The Last of Us Part II: Our Spoiler-Filled Thoughts

The Last of Us Part II has been out for a few weeks now, and everyone is talking about this game. It’s done very well critically and commercially, although there are some people that have issues with the game. Our own Tori Morrow reviewed the game and really liked it, saying that “Regardless of your feelings toward The Last of Us Part II as a whole, the end will undoubtedly leave an impact on you.”

Three of us here have completed the game, so we got together to chat about our thoughts on the game’s many different aspects. This is a spoiler-filled discussion, so only read this if you have finished playing the game.

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Tyler: It’s been two weeks since The Last of Us Part II came out. I don’t know about you all, but I’ve been dying to talk about this game with others.

Kyle: Yeah, me too. I have been thinking about this game a lot since I beat it, which I think is a good thing.

Tyler: Same here. It’s been on my mind everyday since I finished it, something that doesn’t happen too often with games for me.

Tori: Same. It took me a while to figure out if I enjoyed it, though. I had stayed away from all the leaks and so I had no idea you played as Abby. I was upset for hours!

Tyler: I didn’t have any idea about that either since I was avoiding leaks super hard. We’ll get to all the story stuff in a bit though.

Gameplay

Tyler: There’s a lot about this game to talk about, namely the story, but I first wanted to talk about the gameplay and level design. What did you all think of it?

Kyle: I thought both of those aspects of the game were fantastic. When it comes to the level design, I was pretty blown away with how fleshed out the environments were. I’ve been to Seattle twice for PAX West, and I was seeing plenty of landmarks that I recognized. The convention center that you walk through with Jesse is very similar to its real-life counterpart. I also saw the Sheraton Seattle Hotel, which is where I stayed both times. The open area right where you get into Seattle was really cool, since it provided a lot of buildings to explore for scavenging and world-building purposes.

Tyler: I’m right there with you on both counts, Kyle. Having never been to Seattle, it’s awesome that they recreated it with such accurate detail. At first I was a bit overwhelmed by the larger environments, since the Downtown Seattle area required a map to get around. It was so large and had a number of different places to explore, causing me to feel a bit weighed down by just how vast it was. Once I got past that part though and saw that it was the exception, and that most of the actual areas were smaller than that, but larger than the ones in the original, I felt more comfortable and was having more fun exploring everything.

Kyle: The gameplay was also great, and I think it was definitely superior to what we saw in the first game. Having the ability to jump and dodge really opened up the environments and gave us many more tactical options in combat. And speaking of combat, I’m surprised that people aren’t discussing the fact that you can prone more. The ability to get low, out of sight, and make more accurate shots with weapons was awesome. It felt more like a video game than the first one, if that makes sense, which made it more fun to play.

Tori: I enjoyed the gameplay overall. The game did an excellent job of making fans of the original feel comfortable, expanding on some of the old mechanics while incorporating the three new ones. I also loved how Ellie and Abby had their own set of unique skills to complement their personalities. Naughty Dog really outdid themselves with the level design! I remember how Neil Druckmann kept mentioning that The Last of Us Part II would be the biggest they’ve ever made, but you don’t realize how large the game actually is until you get your hands on it. There are some areas I felt were a little too big, though, and it wasn’t always easy to tell where you were supposed to be going.

Tyler: Yes Tori, I thought it was really unique how Abby and Ellie each had their own set of abilities. It made them feel more unique and required you to play them differently. I had gotten so used to stealth killing Clickers all the time as Ellie that it took me a while before I realized that I couldn’t stealth kill Clickers as Abby unless I had a shiv. It forced me to change up my play style as her and be more cautious.

Tori: Also, I thought the looting and crafting in the first several hours really slows the game down. It becomes pretty repetitive and there are long stretches of gameplay that aren’t really broken up by dialogue between Ellie and Dina, or even cutscenes.

Tyler: I also thought that the gameplay was more refined in regards to your options in combat. Dodging required precision and allowed for me to get out of a lot of sticky situations. Being able to go prone is also a highly underrated feature! I used that so much to sneak around areas as much as possible. I played with a heavy emphasis on stealth and only engaged in combat if absolutely necessary, so hiding prone in grass was a godsend for me.

Tori: I enjoyed the enemy encounters a lot more in this game than in the first one, and I think it had to do with how open the game was. I felt each encounter, especially with the infected, forced me to switch up my play style between stealth and more aggressive combat.

Tyler: Enemy encounters in this game were great. They were all different in their own ways and required me to think and plan things out.

Kyle: One thing I forgot to mention about the level design though is that I think Naughty Dog does need to dial back some of the exploration mechanics that it’s using in all of its games. Constantly having to boost people up to get to new areas, finding ways around locked doors, and getting stuck behind debris after you help your partner under it has run its course, in my opinion. It just feels same, and it made The Last of Us Part II feel a little too much like the Uncharted games. That stuff cropped up in the first game, but not as much.

Tyler: It’s funny, I actually thought they did a good job of dialing back on the “boost me up” stuff that was prevalent in the first one.

Tori: Tyler, that’s so true about the “boost me up.” I actually didn’t notice that at all in this one after Ellie and Dina left for Seattle.

Kyle: One thing that I plan to explore more if I pursue the platinum is using enemies as human shields. I didn’t really use that much in my play through, and I saw people using that to bait Clickers into killing the Wolves and Seraphites. I thought that was pretty cool.

Tyler: There were some times where I used people as human shields during my play through. I would grab a person and if I knew I was about to be spotted, I’d hold them and take out their friend before getting rid of my hostage.

Tori: I didn’t use that either, Kyle. I tried a couple times, and it didn’t work out very well. What did you all think of the addition of the dogs?

Tyler: The dogs were a nice addition to make WLF encounters more dynamic. I was trying real hard to stay away from them so that I wouldn’t have to deal with them hunting me down. They made it so I couldn’t just sit back and rest on my laurels, and I appreciated the extra challenge. I did have to kill some of the dogs though. Sorry!

Tori: I did too, don’t worry! The game didn’t make it easy for you to stay away from them. There were a couple of encounters where I had no choice.

Kyle: I thought the dogs were a great addition because they were easily the fastest enemy in the game. Having to deal with a dog running at you while human characters are also shooting at you made things pretty stressful at times.

Tori: It was definitely stressful. A lot of my encounters with the Seraphites were like that. They didn’t have dogs, but their arrows were really starting to frustrate me! And in more open environments, they seemed to be everywhere. I felt like I couldn’t move sometimes, without that warning noise going off. Every enemy group was unique and offered a challenge in this game.

Kyle: Killing the dogs made me feel pretty guilty though, but that occasionally extended to the humans. The facial expressions they made, combined with them calling each other’s names out, had a bit more of a lasting impact.

Tyler: Oh that’s so true! That actually segues real well into the next thing I wanted to talk about real quick, which were the technical aspects of the game.

Graphics

Tyler: Can we all agree that The Last of Us Part II is a technical marvel? How Naughty Dog made this game run on PS4 and look this good is beyond me. I was in Photo Mode constantly while I played the game because everything just looked so good.

Tori: Agreed, it’s just flawless. I commented that several times just at the start of the game when Joel was following Tommy back to the community. It’s a beautiful game.

Tyler: The environments and characters are so detailed, down to the tiniest thing! I couldn’t help but wonder just how difficult it was to make it all look as good as it did. It really helped get me more invested the characters and feel bad whenever I would stealth kill someone and watch them struggle as they slowly died.

Kyle: I think it’s safe to say that The Last of Us Part II is the most graphically impressive game I’ve ever played. Everything, from the environments to the characters, just looked incredible. One thing that I got pretty obsessed with seeing was the animations that played when you upgraded weapons. They were just so far beyond anything I’ve seen in other games. I really hope we see a patch that optimizes it for PS5. I can only imagine what it would look like, with either an increased frame rate or true 4K resolution.

Story

Tyler: Alright now. Let’s dig into the real meat of this game. The story. I personally think this is the best story that Naughty Dog has ever made. It was incredibly well told, with deep and layered characters that I couldn’t help but get attached to.

Tori: Guys… I initially hated the direction the story was going in when it switched to Abby. I wanted nothing more than to avenge Joel’s death, and I was naturally motivated by anger just like Ellie. So strongly, in fact, when she started finding some of the WLF members and taking them down, I felt nothing for them. When she found Nora in that hospital, though, that’s when it started to really sink in what we were doing, and it honestly made me uneasy to have Ellie kill her so brutally. So when the switch to Abby happened, I was pretty upset initially. It even took me a moment to realize this was how it was going to be for the second half of the game! I kept thinking we’d just get back to Ellie soon.

Kyle: I really ended up liking the story. Getting to see the perspectives of other people in this world added a lot to it, and helped me understand that our reverence for some of our favorite characters was somewhat misplaced. Unfortunately, I saw a lot of the leaks on accident before the game launched, so I knew Joel was going to die. However, I waited for context before I got too upset about it. In the end, I think Naughty Dog justified it. I think the circumstances in which it happened were a little suspect, but I get why Abby did it. Joel essentially damned the human race with his decision at the end of the first game, and I think some people forgot that.

I don’t think the story was as good as the first game though. I think a big reason for that was because of how laser-focused the first game was. The Last of Us was ultimately about the relationship between Joel and Ellie, and everything else worked to flesh out that dynamic. It was about as perfect as a story could get.

Tyler: Man I’m sorry that you got spoiled by the leaks! Joel’s death started to be telegraphed once he met Abby, but it still hit me hard and took me by surprise. I agree that the first game’s story is better in terms of how focused it is, but I feel like the story in The Last of Us Part II is better in regards to overall theme, messaging, and execution.

Tori: I’m sorry you saw the leaks, Kyle! Naughty Dog did an excellent job of easing the player into Abby’s backstory and making you understand that there are two sides to every story. The moment when we escaped the Seraphites’ island with Lev, just to get back to the aquarium and realize that, as Ellie, we’d already killed Owen and Mel… that hurt big time.

Tyler: I’ve seen a lot of people saying they hated playing as Abby. I didn’t hate playing as her, but I didn’t want to play as her because I could see what Naughty Dog was trying to do. I didn’t want to end up liking her and understanding where she came from because of what her and her friends did to Joel. But I liked the bold decision they made to have you play the second half of the game as her, and I ended up really liking her. Once I had to do the Ellie vs Abby fights, I didn’t want either person to win because I liked them both.

Tori: That was a great moment Tyler, when they had to fight at the theater. I was still rooting for Ellie, but it was hard.

Kyle: I ended up liking that we played as Abby, and in the end, I don’t mind how much we played as her. Seeing how Joel’s decision at the hospital affected her added even more moral ambiguity to it, which was one of my favorite aspects of the first game’s ending.

Tyler: Shining that light on Joel’s decision and showing how it affected others and led to everything that happened was a great choice. It just highlighted that no one in this world is necessarily good. Everyone’s done terrible things. Some people are just not as bad as others.

Special shoutout to the supporting characters in this game because they were all great and really contributed to the story. Dina’s relationship with Ellie was so well done that it crushed me when Ellie gave up her family in pursuit of revenge. I wanted them to life their life in peace with baby J. J. Lev was also another great character that deserves all the love that he can possibly get in a world that dark.

Kyle: I totally agree about the supporting characters, especially when it comes to Dina. When Ellie made the decision to head to Sanata Barbara, I couldn’t believe that she was really going to leave Dina and J. J. behind. I thought she was going to deny Tommy’s request and stay on the farm.

Tori: Ellie and Dina’s last moment was so hard to watch, but I had a feeling Ellie was going to leave and try to finish it. I wasn’t sure for a second, though, that she’d actually let Abby live. Their final encounter was one of the most intense things I think I’ve played in recent memory! I also agree about the supporting characters. I’m glad we saw a lot more of Tommy in this game. And Dina was a great companion in the beginning. I just love her and Ellie’s relationship.

Kyle: I saw a lot of criticism about Ellie and Abby letting each other live when they both had a chance to end it. I felt that way at first, but I don’t see it that way anymore. I’ve never been in a situation like that and I can’t say how I’d react if I was.

Tyler: The way I see it is that Abby was just over it at that point and solely wanted to keep Lev safe. And Ellie realized that killing Abby wasn’t going to bring Joel back and that she needed to try and move on if she wanted any true peace. I thought it was great that it ended the way and that we got the final flashback with Joel to explain Ellie’s change of heart.

Tori: I feel you Kyle. That was hard to play through. I honestly don’t know how I would’ve felt, though, if Ellie had actually killed Abby. When Ellie was drowning her, I kept thinking “this isn’t you Ellie.”

Standout Moments & Conclusion

Tyler: Before we totally wrap this conversation up, do you guys have a standout moment from the game? Whether it be your favorite part or something that you just wanted to highlight? Mine would be the first encounter with the Seraphites in the park. That was one of the most terrifying experiences I had in the game, but it was by far the coolest one. Crawling around in the grass and trying not to be seen while hearing them communicate through only their whistles had me on edge the entire time. I was genuinely scared for my life.

Kyle: The scene where you fight the Shamblers for the first time in the subway was a highlight for me. I managed to get spotted relatively early in the encounter, so having to fight these new Infected and the WLF troops at the same time was pretty chaotic. The part where you cross the sky bridge as Abby was also very impressive. I also really loved the flashback where Joel took Ellie to the museum. It was nice to see that relationship on display again, but it was also heartbreaking, because you knew Ellie wouldn’t have moments like that again. It also brought back a lot of fond memories of the first game.

Tori: My standout moment was Abby and Ellie hunting each other in the theater. I’m still thinking about that. I was on Ellie’s side, but I ran through so many emotions during that part. I thought it was awesome how the game just threw you a curve ball like that.

Tyler: Alright guys, let’s wrap this talk up. In five words, what are your final thoughts on The Last of Us Part II? For me: Pushes the entire industry forward.

Kyle: Naughty Dog’s winning streak continues.

Tori: Best game of the year.