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Quick Look: The Last of Us Part II

Is it... is it possible the zombies aren't the real monsters? Anybody know for sure?

Sit back and enjoy as the Giant Bomb team takes an unedited look at the latest video games.

Jun. 18 2020

Cast: Brad

Posted by: Brad

In This Episode:

The Last of Us Part II

102 Comments

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Humanity

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@onlineatron: Rob Zacny and Maddy Myers had a decent conversation about this game having both reviewed it and the key takeaway is that it doesn’t say a lot and a it leaves tough questions for the player to figure out on their own rather than taking a hard stance.

I’m still excited to play it because sometimes it’s the journey and not the destination, but I’ve heard enough (spoiler free) discussion about this game from various critics that beat it to know that it probably won’t be a revolutionary take on the classic revenge story.

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ripelivejam

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Video games for sad dads to feel sad to.

Does The National do the soundtrack then?

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JustTheTip69

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@heatdrive88: they’ve definitely mentioned it a while ago...

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roytheone

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@theidlecritic: I think it will be one of the best selling PlayStation exclusives of the gen. The preorder Numbers are very high and the negativity always came over to me as a very small, very vocal group that based their opinions on out of context text spoilers. I could be wrong obviously, but I expect it to be a huge success

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rjaylee

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TheIdleCritic

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@roytheone: we shall wait and see. I hope it does sell, for all the hard work the developers put into this thing.

Recently I've noticed the "complaints" extending from just the story to shallow gameplay, downgraded graphics, etc. It's exhausting to be honest. I'm indifferent/waiting until I see it on my TV and can play it myself. I had it spoiled for me but I'm not too fussed. Still looking forward to playing it.

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xymox

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Eh, I thought the solo quick look was great.

I feel all relaxed now, too.

Not sure I can play this game right now, but might be a good PS5 launch game, especially if you can set it to 1080p60 fps.

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zinkn

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+1 solo quicklooks are boring.

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spikespeigel

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@themasterds: I think based on the embargo, Brad's been working on this for a while since he cuts between sections given the restrictions on stuff he's allowed to show. I'm not sure you could have done that live unless you were willing to watch some load screens along the way.

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onlineatron

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Edited By onlineatron

@roytheone: Aye i read this, it’s where a lot of my concerns come from. But I also read Paste’s review by Natalie Flores (https://www.pastemagazine.com/games/the-last-of-us-part-ii/the-last-of-us-part-2-review/) which has this killer passage:

“I was anxious about a game focusing on hate, for those kinds of stories tend to veer into territory involving respectability politics and the importance of forgiveness, especially towards oppressors. But it avoids believing it has the authority to condemn violence just because it doesn’t adhere to a specific notion of peace. Peace is differently defined for every person; sometimes it requires letting go and leaving people or systems that have left one disillusioned, and at other times, it can only be found through screaming and breaking and destroying what must be rebuilt.”

I guess I’ll be curious to hear where Brad comes down on it. That said, on the Bombcast he said “an eye for an eye...” and Jeff followed it with “ripped from the headlines” so they might not share my thoughts on the matter.

edit: Sorry not sure how to format the link.

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nthnmllr

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Dunno what people are complaining about "solo" quick look for, Brad did a great job here of keeping me watching a QL of a game I have very little interest in. Great job with the cuts to show different aspects of the gameplay :)

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so1337

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4:00 Wow, look at this groundbreaking technical marvel. Still can’t move the AI out of the way when they’re standing in the wrong spot.

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The_Nubster

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Last 30 seconds of gameplay pretty well encapsulates why I'm not interested in this. Like - if you want to do a Tarintino-Meets-Rambo action sequence then do that don't let me... judge your life - just don't expect people to take you seriously when you try to tell them 'Violence is bad'.

This was a weird disconnect with me about the first game too. They're trying to say one thing in the story, and making you do another in the gameplay. And it seems like with this game, they're aware of what they're making you do, so the story is now about chastising you for doing what you have literally no choice to do... but Spec Ops already happened and already tread this ground. This conversation has been had, and I don't know that more photorealistic headshot wounds really add much to it.

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djredbat

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@themasterds: I was hoping for a first impressions playdate with GB East members like the did for other games like Death Stranding, Witcher 3, Doom, and Gears of War 4. And just start the game from the beginning and play for 2-3 hours.

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dsjwetrwete

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@theidlecritic: It will 100% sell truckloads. Those negative people are not the majority audience for this game.

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TheIdleCritic

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@kyniro: That's good to know.

With the way everyone is reacting to the violence in this... ain't no one ready for a real life apocalypse lol.

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big_denim

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@mrcropes: I liked the gameplay in this one a lot and thought they made a lot of smart adjustments.

No more pallet swimming. No more limit/meter for your listening ability. Much bigger environments for your encounters leading to a much more fluid and freeform combat system.

In TLoU 1, I felt like I was just going through the motions. Throw bottle > Strangle guard > Move to next cover > Repeat.

The combat in TLoU 2 kept me on my toes a lot more. Lots of tense moments and constantly changing my approach due to better AI and bigger environments.

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Edited By jakonovski

This sounds about as enticing as The Road. Post-apocalypse is a great setting when it's also a new beginning. But it's obnoxious when it's just about wallowing in the rotting remains of mankind.

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rndmtask

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Edited By rndmtask
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The_Nubster

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Edited By The_Nubster

"Good at world building" said at the moment that posed skeletons are found holding a note is very funny to me.

Edit: I cannot play another stealth-action game where you can successfully throw a brick as a distraction while the AI is looking literally right at you.

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michaelafingers

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Before I went and spoiled this game's ending I had a hard time thinking of a reason why we needed to continue the story behind the game's two main characters....at least as a video game.

Having spoiled the ending of this game

holy fucking shit do these clowns not know how to write a fucking story.....there's absolutely no reason for this fucking bullshit you go through for the last 5 minutes of this hamfisted shitstorm and it ruins everything about the series

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Edited By Dixavd

I find it funny the game with an entire sound-based blindness mechanic devoted to grotesque zombies is also a game with extensive accessability options (why is disability always intertwined with destorted monsters?!). Still fantastic options though. Morgan L. Baker, a disability specialist I follow on Twitter announced she consulted on the Last of Us Part 2 so I'm glad they brought in experts to do it right.

Still doesn't seem like the kind of game for me.

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LegalBagel

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The divide on this game seems really crazy. You have people hailing it as the best thing ever made and a defining moment for game story-telling giving it insanely high scores. But most unscored critical analysis lands on it being a well-acted, shallow game that's miserable to play and has nothing to say about its violence beyond revenge being a bad idea. I know there are other games that have had that sort of divide between critical analysis and initial reception (e.g., Bioshock Infinite), but usually that doesn't happen until the months after a game releases.

I didn't come to play the original game into years after release and have to figure I'll treat this the same if I ever play it. The gameplay is only OK and I'm not interested at all in the story its trying to tell at this time.

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blackichigo

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Yeah. I just don't think this series is for me. I bounced off of the first one 3 hours after the prologue, because I hated actually playing it. Also the story and characters just didn't grab me. It just seemed like the stereotypical zombie apocalypse movie tropes spread out over 15 hours, instead of a more digestible 2 hour movie. I don't KNOW that to be true, but I just didn't care to find out.

This one seems just seems like more of that except even longer and with even less subtlety in its themes.

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chaosnovaxz

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@blackichigo: You're not wrong, lol.

The gameplay was average at best, and story-wise, they were years too late to the "humans are the real monsters!" zombie trope, but the pretentious fans of this game thought it was something original.

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LeraA

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Thanks for this quick look.

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@shtinky said:

Another one of those "I'll just watch this on YouTube" games.

If you like stealth, like me, you'll love playing through the series. I'm so glad we get TLoU Pt. 2 and Ghost of Tsushima this year!

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Justabard

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@jhonny_appleseed: holdup

You have to be kidding here, your name is Johnny appleseed and listen to the same podcast crew where alex says "fuck mayor cuomo and fuck nyc cops" and yet you sincerely think no one is oppressed?

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Edited By Onemanarmyy

Brad doesn't think it's a good thing that people are being disemboweled and strung up. I think i can agree with him there.

As for the game, yeah this looks pretty much like the first game. Story & character development doesn't seem to gel with everyone but at the same time i remember having a great time with the first game without being blown away by the story and seeing this makes me think i would have a similar reaction to this one. Cranking up the difficulty to make it a very high stakes affair and then getting through these encounters by the skin of your teeth as you progress further and further in the story. I loved that. I do also quite like the casual banter ND does and i think enemies shouting out names is a clever little addition. Not expecting the story to blow me away , but I just went through a game where mitochondrians inside humans made them burst into flames, so i can still find fun beyond the story :)

As for the solo quicklook, it makes total sense for Brad to do that here given that he already set out to edit , skip between chapters and cut down the material for the quicklook. It might've been a 2 hour sit-down to record this all. Edits and solo quicklooks are not usual business, but they make sense here i think.

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This is the third ND game in a row with a gameplay area like this, so this is the kind of game they make.

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popeye11

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brad will review this for site or Giant bomb will not review it at all ?

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@rorie said:
@bluelander said:
@villainfb43 said:

Anyone else bummed that every quick look is solo?

Ben and Matt did a Quick Look together literally yesterday.

We did two actually! There'll be plenty more TLOU stuff coming up on the site soon, I believe.

this stuff includes a review from giant bomb ?

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SillyPuttie

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While I can appreciate the difficulty of demonstrating a story-heavy game without showing any of the story, this game looks catastrophically boring.

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@ben_h: they were also quick. Things do change. Remember when the podcast regularly had energy drink reviews?

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onlineatron

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@justabard: violence is just violence and what is violence? well it’s violence. i am very smart

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SharkMan

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I wonder if this game is going to sell well. I know it's been getting 10s from many outlets but online I see hate comment after hate comment after hate comment (justified or otherwise). Good ones are few and far between. Unless people who are looking forward to this are fed up of the relentless vitriol and are staying off comments sections, I don't know.

apparently its one of the best selling ps4 exclusives this year.

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@the_nubster said:

Edit: I cannot play another stealth-action game where you can successfully throw a brick as a distraction while the AI is looking literally right at you.

This. Hitman did that well. "I sure as shit am not going to investigate that coin you threw right before my very eyes, thank you, sir."

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Edited By TheIdleCritic

@sharkman: Yeah. I just read it's Sony's best selling exclusive in the UK and it's smashed the charts. So that's my answer I guess lol.

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I wish they'd try to do something as interesting with the game play as what they do with the story (if what I've read/heard is accurate regarding the story).

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Humanity

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I want to see that discussion about this divisive game

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avantegardener

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42.28 - Did you know, Brad loves it when they fight?

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The area with the stalkers I found was much easier to go aggressive there, rather than out-sneak them. They are easily melee'd down as long as you don't get swarmed. I set up a safe area in that first room with explosive mines, threw a bottle and let them come to me. Liberal use of molotovs. It was much more satisfying.

Love this game! I hope you come around to it by the end Brad.

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RobertForster

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I can’t wait for this health crisis to be over so they can go back to multi-person quick looks.

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Edited By RobertForster

Is she telling people to shut up before she slits their throat? Pfff. What a monster. I can’t empathize with someone like that.