On The Last of Us Part II, the Weight of Anticpation, and Growing Up
How this game exceeded all expectations, told a powerful story, and marked an era of my life
There is a small handful of books, movies, and video games that I would call the absolute pinnacle of storytelling. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, for example, remains one of the very best books I’ve ever read. HBO’s The Leftovers would also be on the list. But it’s The Last of Us, which I played first in the summer of 2013, that sits at the very top. Maybe it’s because I played it at a formative age, maybe its narrative was just that powerful, but this game moved me in ways no other story ever has.
The Last of Us Part II — which I finished just a few days ago — is the newest member in my list of favorite pieces of storytelling. This game is emotionally magnificent, both a natural evolution of and an honest reflection on its predecessor. It’s dark and twisted — a depressing but realistic look at human nature and suffering — but there’s also hope in its quieter moments and at the end.
Seven years after the first game, Part II feels like the end of an era, both for the fictional characters and my own experiences. I waited for this game with bated breath since the credits rolled on the first one. Somewhere along the way, I realized that I’ll never wait like this for another game — the weight of growing into my late twenties and the current trajectory of my life mean that video games take more of a backseat than they used to. But I still got to play The Last of Us Part II and it was everything I could have wanted. After years of anticipation, Sony and Naughty Dog delivered an incredible experience.
Warning: Full spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II follow below.
It’s impossible to really grapple with Part II without understanding the decision that happened at the end of the first game. That decision (one that players are forced to make) is Joel’s choice to kill the doctors trying to make a vaccine instead of letting them kill Ellie for their research. After protecting Ellie on a long journey across the country, Joel is unable to sacrifice her for humanity. When The Last of Us came out, this ending was polarizing to both critics and fans. In Part II, we see the fictional characters grappling with it.
For years after the end of the first game, the daughter of one of doctors — a woman named Abby — has been hunting Joel in a quest for revenge. We meet Abby pretty early on in the game, but her motives aren’t clear until she murders Joel with a golf club in Part II’s opening hours. It’s a hard scene to watch, both because of the violence and the attachment that many players have for Joel. And yet, Abby’s motivation is understandable (though it isn’t clear for several more hours of gameplay).
This killing is the motivation for everything that comes next, as Ellie heads west to Seattle to kill Abby and avenge Joel. If Abby’s motivations make sense, so do Ellie‘s: she watches as Joel dies and swears that she’ll come for his killers. From the opening of the game, and through a variety of well-told flashbacks, Ellie and Joel’s bond influences the entire story.
Throughout the rest of the story — which covers several grueling days of fighting, exploring, and death in the ruins of Seattle — Naughty Dog elevates their storytelling to new levels. The actual plot of revenge is pretty simple, just like many of the stories that this studio usually tells. But the conversations between characters, the little touches that make the world feel lived-in, and the overall attention to detail are all incredible. It’s not complicated, but it’s exceptionally well told.
Just like The Last of Us before it, Part II also tells a story that’s emotionally devastating. Joel’s death in the opening hours is hard enough to watch on its own, but the game is filled with several other interesting, fleshed-out characters who are unceremoniously killed off. The world that the story is set in is brutal enough on its own, but Abby and Ellie both cause a distressing amount of collateral damage.
All of these elements mean that there’s a constant tension to Part II that made it difficult for me to play for more than an hour or two at a time. Each fight against either humans or infected is a drawn-out, draining event that usually left my on-screen character with barely any supplies or health left. I felt similarly exhausted — the enemies you kill all have names, and their struggling animations while they die are often hard to watch. It feels like there are real consequences for every life you take.
Part II may not be a game for everyone. It’s not a triumphant story about people succeeding against all odds; it’s a descent into despair and sorrow that’s driven by revenge. Ellie and Abby aren’t just destroying their enemies. They’re also destroying themselves.
When I finally got to the end of the game, I felt emotionally raw (which I see as a sign of an incredible story). Video games have a unique narrative advantage in that they place the player in the middle of everything that’s happening in ways that other media can’t. When played right, that means these stories can be uniquely affecting. Naughty Dog are masters of this craft. I was devastated to see what Ellie gave up in her quest for revenge, even though the final moments of the game brought some hints of redemption.
When I sit back and think about The Last of Us Part II, I think about how good the story was. Naughty Dog has a way of making characters feel real that hits me every time I play one of their games. The story in this one is full of loss, rage, and bitterness. It’s dark and it’s not uplifting. But it’s immensely powerful, probably the best I’ve seen play out on a video game console.
I haven’t truly spent the last seven years waiting for Part II, but the knowledge that this game was coming has been a big part of my video game experience. I remember playing 2016’s Uncharted 4,a beloved entry in another Naughty Dog series I love. At the end of that game, there’s a teaser for the as-then-unannounced The Last of Us Part II, and I think I spent more time thinking about that brief hint than the entirety of Uncharted 4. Part II has hung like a shadow over every other game I’ve played.
Of course, the game’s development did little to ease fans’ anticipation. Part II was formally announced in late 2016, but Sony and Naughty Dog were stingy with new information for some time after that. The game finally got a release date of early 2020, but was then pushed back to May, and then once more when COVID-19 hit. It was agonizing.
So, for years now, The Last of Us Part II has easily my most anticipated video game of all time. That’s a testament to the world that Naughty Dog created in the first game, one that I longed to return to despite its brutality. Looking back, I don’t think I’ll ever be as excited for another game. That’s fine, it’s part of growing up, but it’s interesting to recognize all the same. I don’t think I’ll ever be this excited to fire up my console and play a game.
All of this is to try to say, however awkwardly, that The Last of Us Part II has occupied a special place in my imagination for a long time now. The final product met even my wildest expectations. I enjoyed it immensely and am glad that I got to experience this game at all. For years, this game lurked, off in the distance, a white whale of possibility and anticipation. Now that it’s here, I’m a little sad to have finished it but deeply satisfied with the experience.
It feels like I’m saying goodbye to a past version of myself. I don’t wish to go back to my earlier self in 2013, but I treasure that experience of playing The Last of Us for the first time. I’ve spent hours scouring the internet for news about Part II at various intervals throughout the years. The excitement for a new trailer, for the release date, for the game itself was a powerful emotion. Now, I’ll move on to other things.
Video game stories are often excuses to shoot enemies or get to a certain point on a map. With The Last of Us Part II, the opposite is true. The gameplay is perfectly adequate — good, even — but everything in the game itself is in service to the story and characters. As many reviewers have pointed out, the results are stunning.
I don’t know what comes next for Naughty Dog. It seems pretty likely that a multiplayer-only game is coming sometime soon, but after that I think it’s anyone’s guess. I would love to see The Last of Us Part III, but I also think it might be time to move on from these characters. Besides, the last time Naughty Dog tried something new, we got the first Last of Us. I’d love to see them take another stab at a new series.
In any case, The Last of Us and its sequel are the two best video games I’ve ever played. They tell powerful stories with interesting characters, set in a world where everything goes wrong all the time. There’s despair, but there’s also hope in the narrative of each game. Each game served as a swan song to a console generation. I can’t imagine a better note to go out on.
The views expressed are mine alone and do not represent the views of my employer or any other person or organization.
