This review contains spoilers
To begin at a surface level, setting aside the story details, this instalment has everything you'd expect from a modern Naughty Dog release. The controls are intuitive and react well; the graphics are gorgeous, and it is overall a perfectly competent gaming experience. If you enjoyed the gameplay of the original The Last of Us, then great news, that gameplay makes a return here with some interesting twists and updates.
There's a new personality-based system introduced in this sequel that aims to provide a level of humanity for the previously faceless hordes of living enemies that you encounter. This system gives names to each of the living enemies, that when encountered or killed, the other enemies will shout their name, in order to remind the player that that was a human being and it's now time for the player to feel bad, I guess. However, this system is very surface-level, and it is for this reason that it fails for the most part. Because now I just....know the name of the guy I killed, and then I've forgotten it entirely because I've already moved on to the next enemy. Perhaps this personality system would work better if it was implemented alongside a morality or choice-based system wherein the player could choose to avoid killing, or avoid these combat scenarios entirely. In this way, the killing of the enemies would be on the player's head should they choose to engage. At present, the intended guilt doesn't carry any weight because I know that the game almost always requires me to kill to progress. I'm not doing it out of choice, and I can't continue the game without doing so, therefore there is no guilt. This system doesn't even serve a narrative purpose either, because unlike the original TLOU, Ellie's journey is entirely optional, so nobody has forced her into the position of killing; if killing in TLOU2 were as optional for the player as it is for Ellie, this system would work, but it isn't, so it doesn't.
Spoilers from here on
I became actively annoyed at about the halfway mark after Seattle Day 3, at which point the game inexplicably switches to Abby's perspective. This wasn't because I dislike Abby's character - instead it was because I had spent what adds up to hours of gameplay scouring every corner of every environment during the first half of the game to find supplements, parts and supplies to make Ellie as strong and equipped as she can possibly be, only to then be dropped back at square one to do the exact same with Abby. I simply do not understand why the game would spend so long developing Ellie's strengths, with the action and the tension all rising to a crescendo, to then stop the story dead in its tracks and rewind 3 days. At this point all tension is entirely dead, whilst the player has to grind through the now snail-like pacing of the beginning of Abby's story. Surely the two characters' stories would have been better told were they intertwined for the length of the game? For example, spend a day with Ellie, a day with Abby and so on until each character reaches their climax together (no pun intended). This way each character is developed in both story and gameplay at the same pace, and neither side becomes stagnant because it is teased out across the length of the game, rather than spending ten straight hours with Ellie, and then ten straight hours with Abby. This would also improve the characterisation of the Wolves that Ellie kills, because we get to see them through Abby's eyes first - I don't care about seeing the Wolves with Abby after I've already killed them as Ellie. Let the player get to know the Wolves with Abby, before moving on to Ellie's story where she kills them like any other videogame enemy; Ellie won't feel anything but the player definitely will.
That said, I really like it when stories tell the same narrative from multiple perspectives, I think it's a really interesting way of telling a story, and that goes the same for The Last of Us Part II. While it wasn't done exactly to my liking as explained above, I still think it was a good idea to give the player time enough with each character that they would get attached to them. Giving the player time enough to discover their personality, quirks, fears and aspirations makes this grim tale of two characters so desperately human, which is gravely needed for the narrative to work. The sheer contrast of knowing the awful things Abby and Ellie have done to each other, yet also being able to cheer for both characters when they overcome insurmountable odds surely is exactly what Naughty Dog were attempting to do here, and I think, for the most part, it works.
There are also an abundance of compelling side characters in The Last of Us Part II that truly bring the story together in a marvellous way. No matter which side they belong to, if a companion spends an extended period of time with either of the protagonists, the player really gets to know them as complex, three dimensional characters in their own right, and so it is always devastating in the cases where the character is lost. They feel like this because each of the side characters have their own personal story occurring parallel to the protagonists', rather than their presence serving only the protagonists' journey. Just like in Part I, or the Uncharted series, Naughty Dog has a brilliant way of creating captivating characters with which to populate their worlds.
As for the story, and the ending, I don't really have room to complain honestly. While I loved the original The Last of Us, and will definitely revisit it, I only played it a couple of years ago and thus have no long-term special connection to the game, but again, I do love it. In my opinion, the story and characters felt like natural progressions of what would have happened in the aftermath of TLOU. The dual protagonists are well developed in their motivations and actions and thus I have no complaints in the story department. I really liked the fact that by the time the final confrontation happens, there is no fanfare or relief; both of the protagonists have been through so much that it's such a sad fistfight between two broken, meek women, both of whom have lost so much that this feud rightfully becomes pointless.
To address the hate and controversy surrounding this game - just because some players went into the game with certain expectations, and those expectations weren't met, doesn't make this a "bad game". If you don't like the story, that's fine; if you're disappointed because you didn't get what you hoped for, that's fine too. But at the end of the day, the developers were under no obligation to cater to those expectations, they made the game, and the narrative, that they wanted to make, just like they did with the beloved original The Last of Us.
I don't know if there will ever be a Part III in this series, but I would be satisfied if Ellie's return home is the last we see of these characters. A happy ending was never possible, but a peaceful ending is good enough for me.
There's a new personality-based system introduced in this sequel that aims to provide a level of humanity for the previously faceless hordes of living enemies that you encounter. This system gives names to each of the living enemies, that when encountered or killed, the other enemies will shout their name, in order to remind the player that that was a human being and it's now time for the player to feel bad, I guess. However, this system is very surface-level, and it is for this reason that it fails for the most part. Because now I just....know the name of the guy I killed, and then I've forgotten it entirely because I've already moved on to the next enemy. Perhaps this personality system would work better if it was implemented alongside a morality or choice-based system wherein the player could choose to avoid killing, or avoid these combat scenarios entirely. In this way, the killing of the enemies would be on the player's head should they choose to engage. At present, the intended guilt doesn't carry any weight because I know that the game almost always requires me to kill to progress. I'm not doing it out of choice, and I can't continue the game without doing so, therefore there is no guilt. This system doesn't even serve a narrative purpose either, because unlike the original TLOU, Ellie's journey is entirely optional, so nobody has forced her into the position of killing; if killing in TLOU2 were as optional for the player as it is for Ellie, this system would work, but it isn't, so it doesn't.
Spoilers from here on
I became actively annoyed at about the halfway mark after Seattle Day 3, at which point the game inexplicably switches to Abby's perspective. This wasn't because I dislike Abby's character - instead it was because I had spent what adds up to hours of gameplay scouring every corner of every environment during the first half of the game to find supplements, parts and supplies to make Ellie as strong and equipped as she can possibly be, only to then be dropped back at square one to do the exact same with Abby. I simply do not understand why the game would spend so long developing Ellie's strengths, with the action and the tension all rising to a crescendo, to then stop the story dead in its tracks and rewind 3 days. At this point all tension is entirely dead, whilst the player has to grind through the now snail-like pacing of the beginning of Abby's story. Surely the two characters' stories would have been better told were they intertwined for the length of the game? For example, spend a day with Ellie, a day with Abby and so on until each character reaches their climax together (no pun intended). This way each character is developed in both story and gameplay at the same pace, and neither side becomes stagnant because it is teased out across the length of the game, rather than spending ten straight hours with Ellie, and then ten straight hours with Abby. This would also improve the characterisation of the Wolves that Ellie kills, because we get to see them through Abby's eyes first - I don't care about seeing the Wolves with Abby after I've already killed them as Ellie. Let the player get to know the Wolves with Abby, before moving on to Ellie's story where she kills them like any other videogame enemy; Ellie won't feel anything but the player definitely will.
That said, I really like it when stories tell the same narrative from multiple perspectives, I think it's a really interesting way of telling a story, and that goes the same for The Last of Us Part II. While it wasn't done exactly to my liking as explained above, I still think it was a good idea to give the player time enough with each character that they would get attached to them. Giving the player time enough to discover their personality, quirks, fears and aspirations makes this grim tale of two characters so desperately human, which is gravely needed for the narrative to work. The sheer contrast of knowing the awful things Abby and Ellie have done to each other, yet also being able to cheer for both characters when they overcome insurmountable odds surely is exactly what Naughty Dog were attempting to do here, and I think, for the most part, it works.
There are also an abundance of compelling side characters in The Last of Us Part II that truly bring the story together in a marvellous way. No matter which side they belong to, if a companion spends an extended period of time with either of the protagonists, the player really gets to know them as complex, three dimensional characters in their own right, and so it is always devastating in the cases where the character is lost. They feel like this because each of the side characters have their own personal story occurring parallel to the protagonists', rather than their presence serving only the protagonists' journey. Just like in Part I, or the Uncharted series, Naughty Dog has a brilliant way of creating captivating characters with which to populate their worlds.
As for the story, and the ending, I don't really have room to complain honestly. While I loved the original The Last of Us, and will definitely revisit it, I only played it a couple of years ago and thus have no long-term special connection to the game, but again, I do love it. In my opinion, the story and characters felt like natural progressions of what would have happened in the aftermath of TLOU. The dual protagonists are well developed in their motivations and actions and thus I have no complaints in the story department. I really liked the fact that by the time the final confrontation happens, there is no fanfare or relief; both of the protagonists have been through so much that it's such a sad fistfight between two broken, meek women, both of whom have lost so much that this feud rightfully becomes pointless.
To address the hate and controversy surrounding this game - just because some players went into the game with certain expectations, and those expectations weren't met, doesn't make this a "bad game". If you don't like the story, that's fine; if you're disappointed because you didn't get what you hoped for, that's fine too. But at the end of the day, the developers were under no obligation to cater to those expectations, they made the game, and the narrative, that they wanted to make, just like they did with the beloved original The Last of Us.
I don't know if there will ever be a Part III in this series, but I would be satisfied if Ellie's return home is the last we see of these characters. A happy ending was never possible, but a peaceful ending is good enough for me.