The Last of Us: Part 2 : Journey Series - Part 1
Spoilers Ahead
In 2013, the original Last of Us seemed to have a very divisive reaction from fans. It seems that people either loved the gameplay, storytelling and design or felt opposed to it all. Critically and commercially, The Last of Us was a bonafide success with a metacritc for the original PS3 title sitting at a 95 as well as the PS4 remaster that was followed up shortly after.
I fall into the camp of loving the game and without actually sitting down and figuring out what games would be in my top ten of all time, its highly likely that if The Last of Us isn’t in my top ten, it would be just on the outside looking in. It featured an engaging story, great gameplay minus a few awkward sections, a great score and amazing visuals for the time.
After a few delays and plenty of internet hate, Naughty Dog has finally released The Last of Us: Part 2. Similar to the first game with near one hundred reviews and a metecritic of 95, Naughty Dog sounds like they have once again topped themselves. This is the Last of Us Part 2 Journey Series.
Part 1: Until Chalet (~2 hours)
The opening thirty minutes of The Last of Us is near perfect in my opinion and stands among as one of the best openings in my mind. We aren’t force fed details about the characters and the world but instead Naughty Dog chose to use environmental storytelling to let the player figure out the world on their own. The opening sequence introduces us to Joel, his daughter and his brother Tommy. It tells us their backstory, motivations and connects us with these characters with only a few lines of dialogue. When the opening title card is shown, the tone has been set and you are already invested in these characters in just the first half hour which is better than, if not on the same level as a Hollywood production.
The Last of Us Part 2, unfortunately is unable to pull of the same kind of opening sequence as Naughty Dog is left with the task of getting the players back up to speed as well as making it accessible for newcomers. Joel is getting his brother up to speed on what has happened with Ellie and we are brought up to speed on how life has become in the four or so years that they arrived at the settlement in Jackson
On a technical level, it’s no surprise that The Last of Us Part 2 looks and sounds as well as it does. Naughty Dog has always been at the forefront of showing off what PlayStation is capable of dating all the way back to Crash Bandicoot and more recently Uncharted, along with the first The Last of Us. Playing on a 4k HDR OLED looks amazing as you are constantly in awe of the way nature acts and reacts in this world. Blinding lights breaks through deciduous trees as the sun sets, snow falls from evergreens as you nudge the branches and water flows over rocks effortlessly.
Gameplay feels like a slight extension of the first game so far. Stealth is still a large factor as you still use your hearing ability which highlights enemies through walls which almost feels like cheating and its hard not to use it when its in the game. During a patrol, Ellie and Dina come across a grocery store full of clickers or early clickers that haven’t turned into complete fungus yet and there is about six or seven of them in the area. The game makes you eliminate every single one while Dina just moves from cover to cover with you. This is very frustrating and immersion breaking as that would never happen, and it doesn’t help that Dina had already taken out clickers in earlier segments to make it feel more realistic.
Overall, the first few hours are slow and lack the emotional impact that The Last of Us delivered while Joel, his daughter and Tommy were trying to escape the city during the initial stages of the chaos. However as I arrive upon the chalet with the help of what seems like a rival gang I am left with a sinking feeling in my stomach that things are about to take a drastic turn for the worse as Joel and Tommy seem unaware of the danger they are in. I am also a little curious how after all that happened in the first game Joel and Tommy would be willing to trust anyone when even during the opening moments of the original game Joel was insistent on driving past a family that needed help.
This is where the first leg of the Journey will stop and hopefully we’ll see you on the next one.