you just have to respect how much this game goes for it. they went beast mode on this one. the gameplay is improved in pretty much every way from the first game. ai receives the biggest upgrade which is enough by itself to elevate this game over the first for me. enemy designs are also more varied and interesting, and the levels more spacious and creative. unfortunately, this game suffers fairly heavily from the constant narrative interruptions, especially the flashbacks and perspective shifts. i don't know if this story is ultimately all that well suited to this medium, which has kind of become a persistent issue with naughty dog's recent outings, including the first last of us. that being said, i found the narrative here, taken on its own merits, to be very engaging. and there's certainly a lot more congruity with the gameplay this time around since the story is so thematically occupied with the violence that you spend the bulk of your time performing. it's not perfect, of course - it's definitely a bloated story (and there are some rather questionable political undertones to the seraphite v WLF stuff) - but i'm prepared to forgive a number of missteps when it's so willing to take risks. i have nothing but praise to heap onto the voice actors, especially ashley johnson who gives what genuinely might be one of my favorite performances ever (?). just devastating stuff.

it all ultimately boils down to high highs and low lows. i found this game very mechanically satisfying to play, but there's an excess of barely interactable sequences that drag the gameplay down. likewise, i really enjoyed how audacious and transgressive the story was without ever feeling insincere or (entirely) misanthropic to me, but some of those swings miss, and it probably overstays its welcome. the reception that this game got is hilarious though. shoutout to naughty dog for proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that gamers are whiny, bigoted philistines