Last of Us 2

[Augen]

Short Review

One of the best games I've played this year and it has stuck with me in the days since I beat it. The game demands a lot and pushes players in ways games typically don't. It is bleak, it is depressing, and it is deeply human.

9/10, maybe not quite the original level, but a bold and interesting shift to continue the story while standing on its own. There is nothing safe about this game and I felt so much while playing it.

SPOILERS!

For me the Last of Us is a series about humanity and empathy with what remains when we are stripped of so much. The game reinforces this through the use of perspective.

The end of the first game Joel rampages through the hospital in Utah and kills a doctor. Nameless, unknown to him, to make the decision to save Ellie. One of many he killed that day. For Abby though that day her dad died set her down the dark path to seek vengeance.

The player bias is centered on Ellie and Joel because we spent the entire first game learning about their complexity. Joel's loss of Sarah and his dark days making enemies. It is through empathy and connection to Ellie that Joel finds purpose and he cannot lose that again.

Joel's death is brutal and horrifically violent for a reason. To show Abby's years of pent up hate and to make the player and Ellie thrust into their own journey of revenge. Abby is the villain and she has her henchmen that we as Ellie must vanquish to get the catharsis we desire.

One of the first things I noticed was how fighting the Wolves in Seattle people would cry out names when you kill people. "Alice! Marcus! Stephen! Clare!" ring out as you mow down a s mall army in your quest. You get to each member of Abby's group and it shows how this is affecting Ellie.

She is bruised and beaten, she elects to press on instead of turning back for Dina's health, she is vicious in beating Nora to death. She kills, in self defense, a pregnant woman while worrying about Dina's pregnancy issues.

All of weighs on her, and eventually it is so much that unable to find Abby she has to turn back.

When Abby arrives in Ellie's story it is sudden and Jesse dies in seconds. We knew Jesse as Ellie, he was a friend, a decent man, and senselessly dead. To Abby he is just a random in her way.

The game switches to Abby and you live her past, and her journey as she finds no solace in killing Joel. It brought wrath upon her friends and she has her own brutal story as the Wolves and Seraphites break out in war with her betraying her own to save Lev. She's done as well and ready to go away, only to find Owen dead and how the consequences of her actions affecting those she loved.

Fighting Ellie as Abby is both uncomfortable and terrifying as Ellie has become a killing machine (one shot shotgun death). Defeating her Abby is ready to kill Dina knowing she is pregnant, but it is Lev that pulls her back. She leaves Ellie beaten that is story is finished.

Ellie with Dina and now JJ go back to Wyoming and this section shows a world of building and creating (embodied by the child and by art such as guitar music). Ellie lost and has to live with it...but she can't the PTSD is so severe it draws her back to violence.

After killing a ton more people to get to Abby, Ellie finds her near death and vulnerable strung up. She could walk away and she'd die, she could take target practice. Instead she frees her and upon reaching the shore demands they fight to the death.

This final battle is among the bleakest and stark depictions of violence I've ever experienced. It is pathetic and barbaric being so utterly pointless. Nothing is gained as they batter one another scarring and injurying severely.

Ellie has Abby dead to rights, and what stops her is the memory of Joel. The deeply flawed man who found something in her. How he passed along the love of song to her and she lets go. Lets go of the rage and allows Abby to flee with Lev.

She returns home to find it empty save for a few possessions and picks up the guitar. Her fingers bitten off by Abby she cannot play, and more so, won't be as easy to pass along the gift to JJ.

The world of the Last of Us is cruel. Suffering and loss are life and how people react to it defines them. Once the cycle of violence begins it feeds itself like an ouroboros. It takes someone to walk away to break the cycle. To decide that while may never feel right, that revenge brings no closure either.

Joel finds that in Ellie, Ellie finds it in Dina and JJ, Abby finds it in Lev. The legacy we leave for who comes next. Do we want to continue a world broken that leads to destruction? Or to change course and find the strength to seek peace?

SPOILERS!

[AlexLothos]

It's nice seeing this game get so much love in this thread. I found the game perfect, 10/10. So far I find the whole series pretty perfect. I really hope they do a third installment, but keep the same quality... even if it takes nearly a decade to accomplish that.

[Wizard]

LOU2 has currently “wrecked” me in playing new games. I’ve tried twice getting into “Ghost of Tsushima,” but it just hasn’t happened yet. And generally, Ghost would be right up my alley. Alas, with the recent LOU2 update, I’ve started a new game on the hardest level with infinite ammo.

LOU2 is just “sticking” with me. The acting and dramatic beats are exceptional.

[Augen]

Originally Posted by Wizard

LOU2 has currently “wrecked” me in playing new games. I’ve tried twice getting into “Ghost of Tsushima,” but it just hasn’t happened yet. And generally, Ghost would be right up my alley. Alas, with the recent LOU2 update, I’ve started a new game on the hardest level with infinite ammo.

LOU2 is just “sticking” with me. The acting and dramatic beats are exceptional.

Yeah, I keep thinking about it. All the moments my mind drifts back to, I need some time to decompress from such heavy emotions.

[Vecchio1]

Originally Posted by AlexLothos

It's nice seeing this game get so much love in this thread. I found the game perfect, 10/10. So far I find the whole series pretty perfect. I really hope they do a third installment, but keep the same quality... even if it takes nearly a decade to accomplish that.

How do you make a 3rd one with that garbage storyline. It would have to be new characters. It soured alot of gamers.

Originally Posted by Wizard

LOU2 has currently “wrecked” me in playing new games. I’ve tried twice getting into “Ghost of Tsushima,” but it just hasn’t happened yet. And generally, Ghost would be right up my alley. Alas, with the recent LOU2 update, I’ve started a new game on the hardest level with infinite ammo.

LOU2 is just “sticking” with me. The acting and dramatic beats are exceptional.

I'm trying to forget this game. Went back and played the original, so much better.

Originally Posted by Augen

Yeah, I keep thinking about it. All the moments my mind drifts back to, I need some time to decompress from such heavy emotions.

I just glad I didn't buy it. Sent it back asap to gamefly.

[Augen]

Originally Posted by Vecchio1

How do you make a 3rd one with that garbage storyline. It would have to be new characters. It soured alot of gamers.

Could go all sorts of directions with a third game.

May do another time jump and see Ellie in her 30s. See other parts of the world. Plenty of new characters were introduced here so, yes, could bring in more. I would hope they tie into the characters and themes as well as the second did for the first.

I don't ask anyone like anything they don't. I thought the story was brilliant, engaging, and heart wrenching. The characters all felt like real people to me with nuance and believable flaws. I think it works on a Watsonian or Doylist interpretation folding into each other.

I'm fine with it being done, and I'd be fine seeing what happens to Ellie and others in the future. I felt that way after the first game as well.

[AlexLothos]

Originally Posted by Augen

Could go all sorts of directions with a third game.

May do another time jump and see Ellie in her 30s. See other parts of the world. Plenty of new characters were introduced here so, yes, could bring in more. I would hope they tie into the characters and themes as well as the second did for the first.

I don't ask anyone like anything they don't. I thought the story was brilliant, engaging, and heart wrenching. The characters all felt like real people to me with nuance and believable flaws. I think it works on a Watsonian or Doylist interpretation folding into each other.

I'm fine with it being done, and I'd be fine seeing what happens to Ellie and others in the future. I felt that way after the first game as well.

[NorthernLadMSP]

Originally Posted by Augen

Could go all sorts of directions with a third game.

May do another time jump and see Ellie in her 30s. See other parts of the world. Plenty of new characters were introduced here so, yes, could bring in more. I would hope they tie into the characters and themes as well as the second did for the first.

I don't ask anyone like anything they don't. I thought the story was brilliant, engaging, and heart wrenching. The characters all felt like real people to me with nuance and believable flaws. I think it works on a Watsonian or Doylist interpretation folding into each other.

I'm fine with it being done, and I'd be fine seeing what happens to Ellie and others in the future. I felt that way after the first game as well.

I agree. Both of the games are masterpieces in their genre, and I hope they do a third and final to finish up the story.

[Wizard]

A LITTLE SPOILER-ISH

To complete a potential trilogy, my imagination clicks in with a 10-15 year time jump. Ellie, Dina and JJ are living an "idyllic" life together back in Jackson. Marie runs Jackson. Tommy has been missing since we last saw him in LOU2. Abby and Lev show up in Jackson. No tension there. Ellie is informed by Abby that she became aware of others continuing her father's work. Has someone else immune been found, or is Ellie still the only one? Ellie and Abby set off to find truth. Abby dies at some point protecting Ellie. Ellie reaches the hospital/lab/whatever, and goes forward with the procedure with the understanding it may kill her. Throw in Dina being pissed, and Tommy's re-appearance.

[Frankierock]

Finally finished it the other day..my score still stands at a 9/10..
I thought the story overall was pretty damn good. And I think a 3rd installment is easily done. So many ways to go with all the characters involved.
I still don’t believe all the hate behind this game. It has to be that they have not played it.. I went in hearing all hate and disbelief about this game and came out loving it as much as the first. And everyone I know who actually played it has said the same thing.
I guess the motto to each his own really works here..but only applies to those who went through the entire game. And didn’t bail after an hour.
Personally this is in the talks of my top games ever list.