The Last Of Us Part II will ruin you for other video games this year

Anxiety. It gets under your skin and crawls up and down your spine.

This feeling usually comes out of film and TV in the form of scenes that take characters you have connected and places them in true peril.

Everything before these moments, you’ve sat there thinking “the odds are stacked against them, but they’ll survive.” ...not this time. It’s scary stuff and even with the plastic coating (or glass) of that screen dividing you, it is life-or-death tension that you can’t look away from, no matter how raw and uncomfortable it gets.

And in the 25 years since I picked up a controller, that is something I never thought a video game could do. Some have come close, but I believed that through what I’ll call gaming separation (summed up: you don’t really feel that life is at risk because you can just restart the level), that it wasn’t fully possible.

The Last of Us Part II proved I was wrong about this on two fronts - first came the anxiety created by the pairing of my overwhelming expectations and reactions to the story leaks (I didn’t see the spoilers, but I saw how furious people were across my Twitter), then came the tension that is the driving force behind this games.

Did it match up to my impossible expectations? No, but this is clearly one of the best games of this generation.

DISCLAIMER: This is going to be different from a lot of the blogs and reviews I have written in the past. Any idea of a structure quickly flies out the window, as the idea of providing anything as remotely analytical as a review is something unbefitting of this game. The sum of its parts are far greater than the individual elements themselves so, as I noticed by other reviews, they don’t necessarily represent the experience you will go through.

Now, with that out the way...

Being that guy who forces himself to pick, the first game has a better story - operating on a more succinct chronology and feeling a little more focussed (two key things my attempt at writing The Last Of Us Part II’s story missed).

But that is not to detract from what is here. To compare the two undervalues what this brings to the table - a truly unique tale that is only possible in a video game, elevated to new levels by mind-blowing performances, the seamlessness between these moments and the effortlessly razor sharp gameplay that feels legitimately human in movement.

Oh, and let’s not forget the visual and audio feast this is. Easily the best looking game of this generation and the spatial audio production is an advanced preview of the soundscape you can expect in the next generation.

Plus the comparison is a bit of a false flag. They may share the same universe and gameplay style, but they are vastly different in the narrative risks they take and the directions they head in. Part 1 told an incredibly simple story, with the longevity and depth to really draw the player in and force some difficult questions upon them. This sequel, on the other hand, tells an incredibly vast, multi-layered tale that subverts your expectations at every turn. 

To compare to other forms of media - whereas the first game was a movie, the second is more akin to a long-running TV series. You can tell that on a quantitative and qualitative basis, the team at Naughty Dog have certainly upped their storytelling game since 2013, which is mostly a blessing but also a curse.

My main critique of Part II would be that to some degree, the story gets a little too good at evoking emotional responses in you, to the point of it reducing your overall enjoyment… That sounded weird, let me explain.

The story seems to follow a three act structure - the setup for what drives you to Seattle, Seattle from Ellie’s perspective and that same timeframe in Seattle from a different perspective. The latter of these three feels like a bit of a drag at the beginning, but Naughty Dog’s masterful work of getting you emotionally connected to the character makes it all worthwhile. 

All of these end (as you’d expect) in an explosive confrontation, which you see from both of these perspectives and see the culmination, showing you the moral of the story in an incredibly harsh light. You learn about the consequences of revenge and obsession as the screen goes to black… But then the story continues, and you’re caught a little off guard by this fourth act emerging, which makes it feel a little exhausting at times.

You really don’t want to continue the journey, because you’re actively wanting Ellie to stop chasing said obsession. 

This is the first time that a story has overwhelmed the gameplay in my experience. Not enough to stop me from seeing it through to the finish (yes, I did cry at the ending a little), but enough to actively rally against the characters taking this final step and reduce my enjoyment of the last chapter a little. I internally fought against the notion of this character continuing on their path because I felt that strong of an emotional connection to them.

Not to say developers shouldn’t take risks like this - it just goes to show why video games are arguably one of the greatest storytelling platforms out there. But there's an incredibly fine balance here between wanting to tell an amazing story and make a good game. They stumble a bit towards the end, but they well and truly stick the landing.

So, wait… What am I trying to say here? As is clear, this is not a review. I’m bored of the divisiveness in scores around this game, and they just seem to be bait for homophobic comments about the lesbian relationship in the story and death threats to the team at Naughty Dog over the narrative decisions made.

To which, if you are one of these people who feel this response to real people writing a video game story is justified, I have a simple response - fuck off. Fuck off back to that hole where you have quite clearly emerged from, grab yourself some clothing suitable for swimming, then continue fucking off backwards into the ocean and never call yourself a gamer ever again.

Video games connect us all, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation. We stand united, loving the stories told in games, whether it's told to us by teams like Naughty Dog or we tell them ourselves in more free-form, non-linear titles. And the fact you use this medium as a way to divide us is pathetic. Do better.

Anyway, rant aside, I don’t quite know how to put The Last Of Us Part II into words. Far more talented writers than I have already done this and much like marmite, opinions are all over the place. 

That’s why I wrote a blog about it, with the title you’ve probably read as hyperbole (and to be fair, you’d be somewhat right - surprise, bloggers are thirsty for clicks). We’re in for an incredible few months of games - personal highlights for me being Ghost of Tsushima in July and Cyberpunk 2077 in November, capped off with PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X at the end of the year.

But none of them (and I truly mean none of them) will leave quite the same impact on you as The Last of Us Part II.