Unless you've locked yourself in a bunker with no internet for the last 6 months, it's unlikely you've been able to avoid the relentless storm of hot takes and criticisms levied against The Last Of Us 2. Long before the game𒐪 came out, many had already made up their minds about the game. It's too violent, they ruined the story, it's too politically correct, it mishandles its lesbian and trans characters, its SJW propaganda, it doesn't respect the first game, it's a generation-defining game, it's garbage, it's a mast♓erpiece.
I've tried my best to block it all out and trust that as a fan of the original TLOU and of Naughty Dog, I wouldn't be disappointed. I didn't read reviews when they came out, but I saw the outrageously high scores and read tweets from my favorite game critics pronouncing TLOU2 the greatest game of the decade. I couldn't help it, the hype train leꩲft the station.
So when I tell you the first 6 hours did almost nothing for me, I can't say I started playing without any bias. I lꦏove the first game, I've anticipated the sequel for a long time, the reviews were overwhelmingly 10/10, my expectations were sky-high, but I couldn't connect with it at all.
[Major spoilers for The Last Of Us: Part II follow]
The Last Of Us 2's Opening Hours Didn't Grab Me
The "cold open" in the original TLOU when the outbreak begins and Joel loses his daughter is one of the most intensely devastating and self-contained sequences I've ever experienced. There's nothing nearly as powerful or engaging that happens in the early hours of TLOU2. When we finally get our first big set-piece moment it's with Abby, a character we don't know at all. In TLOU, that first big chase sequence has extra weight because Joel is saving his young daughter. Abby i꧒sn't saving anyone, in fact, she clearly has malicious intent. Fighting for my life as Abby didn't feel nearly a﷽s important or personal as it did with Joel and Sarah, it just felt like something that was happening in the story.
When Joel was killed, I definitely felt something. Even up to the moment that final swing snuffed him out, I was desperately hoping someone would somehow save him. "Get up Joel" is etched in my brain. A beloved character was killed brutally, of course I had a reaction. The impact of his death is a credit to the strength of the first game, especially considering it happens at right at the start of the game. Once he was gone, I wondered where the story could go that I would even care to see. The Last Of Us is the 𒉰story of Ellie and Joel, without Joel, what'sꦫ the point?
The Death Of Everything I Cared About
Part of the p⛦roblem was that I thought I could see where things were headed. Abby got her revenge on Joel, Ellie wants to get her revenge on Abby, who will want their revenge on Ellie? The cycle of violence isn't the most nuanced theme to explore, especially right after Joel's death signifying the end of the exploration of the original game's thౠemes: parenthood, guilt, co-dependency, selfishness. I kept thinking about Neil Druckmann's quote from his :
“We can make you experience this thirstಞ for revenge. This thirst for retribution and having you actually, like, commit the acts of finding it and then showing you the other side to make you regret it. To make you feel dirty for everything you’ve done in the game, making you realise ‘I’m actu🔯ally the villain of the story."
Is that how I want to spend the next 20 hours? Seeking revenge and then being told I should feel bad about it? As Ellie and Dina made their way to Seattle following Tommy's trail, I was really struggling to stay engaged. In terms of gameplay, TLOU2 is almost indistinguishable from the original. I felt myself going through the motions, not really𝕴 connecting with Dina or caring much about her relationship with Ellie. Seeking revenge only because that's where the story is leading.
The Birthday Gift Turning Point
Fighting, feeling, and repeating, for nearly 6 hours until Ellie and Dina make it to the movie theater. Ellie goes to sleep, and suddenly, we enter a flashback. Joel is alive𝐆, he is taking Ellie on an adventure for her birthday. We get to enjoy their teasing and banter, we get to see Joel shower Ellie with love and affection. When they climb into the space shuttle, the camera locks onto Ellie's face and we ride her wave of emotions on her face as she imagines hers❀elf leaving the world behind and finding peace out among the stars. It's a beautiful, intense, overwhelming moment, and the first time — Take On Me acoustic version not withstanding — that I experienced what felt like an organic emotional moment in the entire time I'd been playing the game.
The next morning, the action starts almost right away. Ellie heads out to Hillcrest alone to find Tommy. The Hillcrest area series of zones stacked vertically that are all congested with houses, fences, and overgrown backyards. This is also where Ellie gets her bow back and ranged stealth kills become a better option. The entire Hillcrest sequence is brutally difficult, with patrolling dogs and WLF around every corner and in every house. It has almost an immersive-sim quality to the design and all the ways you can approach each zone. It's an incredibly brutal, messy battle across town that I barely made through by the skin of my teeth. I used every bullet I had, every medkit I could craft, gutted and stabbed more people than I could count, and barely made it out alive. The sequence ends with a spectacular vehicle set-piece that hearkens back to the opening sequence of the original TLOU.
That juxtaposition between beautiful moments and terrifying, thrilling action is quintessential The Last Of Us, and the first time in the entire game when I felt like the sequel nailed the formula. I stopped for the night at that point, but I'm so excited to get back in now. I hope we continue to explore Ellie and Joel's relationship through flashbacks, I hope the gameplay continues to be this engaging. It took 6 hours to find its footing, but The Last Of Us Part II finally delivering what I was hoping for.