After playing through The Last of Us 2, I have a good amount to say about it. The first game was my all-time favorite game, making this one an anticipated game for me. Did they do a good job? Well, there are some issues.
The Last of Us Part 2 most defiantly does not deserve hate, and I want to preference this article by saying that I actually enjoyed this game. I liked it and it had a lot of good things to it; however, there were some issues that I think need to be brought up.
*Spoiler Warning*
The Big Mistake?
Joel was killed in this game, and personally, I think it was a mistake. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the game and I think it was most certainly unique, but was it the right option? Well, in my opinion, no.
- Slap in The Face
So after making a incredible game and making us travel the country with Joel and Ellie, what happens? They kill Joel. I think this was inconsiderate to the fan base. Yes, Joel wasn't perfect and he was kind of a psychopath, yet, we all would have sided with him no matter what.
This is the connection that they built, and I think it was a huge mistake to tear it down and throw that beloved character away like that.
Yes, we got a good story with a unique twist on it and a lot of cool perspectives. Why throw away the thing that made the first game so good?
- Fighting an UpHill Battle
The main issue I have with this choice is that is coats the rest of the game in a bad tone. Why kill Joel so quickly, it makes the player hate Abby and her friends and want nothing but to kill her.
I don't this was a smart choice because it presents us with a inhumane view on the characters, and later, tries to make us feel bad for them. I think it places the story in a horrible position and makes thier case harder to believe.
- Entire premise
Another reason I think this was a mistake is that the entire premise of the story lies within this death. The death needs to carry the entire story and I think it is a crutch in a lot of ways.
It was a major death, but I don't think it was an effective way at presenting the idea of different view points.
Overall, I liked the story, but I would have much rather opted out for a different one in which Joel was alive. I think it was, in the larger picture, a mistake. After all, we need to accept the story and I think it was a good one, just had some odd choices that I could go without.
Uninteresting Characters
Along with this new split story, we are introduces to a wide variety of characters. Some were great, but I think too many were weak and didn't provide anything to the story.
- Too Many Characters
Not only do we focus on Ellies arc, we need to learn and sympathize with Abby's characters also? This makes it way too hard to connect to any characters and makes them all blend together.
I will be honest and say that most of the characters on Abby's side I didn't like and didn't care for. The only one that I thought was well developed was Owen. Owen was a great character, yet he gets drowned out by all the other useless and uninteresting characters.
- Wasted Potential
Issac was wasted potential. You read about him all throughout the map, and learn to fear him. Yet, you only meet him twice, and the second time being his death. I think this was a mistake. If you make a character so feared in the literature, then keep him in the literature as a masked threat, or don't waste two cut scenes and add to the roster of wasted characters.
- Good Characters Killed Too Fast
Something else that I felt didn't work was that the story kills off the good characters too fast. Jesse was a fantastic character, yet he doesn't get hardly any time, and is killed way too fast. I think this is another instance of wasted potential and gives more story to the uninteresting and boring characters.
Leading Story
The story had a lot of twists that I didn't see coming, but I think that once you get a feel for the story, you know where it is going. Naughty Dog wasn't as clever as they think and I think it is easy to see coming.
- Two sides to The Story
Obviously the big story concept here is that there are two sides to every story. Yes, it was interesting to see a game developer take up this mantle and go bold with their story.
I can't help but feel that it wasn't that hard to see coming. As soon as I started killing off the members of Abby's group, I knew where it was going. It seems to be a leading story and I don't think it was a extremely complex story.
Turning Point
The game is so heavily reliant on their representation of both sides of the story that I think it can fail for a lot of people. The game is so reliant on the turning point that it makes the other aspects lose their meaning.
- Ellie
This moment when Abby was seemingly going to kill Ellie, I was saying out loud "You better not kill her!". I cared for Ellie and if Abby killed her, I would have ultimately hated the game.
- Abby
This moment of the game I said out loud. "Just let her go". I didn't want Ellie to kill Abby either.
Yes, the game convinced me to sympathize with Abby enough to not want her to get killed. I think it relies too much on this that it depends on if the person is convinced or not. Abby did a inhumane thing at the start of the game, which makes it near impossible to like her. I think Naughty Dog shot themselves in the foot and made everything rest on these two moments. For me, it worked, but I don't think it should have been the main tipping point.
Conclusion
Did I liked the Last of Us Part 2? Yes, but I would have much rather had a story of the continuation of Joel and Ellie. I don't think these points of view needed to be brought solely because of the death of Joel. I think it, in a way, was a cheap option. So many of the characters are boring and wasteful and there are areas that slow down. I liked the game, but I definitely can see an argument against the Last of Us 2.
Check out my argument for the Last of Us 2
