The Last of Us & The Last of Us part II

The Last of Us (TLOU) part II was released on June 19th 2020. The studio that masterminded its creation, Naughty Dog, has dedicated an enormous amount of resources to creating this game. And I think what they have made reaches beyond the scope of video game and deep into the realm of art and story telling. This post is about unpacking this further, but as a preface I would like to state from the outset that I did not like a lot of the decisions that were made for this game. I did not like it, but I still marvel at it.

Before going any further, please note that this discussion contains many spoilers.

TLOU part II picks up some years after where the first game left off. With Ellie and Joel still in Jackson. It seems their cross-country travelling has settled into a routine much closer to the normality of the before-times. Albeit with the occasional patrol duty that has them fighting off infected that threaten to encroach upon their haven. Children play in the streets, warm fires are burning indoors and new relationships are burgeoning. It is clear from the outset, however, that not all is well between Ellie and Joel. At this point only you know what Joel did back in Salt Lake. This fact, one could imagine, has been eating away at Ellie’s trust for Joel over a number of years.

For me, and for many others I would argue, the closeness and significance of the relationship between Ellie and Joel becomes the linchpin and central driving force for the decisions made in the first game. The first game ends on a particularly melancholic note in this regard. Joel lies to Ellie about the reason they left Salt Lake and that her gift of immunity could not be converted into the gift of a vaccine for many. The weight of this can only be known if you have played the first game, and I would strongly encourage newcomers to do so.

Joel is a cowboy. In the most classic and archetypal sense. He is a man of few words and a countenance of impenetrabililty. Think back to the first game when Joel would brutally slaughter infected and adversarial non-infected alike only to offer a closing remark: “That’s that”. Pushing on into new hellish experiences of seemingly relentless violence and hopelessness. Hopelessness. Remember that word. In the first game, the theme of hopelessness is central but Joel and Ellie represent a defiance against it. Not one that is incorruptible. But one that is human and tenacious. Joel holds on to Ellie and Ellie holds on to the hope for a new future. That equation is woven throughout the first game. But what happens when the new future demands a sacrifice Joel cannot make? He claims back his reason to live. Joel knows above all else what is required for his survival, and through the course of the first game that becomes Ellie - his reincarnated daughter.

Fast-forward to TLOU part II; we are confronted with the reality that Joel’s past decisions are not without consequence. He claimed back Ellie but it came at a great cost; a vaccine for the virus that has maimed humanity - limping onward into a pointless struggle of zero-sum games between tribal factions. A truly fractured civilisation. Another cost; Ellie’s primary source of significance. It is clear that Ellie wrestles with this loss and blames Joel for this openly. There is one scene in the later chapters of the second game that displays as much. The ultimate cost is Joel’s very life. He crossed too many lines in his violent, bloody rescue mission. Joel murders the only person that could create a vaccine to restore humanity and in the process creates a mortal enemy.

The cost of Ellie’s significance is more nuanced of course. For Ellie, Joel partially fills the void of insignificance. He writes her a song; “If I ever were to lose you, I would surely lose myself…“. Ellie echoes this song throughout the course of the second game in moments of reflection. Playing on the guitar that Joel made for her. The guitar represents Joel and the hope that the Fireflies represented in the first game. The song expresses the significance Joel embued onto her, something she holds on to. But it also represnts the anger, hate and distrust of Joel’s selfish short-sightedness. Ellie knows that the significance she gets from Joel pales in comparison to the significance her life could have had if the events of Salt Lake were different. Joel admits that given a second chance to go to Salt Lake, he would do the same thing in rescuing Ellie. Let that sink in. Joel is unchanging. Joel is conservation of what little you still have. Joel is survival at any cost. This cuts deeply for Ellie and creates a blight on the precious Ellie-Joel relationship that never fully recovers.

TLOU part II, for me, is an excellent portrayal of Ellie’s process of dealing with Joel’s death and letting go of the past. This is by far the richest component of the story. The rest of the story I found uncompelling. The rest being roughly 60% of the game. This is really unfortunate. I would recommend watching SkillUp’s review as a supplement to this review because he has done an excellent job alluding to the wake TLOU leaves TLOU part II in - I especially found the comparison to the new Start Wars vs the old Star Wars to be apt. TLOU part II sends you down a path of hopelessness and concludes on a net loss. Many people die and none are richer for any actions the central characters make in the game. This coupled with the very long exposition into the life of Abby makes for an oppressive and costly experience for the games audience.

Abby is the daughter of the doctor who Joel kills in the first game¹. Abby’s tie to Joel and Ellie is on the basis of her father’s death. The conclusion of Abby’s cobbled-together revenge story launches Ellie into her own petty counter-revenge story. The motivation being that a large part of her remaining source of significance, Joel, is brutally killed in front of her. Ellie is on a war path and drags loved ones around her into a spiralling sequence of bad-to-worse events. This is problematic. TLOU part II runs against the grain of who Ellie is. One must conclude that the Ellie of TLOU has so erroded that what remains is the worst parts of Joel. The situation is utterly hopeless from the outset.

TLOU is a game that challenges its audience to mix the bad with the good. No one is only one or the other and outcomes are not purely one or the other. But in TLOU part II Naughty Dog have managed to create a world where the outcome is only bad. The scales rarely, if ever, tip to a much needed good outcome. I found this to be a harrowing experience and somewhat boring as I raced through the parts of the game expounding the life and times of Abby. None are looking for the light. Except, perhaps, Owen, who gets killed off at any rate.

In summary, my thoughts and feelings (TLOU is a game that plays with your feelings unlike any other) are very mixed and my review of the follow up game is mostly negative at this point. However, I do believe that TLOU part II is special. It is a significant game and a deeply thought provoking one despite ham-fisted story-telling at times (looking at you Seraphite vs WLF war). Do not play TLOU part II expecting to feel better. It will make you feel worse and it is a costly experience for the invested player.

Notes

1. I am not going to spend too much time discussing a core tension in TLOU; violence and guilt and how they relate to the core gameplay mechanics and narrative. The game has you killing people constantly but expects you to feel guilt when your character murders another important character. For this I can suspend my disbelief and treat enemies as puzzles, nothing more. Even though the game tries to trick you into thinking they are also people by giving them names 🙄.