There’s some stuff going around which is completely false, namely the story about Druckmann humping Laura Bailey in a mocap suit (which someone photoshopped her tweeting about and she had to come out and shoot it down). There’s also rumours about it being transphobic which I really don’t agree with and I think were at least somewhat overblown. I thought the trans character was handled really well, and the trauma he faced due to his gender identity was alluded to and discussed in dialogue but never directly shown, which was a nice restraint for an otherwise very disturbing game. I’m not trans, so of course I’m not an expert on this and maybe I’m missing something, but I thought it was respectfully done. The review bombing in general is ridiculous, and all the misinformation has led to a lot of toxic and polarizing discourse, which for the most part I think has been unwarranted. It’s also the gayest major video game out there which I’m 100% here for.
Gameplay wise, the best thing Naughty Dog has made in ages, maybe ever. The stealth is vastly improved, and actually a viable option for the majority of encounters now. Hiding in tall grass and bushes isn’t a binary invisibility but a layered system based on proximity and movement. Instead of everyone just instantly knowing your position when you’re spotted, there’s a caution phase where enemies will be on higher alert and search your last known position. The crafting is expanded even further from the first game, allowing you not only to craft explosives and ammo for combat encounters but also further options for stealth, such as makeshift silencers and arrows for the bow. As before, crafting one item often comes at the direct cost of another, and many of these choices are suited to either stealth or action, only now there's even more such choices you have to make. Fights between multiple factions allow you to pit your enemies against each other, tossing throwables to draw them together and stir the pot, occasionally thinning the herd from the shadows.
There’s also more depth to the progression system this time around, with character upgrades attached to various perk trees that are gradually acquired throughout the game instead of just a list that you can tackle in any order, requiring you to actually put some level of planning in to get the stats you want, and with more variety than the typical combat/stealth/resources trio that a lot of modern games have. It’s still a pretty straightforward system, nothing super in depth, but it’s a welcome addition to flesh out the gameplay a little more, and fits nicely into the more methodical, preparation based encounters of the game.
The level design is also a huge step up, often featuring multiple routes through encounters. There’s even some more open areas, with optional locations that have their own sectioned-off combat scenarios. Unlike Uncharted 4, where I felt the open areas where neat but didn’t offer much in the way of incentive to explore, these parts of Last of Us 2 often have additional upgrade materials for perks, weapon upgrades, and even new guns, directly rewarding your exploration on a tangible gameplay level, as well as fleshing out the games’ environmental storytelling chops. Human enemies are smarter than in the first game, and the Seraphites even have their own creepy whistling system that impacts how quickly they’re able to notice you. The weapon upgrade system is basically the same thing as the first game, though additional holsters are now moved over to exploration instead. The infected have a few new enemies types, but for the most part they play quite similarly to the first game. Overall, it’s a lot of fun to play, and even if the story doesn’t grab you I think the game is worth picking up for the combat. It’s not gonna win over people who don’t like Uncharted or Last of Us 1, but for those who do it’s the best iteration of Naughty Dog’s TPS gameplay loops.
As with the first game, the big explosives setpieces are spaced out more so than the Uncharted games, making them more impactful when they do come around even though they’re smaller in scope. ND does a great job blending cutscene and gameplay here, so much so that I was occasionally telling myself “nah this can’t be running in real time it looks too damn good” only to be greeted with a QTE prompt 2 seconds later. God, this game looks great. Probably the most visually impressive game I’ve ever played (though I’m yet to get around to Red Dead 2), not only on a technical level, but also an artistic one, with the lighting reflecting and contrasting the mood of particular scenes, unending natural beauty punctuated by the evil that humans do to each other. The animations are incredibly detailed without being overlong and interfering with the gameplay too much, which is something I find ND is really good at in general. The music, performances, writing, and cutscene direction continue to be some of the best in the medium, pushing interactive storytelling into new and unconventional places.
Narratively, I understand why the game is so much more divisive than the first one: it’s challenging material that makes you feel bad and questions the very core of its characters, featuring a Pulp Fiction-y non-linear structure that puts you in the shoes of characters you thought you hated. I don’t think it’s trying to be directly critical of the player for their use of violence, rather it’s deconstructing why the protagonists choose to inflict such pain at all. There’s no big picture, no cure for the survival of the human race, just people, vengeance, and civil war. As with the ending of the first game, it’s often about the hateful things done for love, selfishly destroying everyone in your path to protect loved ones, even if it costs the world and ends up destroying the relationship with your loved ones that drove you in the first place.
Many have criticized this game for its lack of levity, and that’s somewhat true, but only in the back half of the narrative, and though it is depressing there’s very much a thematic purpose behind it. The flashbacks and happy moments early on in the narrative establish what characters are leaving behind in their quests for revenge, but also what was taken from them to stir that desire for vengeance in the first place, a web of violence and trauma becoming more and more tangled by self destructive tendencies until they have nothing left.
The story is hardly ‘fun’ in any kind of traditional sense, even though the gameplay is. It cuts deep, leaving scars on the cast that will perhaps never heal. It could’ve just been Joel and Ellie adventure 2.0, which it seems is what a lot of people wanted, but this is so much more daring, unique, and interesting that I have a hard time imagining how straightforward replication of the first’s formula could’ve been better (and I don’t mean this in a derogatory way, at least not completely, I love Uncharted 2 and that’s basically just the first game but bigger and more better). The Last of Us is not a brand that got its acclaim by playing it safe and giving us formulaic fun adventures. The reason the original stood out in the first place is because it dared to slow down and let you feel, building a deeply flawed protagonist who obviously does the wrong things, but making you care about him anyway. A game that just did what we expected from it would not be a worthy successor to The Last of Us.
Gameplay wise, the best thing Naughty Dog has made in ages, maybe ever. The stealth is vastly improved, and actually a viable option for the majority of encounters now. Hiding in tall grass and bushes isn’t a binary invisibility but a layered system based on proximity and movement. Instead of everyone just instantly knowing your position when you’re spotted, there’s a caution phase where enemies will be on higher alert and search your last known position. The crafting is expanded even further from the first game, allowing you not only to craft explosives and ammo for combat encounters but also further options for stealth, such as makeshift silencers and arrows for the bow. As before, crafting one item often comes at the direct cost of another, and many of these choices are suited to either stealth or action, only now there's even more such choices you have to make. Fights between multiple factions allow you to pit your enemies against each other, tossing throwables to draw them together and stir the pot, occasionally thinning the herd from the shadows.
There’s also more depth to the progression system this time around, with character upgrades attached to various perk trees that are gradually acquired throughout the game instead of just a list that you can tackle in any order, requiring you to actually put some level of planning in to get the stats you want, and with more variety than the typical combat/stealth/resources trio that a lot of modern games have. It’s still a pretty straightforward system, nothing super in depth, but it’s a welcome addition to flesh out the gameplay a little more, and fits nicely into the more methodical, preparation based encounters of the game.
The level design is also a huge step up, often featuring multiple routes through encounters. There’s even some more open areas, with optional locations that have their own sectioned-off combat scenarios. Unlike Uncharted 4, where I felt the open areas where neat but didn’t offer much in the way of incentive to explore, these parts of Last of Us 2 often have additional upgrade materials for perks, weapon upgrades, and even new guns, directly rewarding your exploration on a tangible gameplay level, as well as fleshing out the games’ environmental storytelling chops. Human enemies are smarter than in the first game, and the Seraphites even have their own creepy whistling system that impacts how quickly they’re able to notice you. The weapon upgrade system is basically the same thing as the first game, though additional holsters are now moved over to exploration instead. The infected have a few new enemies types, but for the most part they play quite similarly to the first game. Overall, it’s a lot of fun to play, and even if the story doesn’t grab you I think the game is worth picking up for the combat. It’s not gonna win over people who don’t like Uncharted or Last of Us 1, but for those who do it’s the best iteration of Naughty Dog’s TPS gameplay loops.
As with the first game, the big explosives setpieces are spaced out more so than the Uncharted games, making them more impactful when they do come around even though they’re smaller in scope. ND does a great job blending cutscene and gameplay here, so much so that I was occasionally telling myself “nah this can’t be running in real time it looks too damn good” only to be greeted with a QTE prompt 2 seconds later. God, this game looks great. Probably the most visually impressive game I’ve ever played (though I’m yet to get around to Red Dead 2), not only on a technical level, but also an artistic one, with the lighting reflecting and contrasting the mood of particular scenes, unending natural beauty punctuated by the evil that humans do to each other. The animations are incredibly detailed without being overlong and interfering with the gameplay too much, which is something I find ND is really good at in general. The music, performances, writing, and cutscene direction continue to be some of the best in the medium, pushing interactive storytelling into new and unconventional places.
Narratively, I understand why the game is so much more divisive than the first one: it’s challenging material that makes you feel bad and questions the very core of its characters, featuring a Pulp Fiction-y non-linear structure that puts you in the shoes of characters you thought you hated. I don’t think it’s trying to be directly critical of the player for their use of violence, rather it’s deconstructing why the protagonists choose to inflict such pain at all. There’s no big picture, no cure for the survival of the human race, just people, vengeance, and civil war. As with the ending of the first game, it’s often about the hateful things done for love, selfishly destroying everyone in your path to protect loved ones, even if it costs the world and ends up destroying the relationship with your loved ones that drove you in the first place.
Many have criticized this game for its lack of levity, and that’s somewhat true, but only in the back half of the narrative, and though it is depressing there’s very much a thematic purpose behind it. The flashbacks and happy moments early on in the narrative establish what characters are leaving behind in their quests for revenge, but also what was taken from them to stir that desire for vengeance in the first place, a web of violence and trauma becoming more and more tangled by self destructive tendencies until they have nothing left.
The story is hardly ‘fun’ in any kind of traditional sense, even though the gameplay is. It cuts deep, leaving scars on the cast that will perhaps never heal. It could’ve just been Joel and Ellie adventure 2.0, which it seems is what a lot of people wanted, but this is so much more daring, unique, and interesting that I have a hard time imagining how straightforward replication of the first’s formula could’ve been better (and I don’t mean this in a derogatory way, at least not completely, I love Uncharted 2 and that’s basically just the first game but bigger and more better). The Last of Us is not a brand that got its acclaim by playing it safe and giving us formulaic fun adventures. The reason the original stood out in the first place is because it dared to slow down and let you feel, building a deeply flawed protagonist who obviously does the wrong things, but making you care about him anyway. A game that just did what we expected from it would not be a worthy successor to The Last of Us.