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 