The Last of Us Part II has been a pretty divisive game this year, to say the least. I haven’t read too many opinions on the game just yet as I really want to finish the game and have my own thoughts on it. So read on to see what my impressions of Naughty Dogs newest game after 10 hours of play time.
******This post includes spoilers right up to the trek to the hospital. If you know what I’m talking about, read on. If not, you’ve been warned.
So far, I am really enjoying the game. It’s incredibly brutal, to be honest. At the beginning, watching the bad guy Abby shoot Joel in the leg with a shot gun made me gasp. Watching Joel get murdered was heart wrenching. I teared up. That was the first time I felt like I just needed to take a step back from the game.
The revenge story isn’t anything new. It does mean something to me since the first Last of Us game was something I held in such high regard. I played as Joel, and felt like I wanted to avenge him as well.
I really like Dina. Her personality really works with Ellie’s quiet wittiness. I honestly haven’t had an issue with any of the characters. So far they have all been pretty compelling to me. Jesse, Dina’s ex boyfriend is also an interesting guy. I haven’t gotten to really be around him just yet, but he did just roll back into the story, so we’ll see what happens there.
I know a lot of people have complained about the mindless killing and all that in the game. So far I feel like there hasn’t been anything egregious yet. Sure, the stealth take downs can be gruesome, and shooting someone in the face is down right disturbing, it honestly feels like it does add to the weight of the world that you are in. Its terrible, but it makes sense to me.
I’ve really felt the most compelling stuff so far has been exploring the city of Seattle. Nature has really reclaimed the whole city. Everything is overgrown. It’s visually impressive.
I love finding artifacts, reading about people’s lives. The fight between Fedra and the WLF. Even finding the answers to safes within the environment. it’s all incredibly well put together and I applaud Naughty Dog for it. World building is always something I look for and this game has it in spades.
After 10 hours in I think I’ve only died once from a clicker. I really do feel like the game is significantly easier than the first one. Constantly running through areas scavenging and skipping over a lot of crafting materials is a bummer. I’m almost always completely kitted out with everything. I even go pretty hard on not being stealthy and just running and gunning in encounters. Even after that I can usually just restock up. It’s weird. It should feel more survival like, but I’m not having a hard time surviving. I might need to bump the difficulty up a bit.
I don’t feel like the game has gone on too long. I think Ellie is kind of just bouncing from person to person, trying to get to Joel’s murderer. The Seattle Day 1 chapter is incredibly long though, that’s for sure. I think I’m probably halfway through Day 2 at this point and it’s been a few hours of game time. I’m alright with it for now though. We’ll see if it starts to feel like it’s just poorly paced or not.
My favorite sequence of the game so far was definitely at the beginning, when you switch over and start playing as Abby, and she is just sprinting from a giant horde, eventually running into Tommy and Joel. That whole bit was stress inducing and absolutely terrifying. Then realizing that you just played as the person who is murdering Joel is quite a switch. I have a feeling I’ll be playing as Abby at least once more time before the game ends, and I am interested to see what her motivation was for tracking down Joel. At first I thought it was Firefly business, but turns out it was an entire different faction that Joel screwed over.
The last thing I want to talk about are the flash back sequences. The first time you go back three years and you’re with Joel on your birthday. You go to a museum and see dinosaurs and outer space stuff. It was all pretty heart warming to see. towards the end though you find graffiti on the wall, talking about murdering people because they were doing what the group thought was right. Turns out it was an ex Firefly. It seemed to strike a cord with Ellie.
The next flashback is two years back. Ellie and Joel go through a hotel and clear it out. At the end Ellie makes a comment on being immune. If you don’t remember the first game, the Fireflies where going to kill Ellie to study why she was immune and possibly make a cure. Joel wouldn’t let them kill her and he saved Ellie, but never told her the truth. Ellie seems to have a lot of doubt in Joels story. Joel still denies her the truth.
I think we will eventually get a flash back on Joel telling Ellie the truth, and that’s why their relationship was a bit on the rocks at the start of the game. I really want to see how Ellie will react to the truth.
Alright, enough rambling. Those are all my thought’s on The Last of Us Part II so far. I probably won’t be beating the game in the next week, but expect another update post in about another ten house or so.
Thanks for reading my jumbled mess of thoughts. Leave some comments below. Please no spoilers though!
The Tired Obsidian 