The Last of Us The Last Of Us 2

[OutOfBoose]

Not sure I'm ready to start over right away, but there's a gaping void in my day now. This game really consumed me for a while.

Spoiler

Regarding Abby, I don't think Ellie should have killed her. Abby's journey became very similar to Joel's, finding some form of redemption through protecting someone innocent and vulnerable. When the end comes, Ellie cuts Abby down and Abby immediately rushes to Lev's aid, demonstrating the same traits that Joel would in that situation.

If I'm being brutally honest, the better ending might have been for Ellie to lose again. Abby has someone's future to fight for, whereas Ellie turned her back on Dina and JJ to seek revenge again, after all the suffering it had already caused.

Though I liked the cast a lot for the most part, one character I was disappointed with was Tommy. He was such a solid brother in the first, and he still is here, but he is also the guy that Abby gets the drop on twice. He gets owned a lot in this. It was really sad to see him become so bitter and his relationship with Ellie deteriorate. I really hoped he would reconcile his feelings and his brother's shady past, and find some peace.

I had to catch a breath for couple of days. It's really emotionally draining experience.

Spoiler

Your idea about Ellie losing to Abby again is interesting. Love overpowers hate. But then I believe it would feel anticlimactic. Ellie fails at her revenge journey and still loses Dina. Plus it makes Abby invincible in a way. People might feel cheated, considering there's also angle of interactivity. Player agency. Maybe in a TV show or a movie that would be more fitting. Of course, the scene where Ellie says she wants to forgive Joel might put things in perspective for her after losing to Abby two times, but at the same time it looks like she was forced to forgive her because she can't defeat her.

 

[henzINNIT]

I had to catch a breath for couple of days. It's really emotionally draining experience.

Spoiler

Your idea about Ellie losing to Abby again is interesting. Love overpowers hate. But then I believe it would feel anticlimactic. Ellie fails at her revenge journey and still loses Dina. Plus it makes Abby invincible in a way. People might feel cheated, considering there's also angle of interactivity. Player agency. Maybe in a TV show or a movie that would be more fitting. Of course, the scene where Ellie says she wants to forgive Joel might put things in perspective for her after losing to Abby two times, but at the same time it looks like she was forced to forgive her because she can't defeat her.

Spoiler

Expanding on the pitch, I'd suggest Ellie wins the first fight but Abby escapes with her life thanks to Dina being threatened. That way Ellie has to live with the "what-if" and it better sets up the breakdown of Ellie's relationship.

Lets say:

-Each character's 3 days in Seattle play out as they do.
-Abby confronts Ellie at the theatre and the fight begins.
-You play as Abby for half of the fight, but you switch roles mid-way through and play Ellie on the other side of the fight.
-As Ellie, you win the fight but before you can make the killing blow, Lev threatens Dina to barter for Abby's life. Ellie reluctantly agrees to save Dina.
-Ellie and Dina's home life plays as is, except Ellie is now lamenting how close she got, and the desire to finish the job becomes too much.
-Ellie tracks and finds Abby and the rematch is on.
-This time you start as Ellie, only to switch to Abby. Abby wins because she has something to die for, Ellie loses because all she has left is to kill.
-Abby spares Ellie, who returns to her empty home a broken woman, but there's hope she can heal.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Spoiler

Expanding on the pitch, I'd suggest Ellie wins the first fight but Abby escapes with her life thanks to Dina being threatened. That way Ellie has to live with the "what-if" and it better sets up the breakdown of Ellie's relationship.

Lets say:

-Each character's 3 days in Seattle play out as they do.
-Abby confronts Ellie at the theatre and the fight begins.
-You play as Abby for half of the fight, but you switch roles mid-way through and play Ellie on the other side of the fight.
-As Ellie, you win the fight but before you can make the killing blow, Lev threatens Dina to barter for Abby's life. Ellie reluctantly agrees to save Dina.
-Ellie and Dina's home life plays as is, except Ellie is now lamenting how close she got, and the desire to finish the job becomes too much.
-Ellie tracks and finds Abby and the rematch is on.
-This time you start as Ellie, only to switch to Abby. Abby wins because she has something to die for, Ellie loses because all she has left is to kill.
-Abby spares Ellie, who returns to her empty home a broken woman, but there's hope she can heal.

Spoiler

I think mid-fight switches need to be justified narrative-wise. For example, when Ellie is ambushed by Abby in her day 3, Abby commands the situation. When Ellie confronts Abby in the finale, she has initiative. Plus I still feel conflicted about the part where she drops her revenge after a defeat. Like it's not her decision. And perhaps it's a bit out of character, because before that we saw Ellie as someone who doesn't compromise, no matter what. It just feels like she would heal her wounds and continue to pursuit her. And won't return home until it's done. Getting her ass whopped and suddenly she realizes "maybe I should try forgiveness instead, revenge is bad for my bones" is kinda not her.

 

[Iceman]

Appreciated pal. The father-daughter bond the original managed to capture was a tough act to follow. I did feel tremendous emotional investment in many places in part 2, but it is less focused on one core relationship so none of them are quite as well developed.

The combat is brutal. No two ways about it. I didn't feel it crossed the line over to pure gratuity, but it is very violent, very gory, and rendered in such detail that it can become uncomfortable. Killing dogs is probably the worst, and because they track you it is pretty difficult to avoid harming them. I tried killing all the other enemies first to see if the dog would run or become non hostile afterward, but alas it continued to attack. The nature of violence is baked into this story, so an argument can be made that this is all for the betterment of the game, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone who didn't wanna deal with it.

Thanks for the explanations on this. It really helps and gives me an idea what to expect. I’ll have to make sure I’ve got my big boy pants on as I was already feeling uncomfortable at some of the gameplay clips I saw but there’s no way I don’t want to experience this for myself, even if it isn’t easy.

 

[henzINNIT]

Thanks for the explanations on this. It really helps and gives me an idea what to expect. I’ll have to make sure I’ve got my big boy pants on as I was already feeling uncomfortable at some of the gameplay clips I saw but there’s no way I don’t want to experience this for myself, even if it isn’t easy.

Glad to help. I will add that I don't have the nerve for horror games in general, chickening out of the likes of RE2 or Alien Isolation. I don't have those issues with either TLOU game, where it's more tension and stark violence than all-out horror. If you're similarly inclined you may be alright. If you're more-so uncomfortable with the gory imagery in general, people get hurt and killed in many, many ways.

All that considered, I would strongly recommend the game. It's an experience in a way that few games are.

 

[Iceman]

Glad to help. I will add that I don't have the nerve for horror games in general, chickening out of the likes of RE2 or Alien Isolation. I don't have those issues with either TLOU game, where it's more tension and stark violence than all-out horror. If you're similarly inclined you may be alright. If you're more-so uncomfortable with the gory imagery in general, people get hurt and killed in many, many ways.

All that considered, I would strongly recommend the game. It's an experience in a way that few games are.

I’m fine with Resident Evil, Alien: Isolation, Mortal Kombat and Doom, stuff like that. Also the Tomb Raider reboot where Lara is new to all this and the first TLOU are fine. The gore in films like Immortals and 300 also fine. I guess part of it is when you are a soldier or professional you role play as being like them and used to seeing all kinds of stuff haha. Playing as an unarmed civilian in a horror game (who is supposed to be scared themselves) in a closed environment I can imagine finding tough. But it’s not really fear or RE style gore that I’m worried about in games as I’m used to that.

It’s regular civilian human (particularly child) killing other humans (or animals ) a bit too realistically, up close and graphically as opposed to CoD style where a bunch of points flash up. I don’t really like doing that and I don’t really like the character I’m playing as doing that, but if it’s done properly for the story it’s fine - I’ll just be uncomfortable throughout.

I particularly don’t like seeing things like bones breaking the wrong way, fingers being snapped or eyes being gouged even when it’s hero characters doing it who are supposed to be hardcore like Punisher and Daredevil. Even when the bad guy totally deserves it I’d much rather just see them getting beaten up in a regular way or shot.

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll definitely be playing it anyway after how good the first game was, but it might be in shifts where I’m ready to swap over to something else for a bit if it’s getting a bit much.

 

[The Joker]

Well I just finished it. I'm keeping this generally spoiler free. I think it took me longer to finish it than it did for most people here because I was only playing in small spurts, like an hour or two, after I got to the

Spoiler

Abby half of the game. Playing out her story just killed my enthusiasm.

I can honestly say this was a massive disappointment. The story being the biggest cause of that. It was a hot mess. Not one single new character was remotely as interesting or likable as the ones in the first game. That's not to say they were bad. Its just they did not match up to the likes of Tess, Henry and Sam, David etc.

Spoiler

Being forced to play as Abby in order to make us empathize with her after she does you know what did not work for me. I just resented being forced to step into this character's shoes and world half way through the story, and not giving a damn about her or her friends.

The gameplay was just a repeat of the first game. They didn't add anything significantly new to it. I wasn't expecting them to reinvent the wheel and totally stray from the original's gameplay, but some new things to spice it up would have been nice for a sequel that was 6 years coming.

This game also felt waaaaay too long.

Spoiler

Maybe its because Abby dominated the second half mostly, and I just wanted things to come to a head quickly. Even when I thought they did in one sequence between her and Ellie, the game was like nope you're not done. There's still more. We're dragging this out further.

The positives; visually the game is stunning. Beautiful graphics. They really outdid themselves. There's several legitimately intense and creepy sequences. The hospital one being a stand out. It actually raised the hairs on my neck. Playing that at 1am by yourself is intense as hell. Ashley Johnson was great again as Ellie. By far the best performer in the game.

Overall this was not worth a 6 year wait, IMO, and just felt like a massive missed opportunity for greatness. I wasn't even expecting them to hit the heights of the first game, because I feel like that was lightning in a bottle, but I did not expect them to fall so far short of it either.

 

[Snow Queen]

Please remember to put spoilers under spoiler tags. Game's been out less than a week and not everyone reads spoilers. If it's not on the box or in a trailer, just put it in a spoiler tag.

 

[Superhero 101]

Just finished it loved it from start to finish easily one of ND best games!! I can’t wait to jump back in but comparing it to the first I don’t think it can top it but it does come so close...9/10

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I am about halfway through the game:

Spoiler

Oh no, Ellie don't kill Nora like that. It's wrong. Please stop.

*Smashes square button beyond reason hoping I can hit her more then it actually registers*

 

[Slick]

"There's no plans" for The Last of Us 2 DLC | GamesRadar+

 

[OutOfBoose]

contains spoilers:
“It was one of the worst days of my life” - Neil Druckmann opens up on The Last of Us Part 2 leaks - VG247

 

[Iceman]

The Last of Us Part 2 sold 4m copies during opening weekend

 

[I Am The Knight]

Crazy.

 

[Iceman]

Yeah, I didn’t expect it to outdo Uncharted. Although I guess there are a lot more PS4s out there now. It shows how important this franchise is though.

 

[Filmfan93]

Just finished it.

Loved every bit! Glad i decided to get it despite reading some of the leaks and hesitating at first.

It all plays beautifully within context and it's a quite bleak and depressing game.

Rivals the first for me. Will definitely replay it at some point in the future.

 

[Superhero 101]

The Last of Us Part 2 sold 4m copies during opening weekend

Wow those are some good numbers

 

[Marvolo]

I think how many used copies end up dumped on the market in the coming weeks and how the sales drop off in the coming weeks will be more indicative of the financial performance of the game. But I know publishers tend to focus on initial sales so I doubt Sony and Naughty Dog cares. Theyve already got a chunk of cash from an unsuspecting and manipulated fanbase. Theyll be laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[FTCBIRDMAN]

I think how many used copies end up dumped on the market in the coming weeks and how the sales drop off in the coming weeks will be more indicative of the financial performance of the game. But I know publishers tend to focus on initial sales so I doubt Sony and Naughty Dog cares. Theyve already got a chunk of cash from an unsuspecting and manipulated fanbase. Theyll be laughing all the way to the bank.

Manipulated fan base? I'm a fan. I just finished it and Ioved it. I don't feel manipulated in the least

 

[Lily Adler]

Yeah, I didn’t expect it to outdo Uncharted. Although I guess there are a lot more PS4s out there now. It shows how important this franchise is though.

The first game is a near masterpiece dammit!

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Crazy.

Is it? It's the end of the life cycle of the system, it is the sequel to a really popular game, and we are in the middle of a pandemic, without a lot of big games coming out for a while.

 

[jmc]

I think how many used copies end up dumped on the market in the coming weeks and how the sales drop off in the coming weeks will be more indicative of the financial performance of the game. But I know publishers tend to focus on initial sales so I doubt Sony and Naughty Dog cares. Theyve already got a chunk of cash from an unsuspecting and manipulated fanbase. Theyll be laughing all the way to the bank.

That's actually where the true feelings towards this game will be known.

 

[jmc]

Manipulated fan base? I'm a fan. I just finished it and Ioved it. I don't feel manipulated in the least

It's pretty easy to see where the marketing towards this was misleading.

 

[OutOfBoose]

I think they got too precious with the idea that they had. For me it felt more like a gimmick, rather than something profound. Like an experiment on mice.

 

[FTCBIRDMAN]

It's pretty easy to see where the marketing towards this was misleading.

I didn't feel misled in any way. To say fans were manipulated is a pretty strong statement. The people who didn't like the game don't speak for all fans. I played through the first game at least ten times. I consider myself a pretty big fan and I never felt misled or manipulated.

I will say this, this game isn't fun if that makes sense. I think it's one of the best games I've played in a very long time but I'm not in a hurry to jump back into it. I was talking to a friend of mine and he asked me how it was. I compared it to Joker. I loved that movie. I consider it one of the best comic book movies ever but I haven't seen it since my initial viewing. It was so dark, unsettling and disturbing that even though I consider it a near masterpiece, I don't really want to watch it again if that makes sense. I will be putting in some time in the new game+ at some point, but I'm going to need a few days. This game really punches you in the gut