yeah I know she kills like 300 people and decides to stop at the last second, but I personally think the revenge bad thing is a little bit reductive. Again, I am not smart for discovering this. I'm just meeting the game halfway. One thing I don't like is how Abby is never corrected about the fireflies. They were as bad as the WLF. I'm choosing to interpret her radio contact in California was a ruse set up by the Rattlers, and we don't know where Lev and Abby wound up. Her dad is a shithead and the fireflies are horrible people who are willing to remove a little girl's autonomy for the sake of political power (the cure would have absolutely been weaponized politically). I mean aside from story review/analysis, I think I've given enough. Music is good, if not a bit overused and repetitive (Gustavo, I swear to FUCKING GOD STOP USING THAT SAME RIFF). But yeah. I went in a hater and came out sorta liking it. It is better than Spider-Man 2. I stand by that. Fuck Spider-Man 2. Boring ass game. People complain about tokenism, TLOU 2 handles diversity super well. Spider-Man 2 is an insult. I will admit, I can appreciate the risks being taken here, even if I believe Part 1 should have been standalone. Jak II is better, though.