Month: July 2023

Finished The Last Of Us Part II yesterday. Played on PS5.

This is the sequel to The Last Of Us Part I.

The first installment of this series is a masterpiece.

This is not.

The first part had stunning graphics, an interesting (though already simehow tiresome) world building and an excellent written and presented story line.

The story in The Last Of Us Part I is the main reason, why this one is a masterpiece.

The story in The Last Of Us Part II is disappointment. It seems that the main inspiration of the storywriters have been watching to many “The Last Jedi” and “Game of Thrones season 8”. The demontage of your favorite characters and a boring, nonsensical storyline.

Hard to write without any spoilers, but the game lets you play as Elli and as her antagonist Abby in equal parts, iterating between the two back and forth. There is only one single theme here for each and everything: Revenge! Full stop. Up to some very stupid character decisions. Do not ask, if the uniliteral decision of the Fireflies in the first part to save human kind are worth the costs (and are in accordinace with human values – they are not). Do not ask, why noone in the whole story ever explains his or her actions to the counterpart. Do not ask, if Elli is really the only one immune. Do not ask, if there could be alternatives to this storyline and how they could be turned out, if just people talk to each other. This list can go on and on.

I take the LBGTQ theme as somehow outstanding and a nice touch.

Noughty Dog tries excessively to destroy Elli as a beloved character and to get the audience to like Abby (the Lef storyline or the heavy manipulative playing with Alice, the dog). The fail in both.

E.g. there is a fight between Abby and Elli (not the final one but in the theater), in which you play Abby and try to outsmart and fight Elli, otherwise Elli kills you. I got satisfied by letting Elli kill me. Several times. That felt good. But since the story does not progress if Elli kills Abby, I finally fought Elli and won. That was annoying.

The story just does not work. Too much nonsencial descision, too much doing the same things over and over again, too little of world building (and there could be a ton!), too much of plot armor for the main characters.

Insane good visuals, but a boring, stupid storytelling.

This is the “Game of Thrones Season 8” version of The Last Of Us.

Sad.

6/10

Finished The Last Of Us Part I. Played on PS5.

The Last Of Us Part I is a masterpiece. Mainly you play Joel 20 Years into a zombie apocalypse. Joel lost his daughter at the beginning of the cataclysm and struggled to survive ever since. After 20 years he is a grumpy old man living from smuggle jobs. The government, or what is left of it, is acting totalitarian and fighting civil unrest. The situation is very grim. Adding to this is a group of rebels calling themselves Fireflies.

In the midst of all this, Joel and his partner are tricked. To regain their stuff they are urgent to “deliver a package” to some other Fireflies. The delivery turns out to be a 14-year-old girl Elli. The Fireflies desperately need her, since she is the only human in existence – at least to the player – which is immune to the virus infecting fungus turning all people into zombies.

Grumpy old Joel does not want to have anything to do with her and even talks to his friend to turn back and leave Elli, but as his partner dies, he makes this delivery is tasks and wants to bring Elli to some place from where she can go on finding the Fireflies.

What ensues is a journey throughout a devasted landscape. Gradually Joel and Elli befriend each other and finally, Joel feels responsible for her as a father. Which has dramatic consequences in the end.

How the story unfolds is compelling and very well exercised. Even though I could not get any sympathies for Joel, how this storyline is presented and turned is excellent.

The gameplay focuses on stealth and scavenging missions. You get levels with a set of opponents (humans and/or zombies) and a growing array of weapons and skills to beat them. Most time you play Joel, but sometimes you get some missions as Elli too.

The visuals are stunning and insanely detailed. Even though the gameplay gets repetitive the presentation of the story and the world setting is great.

Sadly, you do not have any chances to alter the track the of the story in any way. As a player you have no agency or dialog options or anything. The whole story is pretty railroaded without any possiblities to take turns.

Still, the visual presentation and the narrative are excelling: 9/10