The Last of Us Part II (PS4) Review

PS4
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Moments ago the credits rolled on The Last of Us Part II in what is easily the most polarizing game of 2020 and to further that, perhaps “of all time”. As the early morning sun shines dimly through the shut shades, I can only think about what I experienced. While I should go to bed, I can’t. I’m emotionally exhausted, yet I’m glad to finally process this game in its entirety. It’s really the only way to do it.

From the first button press to the fade to black, The Last of Us Part II never lets up on the emotional throttle and I find myself running on empty thinking back on the harrowing tragic tale. After a journey of this caliber, there’s a lot to unpack when you’re done, both good and bad. My initial thought is “Wow, what a game!” My mind lingers on the visuals, the performances, the music and sound design, the huge gameplay improvements from the first game, and some standout moments. My gut and my heart are strained, having just witnessed the darkest moments of characters I cared about. Where I struggle is whether to praise Naughty Dog for successfully delivering a game that no doubt will stick with me for the rest of my life, or condemn them for the ways they went about doing it.

I’ll end this introduction with this. It’s clear that at its core The Last of Us Part II has far more working for it than against. However, someone’s final opinion of the game likely hinges on their reception of the story and the way it is presented. It doesn’t matter how masterfully crafted the game is if the player walks away unsatisfied with the journey.

Even the start screen has a somber tone to it.

Even the start screen has a somber tone to it.

The Last of Us Part II was my personal most anticipated game of 2020. The original impacted me deeply and in many ways changed how I thought about games and what they can achieve in storytelling. I don’t often play horror or stealth-based games and The Last of Us was both of those things. Yet, the narrative presented and the characters that were involved compelled me to press on and see what happened. Where the original game struggled most was gameplay itself. While it presented some interesting ideas it can easily be considered a modified Uncharted, a series that did not have a central focus on stealth. When the sequel was revealed at E3, I was ecstatic! After the reveal trailer and some early gameplay footage, I decided to avoid any more footage. I wanted to see everything for the first time when I played it. Luckily, I managed to navigate through the leak mere months before release and stayed spoiler-free. What I couldn’t avoid was the number of posts claiming they were canceling their pre-order or were disappointed by what they saw. 

SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US

I started The Last of Us Part II with as little foreknowledge as possible and with two main questions. What are the consequences of Joel’s choice to save Ellie from the Fireflies? And what are the consequences of him immediately lying about it to Ellie? That seemed to be the most logical progression for the story, and overall I’m glad to say the game answered those questions. Whether or not you’ll like how they answered those questions is up for huge debate.

As I said before the only real way to evaluate this game is in its entirety and due to that, I will not be providing a spoiler-free review. The story is too ingrained into the overall reception of this game to not have it ingrained into the overall review too. For those that are still looking to avoid spoilers, feel free to skip to the last paragraph of the review for some final summarized thoughts that I will actively attempt to keep spoilers out of, though that may not be enough to avoid some of the visual spoilers from the pictures included.

You get a glimpse of the past few years since the end of The Last of Us.

You get a glimpse of the past few years since the end of The Last of Us.

There’s a lot that is easy to praise about The Last of Us Part II, but perhaps the most impactful and important aspect is available before you even start the game. The sheer amount of control you have over your experience sets a new golden standard for accessibility in gaming. Simple things like controlling the size of the subtitles or if there is a shadow behind them to make them easier to see and button remapping make it easier to play, or even possible to play for some gamers. You can also custom control the difficulty level by changing the AI difficulty of your allies and the different enemies by faction. Then there are the astounding inclusions like visual enhancements that cover a multitude of vision-related disabilities. The most dramatic being changing the environments to grayscale and then being able to set colors-scales for enemies, allies, and interactable objects. This really opens the door for gamers with severe vision impairment to be able to enjoy The Last of Us Part II as it was intended. There’s a moving reaction video from Steve “Blind Gamer” Saylor that I recommend to anyone who doubts the importance of features like this in games. It’s clear that Naughty Dog took their status as a AAA developer and the budget that comes with it to take accessibility in games seriously and potentially change what that looks like in the future. Even if The Last of Us Part II was trash heaps given video game form (it’s not) the advancements here would make its existence worth it. I personally played through everything on default difficulty with subtitles on. The value of subtitles goes up when you have children and even though I never once played this game in front of my daughter, subtitles have become a comfort.

One of the original game’s biggest flaws was its gameplay. While it was certainly playable, it was clunky and just didn’t feel like it was built for stealth. It was a point of frustration for me personally in my first playthrough and definitely the reason that my recent replay was on Easy. Thankfully, Naughty Dog built everything from the ground up to include stealth by design and finessed everything into some of the most natural third-person shooter and stealth gaming I’ve ever experienced. I recognize that other games may have done it better but I was impressed by the amount of improvement Naughty Dog implemented.

Everything feels so much more effective and plausible in The Last of Us Part II and the game gives you the freedom to approach encounters in whatever way feels appropriate for the situation. There were some encounters where I successfully weaved my way through the entire area without engaging a single enemy. Then there were others where I successfully stealth killed every enemy. One time, a full-frontal aggressive assault worked extremely well. In times when stealth failed I was often able to fight my way through or recover quickly and regain my stealth or even simply sprint through the enemies and escape. This helped keep encounters interesting, fresh, and distinct from one another. There was no singular “winning strategy” as it required thinking and adjustments on the fly. A few additions to the gameplay make all this possible. The biggest one being the ability to go prone to crawl through tall grass or under vehicles. Add to that the ability to fire while prone and it opens a lot of options. Being able to fire while prone enables you to respond to being knocked down with firing back while providing some cover from other threats. The melee has been revamped with one simple but big improvement, a dodge. It may not seem like much but being able to dodge a clicker that's reaching out to you or the swing of an axe from an enemy makes things more dynamic. It’s no longer only hit square, you can now bob and weave and time counters more effectively.

The transition into and moving around being prone feels smooth and natural.

The transition into and moving around being prone feels smooth and natural.

Throughout the game, due to the story, you’ll play as two characters. There is of course Ellie, one of the protagonists of the first game, and a completely new character Abby. I’ll dig more into the story reasons later. Each character has access to different tools and weapons which changes how they feel to play. In The Last of Us Part II how you approach a situation is dependent on what you have at your disposal. Ellie has access to gear that is perfect for staying stealthy with trap mines, Molotov cocktails, smoke bombs, and the ability to craft regular and explosive arrows. It points to her training and time with Joel who often opted for a less direct approach to combat. Whereas Abby who is a trained soldier and built like a tank has options that make more aggressive strategies more feasible. Pipe bombs, incendiary shells, hunting pistol ammo, a burst fire upgrade, and a flamethrower all lend themselves to dealing a lot of damage quickly provided you take out enough enemies fast enough to prevent getting overwhelmed. In both cases, being able to craft more ammo of any kind is hugely helpful. Yet, how I’d approach an encounter certainly was impacted by who I was playing as. This is good as even when the story was feeling on the long or bloated side, the gameplay was still consistently satisfying. 

I will add that this game oddly enough tapped into a specific and niche piece of nostalgia for me. The tutorial on how to play is a snowball fight with some children, and as someone who spent hundreds of hours playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance back in the day, I couldn’t help but smile at using the same framework for teaching how to play a video game.

You get a grand sense of scale as you enter downtown Seattle.

You get a grand sense of scale as you enter downtown Seattle.

Scrounging around the environments and looking for items is key to being able to keep a steady supply of crafting materials, pills, upgrade materials, and ammunition. After all, this is a survival horror game still and it’s part of the experience. This is constantly rewarding as it is a motivator for exploring arguably The Last of Us Part II’s strongest asset, environmental design, and storytelling.

Every location is meticulously detailed with not only wear, tear, and grime but also clues as to the people who worked or lived there. Well above and beyond the various notes you can find scattered throughout, every setting gives you an insight into the history of the various factions in Seattle and the lives of people who lived there. Books, games, and movies on a shelf tell you a past resident’s interests. Pictures on the wall share glimpses into important moments in their lives. Observing the people and the way things are set up players to gain perspective into the cultures of the way current communities live based on the resources they have at their disposal. Access to electricity, safety, farmland, proximity to rival groups, and the leadership all leave a clear impact. It is a master class in environmental storytelling and it is absolutely rewarding to take the time to observe these details. A few of my favorites are a bank heist gone wrong, a nerdy apartment with a table set out to play a TTRPG, and a mini painting station. There’s also an apartment that was currently occupied with growing plants and signs of recent use. Plus, a family-owned restaurant and their apartment above it. Then there’s access to a nearby weight room showing how Abby is so jacked without anyone saying anything.

The Last of Us Part II allows you to see and put the pieces together yourself.

Even from the beginning, you can see in Ellie’s home how the last few years have allowed her to pursue interests, that she’s had time to pursue interests, and develop her personality. I certainly spent my fair share of time just looking at the environments and taking in the sights. They are something to behold and give you a sense of scale without being an open-world experience. The first game had the benefit of taking place across many different locations as Ellie and Joel traveled across multiple states and cities. Despite primarily taking place in Seattle, the sequel continues to deliver a variety of impressively diverse areas. From the large open area that is downtown Seattle to the cramped hallways and alleys of specific buildings to breathtaking vistas to raging rapids of the flooded streets of less lucky areas of Seattle to the city park haunted by silhouettes of hanging corpses, an actively burning village, the hospital that was ground zero for the infection in Seattle, and of course the mountainous Jackson and sunny Santa Barbara. Each environment puts on full display the talent behind the game. The lighting, texturing, modeling, and overall design of each had me wowed. 

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Whatever their campaign was you know the players screwed up the GM’s plans.

Continuing my celebration of the visuals goes into the animation and motion capture work. The performances put forth by Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Shannon Woodward, Troy Baker, Jeffrey Pierce, and the rest of the cast are phenomenal. The amount of work that went into making sure they were provided an effective space to perform in is evident despite it being a virtual setting. The way characters move, shift their weight, interact with objects around them shows just how much goes into making a video game. Subtle things like the way a character’s weight adjusts slightly before they change direction, or how they catch their momentum along an edge to give just a moment to catch themselves before falling is a testament to just how much detail they aimed to capture. The advancement in facial capture is astounding as you watch characters speak, and emote. Extreme grief, rage, pain, and even the rare moment of goofiness are seen rather than told. 

The violence has been ramped up to an 11 in uncomfortable excruciating detail. The first time I decided to use an explosive arrow and the resulting splattering of viscera was surprising. The limbs, fluids, and organs flung off in every direction, and while it makes sense, it was still unexpected. This does tie into the themes of brutality and Naughty Dog’s goals of making you question whether or not the end goal justifies these means to get there. I’ve played a few fairly violent video games, and in terms of pure gore, this game is towards the top of the list. It’s certainly well done, and for me accomplished what it set out to do, making me squirm on occasion or recoil in reaction to what was happening on screen.

There is no holding back on the brutality of this setting.

There is no holding back on the brutality of this setting.

There is always room for improvement though, and when a game looks this good, mistakes and places to improve can often stand out. Characters occasionally suffer from floating face syndrome which looks like their face shifts position on the head. I’m not sure if this is a result of a slight disconnect in the motion capture or an intentional move to keep the face clear in the shot, either way, it would sometimes break my immersion during a particularly intense moment. I also encountered one glitch where the rig in Ellie’s arm broke and defaulted to a T-pose. A quick checkpoint restart though easily fixed the issue and honestly offered a serving of its own unique entertainment. Then there are minor things like some inconsistency in water quality and many of the enemies lacking detail upon closer inspection plus they are reused frequently enough to notice. This last is disappointing as they try to sell that every enemy is unique by having them yell out “Dave? Dave! He’s dead!” or “No, Rachel!” only to have Rachel look exactly the same as Chelsea or Dave to be the same model as Paul. Ultimately, these are forgivable and can be considered nit-picks but as stated previously when a game looks this good it's the small things that are noticed the most.

I think it’s appropriate that it isn’t fair to put music in scary or tense moments, the music in this game absolutely nails the atmosphere, and often a wave of anxiety would start washing over me, even though nothing really had happened. Total credit to Gustavo Santaolalla and the soundtrack he created for these moments. While the visuals alone are enough to instill unease, the emotional punch comes when the soundtrack kicks in. There is a good quality to the vocal recordings too; they are clean and easy to hear and, of course, pair with the physical performances well.

The attention to detail is present in the environmental and ambient noise as well, footsteps change depending on the surface, scraping and clicking add weight to the items used when improving a weapon, the conversations between the members of the enemies, the sound of grass while crawling through it versus walking, the guttural and shambling sounds of the infected and of course the hair raising distinct sound of the Clickers. One moment in particular where I appreciated the sound design was when I successfully cracked one of the many safes scattered throughout the game by listening to the clicks as I turned the dial.

The guitar plays a big role in Ellie’s connection with Joel.

The guitar plays a big role in Ellie’s connection with Joel.

One absolutely surprising choice is the inclusion of a fully functioning “guitar simulator” built into the game. At first, it seems like a fun little mini-game included to create some immersion as Ellie plays the guitar at various parts throughout the game but it’s surprisingly deep. Using a joystick to choose a chord and the touchpad on the PS4 controller to strum or pick the strings it’s impressively responsive. Afterward, you can “practice” and are free to select your own chord progression and have free reign. It’s way more robust than I ever expected and I’ll admit I spent far more time than necessary playing around with it. It’s fun, it sounds great, and is usable to the point that some folks are out there covering songs with it. It really stood out to me as something they didn’t need to include to that extent but they did and it is appreciated.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US PART II FROM THIS POINT ON

Joel dies. I don’t see much point in doing a drawn-out lead-up to this reveal. Honestly, the game doesn’t either. Joel’s death happens within the first two hours of the game and is the trigger for the entire game. You are introduced to Abby after the initial opening of the game where Ellie goes out on a patrol. She’s clearly driven to do what she set out to do, enough to venture into a blizzard on her own and narrowly avoid being swarmed by infected. She is rescued from disaster by Joel and Tommy. Abby lures them to her group where they are captured and Joel is tortured. Cut to Ellie who hears the news that Joel and Tommy haven’t been heard from in a while and she desperately goes off to find him. Unfortunately, she does and is forced to witness the brutal murder of the closest thing she’s ever had to a father. During this scene, you can see that many of Abby’s entourage are uncomfortable with the degree to which she takes things, which is later paralleled with Ellie and her thirst for vengeance against not only Abby but all of her friends too.

No time is wasted in The Last of Us Part II becoming heart-wrenching.

No time is wasted in The Last of Us Part II becoming heart wrenching.

Ellie soon departs to fulfill her revenge, accompanied by Dina. Their newly budding romantic relationship is a fascinating point of character development. A new girlfriend during the zombie apocalypse while on a revenge quest presents an interesting dynamic and a level of drama to their relationship. You see Dina’s reactions to Ellie’s determination and brutality and it presents some really great subtle moments. This dynamic is however and unfortunately interrupted by the reveal that Dina may be pregnant with her recent ex-boyfriend’s child which means she stops joining Ellie in her outings. Enter Jessie, the ex-boyfriend. He was introduced earlier and came across as likable and still wanted to be friends with both Ellie and Dina. He had snuck out of Jackson saying “his friend’s problems are his problems too”. 

This is where The Last of Us Part II starts to struggle in its pacing. It’s not enough that the circumstances surrounding this new relationship are zombie apocalypse and revenge quest. There’s a pregnancy and an ex-boyfriend and those honestly take away and distract from what could have been some pretty amazing moments. How would Dina react to continually seeing Ellie’s escalating brutality? We will never know. One of the strongest aspects of the original game’s story is the amount of time we get to see the relationship between Joel and Ellie develop and that just doesn’t happen in the sequel.

While still worth it, TLOU2 feels a bit long.

While still worth it, TLOU2 feels a bit long.

The same is true when you eventually switch over to Abby. There are too many dynamics and relationships to properly cover them all and they all fall a tad shallow in comparison to the first game. The result is about three-fourths of the way through this roughly 30-hour game I felt like it was getting long. In some ways it pulls a Return of the King on you with a few “false endings” and it just keeps going. Nothing is particularly bad, in fact, the last quarter of the game holds some of its most striking and memorable moments. It’s the pacing that I think holds it back and the relatively shallow relationships that are built throughout its long runtime. 

The story tries to tackle too many things at once and the game’s story ends up longer while delivering more shallow relationships.

The story tries to tackle too many things at once and the game’s story ends up longer while delivering more shallow relationships.

Abby’s half of the game also has the struggle of trying to overcome the mountain that is sympathizing with the character you just spent 15 hours trying to revenge kill. I think it is mostly successful though as it is discovered her reason for killing Joel is not that much different than Ellie’s motivation to kill Abby. You also witness her lose her friends not only due to Ellie but as a result of her own actions. Abby is a soldier, one who dragged her friends halfway across the country for her own personal vendetta and one who wasn’t particularly concerned with what those friends thought or felt either. It’s only later after being rescued by a perceived enemy that she starts to make some changes and starts to develop possibly one of the first real connections with another person since she was young.

There is a lot going on in this story, some of it amazing, some of it good, and some of it shallow. It feels long, it feels exhausting, and when it’s all done you are simply tired. It isn’t like finishing an Uncharted game where you are elated and pumped up by the excitement of adventure and a climactic finish. You spent 30 hours being dragged through emotional rough terrain and you don’t feel victory in the end. You feel the weight of everything that happened and how it all, for both characters, is the direct result of their own choices and failings. Their own insurmountable grief and uncontrolled rage were directly tied to the pain, trauma, and tragedy they experienced. Something neither of the people Abby and Ellie set out to avenge would want for them. It’s sobering, it’s sad, and I’ve never played a game like it.

The Last of Us ended with me emotionally shook. Part II ended with me emotionally drained.

The Last of Us Part II is a technical marvel of game design whose achievements can be completely overshadowed by a player’s reception of its story. While I sit comfortably in the camp of those who thoroughly enjoyed (if that is the right word as the story is often deliberately uncomfortable) the direction taken by Neil Druckmann and his team at Naughty Dog, I can see how people can walk away having had a completely different experience. I hope my review successfully highlights what this game accomplished in terms of accessibility, gameplay, and visuals. I understand the story isn’t for everyone. While I personally have scored it high and loved it, it would take quite a lot to convince me it actually deserves a 1-star rating as so many have claimed.

I would highly recommend people play The Last of Us Part II and come to their own conclusions about what it has to offer.

SCORES

GAMEPLAY - 9/10

VISUALS - 10/10

SOUND - 9/10

CONTROLS - 10/10

REPLAY VALUE - 7.5/10

OVERALL - 9.1/10

(Each person’s reception of the story will greatly impact their final reception of this game. Honestly, you may as well throw this number out and play it for yourself)

More information about The Last of Us Part II can be found on the official website. A collector’s edition of the game was purchased by the reviewer. For an unboxing of that package, check out our video on the Forever Classic Games YouTube channel. For more review content, you can read my thoughts on the Re:Mind DLC for Kingdom Hearts III. For more harrowing third-person horror we have a review of the remake of Resident Evil 3.

Joe Siemsen

Deep within Joe lies a passion for gaming, comics, video, and animation. This passion not only keeps him warm in the dark Minnesota winters it has led him to be a feature and review writer for Marooner's Rock where he discovered the joy of working in the games industry. Above and beyond that, Joe has a YouTube series called Daddy Gamer where he and his daughter review games and do silly things together.

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