The Last of Us is my favorite game of all-time. It lands gameplay and nuance while still featuring gay, POC, and female characters in prominent positions of agency and narrative importance that don't feel arbitrary or tokenized. I believe that all of the heft of its gunplay, beauty of nature's reclamation, level design, and quality of its acting will carry onto its sequel in May.
I do not believe, however, that its overall quality will match its forebear.
The Last of Us owed a serious nod to the works of Cormac McCarthy, specifically The Road but with the telling, anarchic violence of Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men. Even the game's final words are indebted to the film adaptation of The Road. Relying less on a roadmap from the world's greatest living author and more on original authorship from Neil Druckmann and television screenwriter Haley Gross is certainly a risky proposition for the diegesis.
Moreover, current Naughty Dog seems obsessed with fatalism. They don't allow Nathan Drake to be plucky and autodidactic and skilled of his own making - no; he's from a whole family of antiquarians and just following a literal and figurative map written by his famous archaeologist mother and pre-routed by his equally talented long-lost antiquarian brother. Chloe Frazier, meanwhile, is also fated to follow in her ancestor's footsteps - with a famous historian father initiating her pursuits. Both of those backstories were penned this generation. It's hard to believe that while crushing their characters' merit and determinism they won't bring up a Chosen One or Happenstance situation where say, Ellie learns she's been engineered for immunity or Joel stumbles upon survivors present and culpable in Sarah's murder or his Salt Lake General culling.
The Last of Us Part II will also rely on a "Cult of Women" in which Ellie remains in pursuit of or pursued by. While the exact details surrounding this are as of now unknown, Marlene has already voiced the implausibility and difficulty for female survivors in the post-apocalyptic landscape, and the game reinforced this with commentary on the sparse female representation among both Fireflies and scavengers (Hunters). The game will need deft direction to undo its prequel's own commentary in service of verisimilitude though there is also a real possibility that its enemy variety is largely female and the game takes flak for its jarring violence against women. Either way, it's a loaded proposition.
Unlike its prequel, The Last of Us Part II will not sport a multiplayer component. The Firefly / Hunter skirmishes were a surprisingly immersive, enjoyable way to linger within the game's world and partake in its hefty, visceral combat against real-world players. It also had a Firefly or Hunter campaign attached with actual stakes. It was hardly a throwaway addition and will be dearly missed in The Last of Us Part II.
With all this uncertainty and my wavering faith in present Naughty Dog to not retcon motivations and story arcs that are perfectly functional as-is, I don't believe that The Last of Us II will reach the same high water mark as The Last of Us.
What are your thoughts for the title? Will it reach the same heights as the first game or exceed them?
I do not believe, however, that its overall quality will match its forebear.
The Last of Us owed a serious nod to the works of Cormac McCarthy, specifically The Road but with the telling, anarchic violence of Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men. Even the game's final words are indebted to the film adaptation of The Road. Relying less on a roadmap from the world's greatest living author and more on original authorship from Neil Druckmann and television screenwriter Haley Gross is certainly a risky proposition for the diegesis.
Moreover, current Naughty Dog seems obsessed with fatalism. They don't allow Nathan Drake to be plucky and autodidactic and skilled of his own making - no; he's from a whole family of antiquarians and just following a literal and figurative map written by his famous archaeologist mother and pre-routed by his equally talented long-lost antiquarian brother. Chloe Frazier, meanwhile, is also fated to follow in her ancestor's footsteps - with a famous historian father initiating her pursuits. Both of those backstories were penned this generation. It's hard to believe that while crushing their characters' merit and determinism they won't bring up a Chosen One or Happenstance situation where say, Ellie learns she's been engineered for immunity or Joel stumbles upon survivors present and culpable in Sarah's murder or his Salt Lake General culling.
The Last of Us Part II will also rely on a "Cult of Women" in which Ellie remains in pursuit of or pursued by. While the exact details surrounding this are as of now unknown, Marlene has already voiced the implausibility and difficulty for female survivors in the post-apocalyptic landscape, and the game reinforced this with commentary on the sparse female representation among both Fireflies and scavengers (Hunters). The game will need deft direction to undo its prequel's own commentary in service of verisimilitude though there is also a real possibility that its enemy variety is largely female and the game takes flak for its jarring violence against women. Either way, it's a loaded proposition.
Unlike its prequel, The Last of Us Part II will not sport a multiplayer component. The Firefly / Hunter skirmishes were a surprisingly immersive, enjoyable way to linger within the game's world and partake in its hefty, visceral combat against real-world players. It also had a Firefly or Hunter campaign attached with actual stakes. It was hardly a throwaway addition and will be dearly missed in The Last of Us Part II.
With all this uncertainty and my wavering faith in present Naughty Dog to not retcon motivations and story arcs that are perfectly functional as-is, I don't believe that The Last of Us II will reach the same high water mark as The Last of Us.
What are your thoughts for the title? Will it reach the same heights as the first game or exceed them?
