The Last of US Part Two SPOILERS ARE coming —BE WARNED!
The Last of Us Part Two begins with such a happy feel to it and then boom, awful experience. I’ll kind of play-by-play this part and then go into more of an overall review after.
I am not kidding, anything past this point is going to be full of absolutely major spoilers, like game ruining spoilers. So, please proceed with caution.
We meet up with Joel who is recounting the story of the hospital to Tommy while out on patrol. He admits that he lied to Ellie and Tommy looks him square in the eye and tells him he would have done the same. Already the feelings from that first game came rushing back. How in the world could Joel lie to Ellie like that? It would have been much better for him to tell the truth! He killed an innocent Doctor (which oh boy, that slippery slope) and stopped a cure from being made, all for Ellie’s life. It would be only fair for him to tell her that.
We get back to Jackson and see that everything is going well for the town. There’s a fun moment of “Guitar Hero” and you get to play guitar as Joel for a bit. It was really nice to see such calm happiness in a world so devastated. Of course, we don’t enjoy that for long.
Ellie looking over Seattle
Our Girl
Ellie is up next and she seems to be really awkward with Joel. We find out why later, but their relationship in this moment feels strained. He plays her a song (cue the first of many tears from me) and tells her that he’ll teach her how to play. From the trailer, we knew that Ellie was interested in a local girl named Dina and conveniently they get paired up together to go on patrol. During their patrol things get dicey and they have to hole up in an old safe house full of pot. Their relationship is also very awkward. It seems kind of forced and I definitely do not feel much chemistry there, but alas they end up sleeping together.
Cut
In the meantime, we cut to a brand new character. Instantly I was like “Who the heck is this, where’s Joel, I don’t like this” and apparently I was not alone. Turns out this is Abby. A character driven by finding “someone” who may or may not be in Jackson. My brain figured out that this “someone” must be Joel or maybe even Tommy. We get a bit of story from Abby and then it ends up with her being saved from a bunch of infected by Joel and Tommy. They go back to where her friends are located and walk in without care.
Here’s where my first point of contention with this game is. WHY would Tommy give these complete strangers his name? WHY would they offer them to come back to the city? Has he gone soft and gotten too comfortable in Jackson? He tells Joel to give his name, which also uncharacteristically he does, and boom. The whole room turns on them. Tommy is knocked out and Joel is jumped and taken captive. Abby then proceeds to beat the ever-loving shizz out of Joel with a golf club (more tears).
Our Joel
HERE IS A MAJOR SPOILER
Back to Ellie and some awkward encounters with Jesse, Dina’s ex, who tells the pair Joel and Tommy haven’t checked in at their post. The three split up to find them and Ellie stumbles across the scene first. Just as Abby is about to give the final blow, Ellie bursts into the room and they detain her before she can do much. We as the gamer have to watch Joel, our Joel, die. Brutally and in front of his adopted daughter Ellie. It hurt so bad and I cried pretty much the rest of the night about this. The first game gave us such an intimate experience with him. We played almost 15 hours as him and felt what he felt and knew what he knew. It was so tough to deal with.
Ellie of course is devastated, but they spared her and Tommy. BIG MISTAKE! Driven by revenger and anger Ellie is unconsolable and ready to track down Abby. Tommy is hesitant, but of course goes off on his own after Abby. This prompts Ellie to decide she’s going after him and with Dina in tow they set off for Seattle.
Day 1-3: Ellie
There is so much to this game. I really cannot put all of it into words. Playing as Ellie was fun and exciting. Having prone made the stealth so much more exciting and fun. There were options to hide in new places and takeout enemies. It was a long time in between cut scenes though. The school was really fun and interesting and before that there was almost an open world feel to the game. We got to explore the city and find a bunch of interesting things.
Ellie eventually has to go alone to find Tommy because *drumroll* Dina is pregnant! That was another weird plot point I was a bit confused by. They already introduced a pregnant character early in the game with Abby, so why do it again? I guess they couldn’t have Dina just break her foot or something. Finding out she was pregnant with Jesse’s child was a bit of a blow to them both.
Some of the parts between finding Jesse and finding Tommy were a bit drawn out. Plus, hunting down every single one of Abby’s friends was rough. Killing the dogs was not as difficult as you would imagine it would be, but when they gave Bear and Alice names, that gutted me (cue more tears). Finally, after killing every last one of Abby’s friends she returns to the theatre and is coerced by her friends to give it up and return to Jackson. Enter Abby.
Abby confronting Isaiah
Day 1-3: Abby
Here’s where the game gets a bit too long. First of all, no one wants to play as Abby. She killed our beloved Joel! She’s evil and we hate her. At least that’s what I felt at first. As you go through your days as Abby you find yourself changing your mind. The storytellers crafted a masterful experience that you go through as Abby, making friendships with people that, as Ellie, you’ve already killed.
I found myself kind of sad that Owen had died, because of everything he and Abby went through. Abby’s motivation makes so much sense and the fact Joel killed her father, in cold blood, was enough to set her on her path of revenge. We spent way too much time as Abby though. I think cutting out half of the fights with the Scars and infected would have made the game more enjoyable. Yes, introducing Yara and Lev was a major point to her story, but they did not have to go through so many more Scar areas to get where we needed to go.
We feel Abby’s pain and start to sympathize with her more as the days go on. She builds a similar relationship with Lev that Joel does with Ellie and eventually Abby is the only thing Lev has left. In the end, I found myself understanding the reasons for her anger, but not forgiving her for killing Joel. Plus, totally unfair that we got to play ball with Bear and Alice (cue tears of “but whyyy, poor puppies”). Eventually she realizes all of her friends are dead, including her love Owen and their pregnant friend Mel, and tracks down Ellie. She returns the favor by killing Jesse and shooting Tommy in the head.
Ellie and Dina
The End…Not?
We’re faced with one of the most challenging aspects of the game at this point. Chasing down Ellie and beating her up. Our Ellie! The anger and hatred towards Abby comes right back as you’re forced to stealth around and hit Ellie in the back of the head. The pair struggle and Abby, clearly, beats Ellie until Dina saves her. Abby, of course again, knocks Dina out and almost cuts her throat. When Ellie pleads her to stop because she’s pregnant Abby’s reply is “Good” when thankfully Lev saves the day! He pleads for Abby to stop and Abby obeys. She lets them live and takes off with Lev to track down a rumor of the Fireflies that Owen told her about.
Flash forward. Ellie and Dina are happy in a farm house. They are raising J.J (Jesse Joel) and seem to have a wonderful life. Tommy, who is miraculously still alive, convinces Ellie to go after a tip about Abby. Ellie gives up everything to search for her and the hopes of curing her horrible PTSD. Meanwhile, Abby and Lev are doing well tracking down Fireflies and have an amazing lead, but they then get captured by a new set of bad guys.
The Actual End of The Last of Us
After a while, we find Abby and Lev. When Ellie walks up on the beach to a terrible looking Abby. She is clearly defeated and I can only imagine what must be going through her mind as she realizes that it is Ellie on the beach. Ellie cuts her down and Abby does the same for Lev. They go to the boats and Ellie is just about to leave, but then she gets a flash of Joel being murdered and she realizes why she came all this way.
A fight ensues and man that was tough. On one hand I understood where Ellie was coming from, but on the other hand I understood why Abby did what she did. Abby bites Ellie’s fingers off, but then Ellie ends up getting the upper hand. As she’s about to finally get revenge she gets another flash of Joel playing guitar and realizes this wasn’t what Joel would have wanted. She spares Abby and sits in pain and panic in the ocean. (SO MANY TEARS DURING THIS PART)
It’s funny because at the end of the game I found myself not really on Ellie’s side, but thinking about how you felt towards Joel at the end of the first one it really parallels that feeling! When Ellie goes back home Dina is, understandably, no where to be found. Ellie thinks of her final conversation with Joel and we realize that even though she never forgave Joel for what he did to his face, he knew she did in the end.
Flashbacks
I couldn’t talk about The Last of Us Part Two without talking about the flashbacks. We see some amazing and heartbreaking moments between Joel and Ellie. The entire scene in the museum was perfect. Seeing her wonder again made my heart so full and yeah, I definitely cried. When they tackled the subject of Ellie finally finding out what Joel did the tension at the beginning of the game made so much sense. Ellie was unable to forgive Joel for what he did and even at the end of their time together never officially could.
Overall
The Last of Us Part Two is a masterpiece. 10/10. The storytelling and the shock of playing as Abby really did bring this game full circle. It made you think outside the box and gave the player so much to ponder. It’s been a week and I still cannot stop thinking about the game. I still think about the emotions it made me feel and the things we had to go through to get to the end. Hopefully, this is the end of Ellie’s story, because I think they wrapped it up beautifully. Yes, I know that’s an unpopular opinion, but it really does need to be said that loose ends are good! We will see!
What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!
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