Last of Us 2 Review: Not as Bad as You Think

 

Screen capture of Ellie from Last Of Us 2 (credits to Naughty Dog and its artists)

        It's been more than a year since its release date and I can't stop thinking about The Last Of Us 2 gameplay. This is I think a spoiler free review (at least on the first half) so if you haven't played it yet, or if you care about spoilers, you can just read the first half.

GAMEPLAY: Yeah it's good

    If you've played the first game, TLOU2 has some remnants of game strategies from the first one. Obviously, since the game is still about the zombie apocalypse, its gameplay still maintained the tactic of collecting items to craft weapons such as the smoke bomb and the molotov.

    The small light part which signals you when an enemy is almost detecting you also remained in the second game. There is also a lot of stealth (my favorite part) in this game especially when you start to play Ellie as your main.

    Defeating zombies (infected) is the same in this game except some new kinds were introduced. Clickers, runners and bloaters still exists. Since there is a virus, there will also be a mutation of new infected in this game. 

    There are also many strategies to think of when tackling a zombie. Either you face them head on using shotgun and/or bombs or you can shoot them with an arrow or crossbow.

    Speaking of weapons, there are a lot of varieties for each weapon depending on the character you are using.

    Ellie's gameplay

    Ellie is one of the recurring characters in this game aside from Joel and Tommy (I think Tommy's wife also appeared in the first game but I can't remember.) And she is much more depressed but grounded in this game. Anyway, I like her gameplay since it is more on stealth because her weapons are usually subtle except for the shotgun. 

    I guess I like her gameplay more when I fight humans rather than the infected because humans are usually easier to beat when using subtle fighting techniques. When I fight with a lot of enemies in one location, I usually use the bow and arrow and/or place the trap mines at some specific areas to beat the enemies.

Ellie's weapons (by rank): Bow, Pump Shotgun, Bolt-Action Rifle, Semi-auto pistol, revolver

    Abby's gameplay

    Abby is a new character in this game. If you've watched the trailer, she is the muscular girl with braided hair. A blonde muscular girl so it is safe to say her approach would be more on the loud and brutal side. I like using Abby when fighting with zombies. She uses brute strength to kill her opponents especially when she fights with stalkers (which I will get to it later). It is also good to use melee abilities when you are running low on ammunition later in the game.     

    Abby's weapons (by rank): Hunting pistol, Semi-auto rifle, military pistol, crossbow, double barrel shotgun

    Added touch

    It's been a long time since I've played the first game and I don't remember if it has added features such as permadeath and unlimited ammunition. In this sequel, there is an option to choose unlimited bullets, unlimited resources and, etcetera. I haven't tried all the options but Naughty Dog went all out for this one. I like how even after the game itself is already unique, they still give you options to improve your gaming experience.

    Also, you can improve your weapons (again, can't remember this feature in the first game) but there are limited workshops all over the game's locations so you can add more features. You can add a scope to your weapons and/or adjust the firing capacity.

    Humans vs infected

    You will get to fight more humans than infected probably because of the storyline (which will be a spoiler alert keep in mind). I guess I enjoyed more fighting the infected since there's thrill. Sometimes fighting humans have a little pattern to them but it's fun when you repeatedly play the game at a different difficulty plus the unli ammo.

    Types of infected 

    (I can't tell the difficulty on humans because I might give spoilers on the story so let's stick to abilities of the infected)

    Clickers, runners and bloaters were still in this game and tactics in killing them are the same. Clickers are still annoying and killing them with shiv is the stealthiest way. 

    My favorite would probably be the stalkers. They are not that scary but they are really difficult to find since they attack in hidden areas. 

    Now for the new types. In the second game, Shamblers, are medium-sized bloaters. The difficult thing about them would be releasing the infectious pores before they die so keep in mind to go as far away from them as possible once you kill them. They are somewhat difficult to attack since one bomb isn't enough or one bullet in the head isn't enough unlike runners and clickers.

    Finally, the Rat King. This is the main infected which is absolutely difficult to beat. In my first try, I had about multiple deaths before finally finishing the huge son of a bitch with a flamethrower. I wish there were more Rat Kings in this game.

    Killing the dogs (sadly)

    The dogs being killed in this game is heartbreaking for me at first because, as a dog lover, they should never suffer. However, it kind of reminded me of Atlanta series' episode wherein Darius brought a dog in the shooting range and a lot of white people complained. Then, Darius said if people can practice shooting on people, why can't I shoot dogs? So yeah, there's that Philosophy here.

    Anyway, I did enjoy the thrill of these dogs because they are able to track you down when you hide even when you do a stealth mode approach against their humans.

This is the first half so if you haven't played it yet, stop here.

MISCELLANEOUS: Some characters and story elements are bleak, lacking

    For an action-adventure game, I think Last of Us 2 has some kind of arcade element on it. Precisely because it lacked depth on the plot because for me, it focused more on the game strategies and how it improved it from the first game (not that the game strategy in the first game was bad). 

    The story was rushed in my opinion, at least on Abby's part. Maybe it's just me but I didn't hate Abby or even got sad about her story. I think there was lack of representation and I didn't have anything to care about her character.

    TLOU 1 had more creative story, as it focused more on Joel and that the idea was raw. We were introduced to new characters and somehow connected with them. It worked and played well despite the depressing ending. 

    TLOU 2, however, put too much sidestories that didn't give much importance in the game. Some sidestories in the first game worked because it was interesting and the narration was effective. But the second game's characters were less interesting especially Abby's arc.

    Ellie's lament

    The game starts off with Joel dying  by Abby and her friends due to a long overdue revenge. Ellie also had a fight before with Joel, which was related to the latter saving Ellie without asking her consent to be discharged from the risky experiment. 

    I understood Joel's concern in the story but it was also very unfair for Ellie not to be informed about it. Basically, after the fireflies were killed, Ellie and Joel's relationship became colder. Ellie needed a clear answer and when Joel admitted what he did, things didn't work out.

    The two already reconciled but only days before Joel's death, which was a bittersweet process.

    Abby's (boring) story

Credits to Naughty Dog

    When the game first released the trailer with Abby in it, I was excited to see fresh characters as it would show more adventures. At first, I thought Abby was Ellie's distant relative or something since the first game did not much divulge much on Ellie's past. Sadly, Abby's story was rushed. 

    Abby was the last of the fireflies members who survived from Joel's ambush in the hospital. Her father, Jerry, a leader of the fireflies and was an NPC during the first game, led Ellie's supposed surgery. Joel killed him in the first game but wasn't given much attention. Abby grew and moved on from the fireflies. In these terms, we didn't really had much time to feel for Abby because we didn't have time to flesh out her personality. 

    Call me heartless  but there was something lacking about Abby's story for me to care about her father's death. It felt forced for me to understand or even root for her when she is not even an interesting character. I have no issue about her seeking revenge because it's part of the story, which I will explain later. 

    Her only personality was to seek revenge and her love for her father wasn't even emphasized. But I did like the juxtaposition of how her Dad tried to save a zebra, which shows his concern about right to life. This justifies his belief that Ellie, the possible cure, will help save all of humanity. 

    To be honest, the pacing on her story was also quite difficult to understand since there were bits and pieces of flashbacks on her relationship with Owen. It's necessary to build the reason why they broke up but honestly, I don't think people have the appetite to care about it anyway since Owen is not a main character. 

    At some point, I actually wanted to stop playing her not because I hate her character but her story was really bland. It was like trying to find an excuse about how can we move Abby away from these two characters (Owen and Mel) who will be killed by Ellie later on.

    Villains are underwhelming (Rattlers, WLF and Seraphites or Scars)

    There are three villainous groups here in TLOU 2; Rattlers, WLF  (Washington Liberation Front) or Wolves and Seraphites or Scars.  I don't think I can consider Abby as a villain since she is an anti hero but we'll get to that later.

    First let's get to the WLF. This is kind of like the opposite of fireflies in my opinion because they are the military and Abby as well as her love interest, Owen, joined the movement. I don't really care about this group because I didn't really understand what they are fighting for except they are having this land grabbing issue with Seraphites? Those are the two things clear to me. But, these stories are not really directly linked to the main characters. 

    Abby only wants revenge and after she got what she wanted, her next arc was to search for Owen, who went AWOL. He was also accused of killing his own WLF companion, which Abby said that she could've done it too. Then there was this torture part that I couldn't understand like some soldiers or whatever being interrogated and for what? It seemed so unclear and a story that keeps going but there is really nothing to deliver or really nothing to do with Ellie nor Abby.

    That scene with Isaac and those people being tortured, Abby was like "oh okay I don't care gotta find Owen," which is kind a messed up. I think it's better off that they did not divulge more about that side stories of WLF, and more of making it clear for their battle against Seraphites. 

    Meanwhile, the Seraphites, whose direct enemies are the wolves, is kind of like a cult with members wearing brown robes. It still wasn't that much discussed in the story and this villainous group is again a cookie cutter of WLF but make it ancient military or something for that matter. I feel like the game could've just focused on the Seraphites itself and show its history instead of just being this group that antagonizes the WLF.  

    Lastly, the Rattlers were the most underwhelming of all. They were just introduced at the end where Abby and her new friend, Lev, who is also a former Seraphite, were kidnapped. At the end of the scene, when Abby finalized her revenge against Ellie, she again turned to Owen's goal to find the rest of the Fireflies. Upon reaching a neighborhood in Sta. Barbara, Rattlers attacked her and Lev, leaving the two tortured and crucified. 

    When Ellie found out about Abby's last location, she head on to Sta. Barbara, where she was almost caught by Rattlers but she managed to outsmart them. From what I'm seeing, Rattlers are just Hunters 2.0, I think? But they are far more worse since they torture the infected and they also instantly kill their prisoners. However, all these groups are too much for me. I think they are just facades and shouldn't the infected be the background of the story. 

    TLOU 2 actually became The More of Us than The Last of Us since it showed that there are more humans than infected. They should really already be depressed since there is an zombie apocalypse happening but instead there are more groups that failed to deliver or failed to perform or even influence the main characters.

    Epic battle vs infected but for nothing

    One of the most climactic fights here in the game was Abby's battle at the intensive care unit in the hospital. The area was where the first infected was being treated and in that area there are a lot of jump scares of zombies sticked to the wall and Abby had to go through alone. It gave me goosebumps and it was really frustrating and fun to play as you also face the "Rat King," which I explained before. 

    However, all these steps of fighting huge, terrifying and ugly-ass infected were just really excruciating when you found out that the goal of finding this medical equipment turned to waste since the person who needs it, Lev's sister, Yara, the injured Seraphite member, also died after she was shot multiple times by WLF at the end.

       When I played that I couldn't understand why they had to kill her. Was it to add more drama or was it to just inconvenience the player of after multiple times of being neck-twisted by the Rat King? All of these long hours of playing were for nothing. I don't think killing Yara was necessary since one of the goals was to try to save her.

Needs more context

     Overall, I guess the story in this game didn't work because Joel and Ellie were more of the main characters. Letting someone in who lacked depth and was really boring like Abby and her life story with her father etcetera did not work. I guess for me, if the game developers really wanted Abby to be played in the game, there should be less stories about her and more of Ellie. I could be wrong, but I don't see people getting interested of playing a third sequel to TLOU 2 wherein Abby is the main lead. The end of TLOU 2 where Ellie lost Dina showed that she finally moved on and that her story is over. 

    There are also more hours of gameplay for Abby, which for me were the most boring scenes in the story.

    Either TLOU3 can show more interesting characters with a heart-wrenching story or just make TLOU 2 its last game. 

    THE GOOD THINGS ABOUT THE STORY

    Of course, not all the characters are boring. Some parts of the story were also well-developed and well -balanced. 

    Ellie's relationship with Dina

    The dynamic of these two are great. Even Dina as an NPC was really some kind of helpful. Plus, I like that the game made her vulnerable near the end of the first half, to allow Ellie to fight on her own since Dina, who is pregnant, shouldn't really be killing so much infected or humans. 

    It was also a nice touch to show their happy moments during the party near the end of the game. The one shown on the trailer, it showed Ellie's fleeting moments before the reality she faced that she could've been happy with Dina.

    I also like how the game made Dina transitioned from dating Jesse to Ellie (or is she bisexual? I'm not sure) but basically it showed gender representation.

   Further, Ellie's ex-girlfriend Cat was also a good attribution to the story.  

    Cycle of revenge: Tommy is the real villain 

Credits to Naughty Dog

    Before writing this, some months ago, I watch Cosmonaut Quickie's review of TLOU 2. I completely agree with his saying that the ending was good because it showed that revenge is a bad idea.

    Abby's thirst for revenge got in the way with her happiness with Owen. After she killed Joel, she felt empty and she was haunted by it. Her thirst for revenge made her life less complete. 

    After Abby's revenge, the cycle went on. Ellie went after Abby but instead she went after Owen and pregnant Mel, whose killing gave her anxiety. 

    Ellie's revenge paid a price once again, as Abby managed to track them down, killing Jesse and injuring Tommy.  Abby almost killed Dina but with Lev's help, her bloodlust was gone and let Ellie and Dina go.

    Abby, who will almost find new family, was suddenly kidnapped by Rattlers. It showed yet again that revenge is not the right answer.

    Now for my final point. I think Tommy is the real villain because his wife already left him and his body was already heavily injured and yet he forced Ellie to go after Abby. If he didn't arrive, I wouldn't have to play more against Rattlers. Ellie was already happy with Dina in their little farm. And revenge once again consumed them all.

    Some people were also mad about how Ellie didn't "finish the job" but for me it showed that Ellie was able to accept that hatred isn't the answer, that she should move on as Joel already found his peace somewhere, whereas Abby is also moving on.

    I also like the flashback where Joel and Ellie finally reconciled at some porch somewhere.

    Despite not killing Abby, Ellie still lost her chance to have family because of revenge. However, I think that was still pretty big of her to not pursue killing the person. 

FAVORITE PARTS

GRAPHICS AND MUSIC: Kinda like post apocalyptic broadway

    I adored some music elements as a person who loves singing and listening to new tunes. I most especially like Ellie's rendition of Take on Me (which I fucking skipped the first time I played it, by the way). I like that small touch that Ellie plays the guitar and some other parts of the story.

    I really like the sceneries as well though sometimes I get lost but I have no issue with exploring areas and bits of puzzles because the scenes are murky, old and post apocalyptic. 

    NPCs reactions, small detail

    The attention to detail was also very nice. From the character design to the setting. I like how when you kill someone in the neck, blood gushes out from the NPC through the neck. And some NPC would beg for mercy when you almost go for the kill, and they beg you not to shoot them.

    Some small dialogues from the enemies like telling Abby that she's a traitor when it was Abby's turn to save Lev and Yara from the WLF members, her former companions.  

    The whistling from Seraphites was a nice added touch to show their signal to their members. It kind of adds a mystery on how they'll attack you or if they spotted a character who died.   

   Photo mode

    Photo mode is my favorite part sometimes I would spend minutes to just get the perfect shot of Ellie's crying scene or Abby's revenge scene. It was all fun to capture a perfect moment or take a photo of the scenes. 

    I think I captured photos of most of Ellie and Joel's adventure in the museum which was really emotional and heartbreaking, knowing that Joel died and that their relationship suddenly got ruined.

    Small notes about survivors

    There were some mini stories that was showed in passing such as this note that the archer turned stalker you find in a basement is actually someone who protected his neighborhood from the WLF but somehow got betrayed in the end. 

    There was also a cute note on a Seraphite who ran away from the religious cult.

    Some interesting notes in Ellie's journal as well such as when she was missing Dina's daughter and her journey before getting to Sta. Barbara, which I wished I played but I guess it was already an overkill to add extra hours to an already exhausting gameplay from Abby.

For me, I wouldn't grade TLOU 2 because it is really difficult to create a sequel from a story that was so raw and emotional, leaving people so devastated in the end. I guess kudos to game creators since I still had some fun when playing this game and discovering more game tactics. I'm pretty sure the third part is going to be difficult to make or I don't really know how creators will respond from all the criticisms. 

That's my review, I have nothing else to add! Thank you for reaching until the end of this part.