Micah Whipple

I finished The Last of Us 2 last night. I'm a long time Naughty Dog fan so, unsurprisingly, they've once again made a truly impressive experience. Not only in their narrative execution but visual depth and variety. I have some thoughts. Spoilers ahead.

The story was well told, and I though the evolution of character motivations changing through flashbacks was well done. It actually made me feel real feelings. I don't think a game has ever made me misty eyed before, ever, but the scene of Ellie leaving Dina was impactful.

BUT! I think it was impactful because I so much disagreed with Ellie, and so much wanted her to not leave. And that's one of the issues I have. The game is bleak upon bleak, and the message to me is that humanity is flawed and we can't help but hate, and kill, and to conquer.

So as the player I'm forced to repeatedly press Square to carry out actions that I don't want to. My lack of agency, in a character blinded by revenge, was never satisfying. I know Ellie cares Joel was murdered and wants to burn the world, but I don't.

I thought playing from Abby's perspective was extremely well done, and I felt real empathy for her. But that made playing from Ellie's perspective feel even hollower. Now I the player have insight into Abby's character and motivation, and still have to press Square. No options.

Redemption stories are very played out of course, but redemption for the villain certainly felt novel. However, even at the beginning of the game, Joel being murdered, I thought "Yeah, that seems fair for dooming humanity." So I was already set up to root for Abby.

By the end of the game I didn't empathize with Ellie. The opposite. I felt she absolutely should have failed for bad decisions. Anyway, I got through it. The game had a... nearly hopeful ending. Maybe? But not really satisfying, just a set up for Part III.

One gameplay gripe was ammo. Ammo was a total limit instead of inv + clip. So you could only hold, say, 8 shotgun rounds total. Even if you loaded 2, you couldn't pick up 2 more. Which made it feel game-y. It dinged my immersion consistently.