The Last of Us 2 Critique
Article
Beware: I have a lot of criticisms on The Last of Us 2 (TLOU2). And whilst there are some things that I at least ‘liked’ about the game, there is so much I dislike about its writing that the positives are completely drowned out and mostly even forgotten. Therefore I will dedicate this post to the negatives within the game, and conclude by explaining what I would have done differently had I been its narrative director.
User & Critic Ratings
The original Last of Us (TLOU) had many issues: the mechanics were unoriginal, the tasks were repetitive, and the zombies were of little intrigue. And yet the relationship built between the two primary protagonists (Joel and Ellie) was so touching and impacted me so strongly that it will live in my heart forever, in that bittersweet nostalgic place where I keep The Lion King and Oliver & Company.
And yet The Last of Us 2 had perhaps the most drastically polarised ratings in gaming history. Metacritic’s website displays its Metascore – that is, its critic score – of 93/100 and its user score of 5.7/10.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/the-last-of-us-part-ii
The user score itself has an incredibly polarised distribution of love/hate ratings:
Of course, if you’ve played the game, you’ll know that much of this polarisation is due to the amount of politics and LGBTQ ideals that are arguably irrelevant to what the game used to be – making users feel as though it were forced upon them. But without needing to get into that, the story itself receives plenty of criticism, and that is what I would like to share my views and opinions on.
Where It All Went Wrong
The death of Joel is often the first point brought up as to where the story went wrong, and I tend to agree. The entirety of the original TLOU game was about Joel, a man who’d lost his daughter, learning to focus his emotions on a new daughter (Ellie) not related by blood. And conversely, Ellie being a young orphaned girl raised by a military boarding school, learning to trust Joel whilst the rest of the world looked to sacrifice her in order to run tests on her DNA.
It is clear therefore, that fans of the original title would be purchasing the game’s second instalment to continue Joel and Ellie’s journey together, and see what the positive results would be of all their hard work keeping them alive in the first game. Not only is Joel killed off almost immediately, but he’s killed brutally, and without him doing anything noble that would leave a lasting impact on their world. It is clear that the writers created this scene with the intention of making the player despise Joel’s killer, Abby, as much as possible, and then have the player commit to Ellie’s revenge plot.
However, as much as that is a poor idea, the story doesn’t even follow through with this! As halfway through the game, you are forced to play in the shoes of Abby, a girl you cannot stand, for 5 hours straight, seeing her struggle and are expected to
sympathise with her after the fact.
It is, quite frankly, the most back-to-front attempt at creating an emotional morel dilemma I have ever seen. And by the end of the game, many players still feel nothing for Abby, and are looking forward to her death – the complete reverse of what the writers had intended. About to be drowned by Ellie in their final fight, Abby then bites two of Ellie’s finger off, as if beating Joel’s head with a golf club wasn’t enough. And in that situation, when you’re so sick of Abby that you’re glad she’s about to die despite understanding that she too is a victim of her times, Ellie quite randomly changes her mind and lets Abby live.
I suppose the implication is that Ellie realises she can no longer play the guitar with her fingers missing, and that makes her realise that revenge isn’t worth its price, but even that is just me taking a shot in the dark at working out what the writers were thinking as they created this scene. It held no such value to the player and just when we thought we couldn’t feel any emptier, Ellie’s love interest abandons her, leaving her with absolutely nothing as she tries to play a guitar with less than enough fingers.
It is in my opinion the most disappointing ending to a game – or in fact a story – that I have ever experienced.
Earlier in the story, it is also made apparent that Ellie is a lesbian or at least bisexual, though this was revealed in the original title’s DLC “Left Behind”. Whereas the story presented in the DLC was fun, cute, and self-contained, Ellie’s romance in TLOU2 was completely drowned out by the fact that Joel was dead. How a player is expected to be interested in Ellie’s exploration of her sexuality given the circumstances is beyond me.
Of all the characters that died in the original TLOU game, two stand out in my memory: Sam and Tess. I found them both to be quite charming and memorable. In my opinion, the only character in TLOU2 who had this level of charm was Jesse, and he also died. However, he died completely suddenly, and it was clear that he was forced out of the story for being a hurdle in Ellie and Dina’s romance. Dina herself I found far less charming than Jesse, Sam, or Tess. Knowing that she was, in a sense, the new “secondary protagonist” made me feel so little for her that I had hardly any anxiety during a level where we are protecting a pregnant Dina from a hoard of zombies.
I had to question by own humanity during this level, to see if I had become a spontaneous sociopath, or whether the fault was with the game, and thankfully, I blame the game entirely. Her being pregnant screamed to me “I know Joel’s dead, but please like this character, just look how vulnerable she is”.
What I Would Do Differently
I will be explaining my alternate ideals for the narrative assuming that Joel must be killed and Ellie must explore her sexuality.
Firstly, I would undoubtedly leave Joel’s death until the end of the game. I strongly believe that the players need to see what Joel and Ellie have created for themselves – as in their new home – and spend time protecting and fighting for that.
Joel and Ellie’s relationship was forged throughout the original game, but was always under stress and pressure due to the threat of the zombies and antagonists. The players deserve some downtime to enjoy and explore their hard earned Joel/Ellie bond without any anxiety. It is during this time whilst Joel is alive that Ellie’s sexuality can be comfortably explored (with Jesse, and not have Dina exist).
After having protected and familiarised with their new environment and relationships, a clear foreshadow of imminent danger could appear, such as the approach of Abby’s group. The game could then step back in time and allow the player to live out Abby’s childhood. With the reward of enjoying the fruits of Joel and Ellie’s struggle out of the way, players would be happy to delve into a new story. And due to the earlier foreshadow, a doubtful seed would be placed in the players’ mind that it was all a “calm before the storm”. This would encourage players to want to know how the two characters eventually cross paths, and whether Abby herself becomes the seed of destruction that threatens everything the player had worked to achieve, or just Abby’s group.
Towards the end of the game, I would have Abby fall in love with Ellie, and cause Ellie and Jesses to fall out and breakup. Once Joel discovers what Abby had done, he is killed by Abby, who further frames Joel’s murder on Jesse. Ellie and Abby can have a temporary relationship, which is quickly turned to shit when Ellie discovers that it was all Abby’s doing from the start.
This would make for a much more dramatic final fight between the two girls, as they have now been intimate and one has essentially killed the other’s father. On top of this, it would be Ellie fighting to kill Abby for revenge, whilst Abby is simply fighting to not die at Ellie’s hands.
After biting off Ellie’s fingers, Ellie could cease fighting and break into tears, where she cries out “I can no longer play Joel’s guitar”. Abby could then apologise, apologise further for killing Joel after seeing how much he meant to Ellie, take her own life.
Ellie can try, but fail, to prevent Abby’s suicide, leaving the fans with a bittersweet ending whereby Joel and the manipulative Abby had both died, but at least Ellie has her happy ever after with Jesse.