This is a tricky one. This game at times as a powerful narrative with very satisfying gameplay and at other times the narrative is frustrating and the gameplay is a slog. This is gonna be a long one so strap in. (SPOILERS)
Graphics: Graphically The Last of Us Part II is gorgeous. That's really it. It looks great. The color pallete can be a bit bland at time with the grays and browns of washed out flooded Seattle sometimes getting old. But the game knows when to throw something new to look at to keep your eye interested.
Sound: The Last of Us Part II also excels in the sound department. The soundtrack is very minimal but very effective. Guns sound weighty and punchy and human enemies sound downright disturbing after you shoot them in the head. All the voice acting it also top notch.
Gameplay: The Last of Us Part II's gameplay takes major quality dips depending on whether you are fighting humans or infected. Fighting humans is fun. There are a plethora of ways to go about fighting them and killing them is as mildly disturbing as it is satisfying. But fighting infected is an absolute slog most of the time. There isa dominant strategy to fighting them and that's stealth and it just becomes tedious. There are parts of this game that felt like absolute chores to get through due to this. But you end up fighting more humans than infected overall in the game anyway.
Story: Oh boy. So I came away from The Last of Us Part II having mixed feelings about it's narrative to say the least. I'll start off by saying Joel's death was fine to me. In my mind it was almost an inevitability that it was going to happen at some point my only surprise is how soon they kill him off. The game is barely getting the setting and characters established and BAM he's dead. Pacing issues like this are common in The Last of Us Part II's narrative.
The Last of Us Part II uses non-linear story telling very sloppily. Half of the game you play as a new character named Abby who is also Joel's killer. You play 3 days in Seattle as Ellie then replay those same 3 days from Abby's perspective in a flash-sideways and in this flash-sideways there are flashbacks on top of it all. This can make the story overly confusing because it can be hard as the player to keep track of when and where each event took place.
At first I was very resistant to playing as Abby for half the game but by the end of her section of the game I did come around a bit. I still didn't care much for her friends the game tries to get you to care about but I did see why she killed Joel and I didn't see her as just some evil villain. The game successfully humanized her to me and once this happens the story started to come together.
People say this game is a game about revenge but I found it more a game about forgiveness. Ellie becomes a bonafide villain due to her inability to forgive Abby for her killing of Joel and once the game flips that script and makes Ellie out to be a monster, it clicked for me. As the final cutscene played out and Ellie tried to play her guitar with her hand that is newly missing 2 fingers ,due to a fight with Abby, the game actually got me. I actually got somewhat misty eyed as Ellie leaves the guitar behind in her abandoned home and walks away.
This game's story works in the end but it's terrible at stringing the player along. The games pacing choices will see countless people just giving up once they get to an early death of beloved Joel or realize they now have to play the other half of the game as Abby. If some events where changed around or the games' story was told in a more linear fashion these simple problems could've been fixed.
All in all The Last of Us Part II is a game I'd call compelling over anything else. It might not be a game I go back and replay anytime soon due to it's at-times tedious gameplay and somewhat sloppily slapped together plot but it's still a game that made that got a pretty significant emotional reaction out of me and that's not something a lot of games can do. The Last of Us Part II is a game with a lot of problems but it's still a game I'm glad I experienced and that I won't forget anytime soon.
Graphics: Graphically The Last of Us Part II is gorgeous. That's really it. It looks great. The color pallete can be a bit bland at time with the grays and browns of washed out flooded Seattle sometimes getting old. But the game knows when to throw something new to look at to keep your eye interested.
Sound: The Last of Us Part II also excels in the sound department. The soundtrack is very minimal but very effective. Guns sound weighty and punchy and human enemies sound downright disturbing after you shoot them in the head. All the voice acting it also top notch.
Gameplay: The Last of Us Part II's gameplay takes major quality dips depending on whether you are fighting humans or infected. Fighting humans is fun. There are a plethora of ways to go about fighting them and killing them is as mildly disturbing as it is satisfying. But fighting infected is an absolute slog most of the time. There isa dominant strategy to fighting them and that's stealth and it just becomes tedious. There are parts of this game that felt like absolute chores to get through due to this. But you end up fighting more humans than infected overall in the game anyway.
Story: Oh boy. So I came away from The Last of Us Part II having mixed feelings about it's narrative to say the least. I'll start off by saying Joel's death was fine to me. In my mind it was almost an inevitability that it was going to happen at some point my only surprise is how soon they kill him off. The game is barely getting the setting and characters established and BAM he's dead. Pacing issues like this are common in The Last of Us Part II's narrative.
The Last of Us Part II uses non-linear story telling very sloppily. Half of the game you play as a new character named Abby who is also Joel's killer. You play 3 days in Seattle as Ellie then replay those same 3 days from Abby's perspective in a flash-sideways and in this flash-sideways there are flashbacks on top of it all. This can make the story overly confusing because it can be hard as the player to keep track of when and where each event took place.
At first I was very resistant to playing as Abby for half the game but by the end of her section of the game I did come around a bit. I still didn't care much for her friends the game tries to get you to care about but I did see why she killed Joel and I didn't see her as just some evil villain. The game successfully humanized her to me and once this happens the story started to come together.
People say this game is a game about revenge but I found it more a game about forgiveness. Ellie becomes a bonafide villain due to her inability to forgive Abby for her killing of Joel and once the game flips that script and makes Ellie out to be a monster, it clicked for me. As the final cutscene played out and Ellie tried to play her guitar with her hand that is newly missing 2 fingers ,due to a fight with Abby, the game actually got me. I actually got somewhat misty eyed as Ellie leaves the guitar behind in her abandoned home and walks away.
This game's story works in the end but it's terrible at stringing the player along. The games pacing choices will see countless people just giving up once they get to an early death of beloved Joel or realize they now have to play the other half of the game as Abby. If some events where changed around or the games' story was told in a more linear fashion these simple problems could've been fixed.
All in all The Last of Us Part II is a game I'd call compelling over anything else. It might not be a game I go back and replay anytime soon due to it's at-times tedious gameplay and somewhat sloppily slapped together plot but it's still a game that made that got a pretty significant emotional reaction out of me and that's not something a lot of games can do. The Last of Us Part II is a game with a lot of problems but it's still a game I'm glad I experienced and that I won't forget anytime soon.