Review
Played on: PlayStation 4 Pro
Released: 2020
Sometimes I feel like some stories don't need a sequel. On their own they stand perfectly well as a beginning and end, where a potential sequel wouldn't bring anything valuable to the table. For instance, Bioshock felt that way; it had this incredible world and story, and when the end credits rolled, I felt didn't need to return. It was done and dusted kind of end to it all.
However, Bioshock 2 would turn my opinion on that matter completely and I ended up really enjoying it, but that's another story.
My point being; this feeling of a story that doesn't need a sequel was something I felt at the end of the first Last of Us. I played the PS4 remaster back when it released, review here, and when I reached the end I was satisfied. It felt like a beginning of Ellie's life, but it also felt like end of a journey.
I can't recall when I bought TLOU2, I think it was some black Friday sale years ago. I got it for my PS4 just in case I felt like playing it. It would take until this year where I finally felt like it. Don't get me wrong here; the world and lore surrounding these games has potential for many stories and indeed Ellie growing up in it too, it just took me a while to accept I needed a sequel!
Let's take a look at this massive production sequel!
Firstly, I'd like to address all the recent publicity surrounding the franchise. Be it the anti-woke backlash, remakes of remasters and the live-action TV series; I don't care. I haven't followed it to have an opinion. For clarification, the last time I touched this franchise was with the PS4 remaster, which I very much enjoyed, and for the sequel I'm playing the vanilla PS4 version, albeit on PS4 Pro for a little resolution boost!
Front, side and centre here is, of course, the cinematic story. This is the main part of the show, if you're looking for story choices with branches and deep interactivity, you're in the wrong place. This is a linear and highly controlled experience, touching the boundaries of an interactive movie more than ever.
Time has passed since the ending of the first game and Joel and Ellie have settled in a walled city, a haven far up in the cold north where daily life continues in the infected world of fungus zombies. Ellie is experiencing the difficulty of turning into an adult, losing her connection with Joel and at the same time falling in love with a woman called Dina.
This time around, the story alternates between the Joel & Ellie story, and a new character entirely, called Abby, who's intentions are unclear but connected with Joel. As story progresses through the varied and calm first stages, these two sets of main characters cross paths. Resulting in a shockingly violent death of Joel, by the hand of Abby. The journey outside of the wall city begins as Ellie goes seeking revenge on Abby with Dina by her side.
While the story is incredibly crafted, with lots of emotional moments of love, hate, sadness and fear. It leans far into the darkest places of a violent post-apocalyptic world and it's difficult to put down once you're pulled in. You constantly want to carry on and find out more.
Yet, here lies some of its problem; it goes on for too long with too much misery. I get that this world is brutal, but even in moments where you wish it would let go and let the main characters enjoy themselves a little, it pulls you back into the darkness with some horrifically violent act of somebody getting killed. There must be good handful of hours that could have been cut back here to make the experience a little more condensed. There are too many long sections where you're trying to save somebody, only to watch them being killed hours later and it feels pointless.
Even worse is the end level, after what seems like a perfect ending where Ellie settles with Dina, but is scared for life with here trauma of killing and hunting down people to find Ellie. Almost out of nowhere, Ellie goes looking for Abby once again, and it just feels pointless and yet it ends on an even more miserable note.
We get it, this world is brutal and hard, but it's depressing for long amounts of time. There's a reason titles like this get the "sad dad" memes attached to them. That said, there are some warm moments throughout, much thanks to flashbacks of Ellie and Abbys younger lives, but these also drag on a bit. There's a lot of interesting events being told, but a better momentum is needed. The story is fantastic though, and the shifts in time and characters you follow, might be confusing to some, but make the build up towards the end even more powerful.
Gameplay is upgraded and tightened up somewhat from the first game, which I personally found a bit shallow. There's this averageness over the gunplay, combined with the prioritized animations of the character that makes it feel slow, almost GTA like, in the movement. That doesn't mean the game doesn't have its fair share of intense and satisfying combat though. Theres a welcome emphasis on making the gunplay realistic in behaviour. Making precise shots and getting in hits on a head is satisfying and feels rewarding. I just wish it didn't feel so sluggish.
One of the early open areas in the game, I believe it begins with the chapter "Seattle Day 1", is perhaps the gameplay highlight of the entire experience. It allows the player to freely roam a small open-ended part of the city with a good handful of buildings to explore. I really enjoyed this part, and I was hoping this sandbox design would continue throughout the entire game, but it sadly never returns in this scale.
The rest is very linear; it's a lost opportunity as it feels more like survival experience as you read notes of secret stashes or equipment that can discover it by riding your horse back and forth between the ruins of the city.
The general issue of short gameplay segments, interrupted by either cutscenes or walking and talking is that when you’re just getting into the flow of combat, enjoying taking down the handful of enemies, it takes it away again. It plagued the first game, and games like Quantum Break come to league, it should just leave the player to more combat. The intensity of battles, especially in dark and damp cellars against the zombies is incredible intense and entertaining.
Granted my playthrough is on the PS4 Pro, not the TLOU2 remaster. As such, I'm playing at 30fps, and the response is thereafter. I must stress that Sony's own studios are good at making 30fps feel smooth at least, as far as that framerate allows it to be. Responsiveness on the other hand, kind of craves 60fps and above. Resolution on my Pro is bumped up from the base PS4 at 1080p to a respectable 1440p. Giving it that extra room for detail in the distance and less jaggy edges. This resolution feels like a big bump up from 1080p and, giving it a more 4K look, even though it's not that scale.
Visually, TLOU2 is a treat even on this last gen version. I'm impressed with what they've pushed out of the PS4. Fields covered in grass with tons of foliage both in woods and covering buildings in cities. It balances the act of depicting sizeable outdoor areas with more intricate detailed indoors ones. Sure, there's often buildings that feel a bit barren and there is a high sense of repetition of environments throughout, but it succeeds cleverly in depicting an overgrown post-apocalyptic world.
While I appreciate the tons of visual detail in animation; when your character bumps into walls and objects or leans into furniture to hide, for instance. Yet, this heavy focus is what makes the actual control of your characters sluggish. There's a balance of gameplay mechanics and cinematic style here, which TLOU leans heavily into the latter.
Environmentally it sticks to the same style as the first TLOU, albeit with a little more variety here. There's a lot of overgrown Seattle depicted, leaning a little on the repetitive side. But it all looks so rich in detail it doesn't bother me too much that the grey and green colour scale is used a lot. Lighting is fantastic, giving it that believable feel as buildings, walls and nature look almost real at times. Interestingly, a southern styled USA with palms and beaches is depicted extremely late into the game, and kind of underutilised. Maybe it should have shifted to this interesting location much earlier?
Overall, I'm happy with this sequel, perhaps even ranking it slightly above the first title. Even though it's an exhausting playthrough considering the consistent dark theme and violence; never allowing you to breathe much and could use a few hours cut off the length.
The intensity though, is great and wish sometimes there could be longer combat segments rather than just walking long distances. I found it more varied and a deeper gameplay experience than the first game though. Maybe it's thanks to the simple, yet effective way of picking up pills to upgrade your character. Giving the player that sense of becoming more experienced and powerful, yet in a subtle way. I also really appreciate the twist where you're alternating playing Ellie and Abby, although some of the flashbacks to their youth are too lengthy.
It's definitely a sequel that requires a playthrough of the first title prior to playing, it would be strange to just jump into this saga without the knowledge of the first one. Then at the same time it kind of outperforms the original and offers a more diverse playthrough and experience.
If you loved the first one, then this is a second tour of that same experience. Just be prepared for a truly dark and depressing story with an ending questioning morale and true meaning of life in the apocalypse.
