the last of us game review
Test: The Last of Us Part II: Revenge at the heart of a breathtaking tale
Seven years is the time we had to wait to finally discover what was the life of Joël and Ellie after the atrocities they lived and endured. Seven years to imagine how Naughty Dog would be able to materialize (or not) the fantasies of millions of players who were stunned by this final plan of The Last of Us, charged with intense emotion, but above all with a multitude of questions. The answer is finally here and as we could imagine, it will be synonymous with tenderness, wonder, but also a lot of suffering.
The Last of Us was a game with overtly cinematic influences and fueled by its desire to tell a poignant story between a man and a girl against the backdrop of a pandemic that has decimated most human beings. When we look more closely, the title of Naughty Dog did not really innovate in its gameplay (correct, but far from being free of any reproach) or even its references, all being at the crossroads of I am Legend and La Route. However, The Last of Us is today considered a masterpiece. How to explain this state of facts? If it is first of all the personal feeling of the story, it also goes through the work on its main characters whose relationship will evolve throughout the game until giving birth to emotions lost in Joël with regard to 'Ellie, moving from a simple "parcel" to a surrogate for her lost daughter.
From then on, the director Neil Druckmann will never stop playing on this sensitive rope by confronting his duo with the atrocities of a world where the omnipresent barbarism has brought about a crucial notion of survival having long modified human behavior. Touching and bloody, The Last of Us will have marked the players by the accuracy of its situations and the subtlety of its narration.
Resuming the story four years after the end of the first part, Part II will throughout its intrigue endeavor to describe to us what happened during this temporal ellipse in order to make us better understand the course of Ellie and Joël while introducing the fantastic character of Abby, the new antagonist of this second part.
HUMANIZE YOUR ENEMY
Like this post-apocalyptic world having redefined the very foundations of relationships between individuals, the different protagonists of this series had to adapt, change, sometimes beyond their own convictions, to survive. While the first The Last of Us revolved around the confrontation between the Fireflies militia and the FEDRA military forces, Part II is shuffling the cards by integrating two other small groups, the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and the Scars led by a mysterious prophet. Setting a wider backdrop, this second episode will continue to fuel our reflections by creating mirrors between the lives of Ellie and Abby. If Druckmann does not always manage to offer a real legitimacy to certain secondary characters by digging them enough, he manages once again to humanize our enemies by not presenting them as vulgar targets to be shot down but on the contrary, by offering them a true thickness, a past, convictions and a reason for being. Like David in The Last of Us, Abby is not just a simple warrior driven by an unthinking desire for violence. Thus, throughout the adventure, we will learn to know it, to appreciate it itself, this being without doubt the greatest strength of the game constantly putting into perspective what our characters have experienced to better lead us to think about the sense of our actions.
Again relying on a road movie aspect, Part II uses the specific springs of the genre to develop a love story while preserving what cemented the first episode: the relationship between Ellie and Joël. Like what the DLC Left Behind had already done, The Last of Us Part II will take us back to the past several times via various flashbacks. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes moving, these passages perfectly serve the narration by posing as so many moments of life having (un) built a relationship based on the love of a father who will go so far as to transform into a lie, into selfishness, in order to prolong this happiness even if it means sacrificing humanity once again.
While evoking the past, Part II also offers a present to its cast, in particular Ellie, in love with Dina, a very beautiful female character portrayed by Shannon Woodward (Raising Hope, Westworld), always fair in her interpretation. The relationship between the two young women thus serves as a counterweight to a much harsher reality synonymous with brutal confrontations that will punctuate the journey of young women, from Jackson to Seattle.
WHAT A PAINFUL WORLD
The opportunity for Naughty Dog to offer us one of the most beautiful games of the PS4, through properly open semi-open sets and more claustrophobic scenes drowned in a darkness loaded with spores and reddish hues of the most anxiety-provoking. Much more eclectic than the first part, The Last of Us Part II accumulates places that masterfully depict a bloodless universe through devastated cities, ruined buildings or oozing basements. Taking advantage of magnificent plays of light, the title delights in an astonishing environmental variety prompting us to stop constantly to admire the work of artists.
If from a macro point of view, this suite suffers almost from no defect, it also surprises at the level of facial animations. The expressions, glaring in realism, simulate the effort, the joy but also the suffering which can be read on the faces of the protagonists, whether central or not, and this as well through a dialogue as a stealth kill. The technique thus serves the narration by offering to the intimate moments, or to the excesses of rage, a credibility of each moment perfectly reinforcing the immersion. On this point, we should also mention damage management, enemies can be dismembered or lose half of their faces depending on the impact of the bullets. The bodily animations are not to be outdone and if we detect some imperfections (the too mechanical “reverse” or the jumps lacking in amplitude), the vast majority show real flexibility making the grips or gestures more common (stepping over of a low wall, reloading of a weapon) perfectly realistic.
THE SENSE OF DETAIL
From a strict construction point of view, Part II does not really innovate and an impression of deja-vu will inevitably be felt as much as during the thirty hours that you will need to complete the adventure, the scheme will remain the same. We will therefore constantly navigate between sequences changing history and crossing a given place, the objective to be achieved automatically passing through the discovery of countless places conducive to scuffles with infected, Scars or Wolfs. Like seven years ago, the way of operating will be significantly different depending on the enemies although the game tells us to use infiltration rather than direct approach as we will quickly be overwhelmed.
If everything worked rather well in The Last of Us, despite a true classicism, the enemy AI was not in tune and our companion, invisible to the eyes of our enemies, sometimes caused the most comical situations. Although still imperfect, Part II makes a big difference. Thus, when we are supported by a partner, the latter will be placed in a more realistic way and will prove to be much more useful by injuring or finishing our opponents at the right time. It sounds like nothing, but believe that this adds a more convincing dimension to these phases of gameplay. It should also be understood that Naughty Dog worked on almost all aspects of these sequences in order to infuse them with constant tension, helped in this by the Santaolalla compositions serving as a regular pulse for action.
The sound aspect, in addition to marking the time, will also inform us about the degree of threat, the music, discreet but omnipresent until we are spotted, getting carried away quickly when an enemy sees us. Once again, the immersion is incredible, especially since the guards will not fail to communicate with each other, to whistle to mark their presence, or to roar the name of one of their comrades who were shot dead. Consequently, the hunted will become the hunter, this pushing us to vary the pleasures by using all the means made available to skim the enemy ranks. We will therefore never stop juggling between the different weapons available, hiding in the tall grass to surprise our opponents or even turning the infected against the militiamen at certain times, like what Days Gone already offered . Enjoyable.
We will criticize despite everything that the technique of throwing an object towards an enemy to destabilize it in order to eliminate it in one fell swoop, is always too effective, even in the more advanced levels where the adversaries will be better equipped. Anecdotal however since this time, the enemies will be more difficult to circumvent or to apprehend thanks to more advanced routines or even the guard dogs which can smell us and follow us over long distances. It will then be necessary to eliminate them first and this same, if like your servant, it will break your heart every time. Difficult also not to praise the work on the level-design. Whether using different floors of buildings or more open areas, suitable for withdrawal to implement a strategy, Part II always offers the player a plurality of paths. We regret all the same that the underwater passages (very successful incidentally, in particular thanks to a very good management of light and particles) have not been used more.
This attention to detail is also found in a mechanic from the first part asking us to find materials to improve our weapons, whether in chests (which will have to find the combination) or even accessible areas by solving some "puzzles Based on physics. Indeed, to upgrade our equipment, we will have to find workbenches synonymous with a multitude of associated activities. Here too, it may seem secondary, but seeing Ellie turn on a lamp before starting to tinker or change each piece of the weapon that she improves makes these common passages much more "fun". The system of upgrades, precisely, has been slightly redesigned. From now on, you will only be able to improve each element of your weapons once using a single type of resource.
Of course, we can still craft various items (molotov cocktails, mines, sins, treatment kits ...) via a system inherited from the previous section. Finally, the rapid weapon / object switch linked to the directional cross has not changed and as long as you find holsters, it will be possible to do it more quickly. Finally, it will be necessary to improve your capacities. Here too, little change compared to what The Last of Us proposed since you will have to find magazines synonymous with skill trees and then use pills to unlock the skills in order to gain resistance, to refine the perception of your enemies, etc.
THE LAST OF US
However effective the gameplay is, we will blame some clashes sometimes confused, because of an absence of lock, or clashes against more imposing enemies, quite arbitrary because of patterns too easy to analyze. However, each fight will be an opportunity to feel certain excitement especially as the game is rarely punitive thanks to a well thought out check point system.
Survival will therefore go as well through exploration, essential to improve its attributes and equipment, as the confrontation against more intelligent enemies or infected whose newcomers will give you some adrenaline rushes. Breathless, the brawls will sometimes be punctuated by moral choices that ultimately have no impact. Indeed, randomly, the last member of a squad alive will beg us to spare it, the choice of eliminating it or not ending up in any case with his death. An odd idea to say the least, weakened by the constant obligation to kill and becoming itself obsolete in the destiny of our heroes regularly pushed into their last entrenchments.
Beyond this somewhat superfluous way of reminding us that the concept of morality is central here (at least within history), The Last of Us Part II is constantly on target, whether through its script, its themes or its gameplay. Drawing from various cinematographic genres, from the horror film to that of adventure through the war film, the title of Naughty Dog shows flawless creativity in order to maintain the interest of the player from start to finish . Generous from start to finish (to the point of perhaps stretching its narration a little too much in the last third), finding a balance, however precarious, between savagery and infinite tenderness, this suite can be savored until its final plan, simple, melancholy and of true accuracy.
Good points
The writing quality of the characters
The absence of Manichaeism
Sumptuous decors taking advantage of more disparate tones
Very successful level-design
A more harmonious mix of genres
Much more effective gameplay
Gustavo Santaolalla's compositions, discreet and serving as a pulse for action scenes
High quality VF and sound design
Between 25 and 30h lifespan
Negative points
The surprise is no longer really there
The narration stretches somewhat in length in its last third
Some twists and sequences a little forced
Underexploited underwater phases
Some action sequences may seem unnecessarily long
Playing from start to finish with our emotions, this suite constantly oscillates between waking dreams, where the tenderness of an exchange frozen forever in the distant past will be enough to move us, and brutality of the present time inseparable from a path of the cross moved by an implacable feeling of revenge. Making the unpredictable a norm, overflowing with creativity through moments imbued with delicacy, this suite surprises and makes us think about the consequences of our actions while mistreating us emotionally. Having refined its gameplay, now much more immersive, this Part II stands out as a fabulous title of action / infiltration but also and above all as a story, sometimes getting lost in some narrative stretches and other superfluous scenes but never deviating from its guideline dedicated to offering its characters a conclusion, whether happy or not. Like all creations bearing the mark of their authors, The Last of Us Part II will provoke debates, reactions, which, like its protagonists, remains terribly human. Whether we like it or not, there remains a major work here that will haunt us several days after we have finished it and which we will now evoke as the new example to follow in its field or more simply as a breathtaking, heartbreaking and magnificent story to that time.
Test: The Last of Us Part II: Revenge at the heart of a breathtaking tale
Seven years is the time we had to wait to finally discover what was the life of Joël and Ellie after the atrocities they lived and endured. Seven years to imagine how Naughty Dog would be able to materialize (or not) the fantasies of millions of players who were stunned by this final plan of The Last of Us, charged with intense emotion, but above all with a multitude of questions. The answer is finally here and as we could imagine, it will be synonymous with tenderness, wonder, but also a lot of suffering.
The Last of Us was a game with overtly cinematic influences and fueled by its desire to tell a poignant story between a man and a girl against the backdrop of a pandemic that has decimated most human beings. When we look more closely, the title of Naughty Dog did not really innovate in its gameplay (correct, but far from being free of any reproach) or even its references, all being at the crossroads of I am Legend and La Route. However, The Last of Us is today considered a masterpiece. How to explain this state of facts? If it is first of all the personal feeling of the story, it also goes through the work on its main characters whose relationship will evolve throughout the game until giving birth to emotions lost in Joël with regard to 'Ellie, moving from a simple "parcel" to a surrogate for her lost daughter.
From then on, the director Neil Druckmann will never stop playing on this sensitive rope by confronting his duo with the atrocities of a world where the omnipresent barbarism has brought about a crucial notion of survival having long modified human behavior. Touching and bloody, The Last of Us will have marked the players by the accuracy of its situations and the subtlety of its narration.
Resuming the story four years after the end of the first part, Part II will throughout its intrigue endeavor to describe to us what happened during this temporal ellipse in order to make us better understand the course of Ellie and Joël while introducing the fantastic character of Abby, the new antagonist of this second part.
HUMANIZE YOUR ENEMY
Like this post-apocalyptic world having redefined the very foundations of relationships between individuals, the different protagonists of this series had to adapt, change, sometimes beyond their own convictions, to survive. While the first The Last of Us revolved around the confrontation between the Fireflies militia and the FEDRA military forces, Part II is shuffling the cards by integrating two other small groups, the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and the Scars led by a mysterious prophet. Setting a wider backdrop, this second episode will continue to fuel our reflections by creating mirrors between the lives of Ellie and Abby. If Druckmann does not always manage to offer a real legitimacy to certain secondary characters by digging them enough, he manages once again to humanize our enemies by not presenting them as vulgar targets to be shot down but on the contrary, by offering them a true thickness, a past, convictions and a reason for being. Like David in The Last of Us, Abby is not just a simple warrior driven by an unthinking desire for violence. Thus, throughout the adventure, we will learn to know it, to appreciate it itself, this being without doubt the greatest strength of the game constantly putting into perspective what our characters have experienced to better lead us to think about the sense of our actions.
Again relying on a road movie aspect, Part II uses the specific springs of the genre to develop a love story while preserving what cemented the first episode: the relationship between Ellie and Joël. Like what the DLC Left Behind had already done, The Last of Us Part II will take us back to the past several times via various flashbacks. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes moving, these passages perfectly serve the narration by posing as so many moments of life having (un) built a relationship based on the love of a father who will go so far as to transform into a lie, into selfishness, in order to prolong this happiness even if it means sacrificing humanity once again.
While evoking the past, Part II also offers a present to its cast, in particular Ellie, in love with Dina, a very beautiful female character portrayed by Shannon Woodward (Raising Hope, Westworld), always fair in her interpretation. The relationship between the two young women thus serves as a counterweight to a much harsher reality synonymous with brutal confrontations that will punctuate the journey of young women, from Jackson to Seattle.
WHAT A PAINFUL WORLD
The opportunity for Naughty Dog to offer us one of the most beautiful games of the PS4, through properly open semi-open sets and more claustrophobic scenes drowned in a darkness loaded with spores and reddish hues of the most anxiety-provoking. Much more eclectic than the first part, The Last of Us Part II accumulates places that masterfully depict a bloodless universe through devastated cities, ruined buildings or oozing basements. Taking advantage of magnificent plays of light, the title delights in an astonishing environmental variety prompting us to stop constantly to admire the work of artists.
If from a macro point of view, this suite suffers almost from no defect, it also surprises at the level of facial animations. The expressions, glaring in realism, simulate the effort, the joy but also the suffering which can be read on the faces of the protagonists, whether central or not, and this as well through a dialogue as a stealth kill. The technique thus serves the narration by offering to the intimate moments, or to the excesses of rage, a credibility of each moment perfectly reinforcing the immersion. On this point, we should also mention damage management, enemies can be dismembered or lose half of their faces depending on the impact of the bullets. The bodily animations are not to be outdone and if we detect some imperfections (the too mechanical “reverse” or the jumps lacking in amplitude), the vast majority show real flexibility making the grips or gestures more common (stepping over of a low wall, reloading of a weapon) perfectly realistic.
THE SENSE OF DETAIL
From a strict construction point of view, Part II does not really innovate and an impression of deja-vu will inevitably be felt as much as during the thirty hours that you will need to complete the adventure, the scheme will remain the same. We will therefore constantly navigate between sequences changing history and crossing a given place, the objective to be achieved automatically passing through the discovery of countless places conducive to scuffles with infected, Scars or Wolfs. Like seven years ago, the way of operating will be significantly different depending on the enemies although the game tells us to use infiltration rather than direct approach as we will quickly be overwhelmed.
If everything worked rather well in The Last of Us, despite a true classicism, the enemy AI was not in tune and our companion, invisible to the eyes of our enemies, sometimes caused the most comical situations. Although still imperfect, Part II makes a big difference. Thus, when we are supported by a partner, the latter will be placed in a more realistic way and will prove to be much more useful by injuring or finishing our opponents at the right time. It sounds like nothing, but believe that this adds a more convincing dimension to these phases of gameplay. It should also be understood that Naughty Dog worked on almost all aspects of these sequences in order to infuse them with constant tension, helped in this by the Santaolalla compositions serving as a regular pulse for action.
The sound aspect, in addition to marking the time, will also inform us about the degree of threat, the music, discreet but omnipresent until we are spotted, getting carried away quickly when an enemy sees us. Once again, the immersion is incredible, especially since the guards will not fail to communicate with each other, to whistle to mark their presence, or to roar the name of one of their comrades who were shot dead. Consequently, the hunted will become the hunter, this pushing us to vary the pleasures by using all the means made available to skim the enemy ranks. We will therefore never stop juggling between the different weapons available, hiding in the tall grass to surprise our opponents or even turning the infected against the militiamen at certain times, like what Days Gone already offered . Enjoyable.
We will criticize despite everything that the technique of throwing an object towards an enemy to destabilize it in order to eliminate it in one fell swoop, is always too effective, even in the more advanced levels where the adversaries will be better equipped. Anecdotal however since this time, the enemies will be more difficult to circumvent or to apprehend thanks to more advanced routines or even the guard dogs which can smell us and follow us over long distances. It will then be necessary to eliminate them first and this same, if like your servant, it will break your heart every time. Difficult also not to praise the work on the level-design. Whether using different floors of buildings or more open areas, suitable for withdrawal to implement a strategy, Part II always offers the player a plurality of paths. We regret all the same that the underwater passages (very successful incidentally, in particular thanks to a very good management of light and particles) have not been used more.
This attention to detail is also found in a mechanic from the first part asking us to find materials to improve our weapons, whether in chests (which will have to find the combination) or even accessible areas by solving some "puzzles Based on physics. Indeed, to upgrade our equipment, we will have to find workbenches synonymous with a multitude of associated activities. Here too, it may seem secondary, but seeing Ellie turn on a lamp before starting to tinker or change each piece of the weapon that she improves makes these common passages much more "fun". The system of upgrades, precisely, has been slightly redesigned. From now on, you will only be able to improve each element of your weapons once using a single type of resource.
Of course, we can still craft various items (molotov cocktails, mines, sins, treatment kits ...) via a system inherited from the previous section. Finally, the rapid weapon / object switch linked to the directional cross has not changed and as long as you find holsters, it will be possible to do it more quickly. Finally, it will be necessary to improve your capacities. Here too, little change compared to what The Last of Us proposed since you will have to find magazines synonymous with skill trees and then use pills to unlock the skills in order to gain resistance, to refine the perception of your enemies, etc.
THE LAST OF US
However effective the gameplay is, we will blame some clashes sometimes confused, because of an absence of lock, or clashes against more imposing enemies, quite arbitrary because of patterns too easy to analyze. However, each fight will be an opportunity to feel certain excitement especially as the game is rarely punitive thanks to a well thought out check point system.
Survival will therefore go as well through exploration, essential to improve its attributes and equipment, as the confrontation against more intelligent enemies or infected whose newcomers will give you some adrenaline rushes. Breathless, the brawls will sometimes be punctuated by moral choices that ultimately have no impact. Indeed, randomly, the last member of a squad alive will beg us to spare it, the choice of eliminating it or not ending up in any case with his death. An odd idea to say the least, weakened by the constant obligation to kill and becoming itself obsolete in the destiny of our heroes regularly pushed into their last entrenchments.
Beyond this somewhat superfluous way of reminding us that the concept of morality is central here (at least within history), The Last of Us Part II is constantly on target, whether through its script, its themes or its gameplay. Drawing from various cinematographic genres, from the horror film to that of adventure through the war film, the title of Naughty Dog shows flawless creativity in order to maintain the interest of the player from start to finish . Generous from start to finish (to the point of perhaps stretching its narration a little too much in the last third), finding a balance, however precarious, between savagery and infinite tenderness, this suite can be savored until its final plan, simple, melancholy and of true accuracy.
Good points
The writing quality of the characters
The absence of Manichaeism
Sumptuous decors taking advantage of more disparate tones
Very successful level-design
A more harmonious mix of genres
Much more effective gameplay
Gustavo Santaolalla's compositions, discreet and serving as a pulse for action scenes
High quality VF and sound design
Between 25 and 30h lifespan
Negative points
The surprise is no longer really there
The narration stretches somewhat in length in its last third
Some twists and sequences a little forced
Underexploited underwater phases
Some action sequences may seem unnecessarily long
Playing from start to finish with our emotions, this suite constantly oscillates between waking dreams, where the tenderness of an exchange frozen forever in the distant past will be enough to move us, and brutality of the present time inseparable from a path of the cross moved by an implacable feeling of revenge. Making the unpredictable a norm, overflowing with creativity through moments imbued with delicacy, this suite surprises and makes us think about the consequences of our actions while mistreating us emotionally. Having refined its gameplay, now much more immersive, this Part II stands out as a fabulous title of action / infiltration but also and above all as a story, sometimes getting lost in some narrative stretches and other superfluous scenes but never deviating from its guideline dedicated to offering its characters a conclusion, whether happy or not. Like all creations bearing the mark of their authors, The Last of Us Part II will provoke debates, reactions, which, like its protagonists, remains terribly human. Whether we like it or not, there remains a major work here that will haunt us several days after we have finished it and which we will now evoke as the new example to follow in its field or more simply as a breathtaking, heartbreaking and magnificent story to that time.
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