The Last of Us 2 review

Eight years ago, “The Last of Us” came out on the PS3, expanding people’s expectations on how a game can look and plays. This game follows Joel, a lone wanderer, in a post-apocalyptic world who finds a new meaning in life as he goes on an adventure with the 14-year-old Ellie. Throughout the story Joel becomes a father figure to Ellie as they face many challenges on their journey to Salt Lake City. After a run in with the Fireflies, the story concludes when they escape to Jackson, Wyoming. Seven years later, the sequel “The Last of Us 2,” was released to stores on June 19, 2020. In this game, Joel and Ellie now have to face the consequences of their actions from the first game. The past four years, they have been living their lives in Jackson making new connections. After certain life-altering events, Ellie and her girlfriend Dina set out on a revenge quest to Seattle to settle a score with Abby and her group of friends. The limited perspective of Ellie's story allows the player to empathize with her actions, even when immoral. The story then shifts to Abby's perspective, giving the player a new view on the antagonist’s goals and morals. Abby's story is a parallel to Ellie’s story in their motivations for revenge. This story concludes with our two protagonists understanding what it means to take revenge and what it does to hurt yourself and the people around you. When I beat The Last of Us 2 I had very mixed feelings about this game. I didn’t know if I loved or hated the sequel to one of my all time favorite games but after writing this review I came to realize that The Last of Us 2 is great, not horrible nor is this game the best. Before I get to what is wrong with the game, let's start with the pros, the game looks so realistic. The Last of Us 2 looks so good that it is just stunning from the beautiful snowy forest to the destroyed city of Seattle it’s just beautiful to look at. Every time my parents walk in on me playing this game they will always ask “what movie are you watching”. What is also good is that the characters from old and new are really good characters. There are a few here and there that you would want to know more about but they’re still solid characters with their own dreams and ambitions. Like Yara and Liv, they’re really amazing new characters. The younger transgender brother Liv wants to be a warrior like his older sister but his mother already said that he would be a wife to someone but then decides to be punk and rebel and shave his head and become a warrior and all his older sister wants to do is to protect him and support him with his life choices and I just think it’s just a very wholesome storyline. The score in the game is in my opinion way better than in the first. When you play this game and listen to the music you know how everyone is feeling with only the score. The last thing that is not good but okay is the gameplay. It's the exact same as its predecessor but hey “if it ain't broke don’t fix it” I guess. Now it’s time for the cons. The deaths in this game all feel emotionless and it felt like it wasn’t detrimental to the story. I'm not going to spoil who dies in the story but when someone dies none of the characters ever mentioned the characters who died in the story again. It’s kinda messed up when they do that to one of their well-rounded characters it just feels like they did them dirty. The pacing felt off here and there and I’m not going to spoil but in beginning they talk about this event that happens to Ellie but they don’t show what happens until the very end of the game and when they showed the scene you already forgot or just don’t care because so much important stuff happens knowing what happens at the beginning of the game is useless. The Last of Us 2 was a mixed bag. On one hand it’s an amazing story with great characters but on the other hand it’s not a good sequel. The Last of Us is a masterpiece with a beautiful story and amazing well rounded characters and like me, other people thought that you shouldn’t make a sequel to a game like this because it ended on such a high note. I think The Last of Us 2 is an amazing game like I said and maybe even a masterpiece if it was a standalone game but compared to its predecessor The Last of Us 2 falls flat. 8/10 I might play again in future but not anytime soon