{"id":23198,"date":"2020-07-02T21:36:54","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T11:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23198"},"modified":"2020-10-18T22:10:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T12:10:44","slug":"the-last-of-us-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23198","title":{"rendered":"The Last of Us Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Developer:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Naughty Dog
\nPublisher:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Sony Interactive Entertainment
\nPlatform:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Playstation 4 Pro<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>this review contains major spoilers.<\/p>\n

Ellie:\u00a0 “swear to me that everything you said about the Fireflies is true.”
\nJoel:\u00a0 “I swear”
\nEllie:\u00a0 “…okay.”<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he Last of Us<\/em> ended perfectly.<\/p>\n

Naughty Dog’s post apocalyptic classic is fondly remembered for ending on a lie.\u00a0 In a nihilistic and brutal game that felt like playing an interactive adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s\u00a0The Road<\/em>, writer Neil Druckmann left players with a bittersweet but cathartic conclusion.\u00a0 When Joel delivers Ellie to the militia group The Fireflies because she is the only known person in the world immune to the deadly cordyceps virus, he realizes they intend to perform an operation on her to extract a possible vaccine but it will come at the cost of her life.\u00a0 Joel shoots dead the surgeon and flees with Ellie.\u00a0 When she awakens,\u00a0he lies to her about what he has done in the memorable final lines before the credits roll.<\/p>\n

It’s a beautiful, satisfying conclusion to one of the finest games of the past decade.<\/p>\n

Joel and Ellie are beloved characters in the modern pantheon of narrative-driven video games but there wasn’t necessarily an outpouring of enthusiasm at the news that a sequel was being made.\u00a0 I don’t think anyone doubted that Naughty Dog could deliver a compelling or worthy new chapter to\u00a0The Last of Us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>It’s just that we all know that Joel morally made the wrong choice and a game exploring the consequences of that lie could only really lead to one thing.<\/p>\n

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Sure enough, it doesn’t take long for\u00a0The Last of Us Part II<\/em> to deliver its inevitable, emotional gut punch.\u00a0 Years after the events of The Last of Us<\/em>,\u00a0Joel, his brother Tommy and Ellie now reside in a commune in Jackson, Wyoming.\u00a0 When Tommy and Joel go out on patrol and rescue a young woman named Abby from a horde of the Infected, she turns the tables on them and with the help of her own allies, she pistol whips Tommy before summarily executing Joel.\u00a0 Ellie witnesses Joel’s final moments but is also beaten and left for dead.\u00a0 Thus the stage is set for\u00a0The Last of Us Part II.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Ellie, with her partner Dina in tow, make for Seattle, hoping to track down Joel’s killers to get their revenge.<\/p>\n

Seven years in the making,\u00a0The Last of Us Part II<\/em> shows every bit of spit and polish in its production values and world building that have made Naughty Dog one of the pioneers of the narrative driven, action-adventure genre.\u00a0\u00a0TLOU2<\/em>\u00a0continues their fine work in pushing the medium forward with ambitious storytelling that draws challenging and demanding performances out of their cast of voice acting talent.\u00a0 Naughty Dog’s eye for small details in their animation (facial ticks, subtle body language etc), sound design and visual effects are also ever-present in this game.\u00a0 The Playstation 4 may be seven year old hardware and we are on the cusp of seeing a new generation of consoles arriving but I suspect\u00a0TLOU2<\/em> will remain a high watermark for production values and visual effects for some years yet.<\/p>\n

So far, so good.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0smartly crafted revenge story that furthers the\u00a0TLOU<\/em> narrative would be a welcome, if not predictable journey to undertake.\u00a0 What makes\u00a0TLOU2<\/em> an entirely different proposition is Naughty Dog’s surprising willingness to upend the table halfway through the game and not just ditch the player’s involvement with their beloved protagonist Ellie, but flip the script entirely as they actively work to make you root\u00a0against<\/em> her.<\/p>\n

The second chapter of\u00a0TLOU2\u00a0<\/em>tells the story of Abby Anderson – a character who is originally only identifiable as Joel’s killer.\u00a0 It’s the most high profile bait-and-switch of a protagonist in a big budget video game since\u00a0Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty<\/em> (which producer Neil Druckmann cited as an influence post-launch).\u00a0 This narrative twist, which is highly antagonistic towards players who are fully invested in Ellie up to this point, is a bold gamble and I admire Naughty Dog’s willingness to\u00a0take the story down this path.\u00a0 As we begin to colour in the details of Abby’s life, you develop a connection with her character, empathize with her plight and begin to see Ellie and Joel’s actions in new light.\u00a0 All this and in the back of the player’s mind we know that the story is leading down a path where eventually Ellie and Abby will cross paths and Ellie has nothing less than bloody vengeance on her mind for Joel’s murder.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of fair and well-written critiques of how successful or unsuccessful Naughty Dog has been with its storytelling in\u00a0TLOU2 <\/em>and how you can interpret the politics and themes that underpin the narrative.\u00a0 I don’t think the game does anything that makes it beyond reproach.\u00a0 But I also believe the developers are striving for a level of story-telling ambition, character development and screen writing quality that is virtually unmatched amongst other big budget titles.\u00a0 After\u00a0TLOU2<\/em>, spending five minutes with\u00a0Ghosts of Tsushima\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Final Fantasy VII: Remake<\/em> (the two other big budget, story-driven titles released around the same time) is enough to remind you that most video games are emotionally stunted and vastly underdeveloped when compared to their contemporaries in film, television and literature.<\/p>\n

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The character development and portrayal of relationships between characters is one of the biggest high points in\u00a0TLOU2<\/em>.\u00a0 I can’t think of any other game that charts the development of a romantic relationship in the way\u00a0TLOU2<\/em> gives us with Ellie and Dina.\u00a0 We see their courtship, their physical connection with one another and even their life in domesticity.\u00a0 Likewise, a key relationship in turning player opinion on Abby is her unexpected friendship with the ex-cultist Lev.\u00a0 There are countless other interesting, well crafted connections between characters in\u00a0TLOU2<\/em> also\u00a0– Abby\/Owen, Ellie\/Joel, Abby\/Manny to name but a few.\u00a0 Genuine and meaningful human connections are the secret sauce to all the modern Naughty Dog titles.<\/p>\n

Given the unexpectedly topical nature of its ‘world turned upside down by a global pandemic’, playing\u00a0The Last of Us Part II<\/em> during the age of COVID can be uneasy at times.\u00a0 Even if you weren’t directly affected, most people would have endured some type of lockdown and likely feel brow-beaten by the relentless amounts of bad news in the real world.\u00a0 Turning to\u00a0The Last of Us Part II<\/em> for entertainment, its worth noting that the game is a long-running 30 to 40 hours and often times feels dark, bordering on nihilistic with its portrayal of violence and hatred.\u00a0 I wouldn’t fault someone for choosing to sit this out one because the timing doesn’t feel right.\u00a0 For what its worth, I think\u00a0TLOU2<\/em> earns its darkest chapters and thankfully, the game has moments of lightness and levity that reminds us what its all for.\u00a0 The chapter about Ellie’s birthday that is set in a museum and involves a rather unique rocket launch sequence is definitely some of that Naughty Dog magic at work.<\/p>\n

Given the uncommon length of this adventure (close to double what you’d normally expect from a Naughty Dog game), its pleasing to see the developer make so many strides in polishing and improving its already excellent stealth and combat gameplay.\u00a0 Improved enemy AI, new weapons and wider, more expansive locales all help elevate the moment-to-moment experience.\u00a0 Some of the set pieces and boss battles are genuinely scary and absolutely thrilling.\u00a0\u00a0TLOU2<\/em> has its roots in sci-fi horror and the encounter with the Rat King in the hospital will surely go down as one of the most tense and riveting boss battles I’ve played of any game this generation.<\/p>\n

Naughty Dog should also be acknowledged for the expansive range of accessibility options they’ve added for difficulty, subtitles, audio\/visual settings etc.\u00a0 All told, I believe there are over sixty different permutations to make\u00a0TLOU2<\/em> the ideal experience for each individual player.\u00a0 That is an effort well above industry standard that deserves to be commended.<\/p>\n

The first\u00a0Last of Us<\/em>\u00a0game was the perfect swan song for Playstation 3 and an exciting harbinger for what was to come.\u00a0 The same can be said for The Last of Us 2<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s an incredible technical achievement on the Playstation 4 and I believe what this sequel accomplishes makes it one of the flagbearers for the future of narrative driven games.<\/p>\n

The ending to\u00a0The Last of Us 2<\/em> is not conclusive.\u00a0 I’d say its far less conclusive than the original and leaves much for the player to digest when the credits roll.\u00a0 I’m still not entirely sure what to make of the harsh, twisted and morally bleak descent that Ellie\u00a0spirals down in this game but over time I realize that I kind of like that about it.\u00a0 There aren’t any easy answers.\u00a0 No tidy bow to gather up the loose ends.\u00a0 It is what it is.2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An act of violence upends Ellie’s peaceful existence and sends her on a quest for vengeance in The Last of Us Part II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1164,1200,1702,2799,1654],"class_list":["post-23198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-naughty-dog","tag-playstation","tag-playstation-4","tag-playstation-4-pro","tag-the-last-of-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23198"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23251,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23198\/revisions\/23251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}