While this certainly isn’t a bad thing, I was hoping that the combat would shake things up a little more. Firstly, apart from new weapons, tools, and moves, the actual gameplay feels almost identical to that of the first game. However, I do have some minor issues with the game mechanics. On the one hand, I felt guilty every time an NPC freaked out whenever they saw their fallen partner and screamed out their name, but at the same time, I had no choice but to kill said enemy to progress to the next level. Naughty Dog humanizes the enemies that I kill in the game, and it left me in a guilty, uncomfortable situation. Rather than killing nameless enemies, I was killing people with names and personalities. For example, a new addition to this game that I honestly have not seen in any other game is that whenever an enemy finds one of their fallen comrades, rather than exclaiming, “Oh my God, another one is dead, everyone get over here now!”, the enemies say, “Oh my God, it’s Alex, he’s dead!” Essentially, every NPC (non-player character) in this game has a name, and whenever an enemy dies in the game, their name gets called out. While a lot of elements of combat from the first game are carried over in the sequel, such as blowing an enemy’s head and/or limbs off with a shotgun, burning a person alive with a Molotov cocktail, or bashing someone’s head with a pipe, a lot of new elements not only made the gameplay feel intense, but in a way, also made me feel guilty. Whether it be engaging in a full-frontal assault, silently taking them out with my bow and silencer pistol, or using a hit-and-run guerilla style of combat, I could approach any enemy encounter in dozens of ways, all of which felt satisfying. While the foundation of the gameplay is the same as in the first game, there are new additions to the game mechanics that spice up encounters, such as the ability to crawl in the tall grass to avoid enemy detection, crafting new materials like silencers for pistols and exploding arrows, and enemy dogs that can detect your movement. Additionally, I must commend the gameplay because the combat, gunplay, and stealth in this game are brutal. Not only did the graphics and the environment look photo-realistic, but the actual characters in the game look amazing as well. With a combination of motion-capture technology, modern graphical settings, and powerful performances by the actors, specifically Ashley Johnson as Ellie and Laura Bailey as Abby, the game feels well-realized and lived-in. Right off the bat, from a technical and visual perspective, it is stunning. Did this sequel justify its existence? Is it a faithful and worthy follow-up to one of the greatest video games of all time? Naturally, I was excited to play the sequel, even after The Last of Us Part II got review-bombed on Metacritic. The story was grounded and complex, the script was airtight and solid, the gameplay was simple but fulfilling, and most importantly, the relationship between Joel and Ellie was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in any medium. Throughout all my years of gaming, The Last of Us is the only video game to have ever made me cry. With its cult status, it’s easy to understand why its sequel was widely many fans’ most anticipated game of 2020. It is a sequel to The Last of Us, which was not only universally praised and winner of several Game of the Year awards in 2013, but also an enormous influence on many games like God of War (2018), The Witcher 3, and Red Dead Redemption 2.
The Last of Us Part II is the newest game by Naughty Dog studios. While obviously not a constructive, healthy way to talk about a video game, this showed me that the only way I could truly form my own distinct opinion was if I bought and played the game myself. It has divided fans into two groups: people who praise it as a masterpiece that deserves Game of the Year, and people who view the game as insulting SJW propaganda that insults the legacy of the first game. To say that The Last of Us Part II is the most controversial game of 2020 would be the biggest understatement of the decade.
The following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II, The Last of Us, and Game of Thrones.
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