The Last of Us Part II is an unapologetic emotional roller coaster from start to finish just like the first one was. The constant anxiety of what happens next, of where to go from here, of where the story will take you is an ever-present force that will fluctuate between knocking you flat on your ass and building you back up again. This direction and story telling isn't a breakthrough of the form by any means but this game is telling its story the way it wants to and it doesn't even have the courtesy to tell you to buckle up for the ride. The opening hours alone aren't afraid to remind you that whatever shed of hope you had could easily be erased. But as you go on each dark moment comes an equally touching and reflective moment and some sequences of this game have more emotional story beats within them than the entirety of part one, especially in Joel and Ellie's case.
The story itself (which I'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible) seems to be the most polarizing aspect of the game. The notions of revenge and maintaining one's humanity are what propel it forward. Those notions can be eye-rolling and groan-inducing depending on how you personally feel about such things but I opted to remain open to whatever came my way. Ellie wants revenge, but there's glimmers of hope and regret present to keep her within some type of moral standing even with the choices she makes throughout. Maybe seeing firsthand how even a hardened old smuggler could turn into an ever-loving father figure is what attempts to keep her sane in a world that wants to do everything in its power to take that sanity away. Ellie does what she feels she needs to even if she knows she won't like it. Survival at any cost is king in this world so the idea of morality goes back and forth between succeeding and missing the mark entirely.
Eventually the story will do something that catches you off guard and that's by letting you know that even your main characters are just pieces to a larger puzzle. The cycle of violence they often spoke of in the pre-release buildup is there in full force. The twists and turns that the story makes kept me interested for the most part but there were a few things I thought could have been handled better. But the good parts and moments were very present and seemed to be placed in a way that refills the joy that the previous encounters might have just stripped from you. When you don't feel good about a scene you do not feel good at all but when the game makes you feel amazing you are the ruler of this god damned infected wasteland and nothing can stop you. Emotional conflict is the fuel that this game runs on. Even with all the back and forth, twists and turns, rises and dives, the story still keeps its main notions of revenge and humanity present and clear. In the end, after experiencing every aspect the game threw at me, I did end up enjoying the vast majority the story even though at a few points it seemed to do everything in its power to make me not want to. Newly introduced characters I thought I wouldn't like at all such as Abby ended up growing on me more than I could ever imagine.
In terms of gameplay this might be Naughty Dog's best work. The shooting especially is the best it's ever been and a second pass of the first's gameplay allows nearly every aspect to be improved. Stealth is better and smoother. The updated and added physics of even the simplest things like dodging, sliding, going prone, breaking glass, swinging on ropes, and getting enemy attention allow for some pretty creative encounters. Just like the first game these encounters will always keep you on your toes on the higher difficulties. They'll let you know you're winning, but not by much. A simple slip or miscalculation has the potential to either be a mistake you have just enough time to fix or a death sentence entirely. You still have the option to avoid most encounters altogether and given the limited resources you might want to keep that in mind. You'll run into new enemy factions along the way, each with their own specific motives and beliefs. They each have their own combat preferences that really make you think ahead at how you want to approach every encounter. The infected presence is stronger than ever and seemingly evolved in almost every case. Runners especially seem to be more vicious as you now need to dodge their attacks and time your own and not just throw caution to the wind. Stalkers are now quieter and deadlier and are encountered in larger numbers than before. You can now stealth kill Clickers more easily but the trade off is they are more attentive and aggressive than they once were. Bloaters can still be a rough situation if you're not careful and there's new infected that give even them a run for their money.
The violence itself is turned up from the already brutal ways of the first game. Limbs can be damaged and completely blown off, melee executions seem to have been highlighted and turned all the way up, and explosives can especially be intense. As you kill an enemy they may scream out in pain as their allies call out their names. I think the idea was we were supposed to feel bad for what we're doing but in this already grey world where survival trumps all I don't think anyone can really feel bad for anything they do. When you take out a dog's master you can hear said dog whimper in sadness and vice versa but again it's hard to feel bad about something and someone that was about to kill you on sight anyway. The aforementioned infected baiting can also get pretty intense. Throwing a bottle near a group of soldiers will not only catch them off guard but alert the infected to the noise. You can choose to sit back and watch the chaos unfold, join it and cause more, or what I often did was use the distraction to slip by unnoticed. Other than a few scripted instances, the violence is really up to you and how you complete each encounter. Sure you could go in guns blazing and blow legs off left and right and trigger everything I just mentioned, or you could take a stealth approach and rack up some cleaner bow kills, or (especially when lack of resources applies) you can just avoid the encounter entirely. The gameplay is smooth and fluid in a way that deciding on how to approach an encounter, if you're even going to engage at all, and all the on the spot decisions you have to make create a continually exciting experience that keeps you on edge and gives enough replay merit by itself.
The visuals were outstanding and are easily some of the best of this console generation. I'm playing on a Pro and tweaking the HDR just so really adds extra pop to every scene and set piece you're in. You still may come across some muddy textures but for me it was never anything noticeable. The initial start up load is the longest load screen as the checkpoint system is surprisingly fast. Again, I'm playing on Pro so I don't know what that experience is like on a base PS4.
The character performances were another highlight. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson's performances might even be better than they were in the first game as the bond between Joel and Ellie continues to be the strongest point of this series and even Abby will tug at heartstrings if you let her. Seeing Abby's own struggles with survival and inner conflict really caught me off guard in the best way. Joel's brother Tommy also really shines. He's never afraid to show how he feels and can easily remind the world of what he can still do. Some of the new characters you meet later on are really well done and handled in ways that make you want to feel for them while other characters aren't handled as well as they should have been. Although Ellie and Dina's relationship does provide for one of my favorite scenes in the game it has a habit of starting and stopping before making any real progress especially when a certain mutual comes into play. But Ellie herself might be my favorite character in the game just like Joel was in the first so they did succeed on passing the torch. Joel was basically pushed to his very limit in the first game so I am completely on board with having Ellie as the new main character and finding out exactly what her own limits might be. Seeing everything she goes through and seeing her realize the things she's capable of especially knowing that Joel still wants what's best for her really creates some conflicted moments. They mostly succeed at making you feel the internal struggles that Ellie feels throughout the story.
Overall, I would say I very much enjoyed this game and am probably gonna replay it over and over like I did the first one. The gameplay is easily the best that Naughty Dog has ever done as it combines the improvements made in Uncharted 4 with the foundation of The Last Of Us 1 into this nightmarish yet beautiful system that can either be as John Wick like or Agent 47 like as you want it to be. For a time Uncharted 4 was the best looking game of this generation for me but The Last of Us Part II is one of the best looking if not the best looking game in recent memory. As morbid and emotional as this game gets, after everything it puts you through it still left me with positive feelings of wonder. Seeing these characters shaken to the core and pushed to their very limits makes me excited yet fearful for what a Part III could even be. I'm left with the same feeling of awe that the first game left me with. My initial thought upon this game's reveal back in 2016 was "The Last Of Us doesn't need a sequel". But 50 hours and two playthroughs later I think I needed this sequel more than I ever thought I would.
