Overview

From the end of the last generation to the end of the current one, The Last of Us has left a lasting impression. Part II is an improvement in nearly every fashion, truly testing the bounds of interaction and emotion. Nothing can sour the experience that a player is meant to have where character repercussions blur the line between who and what is right or warranted. With gameplay that is much more fluid and encounters even more harrowing, The Last of Us Part II is worth the wait.

Story

The story begins a few years after the end of the prior game. All things considered Ellie has been able to live a peaceful life, until of course the game throws conflict into it. The game does a. wonderful job of extending the themes of the first game, but there are so many ways that is subverts expectations. The first game was really two characters that did the heavy lifting, with two or three more providing the humanization (or dehumanization in one particular case) that allowed both joel and Ellie to grow and are at their best when their interactions with one of either Ellie, Joel or another character, explains their emotions towards a third party. It's the type of storytelling not seen in video games, but it elevates the emotional understanding considerably.

Suffice it to say, The Last of Us Part II story elements were a fantastic choice. The central theme of revenge is effective and for once its toll is explored. Video games by nature have a hard time telling a story with also having the gameplay that is reflective within the story. Many games feature a hero that kill hundreds if not thousands of enemies, humans or other living beings yet still are cracking wise in the next cutscene. It makes sense, in order to have compelling gameplay, shooting or slashing enemies is required. The Last of Us Part II, set in this harsh world and the cost it takes is refreshing, if not filled with dread.

A somewhat controversial part of the game is also the most fundamental reason that the storytelling is so engrossing with an ending that is both complete, wrapping up much of Joel and Ellie's journey, but leaves room for more. Just as the first game had a somewhat open end, if there never was a second part it left a great ponderous ending. What Part II does is unprecedented for a video game and impressive for any medium. The way it makes you feel,crucial and displays how perspective is so crucialdisplays is quite an achievement.

Technical

Considering the first game's remastered version still looks incredible it is no surprise that Part II is in the top tier of this generations best looking games. Many have used The Last of Us Part II as a a litmus test versus the next generation game trailers that have come out, many times exceeding their graphical technology.

Perhaps most impressive are the character models and animation. Naughty Dog has always had stellar motion capture which is the case here. It's not just the cutscenes (which are so well acted it barely resembles a video game) but the gameplay animations have a great weight and physical representation that, combined with camera work really brings the player into the fray. One of the new gameplay components is a dodge. Dodging attacks isn't a standard skip or strafe or even a roll away, the camera moves in close and the character moves like a boxer in the ring, moving in and out and down. It's personal and the stellar animation makes it so.

Environments are more varied this time around. You've still got your snow and derelict city streets but there are forests with dense and lush foliage that makes for cover, soaked in rain, puddles splashing and there is dry terrain with very little foliage with sun burnt and cracked streets. These environment are much more open and therefore graphical hints for which interactions are important but almost every thing here works well and is not for show. A stunning looking game.

Music

Unlike so many epic games, where music is a grand orchestral arrangement, The Last of Us Part II is more subtle. It was impossible to not feel the tension as the slow building bass came through the speakers, pumping harder along with your heart. It is reminiscent of John Carpenter’s theme for The Thing and these moments are just perfectly accented by that thumping.

The rest of the score is mostly accented by the familiar guitar plucking and strumming with a nefarious tilt. There are moments where Ellie or Joel are playing the guitar and combined with the absolutely believable motion capture of the guitar playing these soft moments, while underlined by a kind of despair are also beautiful. A game of such dread, death and hopelessness need these moments. The guitar itself is so important to the relationship to Joel and Ellie and the player even gets to partake in the music themselves, using the guitar to play notes and even compose their own songs if they wish. In many ways, music, through the guitar, is just as important to the storytelling and character growth that without it, The Last of Us Part II would be much closer to ‘just another zombie game.” Thankfully, that’s not the case.

Gameplay

For the most part, gameplay remains the same except that every nuance is improved. Managing your inventory and crafting items is only cumbersome because it adds tension when in the middle of a fight, yet it is slightly improved in terms of speed, it’s completely intentional. Items are still littered around the environments, and with bigger open spaces there are more places for them to be found and totally worth your time because using your full arsenal is not only imperative for success it is also really fun to get creative.

Perhaps the biggest improvement is the dodge system. In Part I if you didn’t have the appropriate weapon equipped or the enemy was too strong for hand to hand you had no change once an infected got too close. In Part II you can dodge, moving around like a boxer in a ring. It’s not one hundred percent effective, but it eliminates a lot of deaths where your stealth is broken or an enemy has a bead on you. In general Ellie is just much more maneuverable than Joel. She dodges, she dives and jumps obstacles more more fluidly and in addition she always has her knife. There are still times you’ll have to craft shivs, but not when playing with Ellie, it makes stealth that much more engaging, knowing you don’t have to avoid enemies if you have a chance to sneak up on them and take them down.

Overall, combat scenarios are much more enjoyable. Much less about survival as it is about planning your attack, especially against humans. Encounters with the infected feel like filler (although they are not) compared to the absolutely thrilling sequences when an enemy squad stands between you and your destination. Stealth is one route, but it requires so much patience that you’re almost encouraged to systematically take them down. This doesn’t mean full fire fights, but those are possible as well. Once you’ve cleared an area using your full arsenal of traps and weapons you sometimes will literally take a relaxed breath just like your on screen counterpart. The environments are much more varied than in the first game and there is just do much more interaction that takes place, besides more places to hide, there are so many more paths through open doors, broken windows (in which you can use the sound of shattering glass to distract enemies) and open forests with grass and legs providing cover and a place to hide. Dogs can sniff you out so moving around these environments a d trying to stay one step ahead is key to forging through.