This review contains spoilers
This review will contain full story spoilers.
I had been looking for a reason to replay this game and figured this was as good a chance as any. So I am reviewing this as the whole game and I will talk about the "Remaster" at the end. This is undoubtably one of the most divisive games of all time, but as someone who has always liked this game I am happy to see that since its release a lot more people are coming around to it. I want to take a look at the controversial narrative choices that this game made and give my own opinion on them I have a lot to say here so this will be a long one.
I think this should be considered as one of the most over hated games of all time. The vicious backlash that this got upon its release baffles me as when I first played it I found it to be one of the most harrowing and engrossing stories that I had ever seen. This game makes you feel empty by the time it is over. A brutal depiction of what the thirst for revenge can do to people, pair that with an already ruined apocalyptic world and you have yourself one of the most emotionally gut wrenching stories that has ever been seen in a videogame.
Straight away lets talk about one of the biggest controversies, what happened to Joel. Within the first two hours of the story, Joel is killed by the new protagonist Abby. He is killed in a brutal way with Ellie unfortunately forced to watch as Abby beats him to death. This was an incredibly ballsy move to put so early into the game, as far as i can tell most people thought that Joel was going to die in this game but from the hatred poured out online most people were not happy. In my own opinion, I don't have a problem with Joel's death, it is brutal don't get me wrong but it does make a lot of sense, Joel had crossed a lot of people, someone was bound to catch him eventually. It pushes Ellie's character in the direction she needs to go in this game and i think if the ending was handled a bit better this wouldn't be as controversial is it is.
The next and probably biggest controversy is having to play as Abby. Now when i first played this game i had a very similar reaction to most people so this time through i looked at it differently. When you really think about it Ellie and Abby are doing pretty much the same thing. Ellie is hunting down Abby for killing Joel, as Abby hunted down Joel for killing her father. Now i do think that the writers tried to hard to make Abby sympathetic which they should of realised was never going to work but her section of gameplay is just as enjoyable as the first half, so much so that it feels like two completely different games. By day 2 of Abby's section I had it felt like all the stuff with Ellie was part of a different game. While Abby's character in my opinion isn't anywhere close to Ellie's she still has a half decent arc. One complaint i have about Abby's section is having to fight Ellie, The fact that anyone working on this game thought that they had gave Abby enough development for players to like her over Ellie is insane and it is a choice that still boggles my mind.
Lastly, the ending, and this is one i fully agree with. I do believe that the ending was a cop out and should of been handled in a much different way, my biggest problem is that it completely 180's Ellie's motive out of nowhere. When you take control of Ellie during the Santa Barbara section she is obsessed with finding and killing Abby, she gave up everything she had to finish what she started, only at the last second to let her go. This choice makes no sense to me as the writers could of easily had the same ending which i think would of made it hit harder. Going down the whole "Revenge doesn't change anything" route. Having Ellie kill Abby but still being burdened with everything she has done which would still give that "It was all for nothing" ending but at least players would of had the satisfaction of avenging Joel. Instead they go down the forgiveness route, which I originally took for one of those hard pill to swallow endings which make you consider your own morals but this time upon completion i questioned it a lot more because Ellie has killed hundreds of people to get to Abby, but only takes the forgiveness route at the last second. If anyone disagrees feel free to try and explain why this was the right choice but to me this just seems like a strange choice to make, probably due to Druckmann's obsession with Abby and probably wanted to keep her alive to be the protagonist if there is to be a 3rd game.
Besides these moments I think this game is almost perfect. The story is told in strange ways, struggles with pacing at points and has an ending that falls flat, but the game still manages to tell an amazing story. With great characters and performances especially Ashley Johnson as Ellie who gives a spectacular performance. Some side characters of note that i think stood out are Lev, Tommy and Dina who all add a lot to the part of the story they are in. Tommy especially is a fucking terminator in this game.
Gameplay wise it keeps the great resource management paired with realistic shooting. Adding small differences between both characters is a good way to keep it from feeling stale. Like Ellie being able to kill clickers without having to craft shiv's. Each character gets a specific arsenal as well which keeps everything feeling different.
Visually this game is breath-taking. Speaking for both games here as the difference is almost unnoticeable. The attention to detail is phenomenal with stuff like cuts healing across the multiple days. No complaints at all here.
Now to talk about this "Remaster". Did this 4 year old game which was already a spectacle on last gen hardware need a remaster. No. But from what i have played of it, the no return mode is a lot of fun and makes up for the £10 price tag alone for me. Other neat stuff like skins and the lost levels are good editions too. I really think this should of been called Directors cut or something as I couldn't see any difference beside a bit of a better frame rate. Only looking at the remaster its no higher than a 5 out of 10. The No return game mode is good but calling it a remaster is a bit of a strange move considering it really didn't need one. But the £10 price tag is reasonable and at least they aren't charging 70 like they did for the last remake.
Overall, The Last of Us part 2 will forever be controversial, it is one of those games that will no one will share the same opinion of. However in my opinion looking past some poor writing choices and a bit to much forced sympathetically character moments this game is amazing and is one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had.
I had been looking for a reason to replay this game and figured this was as good a chance as any. So I am reviewing this as the whole game and I will talk about the "Remaster" at the end. This is undoubtably one of the most divisive games of all time, but as someone who has always liked this game I am happy to see that since its release a lot more people are coming around to it. I want to take a look at the controversial narrative choices that this game made and give my own opinion on them I have a lot to say here so this will be a long one.
I think this should be considered as one of the most over hated games of all time. The vicious backlash that this got upon its release baffles me as when I first played it I found it to be one of the most harrowing and engrossing stories that I had ever seen. This game makes you feel empty by the time it is over. A brutal depiction of what the thirst for revenge can do to people, pair that with an already ruined apocalyptic world and you have yourself one of the most emotionally gut wrenching stories that has ever been seen in a videogame.
Straight away lets talk about one of the biggest controversies, what happened to Joel. Within the first two hours of the story, Joel is killed by the new protagonist Abby. He is killed in a brutal way with Ellie unfortunately forced to watch as Abby beats him to death. This was an incredibly ballsy move to put so early into the game, as far as i can tell most people thought that Joel was going to die in this game but from the hatred poured out online most people were not happy. In my own opinion, I don't have a problem with Joel's death, it is brutal don't get me wrong but it does make a lot of sense, Joel had crossed a lot of people, someone was bound to catch him eventually. It pushes Ellie's character in the direction she needs to go in this game and i think if the ending was handled a bit better this wouldn't be as controversial is it is.
The next and probably biggest controversy is having to play as Abby. Now when i first played this game i had a very similar reaction to most people so this time through i looked at it differently. When you really think about it Ellie and Abby are doing pretty much the same thing. Ellie is hunting down Abby for killing Joel, as Abby hunted down Joel for killing her father. Now i do think that the writers tried to hard to make Abby sympathetic which they should of realised was never going to work but her section of gameplay is just as enjoyable as the first half, so much so that it feels like two completely different games. By day 2 of Abby's section I had it felt like all the stuff with Ellie was part of a different game. While Abby's character in my opinion isn't anywhere close to Ellie's she still has a half decent arc. One complaint i have about Abby's section is having to fight Ellie, The fact that anyone working on this game thought that they had gave Abby enough development for players to like her over Ellie is insane and it is a choice that still boggles my mind.
Lastly, the ending, and this is one i fully agree with. I do believe that the ending was a cop out and should of been handled in a much different way, my biggest problem is that it completely 180's Ellie's motive out of nowhere. When you take control of Ellie during the Santa Barbara section she is obsessed with finding and killing Abby, she gave up everything she had to finish what she started, only at the last second to let her go. This choice makes no sense to me as the writers could of easily had the same ending which i think would of made it hit harder. Going down the whole "Revenge doesn't change anything" route. Having Ellie kill Abby but still being burdened with everything she has done which would still give that "It was all for nothing" ending but at least players would of had the satisfaction of avenging Joel. Instead they go down the forgiveness route, which I originally took for one of those hard pill to swallow endings which make you consider your own morals but this time upon completion i questioned it a lot more because Ellie has killed hundreds of people to get to Abby, but only takes the forgiveness route at the last second. If anyone disagrees feel free to try and explain why this was the right choice but to me this just seems like a strange choice to make, probably due to Druckmann's obsession with Abby and probably wanted to keep her alive to be the protagonist if there is to be a 3rd game.
Besides these moments I think this game is almost perfect. The story is told in strange ways, struggles with pacing at points and has an ending that falls flat, but the game still manages to tell an amazing story. With great characters and performances especially Ashley Johnson as Ellie who gives a spectacular performance. Some side characters of note that i think stood out are Lev, Tommy and Dina who all add a lot to the part of the story they are in. Tommy especially is a fucking terminator in this game.
Gameplay wise it keeps the great resource management paired with realistic shooting. Adding small differences between both characters is a good way to keep it from feeling stale. Like Ellie being able to kill clickers without having to craft shiv's. Each character gets a specific arsenal as well which keeps everything feeling different.
Visually this game is breath-taking. Speaking for both games here as the difference is almost unnoticeable. The attention to detail is phenomenal with stuff like cuts healing across the multiple days. No complaints at all here.
Now to talk about this "Remaster". Did this 4 year old game which was already a spectacle on last gen hardware need a remaster. No. But from what i have played of it, the no return mode is a lot of fun and makes up for the £10 price tag alone for me. Other neat stuff like skins and the lost levels are good editions too. I really think this should of been called Directors cut or something as I couldn't see any difference beside a bit of a better frame rate. Only looking at the remaster its no higher than a 5 out of 10. The No return game mode is good but calling it a remaster is a bit of a strange move considering it really didn't need one. But the £10 price tag is reasonable and at least they aren't charging 70 like they did for the last remake.
Overall, The Last of Us part 2 will forever be controversial, it is one of those games that will no one will share the same opinion of. However in my opinion looking past some poor writing choices and a bit to much forced sympathetically character moments this game is amazing and is one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had.