What the heck is going on?

Summary:
The Last Of Us Part 2 was a pretty interesting cookie to watch crumble through my very own fingers. A dry, poorly crafted and ridiculously executed cookie. This story was a far cry from what it needed to be as the successor to the original game, The Last Of Us. Falling flat on its face to almost anyone that wound up playing it, it became a sad husk of the original. The developers seem to favor that the game is some work of art as they took a risk telling a grim, depressing story. After playing the entire campaign, I as well as others will see that the game will forever live in the shadow of the original story in the first game. There isn’t anything amazing that can be said that hasn’t been beaten into everyone’s head about how this rendition of a sequel was a flop and how it didn’t have to be what it became. So, I won’t expand on the super obvious or the super drawn out points that relate to integral storytelling and character development. Rather, just focus on what the story, the journey, the adventure of a 7 year developed game has brought me. I purchased the deluxe version and had the game ready to play on release day.

Graphics:
This will be one of the final games to grace the PlayStation 4 in it’s last few moments alive before the PlayStation 5 makes its debut during the holiday of this year, 2020. There is something to be said about these last, final releasing juggernaut games of this generation. They can single handedly take on the whole generation of the console and demonstrate what the machine can generate for graphic fidelity with raw processing power. The graphics are present at an extreme quality with no deviation while playing the entire game of Last of Us Part 2. I do mean that from start to finish, the game is a true marvel and a wonderful representation of knowing the platform that you are developing on. The character models, the scenery, the landscaping with level design are breathtaking at the least. The attention to detail for a weapon, a note, a ruined piece of fabric are all widely available for the player to see. Naughty Dog’s team took the time to make sure the game would run, albeit 30 frames a second, with a beautiful presentation. The foliage is optimized, the rain is hand crafted to the dripping animation off a nearby leaf. It’s all magical and fantastic. Words will only carry so much of the astonishment the team has carefully crafted for us so much so that it must be something seen for oneself. Well done and cheers all around.

Sound:
A soundtrack and atmosphere in a video game is just as important as being in anything else with media. I’m glad to say that the the sound is quite fantastic and detailed. Similar to the imagery on a graphical level, the sound design is setting high expectations for other companies to follow.
During the game, you will hear the rain beating off a car, grass and trees moving in the wind, the gun fire that will rattle your ears and more. With that being said, the voice acting is superb. I had no trouble listing to the characters communicate in all scenarios. Another standard to follow in the industry. I liked the visuals and the sounds alike with belief that no one will be disappointed in these categories.

Gameplay:
If it isn’t broke, then don’t fix it. A statement that is truer that ever with the Last of Us Part 2. There isn’t any new innovation for this second entry compared to the first. Now, “any” might be taken literal but there is SOMETHING new. Just as a whole, there wasn’t something introduced that makes the game really stand out from the original experience. Same UI, same inventory, same crafting, same enemies (besides a few), same battle sequences, same tactics and more. The game has a prone mode while crouching to reach new creative solutions to the battle and exploration but that was about it. The AI was fair and proved to be a challenge here and there. Companion AI could have done with more research and explanation to why they are so intrusive to the stealth of the gameplay. By which I mean that they can hog a section of cover that might be best for you as the player to hide behind instead and you will have no choice but to look elsewhere for cover. That and the partner you might have will be touching an enemy with no consequences all throughout the game as they are invisible. I found myself not focusing hard on the gameplay as it was not refined or changed to the point of re-educating myself. This isn’t a fault but simply a moot point in the review and doesn’t change my opinion for the review as a whole.

Story:
This story is by far the hardest to touch, critique and criticize for the masses. I will try to just touch on why the story is awkward, silly, and annoying to the point that it doesn’t make the price point for entry feel good at all.

Let’s just knock it out as it’s framed above.
Awkward – The story has 2 perspectives that have equal game time and will honestly confuse the heck out of you when the flashback story telling begins. What time period are you in? What is the message of that flashback? Who are these characters? Actual questions I asked myself while playing. The game takes a nose first dive into the inception-like storytelling while trying to give the player clues and background on what is happening in the present. At some point you are put further back in time during a flashback, so this means going to a previous time THEN going backwards in that timeframe. I don’t understand this duck taped solution to inform the player of history and context. The game is riddled with traveling between times. I felt myself lose interest in the setting of the story because the point seemed worthless and I wanted to be in the present. Recapping has a limit in my opinion, they broke the limit and paid for this mistake.
Silly – Having a coherent story is something that the first game locked down and held onto strongly. We understood who the characters were, what they felt, where they were going and the critical choices that they made. It made sense and there was little concern to the authenticity of the storytelling and direction. There is no such concept in the sequel. I will summarize this and sum it up to the plot armor. Plot armor being the ‘shield’ that stops a character from taking a drastic turn like dying in a game or movie. The sequel has several moments where Ellie, Abby, Joel, and friends should have died but didn’t for ridiculous reasons. Moments when the enemy should have made a move that made SENSE but did not. Other examples are some stupid observations that cause the character to seem extra foolish than what they were in the original story. Motives that change on a gust of wind or start up like a wild fire out of nowhere with no real meat behind them. No purpose that can dignify the rationality and choice to pursue what the characters go after.
Annoying – To combine the top two points, the annoying side of the story is the whole gimmick of the sequel itself, playing as another character that is NOT Ellie. Playing as this character in a order of events that was not logical for any stimulating emotions to be manifested naturally. As if you have tried to watch a beloved movie in a chopped up format, switching the storyboard around to the point that you couldn’t possibly feel for the characters or the state of events at hand. Riddled with a confusion that leads to a rage while you play the game. There WAS a way to PROPERLY display the end goal of what the story is trying to describe. They just chose to arrange the material in a sequence of randomness where the player is hardly going to care about 50-55% of the story. There is no drug to inject into yourself to accelerate the empathy you are suppose to have for the second character, Abby. With all the flashbacks and content sprinkled throughout the game, it could have played out with structure that would have made more sense. The biggest take away after beating the game is how much they might have still, STILL needed to tweak to make the player not feel so empty. This includes changing the order of events but the story would have needed more changes (new scenes, pacing) to reach the final conclusion. I just can’t figure out what they were thinking.

Conclusion:
The Last of Us Part 2 did not fill a void in my soul that was thirsty, parched for a delicious story that would hold strong for the test of time. I can’t say I know much in the review field but this was not an experience that I can truly recommend to anyone that doesn’t want to rent their library of games. The experience of Ellie and Joel should have stopped at the first iteration with no lingering thoughts to what a sequel might look like. There was no need for this creation of media in the formula and presentation that Naughty Dog decided to show it through. Poorly executed in the story with holes the size of a planet that cannot be undone or forgotten. Even though the quality of design, sound and baseline framework of the game are phenomenal at the highest level of gaming, there is nothing without a compelling story.

4 A.M. Unscripted, First Thoughts – Retrospective