First thing first, I have played and finished the whole game in case y'all wondering. It is much better to finish something rather than to judge it really early just like what I did before, and I'm truly sorry about that. Again, this is based on my honest opinion about this game. If you like it, it's okay, if you don't like it, it's okay. Enjoying things is subjective.
So, here is my very honest review.
After the long wait, THE LAST OF
US PART II finally arrived on June 19, 2020. The part two itself is continuing
the journey of Ellie and Joel in order to survive the post-apocalyptic world caused
by Cordyceps fungus.
As many of you noticed that this
game divided the critics and the audience. The critics loved this game so much,
but the audience’s reception was very bad. This due to leaks that revealed the
controversial route of its plot. Fans and gamers were disappointed and angry
because of this decision that the developer took. It also led people to make
hateful meme about one of the game’s characters. I’m going to discuss about
this later on.
I confirm that I did see the
leaks, and I was shocked and angry by it. I tried to keep my mind open and just
waited until the released date. (FAST FORWARD TO RELEASE DATE) Thankfully, my
dear friend who I call “Dutchman” bought the game on PS Store, and he
and I played the game together. I remembered to keep my expectation low because
I knew that I might be disappointed by it.
LET’S TALK ABOUT THE PRESENTATION
OF THIS GAME.
The story itself is divided to two perspectives. We play as the
grown-up Ellie, the main character; and Abby, the new character. There is Joel
too but Joel’s screentime as the main character is “limited”. The graphic of
this game is truly an improvement from its predecessor. It looks so beautiful
yet harrowing and of course, it has cinematic feels. The level of details is
also great, for example: after a snowball fight with children, we can see the
snow on the character’s model right where a snowball hit it. If it hit the bag,
there will be some snow left in it. Moreover, there are a lot of scenes where
we can play guitar, and the chords are animated perfectly. There are also a lot
of easter eggs that can be found throughout the game.
The gameplay mechanic is improved.
The listen mode is back again to give ability to see whether there is an
enemy nearby or not. The NPC AI is also great. The dogs can also sniff a sense
to find and locate where the player is hiding. The NPCs can also give an assist
to take down enemies.
From its technical aspect, this
game is fantastic in its own way. Lots of techniques have been improved and you
can use different styles to take down enemies. The level design of this game is
also huge and force the player to do exploration to find some collectibles.
NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE STORY
The story progression of this
game is pretty short to me. The dev said that PART II is a 30-hour game, but me
and Dutchman finished it on 19-20 hours of gameplay. We didn’t focus on finding
collectables because we’re too pissed and just wanted to finish the game and to
see how it all went down.
Like I said before, the story
itself is told by two characters. Ellie, who has grown up since the first game,
and the new character, Abby, whose identity is not much shown at the beginning.
The story is set in post-apocalyptic towns in the western United States, mainly
in Jackson, Seattle, and Santa Barbara, and it is also set five years after the
events of the first game.
The main theme of PART II is
about a cycle of hatred and revenge. YEAH! A cycle of hatred and revenge. The
intention of this game is surely to avenge a character’s death. YEAH! Avenge a
character’s death. WHY AM I REPEATING MYSELF?!! All right let’s keep it short.
These two playable characters have the same motive, to avenge their beloved
ones whose death was unacceptable. I kind of fucks with it, ok? Until the most
important character of the series got killed in the lamest way. Being beaten to
death with a golf club right after saving your asses from the hordes of
infected is one of the shittiest ways to die. THIS CHARACTER THAT HOLD THE MOST
IMPORTANT ROLE OF THE SERIES JUST DIED IN THE FIRST TWO HOURS OF GAMEPLAY IN
SUCH A HORRIBLE WAY. This reminded me of Glenn’s death in *cough* THE WALKING
DEAD. Who is not mad with this? Dutchman even stopped playing the game and
cursed a lot. And yeah, me too! But somehow, I kept playing it.
A game is great if players have an intense connection with its characters. This what made THE
LAST OF US really great. The character developments that they built were so
fucking amazing. The death of the main character of the series is affecting so
much players they don’t have a lot of guts to continue the game without the
presence of this character. I mean it’s still early to judge whether it is a
good or a bad decision to kill off an important character without finding out
more.
And yeah, as the story progresses
further, it gets so much better after the devastating and controversial moment.
The motivation is also getting clearer as we found out more about another
character. There are also tender and touching moments that can be found
throughout the game and they make us feel connected with the characters. In the
end, every character that has gone through this cycle of revenge, they are
equally defeated. No one wins anything. Just to give message that revenge gives
nothing but defeat. I and Dutchman felt the emotional experience that this game
gave and even after the game is over, there is something that still lingering
in our head in a very uncomfortable way.
The story is pretty good
actually. The flaws for this game include: the way that we have to see Ellie as the boss
fight, the characters’ treatments and the ending that could’ve gone so much
better, the brutality that we had to endured like killing guard dogs… shit
that’s truly hard, the hidden SJW agenda… oh my god, just make it stop! And the
last one is the dropping framerate, but yeah not really bugging me off.
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES. Since
this game is captured with motion capture technology, the actors’ performances
are really great. Shout out to Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, and Laura Bailey for
their captivating performance as Joel, Ellie, and Abby respectively. Shannon
Woodward as Dina is also deserved thumbs up.
Now, the final verdict.
Does this game deserve to be called
as a masterpiece? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Does this game deserve a 0 or a
3? This is a joke, right? 3 out of 10 just because of the death of the
important character? Man, believe me. You will miss out a lot if you don’t
continue the game.
“Pushing boundaries” is the right
phrase for this game. The technical aspect and the story really successfully gives players unnerving yet bold experience in many different ways. The presentation that this game shows is pretty rare for a video game. If a game offers you an experience that close like watching Schindler's List or maybe Game of Thrones, I mean why the hell not?
THE LAST OF US PART II
successfully gives an emotional roller-coaster ride. A well-told journey about
hatred and revenge, and also perspectives. PART II excels on its technical
aspects and improvements. Even though the story progression is not as strong as
the first game, it is quite enjoyable if you keep an open mind after the
controversial moment at the very early gameplay. The characters’ treatments and
the ending could have gone so much better.
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