I’m going to start this one off by gushing over some details that I loved, before getting into the meat of my thoughts on it. It’s rare nowadays for a game to impress me with realistic graphics, but as with the first game, The Last of Us Part II has managed to do it again. Combined with outstanding performances by every actor in the game, the graphics allow for characters to convey a certain subtlety in their expressions which no other game at present can match, and do things naturally which previously would have been firmly in uncanny valley territory. Also, whatever they did to model these characters at different ages is equally impressive, as the changes are subtle enough to notice, but not at all overly dramatic, and lends a greater sense of realism to the game. Additional kudos to this game for having one of its two protagonists be a muscular woman who actually manages to look like a real person, which is all too rare in video games. Dina is also a great character, and everything with her Jewish heritage in the synagogue scene is very well done. One last little detail that I adored: Abby having acrophobia and having a visual effect to show her vertigo when she gets near a ledge, and having her character react appropriately, is really well done. As someone with acrophobia I feel seen.

Alright so those are the little details I loved that really helped this game be something special, now time for me to delve headfirst into the discourse. There’s been a decent amount of criticism of this game for just being “one big guilt trip” and I don’t really agree with this take. The overarching plot of the game is a classic cost of revenge story, and I think what this game excels at, is putting you in the shoes of its two protagonists. Throughout the game, I was never personally on the same page as Ellie as to what the right course of action was, however, I was so engrossed in her perspective that I could absolutely understand why she would do what she does. For me, the game was an excellently told character story. However one thing the more regressive discourse around this game shed light on was, a lot of people did agree with Ellie’s quest for revenge, and for those people, I could see this game being a well needed guilt trip, because it makes the bold choice of having you play as Abby halfway through, the character Ellie is hunting, and empathize with her. And it seems like this game is a much needed lesson for many players about the dangers, and ultimately the emptiness of revenge and factionalism.

I played this game on the hardest difficulty, which for me was perfect, as it was the difficulty which most reinforced the tone and themes of the game in my playthrough. I could see playing this on a lower difficulty and getting too much of a power fantasy vibe from it. However for me, I always felt like I was searching for just enough resources to get by, and the enemies were threatening enough that it wasn’t in my best interest to try to overpower them at every turn. Also the dark realism of the game’s world had me making choices as a player that weren’t forced on me, but I naturally made as I thought about the morality of Ellie and Abby’s journey. For example you get molotovs and a flamethrower, but I made the conscious choice as a player to never use these on anything other than the infected, the game’s zombie equivalent, because it felt too cruel to use on a human character. I would’ve never made a choice like that if I felt like the game was a power fantasy.

Anyways, between this game and the first game, this series now accounts for two out of the four times I’ve ever cried at a video game. Ultimately it was how the game tragically portrayed forgiveness, specifically forgiveness given too late, that brought out emotions in me that few games do. The fact that this game managed to generate so many different thoughts and perspectives is indicative of how, in many ways, it isn’t overburdened with giving players what they want, which is a rare thing in big budget AAA games. All of this is why this series remains one of my favorites, and gets a high recommendation from me.