On July 19, the long-awaited The Last of Us: Part 2 from Naughty Dog Studios was released. We share another opinion about the sensational game.
The first part The Last of Us has entered itself into history forever, becoming one of the most remarkable and beloved console games. The cinematic plot, the theme of post-apocalypse and zombies adored by many (thanks to The Walking Dead), the engaging story and characters, as well as the most excellent combat system, gave an unforgettable experience. And the cherry on the cake was a morally controversial finale (we’ll talk about this global fallacy).
The Last of Us: Part 2 had to wait as long as seven years. Unfortunately, the intrigue regarding the plot of the second part was revealed before the release. Leaks stirred up the Internet. And then the hype began. Since many did not appreciate how the creators decided to develop the plot of the game, all this was reflected in the estimates after the release. While critics licked the game from head to toe, ignoring the flaws, ordinary players underestimated it and spread their righteous anger over the network. Some of them did not even complete the game, but the plot decisions injured them so severely that they concluded about the whole product.
- Review of “Kanobu” on The Last of Us: Part 2
I miraculously managed to avoid even minimal spoilers regarding the plot. So the approach to the passage of the game was not overshadowed by the knowledge of the merged information.
Caution, spoilers!
The cycle of revenge in nature
The main reason for the debate over the new part was the script. It was he who divided the people into two camps. The previous game could not boast of an original plot, but it correctly told a simple story, focusing on the catchy protagonists.
Inspired by Cormack McCarthy’s novel “The Road” and a film based on it, the game told a story more than once seen by everyone about survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Where the main threat has always been, is and will be precisely the people. You can put anything on the background. Although zombies, even aliens. Limited resources and the absence of law still lead to the same thing – the war of factions for resources and power.
The plot of the first part was the smuggler Joel, who had long lost his daughter at the beginning of the spread of the infection, which turns people into monsters, and Ellie is a girl immune to this infection. Joel must take her to an organization called Cicadas so that they can make out the case and make the vaccine. During their journey, the heroes come together, risk their lives for each other, confront bandits, cannibals and various types of infected, but still get to their destination.
But there is a shocking surprise for Joel – Ally is going to be killed in the name of saving humanity. Since the operation can only be performed by opening the brain. Frustrated by deception, having again experienced his fatherly feelings, Joel cuts out all the Cicadas and rescues Ally, hiding from her the truth about what happened. This is what caused the heated debate after the release of the first part. But is there anything to argue about?
The correct perception of the ending is very important for understanding the shortcomings of the plot of the second part. In fact, in the end, there is nothing controversial. Firstly, there is no guarantee that they will make 100% medicine and save the world. This is just one of the scenarios. Another – Ally will die just like that. Secondly, it is murder. You can hide behind anything, but the fact remains – the Cicadas wanted to kill a little girl. She was not informed about the features of the operation; she was simply deprived of a choice. Well, how can such characters be called positive? Or Ozimandia from the Guardians is also a hero? It is so convenient to talk about the necessary victims when these victims are not you and not your relatives.
So Joel’s act was 100% justified. But the daughter of one of the dead believes otherwise. Four years later, we come to an event that became the starting point for the entire main plot of the second part – the murder of Joel’s beloved by everyone.
The frustration of people can be understood because they fought with all the misfortunes the whole first part so that he would survive. And here he is simply killed in the game clip at the very beginning of the game. The idea itself is quite working. Revenge and its consequences. But the problems began precisely in the details.
Joel, along with Tommy, were pretty numb, because they trusted in unfamiliar people. As if there were no cannibals from the first part, from which Joel took Ellie. Over the past time, the world was supposed to pacify? To justify this with weather conditions is a so-so idea. Heroes faced big problems. After all, everyone remembers that people are worse than the weather and zombies. Well, not everyone, Joel and Tommy forgot about it.
From staging and acting, there are no questions. She was powerfully delivered. The game skillfully manipulates the primary emotions of the players, awakening in them a righteous hatred of the new character Abby, who killed Joel. And then begins the bloody path of Ellie, who, in search of the culprit, kills everyone who comes across her path. The grey characters in the face of the girl Dina and her ex-boyfriend Jesse help her in this. Until Abby finds them. Then, at the time of the conflict, we are rolled back to show the story from a different perspective.
The creators want to convince the player that Ellie is a small beast, to whom nothing is more important than revenge. She just grinds everything in her path. And some even manage to convince. Only there is one problem with this – Ellie gives everyone a choice. She needs information about Abby, but every time she does not shoot right away but asks a question, she begins to attack, which leads to the death of the opponent. So all her actions are dictated by logic. And in this regard, these manipulations with the position of the slain look rather pathetic. This girl was pregnant, and this is just a doctor, but this one is still very young, she just played a game, and she was scared by a cannon, and this guy was just tired of the war. They all rushed to the attack first and therefore died.
The sad thing is that we observe all these excuses and whitewashing of the opposing side during the ten-hour gameplay for Abby. It seems that the “Wolves” are just an organization of saints. Even their leader Isaac is a supporter of compromises, but, tired of the constant wars with the “Scars”, he decides to end them forever. And well, they would try to show us good colleagues Abby, who in history have not gone far from cannon fodder. But the player still wants to force Abby to fall in love with all her might. How is this even possible after we find out that she knew that her father was going to take the life of a child without his knowledge? She fully supports the position of the father. She even says that she would have sacrificed herself if she had been so special. Something about her fierce struggle for survival is not visible how easily she is ready to part with life.
In an attempt to make players even more fond of Abby, the creators make a fatal mistake. At some point, her path intersects with a pair of Scars children – Yara and Lev, who decided to leave the system and therefore became enemies of their people. For a while, Abby runs with them, they save each other’s lives, get closer. Just like Joel and Ellie. And at one point, Abby goes AWOL for them, and when her people find them and try to kill Yara and Lev, Abby calmly begins to cut her own. For the sake of a few familiar children. Doesn’t resemble anything? But she doesn’t care how she does it. Joel is not allowed, but she can. This completely ruins any positive attitude towards the character.
The second meeting with Ally ends in a fight in which Abby wins, but prefers a second time to spare. We fix: Abby has lost a whole cloud of dear people, she has come a long way to take revenge again, but for other people, only she changes her mind at the last moment. Leo asked. A few minutes ago she made a hole in Jesse’s head, but that’s different.
And they would each diverge in their own direction. Abby, who lost her home, Ellie, who paid for her revenge with the death of another close person. Here is a lesson. A similar theme was raised by “Death Sentence” with Kevin Bacon, where the protagonist received an even more terrible response as a result of revenge for his son, which cast doubt on his whole initiative.
But the story of Abby and Ellie continued. Worst way. Ellie decided to leave a cosy nest to cosplay Abby. That is, find, beat and let go. Having spent another 3 hours of the gamer’s life no matter what. Well done girls. They put each other in a mess and went away.
And what is it about this masterpiece that we did not see in the movie and the series/comic book The Walking Dead? Even the topic of mercy to the killer of a loved one was in one of the numbers of Walkers. As a result, we get stamps and time-stretching, as well as logical holes and not the most interesting new characters, so there is no smell of any masterpiece here.
It becomes doubly upsetting when you realize that you tried to hide all male characters to hell. It is especially incomprehensible how Isaac, the leader of the Wolves was constantly mentioned, but the character himself was not revealed at all in the plot. For Tommy, it’s completely offensive. For some time, one could give and play for him, because he eliminated some of the culprits himself. But strong female characters are in abundance, which is good, but it was not worth forgetting about men.
Bottle darts and parade violence
The gameplay in both parts of The Last of Us deserves a lot of compliments. A realistic approach to violence, an excellent combat system, which, in the second part, became only better. It was a great idea to give heroes less dependence on firearms. It felt like in the first part, from a certain moment, there was no particular need for cartridges, but in this case, each cartridge had to be considered until the very end of the game. And this despite the fact that I prefer close combat, even in the most absurd situations. It’s just that it’s been made so gorgeous here that I just wanted to do that to dodge and beat, and not shoot from a distance, as in the mass of other shooters.
Naturally, most of all I liked to fight for a protein tank on two legs named Abby. Stomp the heads of infected people, punch them from their feet and knees, and type them firmly into the wall. Her power is well felt during the game, especially in contrast with the brisk Ellie, who manoeuvres with lightning speed and tickles with her feather of her unwanted side.
Love for close combat almost played a cruel joke on me when I jumped into the basement without cartridges, where a smoke grenade and three people followed, one of whom kept a great distance and shot at me while the other two tried to hammer me with axes. I had to dance so weakly to kill both and not to get a bullet in such a cramped room.
At such moments, the game looks just great. And depending on the style of the play, such challenges can appear with excellent regularity. Someone shoots well, carefully shooting down enemies with arrows or a gun with a silencer, someone cleans locations by attacking from the back. For those who like aggressive exchanges with blows, close combat will give an unforgettable experience, especially if you mix it with the use of firearms. Then you can get very cinematic combinations.
They were throwing bottles and bricks in the face, shooting from a prone position, kicking some enemies from elevations and diving on others. Beautifully flying heads and shooting limbs – the game demonstrates cruelty in all its glory. And the fantastic exploding arrows and fire cartridges delight the eye with their effectiveness. But there must be a fly in the ointment in the honey game.
Stealth never got better. That is the first game there were claims to him, that in the second they were all relevant. Enemies periodically ignore the partner, the light of the flashlight, and sometimes even shots and other noise, while they are nearby. You can sit in the bushes point-blank to the enemy, and he will calmly go on. There was even a situation when I started a massacre in one house, and the nearby enemies didn’t even move to run to the aid of my comrades. They were attached to their place. And this has happened more than once. This, of course, is not such a bottom as in the first part, when I just threw bottles at the wall and killed, in turn, the idiots who came to the sound. They just went into the room, the kind of corpse did not bother them much, and then they themselves took the emphasis lying down.
A protracted study of the premises at times begins to get boring. The size of the locations increased, which means picking there began to take much more time. Initially, this is normal. You walk around, collect the necessary materials, kill the infected. Still, when you realize that for an hour and a half you just wander through the leaky premises in search of supplies, you begin to wait for some new situation. But it does not always occur. The following can expect precisely the same walk in the desert buildings.
Since the main topic games are people, then complaining about the variability of the infected does not make much sense, but I will complain. It would be nice if the affected would add a little variety to the battles. But this is not here. The fact that the Stalker chip is that they run away and hide, I learned after passing the game. I just smeared them like ordinary enemies. Not feeling fear that someone had escaped, then to get around me on the other side and attack.
Sharks are as slow as Toplyaki, they can only get their poison, but they kill quickly, and the spray radius is small. And the Rat King has one-shots and a lot of health. The battle with him was not much different from the errands from Toplyak. Dogs had potential, I thought, recalling my burning from the four-legged in the Resident Evil series, but they did not cause any problems either.
It was nice to ride a little boat, shoot a horse and even take part in a very short car chase. All these are just working situations that could be observed in other games, and also in the games of Naughty Dog herself.
And there is a lack of ingenuity in game situations. The self-repetition of the confrontation with the sniper speaks for itself. Potentially good boss battle with Ally turned into a meagre brawl with a small selection of actions, although the fight itself is competent, emotional. Otherwise, everything is beautiful, and in some places, even fantastic.
Green Hell
Locations, and indeed the world of The Last of Us has not changed much. Yes, and why would he change? Destroyed buildings, killed vehicles, again the level in the subway, again the level in the book (or what it was), again the hospital. The variety was introduced by the village and even a few locations.
For most places, the ubiquitous greenery is harmful. It floods the entire screen. There is a bush; there is a bush; there is an impassable bush. It is clear why, but it looks monotonous. I would like some historic location. Here, although they expanded the area for the player’s travel, it’s not difficult to bump into the barriers. The good news is that the location architecture sometimes plays against the player. The interiors of some buildings are made in such a way that in most places, enemies can immediately climb on three sides. What can make passage difficult for those who like to defend themselves from shelters?
But the rest of the location remained at the same quality level. The decline of civilization is correctly displayed, and the design of those infected still looks creepy, it’s a pity that there are few species.
On the one hand, this is a high-quality project from a technical point of view. It looks beautiful, the direction of the scenes is on top, the gameplay has not become worse, but only acquired new chips, but a banal and protracted story along with tiredness from monotonous situations does not allow it to be enjoyed usually. The player is continuously distracted by flashbacks. Some are tedious, and calmly could just clip.
It’s scary to say that, but I can’t call the game either excellent or even good, although it has a lot to be like. She is iconic and deserves attention. But when you get tired of playing the game 3-4 hours before its final, although there were no such problems with the first part, then the creators did something wrong.
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