Playing through 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us Part 2 again in its newly remastered form has me thinking about a favorite game once again, four years after I first fell in love with it. In the time since I last played it through to completion, I’ve intentionally broadened my interests beyond video games. I read a lot and watched a lot of movies while growing up, but when I began pursuing a career writing about games, it became easy to put on blinders; to pl🃏ay a wide variety of video games, but to laser focus on this medium to the expense of others. So, when I first played The Last of Us Part 2, I was thinking about it in the context of video games. I wasn’t thinking about it in the context of other narrative art.
Four years later, I am. I've been playing The Last of Us Part 2 in the morning, but I also spent my pre-work time today reading an hour of Terry Pratchett’s novel Guards! Guards!. Last night, I watched an episode of Succession. Last week, I caught a screening of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Raiders of the Lost Ark. I’m making an effort to engage with as many different kinds of art as I can, and 🥃it helps me think about video games more clearly and holistically.
So, when I play a game like The Last of Us Part 2 in 2024, I think about the strange shape that the video game medium forces its best stories to take. The Last of Us Part 2 is one of my favorite triple-A stories, but I often feel the constricting demands of big-budget video games shaping its form. The needs of gameplay — i.e. that there be a lot of it — pushes triple-A video games to break𝓰 up their storytelling wit🍷h combat encounters.
I’ve found that this tends to make reading the synopsis of a video game — even one with a great story — an unsatisfying and bizarre experience. While you’re playing it, it completely works. But if you take it and put it into words, you suddenly realize that the important beats are broken up by fights, or the need to find a fuse to turn a generator back on, or the need to find an alternate path around a building whose entrance is blocked by rubble. These are experiences we rarely have in real life, and that characters in other artistic mediums are rarely faced with. Video game stories w♕ork well as you experience them because your experience with the gameplay is part of the story of your time with the game. But, video game stories work less well when you try to think about their plot beats and structure.
The Last of Us Part 2 is broken up into three days which we see from two different perspectives. Both Abby and Ellie are trying to get from A to B, and the bulk of the action involves trying to ove🔥rcome the obstacles that stand in their way. Emotional character moments and interesting conversations are woven into these journeys, but it’s the narrative equivalent of a character running errands with a friend riding shotgun. It works, but it’s a strange framework for a story when you take a few steps back.
But, the moments that don’t have this framework are the flashbacks. This morning, I replayed Ellie and Joel's trip to the Wyoming Museum of Science and History, and was reminded of how well the game handles these levels. There are no combat encounters, no stealth, just a focus on these characters spending time together. It's a great little short story that ties into the broader game, highlighting Ellie and Joel's love for each other, and her looming sense that she needs to investigate Joel's story about the Fireflies.
I, For One, Would L🌼ike To Play The Last O⛎f Us Part Bloodborne
Learning t꧟hat The Last of Us Part 2 was initially inspired by Bloodborne has me wanting to play a game that doesn't exist.
Abby, similarly, has flashbacks, including one where she goes to visit Owen in the Seattle Waterfront Aquarium. This level perfectly captures the state of their relationship at that moment, exes who still seem to have feelings for each other, but are dancing around the fact of Owen's new girlfriend, as they hang out, shoot a Nerf bow, and have fun. Of the several flashbacks in the game, only "Finding Strings" focuses on combat, but it's set on a patrol, so it fits perfectly.
I'm a big stealth fan, so I love combat in The Last of Us Part 2. Violence is a key part of its story, and it explores it in a more interesting way than just about any triple-A game before it. But, combat and other video game-y activities can alter the shape of a story for the worse. The flashbacks tell terrific stories because, by and large, they can avoid combat altogether.
The Last Of Us Part 3 Doesn’t Need To Exist, Which Is Exactly༒ Why It Should
Naughty Dog has confirmed the threequel is happening, so where d🌠oes it need to go?
