As much as I liked the story to The Last of Us and liked Joel and Ellie, at no point did I want a sequel, or feel that it needed one. But of course Naughty Dog went and announced one, and I immediately rolled my eyes and muttered 'WHY THO?'. Knowing exactly why.
[Cue Adventures of Stevie V's "Dirty Cash (Money Talks)"]
I'm that person who believes that not everything needs to have a sequel. Sometimes a great thing should just be allowed to be a one time great thing. There have been instances where something I felt shouldn't have gotten a sequel ended up with one and it was really good. But The Last of Us Part II is not one of those things.
I don't know what came first for Naughty Dog. The prospect of sales and hella money or the story. But The Last of Us Part II is here and it pretty much made me go 'And that's why they shouldn't have bothered with this', because it adds nothing to the original and doesn't even come remotely close to touching on many of the best moments from the first game.
Aside from The Last of Us Part II's narrative structure being a mess, I came away from it wondering what the point of it all was.
This is a spoiler warning if you haven't played The Last of Us Part II. 'Cos I'mma 'bout to spoil all the things.
The Last of Us Part II is a revenge story. Which...fine. Whatever. Nothing new. Revenge stories are standard. Revenge stories are simple. They're easy. And yet, The Last of Us Part II fails to get it right, because it tries so hard to be 'not just another revenge story' that it fails to be a particularly good version of either.
The Last of Us Part II wants to be revenge story from both sides. The problem with The Last of Us Part II doing this both sides shit isn't that it does it at all, but that it does so badly. One of The Last of Us Part II's worst narrative sins is in how it handles its Devil's advocacy, because it forces players to like and feel empathy for a character who does a really bad thing and will be seen by many as irredeemable.
The Last of Us Part II introduces a new character, Abby. She kills Joel about an hour or so into the game, after which we find out WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY later that one of the miscellaneous Firefly surgeons that Joel killed in Part I in order to rescue Ellie, was her father, and she's been hell bent on revenge ever since. So, when we see Abby kill Joel, we hate this bitch. The way Joel went out was a type of mess, but...anyway. Abby kills Joel. We hate her, because we fucks with Joel and we feel for Ellie, who we knew saw him like a father.
But then after hours of Ellie's revenge mission and finally finding Abby, the game says 'AND SCENE' and then makes you play as Abby. In fact, half of The Last of Us Part II is spent playing as Abby. You see things from her point of view and that MAYBE she's not a complete villain, because she has people that she cares about, she has a love life, and most importantly, she has a dog. But the fact that she killed Joel makes all of this case building for her character kinda pointless. Because she killed Joel.
Whilst Abby's revenge story feels contrived, I do get why she killed Joel. And later come to understand why those involved in the ambush were complicit in it. The problem isn't so much what happens, it's the order in which it happens and unravels.
The order in which the narrative unfolds is a large part as to why this both sides story doesn't work. We see Abby kill Joel pretty much at the start, before we get to play as her and get any sense of who she is and who her father was. So the game sets her up as the villain, then says 'Here's why you should care about her' when you've already made up your mind about her, because the game has set her up that way. Even though you see that Abby was a good daughter and that she goes out of her way to care for a runaway and his sister, it doesn't wash away the fact that you watched this character kill Joel. There is no redemption from that. It's like the whole Kylo Ren situation all over again. Why should we care so much this character returning to the light when he's killed so many people, including his own father? Why should we care about Abby when she killed Joel?
That's the last movie reference I'll make, 'cos I'm not try'na get dragged like Jeff Cannata.
I feel that if we got to see more of Abby's life prior to the killing of Joel, then it would have made players wrestle far more with themselves in regards to how they feel about it. Because by that point MAYBE we would have grown to warm to Abby as a character; so we would have been left conflicted that this character we've started to like has killed a character that we always liked. But Abby also needed to show some form of conflict in regards to whether she should kill Joel, and to have it affect her afterwards. Abby doesn't know the full story on why Joel killed her father. So you would think in that moment when Joel's life is in her hands that she would have demanded some answers. And if Abby had shown any remorse or regret at what she did, then maybe it would have counted for something. But she doesn't. And when she meets Ellie for the first time afterwards, she has the audacity to get upset about Ellie killing her friends in order to get to her, after she just killed one of Ellie's friends and popped Joel's brother. THEN the bitch has the nerve to say that she should be grateful that she let her live instead of killing her with Joel. Abby is a piece of shit. No reason to like this girl. And yet, playing as her and seeing how she and her friends are awful human beings is half of the story told in the wrong order.
Abby is responsible for driving Ellie down the path of revenge that led to her killing all of her friends and her damn dog, but she doesn't see how she brought it on herself, and seems wholly unaffected by her part in the shit show.
The Last of Us Part I established that even in a world where there are no rules, there are often consequences. That everything that you do has a price. Marlene okayed a procedure on Ellie to get a coronavirus cure knowing that she'd die. When Joel found out, he busted Ellie outta the joint, then popped Marlene who was left begging for her life. Joel knew that if he let Marlene go she would still pursue Ellie and possibly put a hit out for him, so Joel killed Marlene to protect Ellie and also himself. But in doing this, he also snuffed the one person who could give Ellie answers, and he carries that with him. Then there's Joel, Marlene and Abby's father all making a decision on Ellie's life without once consulting Ellie herself - which they all end up paying for. Joel lies to Ellie about the coronavirus cure, but those lies come back and ruin his relationship with Ellie. Ellie says she can't forgive Joel after finding out the truth, which leaves him broken after pretty much telling Ellie that his life wouldn't be shit without her in it. Joel dies before Ellie was able to forgive him, which will now haunt her forever. Ellie is so hellbent on revenge that she's reckless and ends up getting an appendectomy by a tree, losing her girlfriend, her son, and a couple of fingers because of it. Then there's ALL of the shit and trauma that Joel and Ellie have lived through before they were even brought into each other's lives. Joel and Ellie are caught in a cycle of loss, where every decision they make eventually brings suffering.
But then you have Abby who shows no remorse for her actions, and suffers no repercussions for any of them. Not only does she murder Joel, but she's sleeping with her friend's boyfriend, a friend of whom is pregnant with his child. She has a reputation for being a cold killer. A lot of what she does is for power and simply because she can, not out of necessity. And as we find out more about Abby's background, we see that she is privileged. She didn't grow up having to survive. She had stability. She had a home. She was protected. She had a parent in her life. She had friends. She had everything and still has everything. She even has a man in her life who is into her despite her being a murderous piece of shit, who accepts her for who she is and has no qualms about her being built like a quarterback.
It's difficult to feel any form of empathy for Abby, because every length the story goes to in order to show why we should feel for her just shows how well-off she is in comparison to Ellie, and that rules don't apply to her. It's quite a timely story, given the parallels between the story and the real world disparity between genders and races, and capitalism as a whole. But this commentary isn't what the game really brings home, and it's also not really the story it's trying to tell; despite it being something which stood out to me.
The Last of Us Part II tries to blur the lines between good and bad, but so much of what Abby and her friends do is so heinous that the line never really blurs. It comes close. But no matter which way you cut it, Abby and her friends are pieces of shit. She isn't even a piece of shit for killing Joel necessarily, because he was certainly no Saint. Her killing of Joel is one in a list of shitty things that Abby does, and showing that she cares for a couple of runaways of enemies doesn't negate all of that in the way Naughty Dog thinks that it does.
Naughty Dog seemed so confident that they could change minds on Abby, but they didn't do enough to pull it off unanimously, and they dug themselves into a hole with their set-up.
Joel was far too cautious a character in Part I to allow himself to get jumped the way that he did. Joel was ridiculously cautious, even around a young girl like Ellie, and the likes of Henry and Sam. And Joel's brother Tommy knew better than to just run around telling strangers all their business. Sure, there's a level of complacency they'd have after living a life in Jackson. But to swing their characters so far over to the side of not being cautious what-so-ever, just to create the setup for Joel getting killed just didn't feel right.
Let's get one thing straight.
I am not against Joel dying. Given the tone of Part I and the world it has established, Joel or Ellie were always going to end up dying in a follow-up story. But Joel went out like a character who was hastily written out of a show because the actor portraying them got caught in a scandal.
Then there is Ellie's PTSD, which is strangely handled. We see it in a scene after she interrogates Nora, but it's not clear if it's triggered by memories of her watching Joel get beaten to death, or her beating Nora to death the same way. The latter would be bizarre, because up until that point we've watched Ellie knife the entire population in its neck. And this is another problem with the narrative. The Last of Us Part II's story happens in a vacuum completely detached from the gameplay. As you play as Ellie you're constantly killing. Unavoidably. But then the game will throw in a cut scene of Ellie being brutal and murderous, and then suddenly she's affected by this ONE incident, like Ellie hasn't been doing that ONE thing MULTIPLE times, the WHOLE time.
And PTSD is only conveniently reserved for Ellie, when having Abby suffer from it would have gone some way in helping humanise Abby. We also should have seen Abby wrestle with some trauma after killing Joel, questioning whether she did the right thing, and being wary that Ellie would seek revenge and how she'd handle that when the time came. Or the act of attacking Joel should have triggered a vision of Ellie doing the same to her father and having Abby in that moment show regret and fight with herself.
I am not against Joel dying. Given the tone of Part I and the world it has established, Joel or Ellie were always going to end up dying in a follow-up story. But Joel went out like a character who was hastily written out of a show because the actor portraying them got caught in a scandal.
Then there is Ellie's PTSD, which is strangely handled. We see it in a scene after she interrogates Nora, but it's not clear if it's triggered by memories of her watching Joel get beaten to death, or her beating Nora to death the same way. The latter would be bizarre, because up until that point we've watched Ellie knife the entire population in its neck. And this is another problem with the narrative. The Last of Us Part II's story happens in a vacuum completely detached from the gameplay. As you play as Ellie you're constantly killing. Unavoidably. But then the game will throw in a cut scene of Ellie being brutal and murderous, and then suddenly she's affected by this ONE incident, like Ellie hasn't been doing that ONE thing MULTIPLE times, the WHOLE time.
And PTSD is only conveniently reserved for Ellie, when having Abby suffer from it would have gone some way in helping humanise Abby. We also should have seen Abby wrestle with some trauma after killing Joel, questioning whether she did the right thing, and being wary that Ellie would seek revenge and how she'd handle that when the time came. Or the act of attacking Joel should have triggered a vision of Ellie doing the same to her father and having Abby in that moment show regret and fight with herself.
And THEN there is Ellie's relationship with Dina. I'mma just say this. I have no issues with same sex couples in games. When I played Mass Effect, I did everything I could to clap Kaiden's cheeks. Queer representation in games is great. It needs to be normalised. And there are some great things that Naughty Dog do in regards to it in The Last of Us Part II. Dina being sexually fluid is great. Jesse being cool with Dina's fluidity and still being cool with Ellie is great. Joel's awkward Country ass talking to Ellie about her girlfriend is great. But we don't get to see the same journey of Ellie and Dina's relationship that we see with Abby and Owen's, which I hate to say, intrigued me far more despite them both being pieces of shit. Maybe because it's so damn messy, and I live for drama. But Ellie and Dina's relationship felt under-baked by comparison. And some may have something to say about the game showing a sex scene between a man and a woman, but not between two women.
The Last of Us Part II misplaces the ways in which it wants you to feel about certain situations, which takes The Last of Us Part II's whole 'grey area' shtick of a revenge story and colours it in doo-doo brown. It wants to make you feel bad over one action, whilst justifying others, and then wanting to have its cake and eat it too. Here's an example. Ellie ends up killing Owen's baby momma Mel after she pulls a knife on her, but she doesn't find out until after she stabs her in the throat that she's pregnant. The game wants us to feel bad, distraught and guilty - but Ellie killed Mel in self-defence, and Ellie didn't know she was pregnant at the time. Also, Mel stood by and watched Joel get battered to death whilst Ellie was restrained and beaten by men. So excuse me if I felt nothing for her when she died. Had they made Mel a nicer character who had ZERO involvement in any of this shit, then I might've felt something. But Ellie is physically distraught when she realises that she killed a pregnant woman, despite Ellie killing hella women up until that point and not giving a single damn over whether they may be pregnant or not. This baby scenario also comes back when Abby is about to kill Dina, with Ellie begging her not to because she's pregnant, to which Abby ignores. Only when Lev enters does Abby stop. It feels like a moment thrown in for no other reason than to show 'Abby isn't bad', even though she still is, because she was about to take pleasure in killing a pregnant woman. It just doesn't make sense. The same goes for Owen. He has a moment where he seems to have a change of heart in regards to all of the killing he's done - but, why? There are many instances of the story just having moments which are supposed to be pivotal and make some form of commentary on life, death, remorse and revenge; but they don't land because of the circumstances and the lack of character building up until these moments. And also because prior actions of these characters just negate their changes of heart. Everybody in this game is a piece of shit. Maybe that's the commentary. I don't know. It just woulda been nice to have had some characters who I actually gave a damn about. Because I even grew to dislike Ellie.
The Last of Us keeps trying to go back and forth on the morality scale so often that all sense of who's good, who's bad, who should be rooted for and who is ultimately driving the story just gets lost to a point where you're like 'Fuck this, I don't even care anymore. I just want it to end'. And chile. The ending.
Ellie and Abby meet again in what we're led to believe is a fight to the death. Ellie gets an upper hand and finally goes to kill Abby, but stops herself. Because of a flashback of Joel. So, she lets Abby go.
Now, we've seen this shit before, where a character is like 'Fuck this shit, I'm not gonna kill you, 'cos I'm better than that and I'm better than YOU.' But it makes so little sense here in the wake of all that Ellie has gone through, and that she's killed near enough every single person who was in that room when Joel got murdered, except for the one person who murdered him.
Mess.
The misplacement of how The Last of Us Part II wants us to feel versus what we end up feeling is what makes this ending moment feel so wonky. It made Ellie look like not only the bad guy for a minute, but a dumb bitch. What would have made this scene actually work would have been Lev calling out for Ellie to stop, which THEN triggers Ellie to have the flashback of Joel. It would have shown her making the decision to show the remorse that Abby denied both her and Joel. The moment still woulda felt like a cop out to some, but it at least would have given Ellie and us as the audience a clearer reason as to why Ellie didn't go through with killing Abby.
The Last of Us Part I did such a great job of really focusing in on a central theme, which was the physical and emotional survival through the characters of Joel and Ellie. The Last of Us Part II instead places focus on the drama around the characters. Even though The Last of Us Part I was set in this world where there was an infection breakout, factions, stragglers making it on their own, and those trying to make profits on weapons and goods, the focus was never on all of these things. It was always on Joel and Ellie's individual growth and how it brings them closer together.
The groundwork laid in first game is what leads to the most compelling parts of Part II, which are the flashback sequences with Joel and Ellie. We see the different points in their relationship following the events of the first game. We see Joel really stepping into being a father figure for Ellie. We also see Ellie and Joel's relationship become somewhat strained, and her pulling away from Joel over a nagging feeling that he isn't being honest with her about what happened at the Fireflies base. We also see their relationship completely fall apart upon Ellie finding out the truth. And we see Ellie tell Joel that she can never forgive him. These Joel and Ellie flashback moments are such a stark contrast to the rest of the game and stand out as the best parts of it, that it baffles me that Neil Druckmann didn't think 'Hold up. Maybe we should go back to this feeling' - the heart of the characters driving the story and not the drama and the violence. The Last of Us Part I used violence to help carry the story. In The Last of Us Part II, the violence IS the story and it doesn't always hold because of it. In fact, the constant and incessant violence is what drowns so much of The Last of Us Part II and robs it of a story. Violence just swallows everything... Was this is the point? Maybe. I still hate it though.
The worlds of The Last of Us Part I and Part II feel very different. In Part I there was always a sense of being able to find a way. No matter how shit your situation is and how terrible things seem, there is always a way, providing you have . Joel is an example of this from the offset. His daughter died in his arms, but he still found a way to keep living. He was a broken man, sure. But he made the decision to keep living. Ellie finds herself in a predicament where she's facing death at the hands of a cannibal. Her situation is dire, enough to just make a person resign to dying. But Ellie keeps fighting and strategises a way to get free. In its final moments The Last of Us Part I shows that even in a situation where a choice is made that we can't deduce whether is truly was good or bad, and will have dire repercussions, there is still a way. Ellie was the key to a cure. Great. But it would mean her dying. So Joel breaks her out and pretty much takes down all hopes of a future cure. That means for a bleak future where corona continues to thrive, but for Joel it was a chance to save the life he was unable to years prior. He was unable to save Sarah, but he was able to save Ellie. And Ellie being none the wiser to the situation of the cure is hopeful for a future with Joel, and being able to see more of a world she never thought she'd get to see. Even in the darkest of moments there was hope to be found. Hope feels all null and void in The Last of Us Part II, because everybody is caught in a cycle of violence and death. And oddly the only slither of hope is given to Abby and Lev who sail off into an eventual sunset. Meanwhile Ellie loses two fingers, her girlfriend, her adopted son and has learned fuck all as a result. No sense of understanding why Joel did what he did. No sense of understanding the importance of the family that she had in Joel, or the family she made with Dina. So what was the point in anything?
I get that Naughty Dog wanted to show us 'Yep. Life be shit'. But to deny so many of these characters hope, purpose, or true perspective just felt far too vindictive and nonsensical. It pulled the story away from the themes of the first game which made the story work. This 'Life is shit' story also doesn't bode well for the timing of this game, when so many people are looking for hope and perspective. Whether it be with the election, coronavirus, Black Lives Matter, abuse and many more besides. At any time really, a story with a thread of hope is always needed. It didn't need to be some grand gesture. Part I certainly never did that. But it still managed to give hope. And whilst I'm not going to get too into Naughty Dog and their reputation for crunch and how they handled leave and bonuses for staff, to have a team working on a triple AAA game which is just death, revenge, depression, with no respite is really something.
The whole idea that you can have nothing, then everything you every wanted, then lose something, then lose everything as a result of wanting to avenge the thing you lost is a powerful one. It shows that even good guys get shafted in the end. But the roundabout way in which the game conveys this is just off, and some of the narrative choices are so wildly off that these story beats become the focus and not the heart of the story. Ellie's story gets lost in all of the violence, and Abby consumes everything.
The Last of Us Part II starting with a character who is unlikable from the get-go and ends with a once likeable character who is now unlikable and a complete idiot was a choice.
The Last of Us Part II is a shame, because it had the potential to be a great story. The pieces to create something great were all RIGHT there. How easy it is for the wrong thing to seem right. How revenge can be a cycle. The way in which revenge can make you a villain. And it does a good job with representation. We have strong women. We have a woman of a stature we rarely see women sporting in games. We have Black characters. We have queer characters. We have a trans character. We have an Asian character who isn't a female in a qipao or a Kung fu assassin. But none of these things came together to create a story that truly made me care about any of the commentaries it was making, or the characters who were a part of it. It was just violent and shitty things happening to people...and that was kinda it.