Note: This blog will contain SPOLIERS for The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part II, and the HBO Series Game of Thrones. Thank you to all who decide to take a few minutes out of their day to read this.
As of the date of this article I am relatively new into reviewing video games again. I used to do video game reviews during the teenage years; however, life got in the way and I had to take a 15 year hiatus from it. Now that I am back at it again, I started to think back at some of the best video games I have played over the past decade or so. I contemplated if I should go back and review games I played years back and try to give it a score based on what I believed it would have received then. But there have been so many games that I have played and, quite frankly, it wouldn't do it justice to write a review based on an experience 5-10 years ago. So instead of doing that, I would like to start writing articles where I can reflect on some of the best games I have played in the last few years and share my opinion / experience with you.
The first one I would like to discuss is The Last of Us Part II.
I know going into this article that there is a strong divide among gamers on how they view this game. You either love it or hate it. I have yet to read an opinion piece that was luke warm on the 2020 Game of the Year (award shows are bogus by the way...just saying). And I will start off by saying that all of the criticisms of the game are completely valid. I respect your opinion but allow me to express my feelings. If you are inclined to continue this discussion and speak your opinions, please do so.
Brief History: The Last of Us
The Last of Us Part II is the sequel to Naughty Dog's 2013 Game of the Year winner (award shows are still bogus) The Last of Us. For those that have not played the original, allow me to provide a little background. You play as Joel, a smuggler who is tasked with taking a teenage girl, Ellie, across the United States in search for a cure to the current zombie virus that has taken over. Ellie, a smartass teenage that can hold her own in conflict, is immune to the virus and a group known as the Fireflies believe she is the cure to creating a vaccine and saving the world. Your journey takes you from the streets of Boston to the leftovers of Salt Lake City on the search to find the rest of the Fireflies.
Over the course of your journey, Joel, who starts off as a smuggler with his eye on his reward (guns, rations, etc.), becomes a father-like figure for Ellie by the end. They discuss the purpose of life, banter with one another, and, most importantly, develop a father-daughter like bond. This is not far off from what Joel used to be before the apocalypse started. On the night of the outbreak, Joel was a father to a teenage girl (similar age to present day Ellie) who was given a watch for his birthday. Upon trying to evacuate their hometown, a soldier shoots Joel who is carrying his wounded daughter (sprained ankle in an attempt to flee the horde of infected). Joel survives while comforting his crying daughter as she dies from a bullet wound. Four years later, Joel still wears the watch now broken after years of abuse in the gritty world he survives in.
Like its sequel, The Last of Us is a dark and gritty game to go through. Unlike Naughty Dog's other cinematic series Uncharted that brings Indiana Jones to present day, this game resembles that of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic masterpiece The Road. The world of The Last of Us is a violent place full of monsters (both humans and infected alike) that are trying to kill you for your corpse and resources. It is also a world where difficult choices are made. At the end of the game, you find the Fireflies and deliver Ellie to them to complete their research. However, as you (Joel) begin to understand the Fireflies' decision, you realize it will kill Ellie in the process to save millions. Acting out of a sense of bravery and selfish justice, you kill every Firefly soldier and doctor and save Ellie. But in doing so, you doom the entire human race from finding a cure. The game does not give you a choice like in other games (i.e. Mass Effect). It forces you to do this act. It was a dark ending to an already dark game that I am sure some gamers were split on. To me, it was a satisfying ending to a story that showed how horrible the world of The Last of Us was. And it didn't stop there...
The Last of Us Part II - My Reflection on the Emotional Rollercoaster
It has been nearly two years since I finished The Last of Us Part II. While I cannot remember every single detail of the world or the mission progression, I can still remember how it made me feel. Throughout the (at least) 25 hours of playing through the campaign, I experienced many emotions: shock, sadness, frustration, anger, relief, and depression. I never quite felt this way about the game before and maybe that was Naughty Dog's intention.
The first emotions I felt were shock and anger. It came at the two-hour mark or so as you finish up the prologue / tutorial of the game with Ellie and Abby, a new character to the world whose facial expressions in-game show that something is not quite right. When she is saved by Joel and his brother Tommy, she is shocked but also trying to keep her cool. You can even see her have a face of anger or irritation before calming herself down with a couple of deep breaths before continuing into gameplay. But the event that I am clearly talking about here is when Joel dies, which is one of the most brutal ways I have ever seen a main character die in a video game. At the end of your tutorial with Abby, you come to realize that Abby has been looking for Joel for reasons unknown to the player at this time. When Joel is surrounded by Abby's group trying to figure out what is happening, Abby takes a shotgun and blows one of his kneecaps off. It was a shocking thing to see but it did not end there as Abby grabs as golf club. Before the screen turns to black you see Abby make a direct impact with Joel's skull. As you then retake over Ellie who is looking for Joel, you find yourself in a weird situation. As the player you know what is currently happening while Ellie has no idea be is being beaten to death. So you play with that intention to find Joel in an effort to save him. But when you eventually find Joel, he is bloodied and beaten. His face almost unrealizable. As Abby's allies keep you face pressed to the floor, you can only watch as Abby slams the golf club one last time into Joel, killing him. The sound mutes as you can only watch Ellie scream and cry in agony as her friend lies dead on the floor.
As the player, I was shocked to see what happened. This part is true: after that scene, I shut off the game and had to take a breadth. It was something I never experienced before in a video game. I was legitimately shocked that Joel died in that fashion so early into the game. I think it happened in the middle or the end I would have been less shocked. But I knew going into the game that it was a 20+ hour campaign so when Joel dies almost immediately, it shook me to my core. I actually had to stop the game and go play Call of Duty with my friends and tell them what I was experiencing.
But sooner or later I continued on except I was feeling exactly what Ellie was at the time. I wanted Abby dead and anyone else who stood in my way. I had that same sense of anger and desperation for majority of Ellie's journey through Seattle. But while Ellie's thirst for revenge continued, mine slowly withered away. Not because I was losing interest in the game. Quite the opposite actually. No, what I felt was an unwillingness to go through with what Ellie was doing. The Last of Us is not one of those games where you can make your own decisions; you have to do what the game wants you to do. This is a factor that turns off many gamers who had played this game. When you wanted to give up on looking for revenge, the game forces you to move forward. When you want Ellie to desperately stop beating a poor woman to death in order to get the answers you're looking for, you are forced to take another swing. It is as if the developers wanted you to hate what was happening, to reject Ellie, and to force you into doing brutal things on the quest for vengeance. It's a tough pill to swallow even for a dark game like this.
And just when I thought the final confrontation between Abby and Ellie was about to take place in the theatre, the game pulls a Sons of Liberty on us...
It turns out it was not the climax we were expecting. No, instead the game goes into the past and you play as the main "villain" Abby and get her perspective on things after Joel's murder. It's where the game clicked for me. As the player, you come to realize that Abby was a part of the Fireflies in the original game and was there when Joel killed the doctors trying to perform surgery on Ellie. The head doctor was Abby's father, who Joel murders in cold blood. Unable to save her father, Abby begins on a long journey of revenge to find Joel and do to him what he had done to her family. And the result of her revenge tale is not what you expect. The revenge she obtained did not end her suffering. In my opinion Abby was trying to deal with the post-traumatic stress of the death of her father and she believed killing Joel would be the cure to her sickness. But it was not meant to be and you come to question Abby's quest for revenge: "Was it worth it?" "Will Ellie face the same fate?"
Fast-forwarding to the very end of the game (I know I'm skipping a crap ton of plot), you realize the quest for revenge was indeed not the answer to Ellie's grief. Again as you battle Abby (which, at this point, I did not believe Abby deserved to die after what she did...what a difference compared to the first couple of hours in my playthrough), you are forced to hit her. Ellie loses two fingers in the brutal fist fight along the beach. But as Ellie (and you the player) try to drown Abby, you get a one second flash of Joel and suddenly....you have a change of heart. Ellie comes to the realization that killing Abby would not satisfy the emptiness in her heart. As for me, I breathe a sigh of relief. I hated I was forced to almost kill Abby but glad it did not go through.
Why The Last of Us Part II Works - Abby & Ellie
While I skipped a lot of the campaign earlier, I do want to discuss Ellie and Abby. There are a lot of similarities between these two well defined characters. The first similarity is obvious: their quest for revenge. The Last of Us Part II is Ellie's story but it is also about the concept of revenge and the cost for getting it. If you compare Ellie's and Abby's stories, you can see how revenge affects them (and also identifies additional similarities).
For Ellie, she has fallen in love with a woman named Dina, who is also pregnant. While Dina follows Ellie to Seattle, she is put in harm's way and almost dies in the process. Though Ellie doesn't realize at the time, her quest for revenge brought her and Dina to this dangerous situation. After Abby decides not to kill the beaten Ellie in the theatre, the game fast forwards several months later to find Ellie, Dina, and their baby happy on a farm somewhere in the world. But Ellie dealing with her own PTSD decides she needs to kill Abby and leaves her family behind. After she returns home with two less fingers and let Abby live, she finds Dina and the baby have left her. She can't even play the guitar that Joel gave her years prior...the one thing that connected then.
For Abby, it's very similar. While you only get to play as Abby post Joel's murder, you can see her quest for revenge also affected the outcome of her life. For example, Abby has an ex-boyfriend Owen who is romantically in love with Mel, who is also pregnant. Abby and Owen close throughout their childhood and were a couple prior to Joel killing her father. But after Joel murders her father, Abby lust for revenge changed her mindset. She chose body building and weaponry over what she had developed with Owen all those years prior. Post Joel's death, you can see Abby trying to get back with Owen and how things were but she fails to realize that time has come and gone.
Abby's and Ellie's lives are so interesting to dissect because it shows how much revenge can cost you the little things in life that turn out to be the real difference makers.
Glass
Real quick...can I say that amongst all of the amazing graphics in this game...I've never seen a better depicting of breaking glass before.
Final Thoughts
This is not a popular opinion, but I believe The Last of Us Part II's narrative and storytelling are amazing. It's a game that makes you feel so many emotions and forces you to do things you do not want to do. Yet I loved it...but I will never play it again. No, The Last of Us Part II is a game you should play once, think on for a few days, and move on from...whether for better or for worse.
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