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My Not Quite Review of The Last of Us Part II

Since I finished The Last of Us Part II a week ago, I've been processing how I feel about the ending to the game. The overall experience is without a doubt exceptional. The graphical fidelity and art is second to none. While the game largely takes place in Seattle, they use the space and find unique set pieces throughout the course of the game. Even in relatively small areas like the Chinatown section of Seattle pack so much detail it's impossible not to be impressed by it. Beyond the visuals, audio, acting, writing, and so on, I just love how these games play. I enjoy playing these games so much, I'm honestly puzzled when I hear people say the action in these games are only serviceable. And while the game is long--it took me 30 hours to see the ending--when I look back on my time with it, everything feels just about right. From the sky bridge section to the zoo to roaming the streets of Seattle with Ellie and Dina, nothing felt too long. The length is due to just how much stuff is in this game, rather than something overstaying its welcome

I only have two knocks against the game. While many of the collectibles are really well done, the context behind some are a little weird. When I read some of the notes, I couldn't help but think, "Why did somebody write a letter to this person". For example, when next door neighbors in an apartment wrote notes back and forth to each other, as opposed to just talking to each other. Or why would somebody write down a sensitive, life or death, message to a person, when they are literally leaving a paper trail to be discovered. The second minor complaint I have about the game is with some of the side characters. When I look back on The Last of Us, many of the side characters have their own arcs crescendo which caps off that part of the game. Sarah's death is an emotional gut punch that was executed so well it still hits me all of these years later. Tess's "obligation" speech to Joel both adds plenty of subtle context behind their relationship and gives the narrative it's last big push of motivation to get Ellie to the Fireflies. Bill telling Joel "Get the fuck out of my town" is a pitch perfect final line for their character and that section of the game. In comparison, The Last of Us Part II doesn't quite have that between a lot of characters suddenly getting shot in the head and the lack of time in the story to develop a few relationships.

By and large, The Last of Us Part II is an exceptional follow up to one of my favorite games of all-time. However, while the first game made me want to shout out on the mountain tops how much I love this game, The Last of Us Part II makes me want to sit down and quietly think to myself. My feelings have been all over the place. I don't dislike the game, in fact, I admire the hell out of it, but I also don't feel like shouting "This game is awesome!" My simplified, one sentence reason for all of these mixed emotions and all of this wishy-washy back and forwardness is, "The ending is a bummer".

I personally don't find the game to be too brutal or violent. A lot of details like how Ellie and Abby choking or slitting people's throats or the jump cut to black as a clicker is killing them were in the previous game. That aspect never really bothered me at the time and now it doesn't feel like anything goes too far. There are definitely some hard to watch sequences--like what happens to Yara--but nothing felt excessive to me. And no, my mixed feelings have nothing to do with how Joel dies. Even in "these unprecedented times", I wasn't too turned off with playing a dark and depressing game like The Last of Us Part II. So when I talk about this game being "a bummer", it is not because of any of those reasons. All of this is wrapped up with what happened starting with the game's false ending.

So About That Ending

After Ellie and Abby's stalemate at the theater, Ellie and Dina go home. They start their farm outside Jackson, like they chatted about earlier in the game. Ellie has some quality baby time with JJ and you get to walk around their new home. The whole sequence sure feels like an ending to a video game. But then, Ellie leaves. She goes after Abby again, this time heading to California. After running into a group of slavers, Ellie eventually tracks down the compound Abby and Lev are being kept. She even manages to free both of them.

At this point, it seemed like the game was going to turn into a story of forgiveness. Even though Ellie and Abby throw down their arms and walk away in Seattle, it was more based on Abby having enough of everything. Nothing is forgiven. Two people who were trying to kill each other just stopped. So when Ellie goes after Abby, I thought, "Ah ha. What better way to settle this dispute by Ellie inadvertently saving Abby and Lev, and she says something like 'Now we're even' and she rides off into the sunset."

Yeah, except Ellie still tries to kill Abby.

During this final section of the game, I stopped controlling Ellie twice. When Ellie left Dina and JJ, I started thinking to myself "Why". When the game forced me to fight Abby to the death, I was in disbelief. I didn't really think the game had multiple endings--one where Ellie killed Abby and another where Abby killed Ellie--but I didn't want to do what the game was telling me to. So I got not one, but two game over screens, because Abby won the fight killed Ellie. At that point, I fought Abby enough that Ellie finally stopped and let her go.

So Abby and Lev sail away. Do they ever see the Fireflies? Do they even live past the end of that week? Who knows.

So Ellie returns to the farm. Dina and JJ left. The house is cleared out, except for Ellie's art studio. She tries playing the guitar, but can't because of her two missing fingers. The last we see of Ellie is her walking away from the farm. To go back to Jackson? To reunite with Dina? To tell Tommy what happened? To never see any of those people ever again? Who knows.

There's obviously a lot more to unpack with the ending of The Last of Us Part II, particularly with the flashbacks between Ellie and Joel that bridge the events of the first and second game. Before I get too deep into their history, there's something I want to talk about that is coloring my perception of the ending.

The Last of Us Part II and Revenge

The Last of Us Part II arguably goes out of its way to talk about the nature of revenge. With the final scene in Seattle, Abby goes to the theater to kill Ellie, after Ellie went after all of her friends. The reason why Ellie went after The Wolves and Abby was because Abby killed Joel. However, the reason why Abby killed Joel was because Joel killed her father. With the backdrop of the escalating war between The WLF and The Seraphites, there is so much back and forth between their factions. The WLF are going to kill The Seraphites, because they killed their people, but The Seraphites killed people in The WLF because the WLF killed people in The Seraphites, etc. etc. etc. Even within the revenge story, there are similarities. Tommy kills Manny by shooting him in the head. Later, Abby kills Jesse by shooting him in the head. Ellie kills Mel, who is pregnant. Later, Abby threatens to kill Dina, who is also pregnant.

Long before the game came out, Naughty Dog's pitch for The Last of Us Part II was around the fact that this was a story about revenge and hatred, so it's no surprise that these conflicts are all over the final game. However, one surprising thing about the story is how it doesn't quite fit in with a lot of other revenge stories. The first revenge plot in the game is with Abby going to Jackson to get revenge on Joel. Instead of dwelling on this mystery or having an extended sequence where Abby goes to Jackson and tracks Joel down, the two more or less bump into each other. Abby's quest for revenge is fulfilled by accident. When The WLF realize who Joel is, the temperature of the room almost feels like, "Is that it?"

Abby killing Joel is arguably the most straightforward revenge story in The Last of Us Part II. Character A is wronged by Character B. Character A gets revenge on Character B. End of story. The other escalating revenge scenarios in the game are not as clear cut and don't fall in the typical revenge story archetypes. Generally speaking, revenge stories typically fall into one of these molds:

• Character seeks revenge and accomplishes their goal (i.e. Evil doer dies and main character gets some closure)
• Character seeks revenge, gets it, but there is a tragic complication (i.e. The character dies in the progress, they realize they are the real monster, etc.)
• Character seeks revenge, but fails (i.e. Character tries to take on the system, but isn't capable of fighting against it)
• Character starts off seeking revenge, but forgives the person who wronged them

The later story arcs in The Last of Us Part II don't really fall into one of these categories. Ellie and Abby never get their revenge on each other. At the same time, the two never really find peace either. There are multiple climaxes, between the end of Ellie and Abby's respective Seattle sections and Ellie tracking down Abby in California. Initially it seemed like things would turn out alright with Ellie living with Dina at the farm in the false ending, but that is quickly thrown out the window and leads to the final act of the game. Ultimately for how out of the way The Last of Us Part II talks about the vicious cycle of revenge, it also goes out of its way to not give a proper resolution to a lot of these threads either.

From my perspective, The Last of Us Part II isn't really a revenge story like Naughty Dog said it was. Instead it feels more like a story that happens to talk about revenge. At the end of the day, the story isn't really focused on whether or not Ellie or Abby got their revenge and how they reflect on that.

With all of that said, what is the point of this story?

It Can't All Be For Nothing, Part II

The final gut punch in The Last of Us Part II is not that Ellie doesn't get her revenge or how she goes back to the farm, only see it abandoned. It all comes back to Ellie's place in the world.

Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised by some of this. After all, the game has a "Part II" appended to its name, rather than a #2 or a subtle. The game opens with Joel confessing to Tommy how he saved Ellie, and the game continues to sprinkle in flashbacks between Ellie and Joel, all somehow connecting back to the Fireflies, the hospital, and Joel's decision. Ellie eventually learns the truth about what he did and their relationship with Joel deteriorates.

The final flashback, and one of the last scenes in the game, is Ellie talking to Joel. After their falling out, Ellie starts to open up to Joel. She's still not over her survival's guilt with how she is immune, while Riley died. She's still not over how Joel took away her agency and decided what's best for her. After all of these years, Ellie is still waiting for her turn. Their encounter ends on an optimistic note, with Ellie being open to getting closer to Joel. Nothing was forgiven, but hope they can bridge the gap. And the next day Abby kills Joel.

The Last of Us Part II shifts its focus from how Ellie was getting revenge for Joel to more about Ellie's state in life. She never got over the events of The Last of Us and the opportunity she had to get closure was taken away from her. It's not just the reason for Ellie going to Seattle, but going after Abby again in California, even though on its surface both of them moved on. The false ending with Ellie, Dina, and JJ at the farm is the closest thing to a happy ending we have seen in The Last of Us, but it is a world Ellie couldn't live with.

So...Yeah...

The Last of Us Part II is a marvel in story, animation, graphics, gameplay, music, level design, controls, and just about everything else you can think of. It tackles the seemingly impossible task of making a sequel to The Last of Us; let alone one starring Ellie and Joel. The few set pieces are fantastic and just about every encounter is tense as hell. That said, the game has plenty of quieter moments that is reminiscent of the best parts in The Last of Us: Left Behind. Finally, The Last of Us Part II has an unexpected and emotional ending that...makes me feel sad.

A number of my favorite novels, movies, TV shows, and video games are tragedies. There are dark and grim stories I get excited when I talk to other people about them, because they have some excellent capital D "drama" . Years ago I wrote about how much I loved the ending to the first game, despite how complicated and tragic it is. To this day, the ending of The Last of Us is one of my favorite endings to a story period.

With The Last of Us Part II, it's a well constructed ending, but...I don't know. We don't know what comes of Abby, Lev, Dina, or Ellie, and we probably never will. Instead, the game just lingers on Ellie being alone with no agency. Her connection to Joel severed. It's that quiet feeling you get when you realize not everything is going to be Ok. Or that not everybody will get their happy ending. Or get better and overcome their problems.

I intend to replay The Last of Us Part II to experience the story again, hunt for those collectibles, and to play through those encounters on a more challenging difficulty. If I didn't play so many long games back-to-back (I just finished a 160+ hour play through of Persona 5 Royal days before this game came out), I probably would have kept playing it. However, as it stands I have my memories of that first play through and my reaction of seeing those final hours play out. The Last of Us Part II is an incredible game I enjoyed immensely with an exceptional story. That said, if you were to ask me "Did you 'enjoy' the ending", I would say "No".