Gaming

The failure of Last of Us 2: Review

Published

2 years ago

The Last of Us Part 2 is undoubtedly Naughty Dog’s biggest project yet. People have been waiting for the game ever since its announcement. Unfortunately, the game opened to mixed reviews and now, many from the fan base have expressed their displeasure with the game’s storyline.

The story of the game is set five years after the original title ‘The Last of Us‘. Players control Ellie and will go about exploring and completing objectives in the post-apocalyptic United States. The action-adventure title is more of a survival thriller with an array of weapons and stealth moments to defend yourself against the mutated enemies.

Several players disliked the story due to a couple of incidents. Players are very fond of the two main characters of the game; Joel and Ellie. In the very first half of the game, Joel is brutally killed by Abby. The loss of a fan-favorite character has certainly enraged the fans. Abby is the daughter of the Firefly surgeon whom Joel had killed trying to rescue Ellie. Players complained about the narrative and how the story unfolded.

You could say that The Last of Us Part 2 is a masterpiece. Years after its initial reveal, The Last of Us Part 2 is out. At the time of this being written, it has a 94 on Metacritic and Opencritic, signifying dozens of extremely positive reviews. It’s also broken PlayStation first-party records, selling four million copies in its first three days, becoming the fastest-selling PS4 exclusive ever. It doesn’t get much better for a studio than both critical and financial validation. I can see why. Going through most of my nearly 24-hour playthrough, laughing and growing morose at the fates of different characters, moving through the setpieces that had been so painstakingly crafted, there was a great deal in this experience that I enjoyed.

Despite appearances, The Last of Us II never succeeds in truly killing the father. Instead, it feels like the final nail in the coffin for the daughter game as a path forward, a natural evolution for mainstream games to tell stories grounded in the lived experiences of people too often marginalized by the AAA landscape.

Like Last of Us II’s protagonists, it feels like the creators forgot to look to the light. By only rehashing its past with Joel, the game can’t begin to imagine what a brighter future looks like for everyone else.