Hot off the heels of playing the first game, I was very eager to jump into part 2 — and it did not disappoint. Just to be up front, this game is a beautiful piece of media so my complaints in the grand scheme are basically nitpicks. I'll make comparisons to the first game in this review, but to be fair I don't see why you would be playing this without having played that game.
I'm going to get the easy part out of the way first; Last of Us Part 2 vastly improves the gameplay experience from its predecessor. Combat feels better in general, there are a lot more tools available to keep things interesting, upgrades are more numerous and impactful, etc. Basically any complaint that I could think of from TLOU is mitigated in part 2, and I didn't have that many to begin with.
So then, why does my brain keep telling me that the first game was a better experience? The answer is especially subjective. I am a simple person that likes relatively simple stories. TLOU Part 2 tells a very complex story with many moving parts. It touches on several different themes to varying degrees, through a wide and diverse cast of characters.
Somewhat inevitably then, not all aspects of the narrative were interesting to me. While playing, I was always itching to find out what was going to happen next. When I reflect on the game, though, I find it hard to form cohesive thoughts about the story. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I prefer the simpler nature of the first game's narrative.
Finally, I have 2 main complaints I can articulate. They both lean into vague spoiler territory, but I won't explicitly say anything about plot points. The first one is not uncommon, but I disliked the ending sequence and to an extent the way the game leaves off. It feels very anticlimactic, and I feel there were a couple other ways they could left things that would have sparked more interest.
The other has to do with the game's "two playable protagonists" structure. After several hours of gameplay, you switch over and start essentially from scratch. On one hand, it's cool to see the differences in gameplay and personality. However, I felt this was dwarfed by how hard it messed up the pacing. It slows to a crawl after an intense sequence, and I lost a lot of motivation to keep playing. Ultimately, I am glad that I did though, this journey was not one that I will soon forget and this might be the best game overall to come out of Naughty Dog.
I'm going to get the easy part out of the way first; Last of Us Part 2 vastly improves the gameplay experience from its predecessor. Combat feels better in general, there are a lot more tools available to keep things interesting, upgrades are more numerous and impactful, etc. Basically any complaint that I could think of from TLOU is mitigated in part 2, and I didn't have that many to begin with.
So then, why does my brain keep telling me that the first game was a better experience? The answer is especially subjective. I am a simple person that likes relatively simple stories. TLOU Part 2 tells a very complex story with many moving parts. It touches on several different themes to varying degrees, through a wide and diverse cast of characters.
Somewhat inevitably then, not all aspects of the narrative were interesting to me. While playing, I was always itching to find out what was going to happen next. When I reflect on the game, though, I find it hard to form cohesive thoughts about the story. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I prefer the simpler nature of the first game's narrative.
Finally, I have 2 main complaints I can articulate. They both lean into vague spoiler territory, but I won't explicitly say anything about plot points. The first one is not uncommon, but I disliked the ending sequence and to an extent the way the game leaves off. It feels very anticlimactic, and I feel there were a couple other ways they could left things that would have sparked more interest.
The other has to do with the game's "two playable protagonists" structure. After several hours of gameplay, you switch over and start essentially from scratch. On one hand, it's cool to see the differences in gameplay and personality. However, I felt this was dwarfed by how hard it messed up the pacing. It slows to a crawl after an intense sequence, and I lost a lot of motivation to keep playing. Ultimately, I am glad that I did though, this journey was not one that I will soon forget and this might be the best game overall to come out of Naughty Dog.