The Last of Us Part II(spoiler warning for an infamous early-game twist, along with hopefully-vague spoilers of other story details)
This game is bigger and better than the first one in pretty much every way. The stealth and combat are tighter and more fluid, there are more cool weapons to use, and perhaps most importantly of all, each levels is so wide-open that it feels like there are a dozen different ways to clear them of enemies. Whether you're keeping in stealth, engaged in combat, or attempting to flee combat so that you can slip back into stealth, there are always several different routes you can take. Smash a window and vault into a building. Squeeze through a crack into another building. Go prone and crawl under a vehicle. I also really love the animations for the hand-to-hand combat and how many different variations for finishing off enemies there are, depending on your environment. The attempts at guilting the player by having enemies cry out the names of their dead friends or beg for mercy if they're badly wounded are transparently manipulative, but I still enjoyed them for their added realism. Some of my minor issues with the first game have been addressed, too - shotguns now feel as powerful as they should be, and the hundred or so instances of grab-the-nearby-pallet-so-you-can-climb-the-fence have been pared down to only two or three. I will say that there's a new type of infected that's a bit too much of a bullet sponge for my liking, and there are some brute-type human enemies that can withstand headshots, which doesn't at all make sense, but those are quibbles in comparison to what the game gets right.
Of course, the most controversial part of the game is the story. I'm certain that without the infamous leak of the scene of Joel's death (there was more in the leak, but everyone's attention was focused almost entirely on just that scene), there never would have been the ridiculous shitstorm from the capital-G Gamers and the obligatory review bombing once the game came out. Because the reality is that the people angry about the game weren't really angry about the actual story. What they were really angry about were the narratives they formed in their heads after the leak. They imagined that Neil Druckmann and Naughty Dog hated the first game, that they hated the fans of the first game, and that most of all, they hated Joel. They imagined that the story would be all about demonizing Joel and talking at the player about how he was a bad person and deserved what he got. And they imagined that Joel's death would be framed as a triumphant, heroic moment for his killer, a victory of feminism over toxic masculinity. None of this was true, of course, and as far as I can tell, precisely zero of the gamers who bought into these ridiculous conspiracy theories have admitted they were wrong about the conclusions they leaped to. Bear in mind that these are all largely the same people who have regularly insisted for years that gameplay and graphics are the only "objective" measures of a game's quality, and that details like story and theme are of very limited importance.
In the interests of fairness, I will address one argument that's frequently put forward by the they-hate-Joel theorists, which I can respect for at least being an actual argument and not just a gut feeling fueled by reactionary tendencies. It's summarized
here - basically, the Fireflies' hospital from the climax of the first game is shown to be more sterile and professional-looking in this game's flashbacks, thus manipulating us into thinking that the Fireflies were the undisputed "good guys" and knew what they were doing. It may be true that the devs tried to make the Fireflies look better in this game and gloss over their deficiencies and moral faults. But as far as Joel's decision to save Ellie goes - it doesn't matter. It never mattered. Joel didn't sit down and calculate the moral weight of saving Ellie's life versus the likelihood of the Fireflies being trustworthy and competent enough to produce a vaccine and factor in elements like the shabbiness of their hospital and their willingness to kill a child without even asking for her consent. Those details might help you feel that Joel's decision was morally justified, but they're not why Joel did what he did. Joel saved Ellie's life because he wasn't willing to let her die. God himself could have come down from heaven and told Joel that the vaccine was a guaranteed success that would save millions of lives, and it wouldn't have changed anything. That's also why Joel doesn't raise any of these arguments when Ellie finally confronts him. They didn't matter to Joel's decision, and both he and Ellie knew that.
That isn't to say that there's no room to criticize the story, of course. Personally, I take issue with the scene of Joel's death. Not because it shouldn't have happened, or because Joel needed to have a "heroic" death, but because it plays out in a very unrealistic way that seems to be entirely for the benefit of the player. The slow, protracted torture of Joel, the lack of an explanation (wouldn't you expect someone seeking revenge to tell their victim why they're killing them?) the grotesque use of a golf club, and the enthusiastic participation of everyone present all point to deeply malicious cruelty rather than righteous anger. The scene is calculated first and foremost to make the player hate Abby and her friends, and this is clearly done so that the transition to playing as Abby is harsher and the player's journey from hating Abby and her friends to eventually liking and sympathizing with them becomes all the more dramatic. But this comes at the cost of having their killing of Joel feel entirely out of character. Based on what we learn about her in her playable sections, I feel like Abby might beat her father's killer to death in a fit of passion, but she wouldn't coldly torture him to death slowly without turning a hair or even telling him why she's doing this. And Abby's friends might very well back her up if she told them she was trying to get revenge on her father's killer, but they wouldn't eagerly participate in such a grotesque scene of torture without anyone voicing a single qualm. The characters you get to know in Abby's playable sections are so unlike the people who killed Joel that they might as well be entirely different characters.
As far as the rest of the story goes, I think it's good, but not great. Killing Joel off is a sensible decision that not only helps pass the torch to Ellie, so to speak, but also helps distinguish the franchise from the many, many other games with a similar "badass loner hero becomes a protector of a special child/young woman" premise. Unfortunately, they replace that premise with one that's no less well-worn - the cycle of revenge. From the start of the game, you can already tell where the story is going to go, at least thematically if not in terms of plot. It's not a spoiler if I tell you that Ellie's quest for revenge costs her many of her friends, she's deeply scarred physically and emotionally by her experiences, and the final scene of the game is a bleak, moody one where the player is primed to think,
Wow, I don't think that Ellie is any better off by trying to seek revenge. None of this was worth it. By contrast, there's a reason why games keep revisiting the concept of a tough loner who learns to love again through the influence of a child or young woman - it's very well-suited to video games, and it's an inherently hopeful story that feels good to experience. Still, the gloomy story is executed well for what it is, there are some very stark, powerful moments throughout, and there's something fittingly tragic in how Ellie and Abby never find out about each other's struggle over the past three days and how thoroughly they've ruined each other's lives. I also really like stories where we follow different characters' perspectives over the same period of time, and I think that more video games should do that kind of thing. It's a very interesting storytelling technique.
That's pretty much my take. Better game, weaker story, and the chuds who flipped their shit over this are morons. I can now get back to watching the show, which I had been putting off. I already have some very strong opinions about it.