The Last of Us Part II Review

The Last of Us part II is a story about the destructiveness of revenge and how it can blind you. I was surprised that players did not realize there would be people after Joel considering what he did the first game. In the Last of Us part II Abby and her crew come to Jackson City searching for the man that killed her father. Abby’s father was the surgeon in the first game. No one in these games is totally innocent and that surgeon was no different. Instead of giving Ellie a chance to wake up and decide what she wanted, he decided to operate. Of course, Joel bursts in like a madman to get Ellie and the surgeon lunges after Joel who was armed and got shot.

Five years later and Abby searches for Joel and finds him in Jackson City. When they first meet Joel saves Abby from some infected in which Abby is not grateful since she later beats Joel at golf which enrages Elle. I do not want to give away too much of this game but I felt it was a good game but not at the same level as The Last of Us the first one.

As with the last game in the series this game can take a few minutes to get started. It spends some time introducing you to some character, most you really do not care for and others such as Owen and his girlfriend you will care for.

The graphics are stunning as you would expect from a game like this and we are introduced to a few new types of infected. The ending sets up for a third game which I hope we get to see Elle sacrifice herself for humanity but we all know a vaccine would actually take years and give a person a chance and they will stab you in the back, so I believe the military and hunters would be after anyone that develops a cure. Maybe that can be added and we see Abby first protect Elle and then protect the cure so we get to see both of their redemptions.

The storytelling is brutal and although it did not affect me others may not be able to handle the brutality. Both Elle and Abby tend to be very brutal in how they deal with their enemies so don’t anger them. It is not surprising who lives and dies in this game and I am sure both Abby and especially Elle will suffer major psychological trauma that I hope will also be explored in the next game.

Many fans were upset about what happened to Joel and I suppose they could have found a way to have him survive but then there would be no real reason for revenge except to make sure Abby does not come back to finish the job. After what Joel did in the last game at the hospital, I expected him to die soon after. There simply was no way that the rest of the Fireflies were just going to let him go. I feel we can understand why Joel saved Elle and lied to her at the end of the first game and we can understand Abby and Ellie’s quest for vengeance and this game shows it well but does not show much of the psychological trauma it would cause. Considering everything in the game I felt that was missing and you would expect to see the trauma in such a game especially after much of what Elle did.

I hope you all enjoy this game as much as I did. It is worth playing.