Howdy friends, been a while. The Last of Us 2 is the talk of the town, or moreso a bunch of fairly inaccurate/exaggerated leaked spoilers and images are the talk; but behind all that it's actually quite a good game. That said it is sort of the inverse of the first game, I find the first Last of Us to be quite distressing and to more or less transcend the medium on a story front; the gameplay is fine, mildly engaging and occasionally very effective (the house fight most notably, especially if you use spike bombs); but in The Last of Us 2 the gameplay is what shines, being very engaging and even quite fun; also the shocking moments mostly happen while you're playing and not in cutscenes. In the first game basically all of the good story beats are cutscene exclusive, in this one there's just like one or two cutscenes that are extremely effective but blowing a guys leg off with a shotgun and listening to him scream extremely loudly (while he grabs the specific limb you shot) is pretty damn unnerving, turns out; despite something like that happening in almost every other shooter and being par for the course.
However there's no denying the story is worse and with the way it was constructed its hard to imagine a way to make it not worse; though it could maybe be a roughly top 10 game story all time (the first game is third behind The Witcher 3 and Final Fantasy Tactics, bonus points for coming out well before TW3) with perfect decisions. Did they make perfect decisions? Well if your story goes on for 30 hours and there's like 15 fake endings it kind of feels like an overwrought arthouse film that doesn't quite hit the mark. That said maybe an extremely tight 15-18 hour campaign that ended at the best spot could've been better than the first game in every way and not simply on the gameplay front.
Indeed this game has roughly 15 hours of padding, but it is very fun to play so it's not really a problem per se, it just means you'll likely have the most enjoyment out of things that you yourself are actually doing outside the actual narrative (though one of the scripted fights (against a totally anonymous foe) is exceptional as well). Case and point, my finest hour in this game was shooting a dog-walking man with a sniper rifle, laying a land mine and running as the dog was blown literally in fucking half by said mine. That's right, The Last of Us 2 is the best savage dog murder simulator on the market, Machete to a Dog's throat? Check, Arrow to the face? Check, Dog Dismemberment (a first in any AAA game?)? Check. Obviously I'm being somewhat facetious but damn is it ever satisfying.
At its best The Last of Us 2 is a spiritual successor to Spec Ops: The Line and Manhunt, with much more vivid depictions of violence. Ellie does have some Spec Ops-esque dialogue but she only throws it out every once in a while when you're not in stealth; not quite the Nolan North "GOT THE FUCKER" masterwork of yore. An argument I had about the first Last of Us springs to mind here, the discussion: whether Ellie is a mass murderer. Objectively: Yes, but she is a video game protagonist of course she would be; however since the depiction is so realistic and the character's reactions similarly so it actually holds some meaning. People thought at the time that she would have a redemption arc in this game, but on the contrary she kills way more people and the ending is extraordinarily ambiguous as to whether that will keep happening or not (spoilers: because of money it will).
On that point I guess I'll point out that Abigail is more or less a good person, she does brutally torture and murder one person and shoot another guy in the face out of the blue; but essentially everyone else she kills is in the line of duty or self defense; so she's got 2 kills on her tab to Ellie's 150-500+? I'm not sure who the game wants you to root for in the end but they did make the turn on Abigail (around the first visit to the Aquarium; because everyone loves my boy Owen), which is an astounding success all things considered. But it doesn't really matter that much because she's not Ellie and thus I still only care a fairly small amount about Abigail (and a larger amount about Lev) on a personal level; because Ellie is from a better story and is a better developed character.
On to the ending discussion a bit, there are a shitload of places where this game could have ended, it seems like the story was in development hell while the gameplay was near-perfectly refined; a common trend in movies but quite rare in games where usually something else fucks it all up. The best place for the game to end is at the Ellie Boss Fight, Abigail kills Ellie, Dina kills Abigail, Lev kills Dina; fade to black. Nice and neat; very few loose ends, no sequel bait. Also the game probably wouldn't have felt so damn long. Is this the longest linear shooter of all time? Mayhap not but it's gotta be close. The second best ending is if during the Abigail Boss Fight Ellie is killed. Both of these more or less conclude the story a few outstanding character actors notwithstanding (Tommy's arc is fucking amazing), and both of them end the franchise (in its current form) and of course reduce the chance for Sony to make more money. So instead we have obvious sequel bait in the form of the New Game Plus title screen and there being no other logical place for the story to go; the plot of the next game only has a few options for endings but they could make it interesting I suppose; more likely the journey will be satisfying but not the story itself; just like this game.
It should be noted if you wanted to you could have Ellie brutally murder Abigail or vice versa and just stop playing because the number of absurdly violent player death options in this game is massive; a choose your own adventure of post apocalyptic mishaps. It's quite time consuming to actually see or record all of them so I probably won't bother but I am certainly curious. There are so many unique melee weapon animations and each melee craft is distinct unlike the first game; in that regard it is much like Assassin's Creed 2 where you have numerous unique animations that are fun to find and figure out. Though I return again to the dogs as far as what would be most interesting and unnerving. So while the ending was happening and I was mashing square a bunch since having QTE final boss fights is cool I thought back on that guy who I shot with the shotgun; the last regular enemy in the game turned out. Just some dude; screaming in sheer agony, that is a really good narrative moment and it had absolutely nothing to do with the story. Game must be good if it can cause you to reflect on an unscripted moment so much.
Aside: There are ways to make foes surrrender in this game (typically a few melee attacks or pistol shots to the legs on the last enemy of a given encounter), I feel like there's a scripted one in the first game and that was it; the original pitch for the original was something along the lines of moral choice based on encountering groups of enemies; naturally that didn't happen.. Unfortunately if you just sit there pointing your gun at them instead of murdering them (Game: "You know you want to!") they just randomly die after a while; not sure what happens if you walk away though.
Another Aside: The Last of Us 2 has the best depiction of the unappealing nature of war in any game to this point, but since it keeps going for another 5-7 hours after that that aspect kind of loses its narrative punch; large men being terrified of small women is much more impactful in the end. Punished Ellie kind of reminds me of my shitty little cousin; ratty and irritating; tattooed and psychologically abused, but what if he was actually the ultimate badass and a lesbian? Wouldn't that be something. She's a lovable mass murderer guys, it's cool.
