Review for The Last of Us: Part II. Game for PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 19/06/2020
We all have a double face. On the one hand there is the social self that relates to others: our mask. On the other hand there is the real me: the one who without thinking reacts to danger and provocations from the gut. They are the two personalities of our - Freud will forgive us the poetic license - Gollum interior and, however much we try to maintain composure and appearance behind the mask, sooner or later this is torn from us by events, allowing the inner demons to come out. in the open to give free rein to the innermost emotions of our soul. The Last of Us Part 2 is a story of revenge and violence, but not only: it is the empirical demonstration of how the behavior of individuals can change according to a hostile environment that gives only the strongest a chance to survive.. There is no black or white, nothing is totally right or wrong, there are no good or bad: every single character from his point of view is right and as we begin to write this review, with the credits of The Last of Us Part II that still scroll across the screen after 26 long hours of main campaign, we are still deeply shaken by a story that strikes with such violence as to leave us stunned. We expected it, we thought we were ready. Surely you will think so too. Trust me, you are not.
Once upon a time there was Ellie ...
... and now that little girl is gone. In the world of The Last of Us 2 there is no more room for hope, there is no "happily ever after". It's teeming with the infected out there that can kill you in one hit but, ironically, it's the least of your problems: the greatest threat is humanity itself which, in the struggle for survival, gives its worst. There has been a lot of talk about violence and its representation in The Last of Us Part II, based on the numerous trailers circulated in recent months to promote the game: short films made ad hoc to amaze and feed the indignant comments of the most sensitive souls, there we only realize now that we have lived the whole story. Believe it or not, we guarantee that even the crudest scene - and in The Last of Us Part II there are quite a few - is embedded in the plot with such force that it forces you, albeit with understandable reluctance, to admit that probably you too, under the same circumstances, you would have behaved that way.
Naughty Dog's masterful writing work proposes a non-linear plot in which the development house is now a master, and the continuous jumps back and forth in time build an empathic bond of rare purity between the character and the player: the latter, like an omniscient narrator, facing the adventure will find himself in spite of himself in the unsettling situation whereby he will no longer be able to distinguish between right and wrong. In The Last of Us Part II these are in fact smoky concepts as much as they are in the real world: there are no villains who want to conquer the world, princesses imprisoned in a tower and bold heroes who throw themselves into the fray and emerge unscathed from every vicissitude. There are people with their lives and their feelings, subjected to that personality made up of lights and shadows that dwells in each of us and for which we are convinced that we are the ones on the side of reason.
Cruelty and violence aside, the beginning of The Last of Us Part II deceives in its primordial simplicity: as we know from the story trailer, Ellie suffers an unforgivable wrong and decides to leave Jackson - where she settled with Joel following the events narrated in the first TLOU - seeking revenge. All clear, right? Poor little girl, they didn't have to do this to her, how could she not want to impersonate her in her search for justice? We're on the side of the good, damn it! …or maybe not. Because it is in the part that you do not yet know (and which of course we will not anticipate) that the Naughty Dog plot turns into a masterpiece. The Last of Us Part II is incredibly long-lived and, except for perhaps a moment of tired cutscene-rich moments before the final escalation, the pace and psychological pressure of the narrative always remains at very high levels.. And so, while for the first dozen hours of gameplay you will think you are simply witnessing an excellent more of the same of the first episode, the next twelve hours will invest you strongly forcing you to change your way of seeing facts, characters and (why no) deployment. But it does not end there, because when you think you are close to the credits will come yet another blow, with another two abundant hours of escalation only for strong hearts. The wow effect of the ending of the first The Last of Us is resized and disappears in the face of the communicative power and the thousand meanings of the last scenes of this The Last of Us Part II.
There will be a lot of talk about the narrative system packaged by Naughty Dog and, certainly, there will be supporters and detractors. We, still drunk on such a surprising plot, struggle to express an objective judgment on what it is probably one of the most "adult" video games ever. The Last of Us Part II is not for everyone, you must understand this well: Nathan Drake is not here jumping from a plane and with a glass of water he recovers from a walk in the desert; there are not even a Kratos or a James Earl Cash (respectively protagonists of God of War and Manhunt -ndr) whose ruthlessness towards enemies is represented in such a parodic way as to be closer to the horror splatter of the 90s than to a violence in able to really disturb. The Last of Us Part II instead shows us a truth that video games usually hide: bullets kill, punches hurt badly, remorse for actions done (or not done) hurts even more and opens wounds that do not heal. Approach the game with this respect for the plot and, in addition to understanding it deeply, you will appreciate it as it deserves. Maybe eat light first and have some anti-emetics on hand if you have a weak stomach. Then don't tell us we didn't warn you.
Eat, sleep, craft, repeat
The already excellent TLOU gameplay that we all know has not been the subject of particular innovations, if not rather a general refinement of all the mechanics that, also taking a cue from the experience gained with Uncharted 4, it allowed Naughty Dog to create a game system as simple to learn as it is incredibly complex to fully master. As expected, the game can generally be divided into two moments: exploration and combat.
In the first phase it is necessary to sift through every nook and cranny of the game world in search of all those consumable objects that allow you to improve the skills of the protagonists or to make weapons, traps, objects and ammunition through crafting. In this respect the vastness of the map has allowed the inclusion of numerous absolutely optional areas that you can decide whether to tackle or not. Obviously, especially at higher difficulty levels, every object is important and it is highly advisable to rummage around to grab as many resources as possible. In the first half of the game, along the lines of what was seen in the Madagascar area of Uncharted 4 or in the great plain of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, you can entertain yourself by riding in a large urban area near Seattle where, before continuing towards the goal, you can follow various clues to discover many explorable places full of safes to be violated, weapons, ammunition and juicy easter eggs (completists will certainly not be able to ignore the possibility of collecting a certain ring with the words "Sic Parvis Magna" -ndr).
The design of the rooms and the simple but intriguing puzzles to be solved to access the optional areas certainly deserve your attention, even if only for reading the numerous documents that feed the lore and testify to a monumental work of attention to the smallest details. So - leaving out the need to craft objects and limiting ourselves to the simple playful value of the experience - we strongly advise you to take all the time you need to tackle the game: The Last of Us Part II, like its predecessor, is not a adventure that you face in a hurry. Rather we walk, observe, reason: only in this way can we truly enter into symbiosis with a style of play that does not include amazing stunts but amazes with small things, such as the satisfaction of throwing a rope at the right point, using it to cover the few meters of altitude that any Lara Croft would easily reach with a jump. But we have already said it too many times: TLOU2 is much more real than expected, and this is probably the assumption that most of all will make it memorable.
Then there is the second phase, that of the fighting: leaving aside the obvious and already discussed representation of violence in the use of weapons against enemies, we would like to emphasize that also in this case the gameplay has been refined making all the mechanics fundamental. of the first TLOU and adding some goodies taken in weight from the aforementioned Uncharted 4. First of all, except for some specific moments and for phases in the second half of the game in which at the lowest difficulty levels you can dare some shooting, the sine qua not to get out of TLOU2 unscathed is stealth: in the presence of enemies it is always better to move stealthily, take advantage of every cover, crawl - crouching or, new possibility, lying down - in the grass or in the fog of the smoke bombs you launched to surprise mutants or hostile humans by silently eliminating them.
In all this the listening mode is always very useful, which highlights the presence of opponents around the player. Too bad for you that these mechanics, deliberately, do not work perfectly: even if lying in the grass if an enemy passes too close he will be able to identify you, as well as the soldiers of the WLF (rival faction you will be dealing with, as well as to the Seraphites or "Hyenas" and to the now extinguished Lights) will be able to use dogs able to track you down and lead the pursuers on your trail. Similarly, against the Stalkers (infected details that tend to ambush secretly) the listening mode will often be ineffective, making these weak monsters very dangerous because they are able to attack you by making noise and attracting much more lethal threats towards you. Once discovered, you will easily have to decide whether to fire back, flee and hide, or whether to exploit the new mechanic of dodging in a brutal battle with the sword. The AI has also been significantly improved: enemies will organize themselves patrolling the area if they find a companion out of the game, as well as try to get around you and take you from behind, while your partner - for most of the adventure you will travel in the company of another NPC - will make more use of the cover and will move in accordance with your actions, avoiding that annoying bug of the first TLOU whereby if you were hiding with Joel Ellie he could happily trot through enemies without attracting their attention.
In the economy of the whole adventure there is however room for more action moments - decidedly borrowed from the experience of the cinematic sequences of the Uncharted - decidedly horror sessions in claustrophobic closed environments with only the light of the torch to illuminate the way and, to complete the everything, even for a couple of adrenaline-fueled and gory boss battles, one of which reminded us of the recent Resident Evil 3 Remake and made us regret how docile and cuddly the Nemesis was. It is in these situations that it is most appreciated a level design that develops in breadth and verticality, in which each room has at least two doors or openings and connects to the rest of the environment in order to always offer an escape route and to support a hit and run strategy that is almost always winning. Naughty Dog has collected an offer package in which, on the gameplay side, nothing is missing. If we really wanted to nitpick we would point the finger at the cover system, which in the most action-packed moments would certainly have helped if it had been more similar to that of Uncharted 4, while in this case it appears a bit more woody. It is also true that the strategic possibilities offered by the vast arsenal available effectively balance this lack, not to mention that The Last of Us Part II can be tackled as an action only at the levels of easy or very easy difficulty, and even in these cases it is not recommended to give up. to the stealth approach, the true fulcrum of the fighting and mechanics capable of giving considerable satisfaction.
It is also important to underline that The Last of Us Part II presents a level of experience customization practically never seen before: in addition to the five selectable difficulty levels, it is possible to decide if and which indicators to show in the hud, the level of difficulty of individuals elements such as aggression and passivity of enemies and allies or the time it takes for both to wriggle out of their grips. But it doesn't end there: if things go wrong you can restart a fight, and in doing so you can decide to vary the level of difficulty. Add in tons of audio and video accessibility settings, an option that allows you to skip puzzles (like you haven't seen it since Alone in the Dark on PS3) and (subject to a patch to be released post launch) the ability to select the permadeath for the whole game, by day or by chapter and you will realize how Naughty Dog has thought of an experience that can be used both for casual and for the most hardcore and masochistic hardcore gamer.
Here PlayStation 4, I ask for take-off clearance
What can we add to the superlative optimization work that Naughty Dog is able to do with its products? The technical sector of The Last of Us Part II is a feast for the eyes in every single moment of the adventure and contains all the scripts that have made us cry so much for a miracle over the years: there are the water of Uncharted, the snow of Uncharted 2, the sand of Uncharted 3 and the thick vegetation, the slippery mud and boats of Uncharted 4. The mirrors reflect the protagonist (a feature not taken for granted in a console game) and in a couple of moments you can even make faces moving the analog sticks, just to knock the precision of motion capture in the face of the competition. When Ellie plays the guitar her hands move correctly on the chords, riding towards the sun the characters cover their faces with their hands, coming out of a hot club if it is snow outside they rub their noses and, when it rains, Ellie he puts on his hood so as not to get his hair wet while his clothes become soaked in water, mud and the blood of his enemies. But that's not all, because the technical details that are noticed in each game are numerous and incredible: All weapon modifications are visible, so applying a silencer, precision sight or magazine to the weapon will change its appearance, even in the hud icon for selecting it. We have often stopped to admire the sun's rays filtering through the branches of trees during a walk in the woods, stroking our horse or letting ourselves be surprised by a bunny that cuts our way on the path. All without there being a single upload: Once the game has begun - with a screen showing fluttering butterflies similar to those you will feel in your stomach - you could hypothetically finish the game without ever encountering a second loading screen.
This whole show crashes like a storm on PlayStation 4 fans - standard or pro - that regrets the good times of Horizon Zero Dawn but, stoically, resists. It's a bit like the console knows that the CPU shouldn't fail, that you can't afford a drop in frame rate or a glitch (in the whole adventure, to be honest, we only encountered one pop-up error. and then an interpenetration, but it's really a drop in the ocean). History is being made here, and once again Naughty Dog surpasses the physical limits of a Sony console at the end of its life cycle with a graphic design that puts the first titles that will be released on PlayStation 5 in difficulty.
Last but equally inevitable, the audio sector: give yourself a gift and play The Last of Us Part II with headphones, because the feeling of terror that you feel when hearing the cry of a clicker or a shambler (new infected extra-large format as noisy as poisonous) is unique and unrepeatable. The music, rigorously evocative with solitary acoustic guitar arpeggios, this time also features some deeper and more aggressive synth, which appears in the background in the fights and during the scenes with the highest emotional impact. The English dubbing is as expected over the top, however also the localization is respectable, considering the incredible amount of dialogue: for most of the adventure, as is now tradition for Naughty Dog productions, you will travel as a couple. with an NPC and the characters will talk continuously, commenting on events, exchanging opinions on what to do or simply chatting about this and that. Fascinating how even the most apparently insignificant of the dialogues was designed to outline the traits of an incredibly deep and multifaceted characterization of the characters, a fundamental element to support such a courageous plot.
The Last of Us Part II is not a game for everyone. It is certainly accessible and refines the gameplay of its predecessor by striving for perfection. At the same time, under the pretext of revenge, he bravely tells an adult story that speaks of mixed feelings and forces us to see the facts from multiple points of view, in an incredibly long-lived adventure for an action adventure. It is a story with mature tones like few you see in the world of video games: there are no heroes, much less winners or losers. It is not a fairy tale in which the charming prince and his princess live happily ever after: it is a credible what if of a land infested by a deadly pandemic that turns some men into mutant monsters and other men inside, hinting that it is this last the most terrible and shocking transformation. Once this premise occurs, you are ready to face The Last of Us Part II: take your time, weigh each step and do not open your mouth too wide until the last minutes of the game, because you will need a lot of jaw to hold the final blow. Then we will find ourselves here talking about this playful work that raises the video game to a medium capable of entering a territory that the developers of the past would never have dared to explore. Some will appreciate the choice, others will call it too bold. Whether you belong to one or the other, the certainty is that you can tell that you were there while the Naughty Dog, once again, wrote history.
► The Last of Us: Part II is an Adventure-Action-Horror-Survival game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 19/06/2020
