SPOILER WARNING! Do not watch this video if you haven’t and plan to play the Last of Us Part II yourself.
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This video is very different than anything I’ve ever done before. When I streamed The Last of Us Part II, my chat was constantly filled with people making wild accusations about the game that I just didn’t see with own eyes. That, along with comments regarding the leaks of the game, is what inspired this video: an honest, critical analysis of the inner workings of the game’s narrative, from start to finish.
I hope you enjoy watching this video essay, and as I ask in the video, please keep any offensive comments to yourself. You’ll find that the point of this video is to analyze something yourself through critical thinking. Spewing hatred does nothing but hurt your own argument.
Special thanks to Gregg from @Drop Rate for being the best dude and reading this over and providing feedback. Same with SG alumni Frank Heinrich and his friend Chloe for providing their own unique viewpoints that steered me in the right direction.
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Video Chapters
0:00 Intro
2:40 The Story Begins
4:17 In Response to Internet Backlash
8:39 The Big Spoiler (and why it’s okay)
14:20 A Quest for Vengeance
18:26 The Other Side of the Coin
21:34 The Love Triangle
22:54 The Actual Problem
26:54 Breaking the Cycle
34:46 Final Thoughts
36:20 Outro
End card music by The Bagel Gang:
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39 Comments
I just finished the game! Overall, no surprise, I had a great time. I think it took 15 or 16 hours. (I also wanted to comment on how great this video is. Great unbiased thoughts. Well placed humor. Great editing. Wonderful voice.) Nothing new there though 😉
Going into the game I did hear remnants of how people were reacting to spoilers, but it never really impacted me much. Obviously, people on the internet tend to overreact. So much so that I had to ask which part they overreacted to. I didn’t realize I had even played it.
Some of the pacing, as you mentioned, was off-putting. Though, it wasn't nearly to any point where it was unenjoyable. I just have trouble when stories take a step back to go back in time and show more pieces to the puzzle. If it’s told well, it works. I think in this case it does. It’s good, but not great. The story reaches this huge climax where Ellie and Abby finally meet. Then it just slows down taking almost 5-10 hours of play through to reach that point again. During those 5-10 hours I think what carried me through the most was introducing Lev and Yara, expanding on the WLF and Seraphite world building, and some of the cool game sequences. Like walking along the cranes from building to building. I like Abby’s story, but like you said if they told the story with a continuing timeline jumping from Abby to Ellie I think it would have worked much better.
I don’t think you play as Abby to feel bad for her. I think there’s also a hint of Abby being a bad person, excluding her killing of Joel, in the same realm of Joel. During the early part of the Abby side of the playthrough – Manny, Mel, and Abby are talking about how there used to be a truce with the Seraphites and WLF until some kids were shot. When Mel defends the children Abby claims she's okay with them being shot. When Abby takes in Lev and Yara there’s quite a bit of questioning for why she helps them. Mel claims Abby is helping them to reconcile for something she straight up calls Abby shitty. When Yara and Lev ask why Abby is helping them Abby responds with something like, “I have too.” I wouldn’t be surprised if we learn that Abby was in the WLF party that shot the Seraphite kids. Maybe Issac wanted a war and had Abby do his dirty work during an extra assignment. Though I guess that’s just speculation, so it’s neither here nor there.
I do like the idea of thinking twice before killing the enemy. Killing zombos, I’ll do that all day. I found myself not killing people most of the time. The game humanizing each group of people by Abby’s perspective with the WLF and Lev’s perspective with Seraphites, people screaming their friends' names when they die, and seeing characters you killed as Ellie show up in Abby’s retelling of the story led me to thinking twice. In the Last of Us 1 you seem influenced by how Joel might think at the time. Just killing everyone, no questions. In this game I think the player is influenced by how Ellie might think. Feeling sorry for killing people. Who knows. I also just liked being to be like, forget these people and this segment, and just sprint past everyone lol.
The gameplay itself was alright for the most part. It’s naughty dog. What I didn’t like was running and jumping gaps, which was absolute shit for me most of the time. Also, silent takedowns were so repetitive. Strangle people and they gargle x1000. The only way it was different was that Ellie or Abby would say something different when they did it. It was so repetitive that I just stopped doing it. Some of the puzzles were fun, like when you have to jam the dumpster under the garage door before it closed. That was kind of cool.
My favorite mission for the gaming experience was either the crane bridge mission or storming the Seraphite island. My favorite missions for story telling were the ones with little combat or the ones that just went back in time. My least favorite was when Ellie first got to Seattle. Opening gates and aimlessly riding a horse around was kind of boring. It seemed like a traveling portion of the game they could have skipped.
The ending’s meaning and story point I like. I didn’t want Abby to die. When Ellie was holding Abby under water I found myself saying, “Don’t do it!” The only thing I didn’t like about the ending was the setting and this random new group in Santa Barbra. I just felt no connection to it. It was just a strange setting for the ending to take place.
These are just my initial thoughts =)
Yeah for the internet backlash you know it’s bad when everyone is making “she’s a man” memes on Reddit 🤣
I will say this again last of us 2 was a masterpiece
it's so refreshing to hear somebody say "i didn't particularly enjoy the story myself" after making a 30 minute video essay on said story.
Can't remember anybody complaining about the fact that Nadine Ross beat Nathan Drake's ass several times on Uncharted: A Thief's End 😀
The controvery around this game was nuts at the time it came out and is still nuts today^^
Don't get me wrong I personally don't like the story of this game but I didn't play it for the story I played it for the game play and I wanted to know how they were going to make the last of us world bigger in my opinion they story was ok not the best mind you but ok the game play was awsome and the world building and lore was pretty good overall
Lol Abby physical model is based on a heavy gear user so definitely not realistic female body but I understand ur point.
Seriously man, you have to make more videos like this!!
My main criticism is that they did Tommy a little dirty. Hopefully he's still got his wife and stuff
I’m talking about the last of us 1 and 2 together but the last of us is the greatest game ever, the most emotional story in a video game I ever played, it was the first game to make me cry, when I heard there was a second one getting made I was so hyped and when I played it I was a lil confused after watching explained videos on YouTube everything makes sense the end of the last of us part 2 is the saddest thing I ever seen, this game series is the most insane thing ever also that theme song will forever give me the chills
Ok I know everyone thinks Joel is a bad person but him and Ellie went through so much and saved each other’s lives so many times, Joel can’t just let go off Ellie like she was nothing to him.
We live in a world where everybody wants a happy ending lol. Story is freaking magnificent. I could care less what the youtubers and wight bros think
The part where Ellie kills Owen and Mel, you said how it parallels Joel’s interrogation in the 1st game. I think the story would’ve been better if Ellie actually tortured both of them even with knowledge that Mel is pregnant. Most people saw Joel’s interrogation as badass. But if Ellie tortured those two, players would likely react to her as a monster. If players see how Ellie has turned into Joel, the conflicting emotions would hit hard.
The difference between the 1st and the 2nd game is that it is abundantly clear as to why Joel saves Ellie, it’s NOT as clear as to why Ellie spares Abby. The line of demarcation is clearly defined in the 1st and not in the 2nd. That is what makes the 2nd game harder to swallow.
I'll be honest I think they arr throwing a lot of "inclusion" in the game. With that said the game was not ruined. Everyone has their own life to live. At the end of the day just leave ppl alone.
I really like this game but just can’t get through with Joel getting killed without anybody getting killed for it just It hurt so bad seeing him die
I’ll agree to disagree. Joel’s murder, killed like a dog. He & fans deserved better but killed by a nobody. You call this art but I call this a sham. Those who hate Joel & Demonize him, love the game just like you! Those who understood Joel – hate the game. There is no right or wrong in an apocalyptic setting. It’s survival. But ND & fans love to blame Joel for everything that happen. ND turning Ellie into a killing machine, bringing in Abby a sociopath who never felt remorse. The pacing was horrible. The back flashes, what a waste of potential. Coincidences ? You excused them all. It’s a beautiful game, visually & musically, but a sad story on implementation. With all that said, appreciate your review. It’s always good to hear the other side, bad or good.
Ellie is wearing Dinas bracelet at the end. I like to think she is back with Dina again, and just went back to the farm for one last nostalgia trip.
I see a lot of similarity between critiques about Omar's death from The Wire and Joel's death from TLoU2.
The only real issue with ellie and dina is that they could have exploded their conflict (dina being concerned that ellie is going too far) rather than having her stay behind. I do really like the story of the second game. Dina being pregnant therefore in danger doesn’t make ellie even suggest going back and is fine with dina being in danger if it means she can get revenge. This actually fits with the end of the game because ellie sacrifices her relationship all for the sake of revenge
My brother blindly hated this game but I gave it shot because I wasn’t just going to blindly listen to a bunch of obsessive people that destroy their video games on camera
I just finished the game. I personally thought it was brilliant. So raw and representative of human flaws and virtues. How it made me think about revenge and empathy and how someone's monster is someone else's hero. How muddled and conflicting human motivations are. I loved it. It's not perfect, but for me a solid 8 or 9, I'm still digesting it but it's up there for me. I held off on playing this for years due to the bad reviews and decided to pick it up as it was massively cheap. It would have been worth full price! The internet is full of morons it seems xD who would have known…if you haven't played this, you probably should.
im really late to the party. when the first game came out i never played it because at the time the gameplay didn’t appeal to me, but id always hear about how good the story was. when the second one came out i saw all the outrage about it. the past two months i played both for the first time and tried going in with a really open mind about all of it. i gotta say i think Part 2 is 10x better than the first one, gameplay wise, and story wise. i haven’t been so emotionally invested in a game since RDR2. the ending to Part 2 really has been sitting with me since i beat it recently. great work and amazing video.
"final thoughts. Bottom Text"
Personally I hate that Joel died, but then you have to remember that this game depicts realism and that main characters won't always have plot armour, and really anyone can die at anytime
I think most of us understand that the ending was the point and it was explained — but in the words of angry Joe, just because it was explained, doesn't mean it was good
This is the first review from somebody that didn't like it that wasn't some toxic fanboy nonsense. I loved the game but can 100% respect this kind of analysis. Well done.
I started the game wishing for Abbys death.finished the game hating ellie and spitting on Joel's grave lol
I haven't played either games but the story of part 2 sounds like a awesome emotional roller coaster 😄 That's bad ass in my book. Great vid 👍
They could have saved the game with playing with tommy and have a relationship with Ellie Just like Joel
Idk how you can go threw all of that bs and not kill Abby in the end of the game smh
Calling anything woke, unironically, just means you're an asshole lol. It's the new term instead of "PC", and both are just ways to try to turn being accepting or kind (such AWFUL things, I know) into a negative. If your opinion of anything is just that, you can politely just screw off.
Danke!
Ay Man WHERE'S THE LAST OF US PART 2 STORY SUMMARY?!
A well done analysis. Although I do feel like I disagree with some moments, the general message and idea did get through to me. Nice video indeed.
On the topic of revenge stories, I do wonder what are your thoughts on GTA 4's revenge subplot with Darko Brevic. I tend to think that it (like most revenge stories) has some similarities with what we have here, but taking a very different execution route, which, in my personal opinion, worked generally better, judging by players' reactions
Man, I know this video came out two years ago but I've gotta say that I agree with it. Personally, I've never bought any Last of Us game for full price, and that tends to play a role in how my feelings toward a particular story or product are. I bought The Last of Us Remastered for $2 to $3, Part II for $29, and I even got the Remake of Part I for $49. So all in all, I've say I got a good deal. "Where am I going with this?" Glad you kept reading.
I would argue that for what I spent on this series and what my experiences were (playing it all the way through with my significant other), I got one of the most emotionally driven, risky, and impactful experiences in video games that, at their core, deal with the human condition. I love that kind of stuff. I love when humor, trauma, pain, joy, love, hate, and everything in between is captured in a raw way. The world of Last of Us is truly about us. it's about the people we love, the people we hate, the people who suffer, to people who cause suffering and how everyone is capable of being any of those things to anyone.
I love my time with Part I, and I absolutely adored my time with Part II. Yes, it's absolutely depressing. Yes, it isn't traditionally satisfying. However, I think that what the developers and storytellers sought out to do was achieved to great success. If you don't like it, that's a-okay. Just please come to that conclusion on your own through play. Anyway, hope everyone has a wonderful day and remember that video games are awesome! ☺😉
Excellent video.
I already do pretend it doesn't exist. Healthier for me, until someone tries to force me into liking it, only then do I acknowledge it's unwanted existence for me. Nice analysis btw. I liked it.
Not only does Abby’s muscle tone have logic and reason behind it, it also is a symbol of her resolve. In a sense, her muscles are her armor. She built it up for years after her world was completely shattered. At the end, you can see that she has is emaciated and spent, not only nutritionally, but emotionally as well