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The Last of Us Part II is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Set five years after The Last of Us (2013), the game focuses on two playable characters in a post-apocalyptic United States whose lives intertwine: Ellie, who sets out in revenge for a murder, and Abby, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult. The game uses a third-person perspective; the player must fight human enemies and cannibalistic zombie-like creatures with firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth.
Development began in 2014, soon after the release of The Last of Us Remastered. Neil Druckmann returned as creative director, co-writing the story with Halley Gross. The themes of revenge and retribution were inspired by Druckmann’s experiences growing up in Israel. Ashley Johnson reprises her role as Ellie, while Laura Bailey was cast as Abby. Their performances included the simultaneous recording of motion and voice. Gustavo Santaolalla returned to compose and perform the game’s score. The developers pushed the technical capabilities of the PlayStation 4. Development reportedly included a crunch schedule of 12-hour workdays and cost around US$220 million, making it one of the most expensive video games to develop.
Following some delays, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Last of Us Part II was released for the PlayStation 4 on June 19, 2020; a remastered version is scheduled to release for the PlayStation 5 on January 19, 2024. It received critical acclaim for its gameplay, audio design, score, performances, characters, and visual fidelity, though its narrative and themes divided critics. It was the subject of review bombing on Metacritic, with some players criticizing the story and characters; discourse surrounding the game became adversarial. Part II is one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games and the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive, with over four million units sold in its release weekend, and over ten million by 2022. It won more than 320 Game of the Year awards and received multiple other accolades from awards shows and gaming publications.
~ Wikipedia
Intro: 0:00
Ad Read: 4:25
The Leaks: 5:20
Unwanted Sequel: 12:53
That One Guy Dies: 15:35
Misleading Marketing: 20:28
Pacing Problems: 24:16
Emotional Strain: 30:13
Conclusion 33:58
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Love the game but hate the story…the gameplay was mostly fun but I feel the way the story was told, didn't work as intended, it could have worked but it was bloated and too mixed up
beating a dead Zebra here but, the biggest flaw of this game is they try to have its cake and eat it too into how they make you play as Ellie first, then forces you to play as Abby after you've spent hours trying to find her and you gotta start scavenging and all that all over again, and make her be Diet Joel to an awful VA performance by a robot trying to be a kid (I FRIGGING HATE LEV) and Ellie loses everything and Abby gets away with everything.
Like imagine if there was an alternate Game 2 that was Ellie learned the truth and ran away and met up with Abby and so you play as Ellie and befriend Abby through story 1 and Story 2 is you're Joel trying to find Ellie and then it ends with Abby killing Joel and THEN part 3 is Ellie v Abby in Seattle.
there are only positive things ANYONE should say this is the best game ever made
I'm not sure if this was what they were going for but having us play Abby after what she did to Joel worked in a way that I didn't think it would. It held a mirror right in my face. She didn't care about Joels motives and only knew that he deserved to die from her pov. So when I had to play as her, I too did not care about her motives. I had made up my mind just like she did. If they had humanized her before I don't think the mirror would've sunk in as hard as it did. That being said I still felt the game being very on the nose. Abby gets her redemption after murdering Joel and we watch Ellie becoming more monster then human along the way. The cognitive dissonance between gameplay and cutscenes was also quite jarring since you mow down hundred of begging "bystanders" while ultimately stopping before killing the person that was the catalyst for this downfall. tldr: bold moves where made, not all of them landed for me.
I understand how people might think a sequel is unecessary, but I just disagree. I don't think sequels can be necessary or unecessary, they can either be good stories or bad stories. In the case of The Last of Us, I think the sequel is, narratively speaking, very good and its existance justifies itself because it is a good story and it is properly executed.
Of course, there are people who may not have liked the sequel and that is totally OK. But that doesn't mean that its existance is unecessary
I think the idea that "being fun" is the only metric to base a game on is odd. This game brings cinema into gaming in a much stronger way than games before it.
We can have games that cover struggle in a visceral way while creating meaningful messages
I want that pirate game!
I never got as invested in the charactes from TLOU that everyone else seems to have. I quite liked TLOU part 2, I remember thinking that it was too long and it kept retreading the same story beats over and over again but the gameplay was a vast improvement and Abbey's sections of the game were the best part. Having said that it also feels like half of a story like it was set up for a TLOU part 3 so I think its coming no matter what.
TLOU2 is garbage.
Worst game of all time
Hello Luke. Big fan, really like your videos. But one thing I immediately have to disagree with you is the idea this game was "bold" and "more artsy". I don't think that's true in the slightest. It's the most generic apocalypse story that does nothing new and only relies on being edgy.
And listen, standard stories aren't bad. Not everything needs to be this revolutionary thing- but the problem is that TLoU part II thinks it is. It should've just focused on Ellie.
my only problem with the game (and personally what I believe should've been an incredibly crucial detail to show) is Joel's paranoia of strangers (such as when he ran over that one guy who was faking being hurt, or the fact he left a family on the side of the road when the apocalypse barely began) being completely gone in TLOU2. I understand that if someone lives in a specific environment for an extended period, someone gets accustomed to that lifestyle, but all I wanted was for them to SHOW it through visual storytelling or through a showing of a change in demeanor from Joel.
The story structure is also a bit of a mess but it wasn't as god-awful as people made it out to be, but it was a problem nonetheless and I felt that the story could've/should've been formated similarly to how "Gone Girl" was.
Regardless I'm still getting the remake because the game overall is still incredible and personally made me fall in love with it, flaws included.
I'd almost prefer if the game made you play as Abby through the entire first half while following her life chronologically rather than having flashbacks and THEN make us play as Ellie
the game may have a good story, but it's nowhere near as good as the first game, not even close
In defense: this masterpiece speaks for itself ✌️🏆
It's funny because what you're describing is in fact a deeper problem in American society. A very large percentage of Americans repeat something that isn't true, regardless of objective reality, just because it justifies their hate or fear.
Granted ive only played the first game but all these criticisms seem to be due to having the unique perspective of a video game player, having played joel and being the one to kill him. If this was a movie, or even in the upcoming season of the show, it would be handled better strictly as a viewer. The agency and "self destruction" is only detestable when you are the one pulling the trigger metaphorically speaking.
Was it brutal? Yes, death irl is never pretty in real life.
Did joel get caught slipping? Yes but hes human and in real life people make careless and dumb mistakes.
Does it suck that a fan favorite dies? Yes but that tells you he was a good character.
Is the ending bleak and with no happy pay off? Sure is but sometimes thats just life and an accurate depiction and I personally think its a nice change from movies, shows or games were everyone ends up happily singing kumbaya.
I think if we are to stand behind games as an artform you have to defend the grittier less pleasing side of it.
I applaud the game creators for taking such a bold narrative move and sticking too it regardless of the backlash they probably knew theyd get.
I cant wait to play it on pc when its ported over.
Coming from a massive fan : TLOU 1 was perfect in every way
TLOU 2 the story was simply bad. No way around it. Simply bad written.
They should have went the telltale route and give us a choice in killing/going after abby.
The director wanted us to feel what ellie and abby felt but they made the choice for us. Maybe If we got to decide what to and got alternate endings depending on the outcome, it would have been better.
Abby’s dad didn’t deserve to die that way, but if we are being honest he should have woken Ellie up and asked her before they decided to do the surgery. It would have prevented Joel from killing them to protect her.
PS: The Santa Monica section was a complete waste of two hours. You think you will get some payoff finally but nothing is resolved and Ellie loses fingers.
I hated this game but not for the reasons you might think. Though I might actually give this game another try with the Remastered version after 4 years collecting dust.
It’s been said time and time again, but the biggest problem with this game is the pacing and structure. They needed to give the audience a reason to like Abby before having her kill Joel. When the player’s first introduction to her is of her torturing and killing a beloved character, then of course people are going to dislike her or outright hate her. It’s basic writing 101.
Killing Joel was like killing Spider-Man in Spider-Man 2. But if you REALLY want to kill your main character, give it a more creative way to go about it and do it mid to end of the game. Not at the very beginning of the game. TLOU 2 is a visually beautiful game with a horrible writing.
Even if many of the leaks as you say may have been wrong, to me the two most important ones were true, Abby kills Joel and you have to play half the game as her, and that was enough to make me not want to buy and play the game.
It's no different if David killed Ellie in the first game, and then you had to play as him for 12 hours. So I thank whoever leaked the details.
As someone who played the first game a dozen times i dont see why everyone is so hung up on how Joel died. Cry me a river. Characters die to progress story. Ever watch GoT? And people crying about playing as Abby are close minded. The game was a masterpiece and the fact that we still have videos talking about it today is hilarious to me.
The most painful thing for me was: Vaccine/hostpital situation… there is 0 explanation why Jerry wanted to do so quickly the operation… there is 0 profess that the operation would give us vaccine (which where I found out that there is no such thing as a vaccine against the fungus in our modern world and TLOU world stuck in 2013 medically so it should be impossible) which make this thing a just a plot to talk about if Joel doomed the world or don't… and the situation that Ellie don't know that Marlene order to kill Joel if he started something and that she didn't figure it out that she was unconscious and no one asked her and she blamed Joel for making the decison but in reality it was Abby father and Merlene – that one was painful because then we have flashback with Abby that "she would sacrificed herself for the world if she would be on Ellie position" but there is a plot hole here: Abby DECIDED and Ellie DIDN'T… xD
Part 2s world and atmosphere were great. The story, pacing, and characters were awful.
Don't waste your money on the PS5 remaster, wait for the PS6 version instead. They'll probably pull a "Final Fantasy VII Remake" and sell it to you in 3 parts.
Still the best game i’ve ever played. The story was amazing, the gameplay everything
This game is a story of incredible environmental artists, level designers, and gameplay designers who all have to deal with a mess of a writing team
Imagine being on YT, grifting away and then joking about "the American dream" being awful. Self awareness is not your strong suit. Is it?
the part that bothered me the most is just how IDIOTIC Joel and Tommy behave at the beginning. How they just blindly trust these stangers that are suspiciously close to their community and they pay the ultimate price for their dumb decision.
Story was trash. But I've found myself replaying it just because of the graphics and gameplay.
The lack of media literacy I’m seeing in this comment section is unfortunate.
I’m so happy I avoided all spoilers for TLOU2 and played it day of release with no internet use so I could avoid everything. I had no idea Joel would die, cried my eyes out, but Abby is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time now.
the completely selfish characters of Dina and that other girl with the short hair who go out in this incredibly dangerous world while pregnant makes me reallly not like these characters and I think the fact that naughty dog possibly didn’t think their was anything wrong with that really bothers me.
I loved that Joel got beat to shit, and I had a hell of a lot of fun playing this fucking sick ass masterpiece. Lmao 😅
Oh come on, the game isn't hard to follow. 😂 Can't be serious.
I hope part 3 is even more depressing
I always wondered if TLoU2 really failed, or if it succeeded so hard at its goal that it whiplashed back to harm itself. I seriously can’t tell
I want a part three honestly
I think everyone expected Joel to die….we just didn’t want it to be 2 hours into a 30 hour game that we waited 7 years to see this character again. There was nothing except for pt1 for years, ironically now TLOU is everywhere every year. I think we just wanted more Ellie and Joel. I think you could certainly kill him, do it midway? Sure a new story is then required because we need motive to even get in this dilemma. Early drafts made it seem as if the group would infiltrate slowly and then turn on us in Jackson. I don’t know what beats you could fill in for that but, it probably would of worked much better. That being said you could frame dozens of other stories where we don’t kill Joel right away, yes is it an unprecedented move that is meant to fuck your head up, it’s the catalyst for this game, and let’s us know noone is safe but…I don’t think doing that inspite of how games treat their protagonists worked here. As we loom over a pt3 we even more so look and question on if they could of made a better story for this now franchise that seems apparent it isn’t over yet.
I loved this game and was sad to see all the hate when it came out. Haven’t seen many other games story force you to hate someone and then challenge them to walk in their shoes and learn to empathize with them. The way Ellie and Abby’s story lines arc is great too, they’re on the same arc but in different spots. After Joel dies, Ellie is where Abby is emotionally at the start of the game. Then Abby still feels empty after killing Joel until she finds someone to protect and care for in Lev. Abby turns into Joel by caring for Lev and Ellie turns into Abby in her quest for revenge. I thought it was great story, I do agree it has pacing issues. I get why some people hate it cause they force you to play as the person who killed Joel a beloved character, but that’s the point.
Also the gameplay slaps, especially on survivor. Best stealth action game I’ve played.
I certainly think they’ll push on with a third game. It’ll be tied to match scenarios with the future tv show. Using each medium to play off against one another as marketing.
As for the story of the third game I’d be sure to say it’ll be more uplifting than the second. Will probably still have Joel in with further flashbacks, likely with Tommy before they met Ellie.
The only issued I have with the video is the Joel death it’s not the death or brutal of it it’s the way leading up to the death why people hate it it’s completely out of character for him to instantly trust complete strangers
The best part of the franchise is obviously the music. so much atmosphere in those strings .
16:25 Joel didn't have it coming. the Fireflies were scammers.
16:50 yes it would be a dynamic, except they tried to retcon the Fireflies and Jerry. Just go watch the operating room…. that's all the proof you need, to know what they were doing.
28:15 yea, very well explained.
overall as a non stan, I agree with most of these takes.
38:10 TLOU3 the last of us part 3, I don't care. Let them do it for the current fanbase. It's for SONY to decide.
I likely won't be buying.
The most disapointing game of all time is re released with no justification. You cant fix the story or change the core game no matter how many modes you add to it.