The Last of Us Part 2 was a Let down
By: Pranay Nagi
Tags: Videogames, Stories, Opinion, Games

I loved The Last of Us, it was an amazing game filled with bright colours in the dark world of Ellie and Joel. It was done so well that it set our expectations for the next game, and the amount of time in between both games didn’t help either in fact it made they anticipation even worse. This doesn’t mean I hated the game, it was great but I believe that it could have been so. much. better.

I’ll be going through the main parts of the game and give you my opinion on what should have stayed the same and what should have been changed. It’s okay if you don’t agree with me, everyone has their own opinion and hopefully after reading this you’ll understand my point of view. Also, remember the world of the Last of Us. It is a never ending world war of humans versus humans versus the dead.

1. Ripping the Band-aid off

Joel, the character we played as in the first game and the person we grew so attached to, die within the first few minutes of the game. I agree that Joel should’ve been killed in the next game, this give Ellie more room for growth and development. Although I don’t think Joel should have been killed that early or in that way, Joel’s death was spontaneous, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and after see Joel’s growth in the first game that is absolutely not the way Joel would go out.

Joel was the guy who could get out of any situation, he cared about himself and his loved ones, he wouldn’t risk his life to save a random girl he knows nothing about. I think Joel and Ellie should’ve been in a tight situation and joel had to sacrifice himself for Ellie because he sees Ellie as a daughter and has made sacrifices for her since the beginning. This would lead Ellie on another path to revenge but against who>

2. WLF, Seraphites, Fireflies, Zombies? All the Same

When the first trailer of Part 2 came out we saw Ellie playing the guitar and the words “I’ll kill them all” came from her mouth along with showing a man who resembled Joel. At the end of the first game you see Ellie severely disappointed that she could not save everyone, she wanted to be the cure so bad that it broke her heart hearing Joel say she couldn’t. Knowing Ellie’s character I suspected that Ellie found a new way to be the cure…to kill all the Zombies herself. She can’t get infected by bites or spores and Joel would agree because he would be with her the whole time and watching over her.

Alas that was not the case, which I understand it would be unrealistic for Ellie to kill every single Zombie. Although this brings me to my second point of unrealism, the fireflies, why did they have to come back? It feels reused, Joel didn’t kill all of them but enough for them to dissolve. What’s worse is that Abby only wanted to revenge for her father, not the cure. This makes Abby look worse then she did when she killed Joel. There should have been a new threat, for example, instead of having Abby we should have Ellie stuck in between the WLF and Seraphites. This way we could keep Lev’s amazing story and character progression, Ellie and Lev could bond over loss of a love one and fighting against what seems like the world. Point being Abby should never have been a character but if she was then she shouldn’t have been a FireFly because that’s just bringing back the past which both Ellie and Joel wanted to leave so bad.

3. Realized too Late

Ellie was so driven by revenge that she even killed a pregnant woman, sure Ellie didn’t know she was with child but even after finding out Ellie continued with her revenge, was it determination or just foolishness?

Later on Ellie begs Abby not to kill Dina because she is pregnant and Abby agrees to walk away, being the bigger person this really shows who was the real bad guy in the story. Years later Ellie again dropped everything to chase Abby who was done worrying about her revenge, and when Ellie finally had the chance she stopped. Then what was the point of it? Joel would never want Ellie to be controlled by anger and revenge like that but now that Ellie finally had it in her hands what was the point of letting go? It almost felt empty to me, the whole journey none of them got what they wanted. Going back and thinking about it that was the point, revenge gets you nothing but Ellie realized that way too late for it to even matter.

4. Some Things I Loved

I’ve been talking about all my problem with the game but it really does that some amazing things. The guitar is a constant reminder of Joel not to only Ellie but to us as well, the way Ellie play it really seems like she thinks of Joel everytime she plays.

The character switch, yes I don’t like Abby but that was the point no? It’s all about perspective, you had to constantly ask yourself what you would do in their position.

The flashbacks of Ellie and Joel really hit your emotions, especially Ellie,s dream of going to space, it really shows how important Joel was to her.

To end it, please remember this is my opinion and you may have a different one and this does not mean that I hated the game or didn’t think it was good. I simply think it had so much potential that it almost seems wasted.