Our last 2

I don’t remember an AAA game that would have drawn the community to a similar extent as The Last of Us 2. The production of Naughty Dog, in fact, from the first show sparked intense emotions and led some to a state similar to euphoria, others to pure rage and even rage ( Which can be read on various threads in industry-related forums or in the comments below the entries).

However, this is an interesting topic because we are talking about production He won all kinds of awards in record time. From the smallest prizes handed out for neighborhood competitions, to the biggest GOTY at events that millions of people follow online. Furthermore, a good number of reviewers seem to agree that this title is close to the legendary 10/10 (and some have given such ratings).

On the other hand, we have a whole bunch of fans They were almost combative towards the reviewers. I don’t even mention ratings 0/10 – assuming many of them are trolls, there are indeed many objective opinions that are far from unwarranted hate. And while, as I mentioned at the beginning – similar situations may and could have happened, we haven’t had the opportunity to monitor such a range yet.

And this is where the spoilers begin!

Where did the conclusions come from?

Well, an important question arises – where do these conclusions come from? In order to answer this question, we need to start from the beginning and identify more or less what the phenomenon of The Last of Us Part 2 comes from and what is the problem that makes so many people so critical of it, How Naughty Dog decided to continue the story of Joel and Ellie. Exactly, are you sure about their story? We will come back to that.

The Last of Us: Part II debuted on June 19, 2020 After some previous delays. Production went to PlayStation 4 and was promoted from the start as one of the last AAA items to debut only for the last generation before the start of the PlayStation 5 era. The title was to do exactly what the first part of the time did – to climb to the heights of technological possibilities.

In practice, that’s exactly what happened. Technically, visually, acoustically and the mechanisms themselvesk managed to do something awesome. The scale of detail, a detailed approach to all the elements and an attempt to take care of even things like eyeballs and emotions built through specific facial expressions… all did a great job and made it a huge development from the point of view.

However, it was the plot that strongly influenced the general reception of the production. This is where the stairs begin. As I mentioned a couple of paragraphs earlier, The Last of Us was a story about Joel and Ellie. Taking into account the beginning of the story and the formula for control, the order of these matters. In the sequel, it was decided not only to reverse the roles, but even get rid of the main antagonist. Many people probably feel pain with this memory, but yes. Joel dies at first.

Perfect game vs. fun game

he made it Many people not only frown and disappointedRather, it led to a kind of rebellion against the game. I’ve seen recordings of broken panels and pictures of TLOU 2 copies lying in the trash. All because of one decision. Well, one, but it had a lot of consequences. The narrative was somewhat reversed, additional characters were added, and in order to keep company on the go, Joel, a favorite of many, was replaced by Ellie’s partner.

Although you can admire him, there is no doubt that he was practically boring. She was not particularly distinguished by anything other than a pregnancy that was discovered at some point in history. At first she was “Ellie’s girlfriend” and later “Ellie’s pregnant girlfriend”. And if little can be said about the heroine herself, then it is clear that people treat this subject as fire, They’ll start referring to “artificially stuffing certain topics”.

On the one hand, we have a production perfect in terms of what the game should be (this can be a 93% on Metacritic of reviewers), and on the other hand, a production that has turned into a fictional career (here only 5.7/10 of casual players – and Still a big leap compared to 2020). The game no longer resonates with fans of the first part. Those who can identify with Joel.

How are you in the end?

exactly… How Is The Last Of Us: Part Two? It is difficult to answer this question unequivocally. The game divided the audience which is not surprising. Although in the context of graphics or mechanics it exceeded many people’s expectations, it unfortunately missed the expectations of a similarly large group when it came to plot threads and the way of storytelling.

Recently, I found myself doing this I see this title getting worse with timeFrom the occasion of the first show. I still treat this game as a great thing, but more in terms of technical achievements. I kept one with her because of the plot threads, in two it was a little lacking. And while I think some of the decisions and minority portrayal were perfectly fine, I don’t think it was properly rendered.

Briefly…

When it comes to video games, I’m one of those people We think gameplay is more important than plot linesE – As for the plot, they can read books or watch movies – and here I want to feel my influence on the world. Despite everything, I also think that a work that satisfies even 90% of the assumptions of this perfection cannot be considered a perfect game. On the other hand – even despite the bad opinion about the game after the passage of time, I am still far from calling it a failure.

The creators took a risk and did it in such a cruel way that the consequences could be two – Either champagne, or a lot of hate. Here it ended, unfortunately, closer to the latter. However, it’s still worth making these kinds of decisions, or else we’ll be left standing. Moreover, I am convinced that there will be a group of people for whom the plot of the second installment was better than the first.

So the conclusion is simple – although The Last of Us 2 is polarizing, it is in no way You can’t just look at this game in black and white. It’s not all zero here, and despite some lapses, it’s still a hit in the other categories. And while it’s a predecessor in its own way, it’s undoubtedly one of many. After all, the courage of the creators is growing. This is very good.