Last of Us Part 2
Alright, so I played the game a couple of days and wanted to share some thoughts of the game. Before I do, I created a scoring system that I believe makes sense on a 0-5-point scale:
- 5 = Excellent
- 4 = Amazing
- 3 = Good
- 2 = Average
- 1 = Poor
- 0 = Bad
Anything a 2 or above is recommended for everyone to take crack at the game. Anything below 2 is not recommendable and spend your money on other games that warrants your attention.
I checked the leak content of the games before the official release and seen rounds of people reporting various things. Please actually play the game (or at least, check out the legitimate playthroughs). There is an intentional outrage that swept unsuspecting people into their thought-bubble to radicalized people. Stay alert.
With that said, overall, I give the game a 2/5, an average score (one point lower than Last of Us 1,which is a 3/5).
Gameplay
Throughout the game, I noticed a distinct pattern that each section of the game follows: go to a place; find various items for crafts and upgrades; fight a horde of infected; and fight off those various humans that get in your way. The game gives you an option to confront your enemies head-on or kill them through stealth; but it 100% punished you if you do full confrontation. They added dogs as a new way to make you think about your options and avoidance.
To the game’s credit, they did add several new features. You can jump, prone, dodge, make new weapons and add some quality of life to the gameplay compared to the first one (i.e. when you find a pair of scissors, you make two shivs, rather than a singular one). Though, there were time where the dodge button were a bit… clunky? Sometimes when I hit it, it doesn’t fully register, and I still get hit. Perhaps when the third game comes out, they can do a more touch up on that.
The gameplay was serviceable, for the most part. When I meant by this is usually tied into the story. As I mention before, the game itself is very straight-forward (sometimes, for its own good), that the gameplay aspect became boring after a while. You go an area, scrap for items, fighting infected, humans—rinse and repeat. Even with new additions, it didn’t do much to make the game more intense. They did add Boss Battles in comparison to the first game, but once again, they were so few that it wasn’t enough to spice things up. And those boss battles, with the exception of two, were practically palette swap of each other (one big guy, one big girl, and another big guy). And since the story does have a lot of filler points between one place and another, the gameplay really wears absolutely thing.
One thing I did not like when switching characters the first time, you essentially have to start over from scratch on your build. I understand from a in-story perspective, but I felt that they could’ve let things transfer over except for specific upgrades design for specific characters.
In addition, the gameplay between Abby and Ellie plays exactly the same—there’s no difference aside from “bigger guns” and more dramatic cutscenes flair.
The story is fine, if not extremely predictable. It’s weak but it gets the point across (compassion over revenge). There’s issues with the story pacing (disjointed flashbacks, things being resolved only in flashbacks for other characters, extreme surface level characters not named Abby and Ellie). I felt that when Abby once again spares Ellie, and we [timeskip] to the latter adapting to new life with Dina, I thought that was a good end, and the point was made. Both characters stop, and the cycle of violence ends. Yet the game push forward—which felt like a third game suddenly tact on. A brand-new last addition of a group that are depicted as slavers, Ellie v Abby final confrontation, and an ending I felt wasn’t really deserving for either characters. It felt like “more you can chew” situation, and they definitely continue chewing during that final act.
Another thing is that the story hamfisted that compassionate is key, and letting go preferable, and violence only beckons more violence… but those themes weigh thin when you are mowing people left and right in the game. I would be more interested if they allow you to make choices in the game, whereas you have the ability to spare people (i.e. instead of killing them, you can just knock them out instead or let them go). Yet, it’s hard to make a theme where a player is constantly shoving a shiv up in an enemy’s neck in a very, very close-up interaction. The biggest example is the situation of killing Abby’s dog as a huge thing—but the issue with that, the players have already mowed down dogs before that incident. Even with the backstory of Alice in Abby’s story didn’t change any feelings, other than “whelp, sucks for that dog”, due to how the gameplay aspect desensitize the entire issues.
It's a good game to play but do note that it can be pretty boring in some length of game with few things that spiced it up. There was an open world area, which I felt was a good thing to add. Maybe more of those? I also think they need to amp up the gameplay aspect a bit more to keep the player engage. Maybe if the gameplay were shorter (i.e. removed the last section of the game), it wouldn’t worn out so fast, but I don’t know.
If there is a third addition to this series, I hope they moved away from the human villains, and go a more “risky route”. Maybe a Clicker that gains intelligence and leads a horde of infected in intentional manner? That’ll be an interesting antagonist. :thinking: