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NAME – The Last Of Us Part II
DATE OF RELEASE – June 19, 2020
PRICE – US$
MAKER – Naughty Dog
CONSOLE – PS4
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Hello and welcome to Newswhistle game reviews; today, we’ve got the critically acclaimed and disputed The Last of Us Part II on tap, released by Naughty Dog for PS4 on June 19th. I’m going to do my best to give a spoiler-free and detailed review.
The game is a continuation of the original game’s (The Last of Us) story. You follow Ellie some years after the events of the first game. Without giving away key plot points, Ellie travels to Seattle and beyond for revenge against a group of ex-Fireflies (a faction from the first game.)
There is much dispute concerning the game’s story. Some players argue that those who don’t like the game are upset over LGBTQ representation and its female protagonists. However, there are numerous continuity errors and narrative missteps (past-scenes are portrayed differently, retextured etc., and some character motivations and decisions are questionable) that affected my enjoyment/understanding of the game. That all being said, I understood the point Naughty Dog was driving at with the narrative and felt they did a good/ too good of a job belaboring that point.
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The Last of Us Part II is an action-adventure third-person shooter with linear level progression. What makes the game different from Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series and other third-person shooters is the limited availability of ammo and resources. In other shooters, you can run around and shoot without taking a lot of time to aim. Here, combat is methodical, ammo-conservative, and reliant on your ability to make/use limited to no resources. Another change from the previous game is that the size and detail of combat-areas have been increased: you can climb up into building or hide in houses and store-fronts to get the jump on your enemy, or you can sneak past without even engaging in combat at all.
The details are what make this post-apocalyptic world so immersive and interesting: collectables catered to character interests, scraps of writings from past survivors, open and wrecked rooms in the abandoned buildings, and so much more all add to the narrative.
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The game’s graphics are hyper-realistic which makes fighting the infected (fungus-based zombie-like creatures) so terrifying. The music is not only narratively involved but player-immersive (you help Ellie play certain songs on the guitar that carry meaning) and works at tugging at your survivor-hardened heartstrings. The game is artistically attached to an apocalyptic realism: characters are killed off without any theatrics or leadup, enemies will cry out for their companions by name when you kill off one of their group, and each environment is littered with visual and auditory ambience.
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I played the main story on hard (out of Very Light, Light, Moderate, Hard, and Survivor) and it took me about 20+ hours.
My rating? 4 out of 5 whistles.
The gameplay is beyond amazing and when the story is good, it’s good. That being said, $60 for a 20-hour game is a little much, and some narrative missteps keep this game from what could’ve been a solid 5/5 whistle review.
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ABOUT GUY JAMES
Guy James is the pen name of Guy DeMarco, a young writer on the rise. He can be reached with music ideas and story suggestions at guy@newswhistle.com.
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Screenshot Images & Video Courtesy of Naughty Dog and PlayStation
