Naughty Dog returns through the front door with his most complete, extensive and varied title. A blow on the table at the narrative and visual level.
Closing a generation of consoles is not easy. A sequence of coincidences has wanted PlayStation 4 to begin its closing ceremony with Joel and Ellie, just as PS3 did seven years ago, in an adventure that put the finishing touch to a cycle of not a few commercial successes. Naughty Dog is an inescapable agent in that context; both by the skills of Nathan Drake and those of this couple. Now, again in June, The Last of Us Part 2 faces itself knowing that it is not just any video game, neither for the Californian studio nor for users of a platform accustomed to quality narrative sets. Luckily, the title that concerns us today is an event, the most ambitious work of a team willing to surprise, risk and not be afraid to err. We are in luck.
Jackson. It is not an ordinary day
The changes that define us
Jackson, Wyoming. It breathes peace and tranquility. A quiet, multiracial, medium-sized city full of life, desires and concerns. Five years have passed since the events recounted in the first part, a quarter of a century since the pandemic that completely devastated life as we knew it began. Science, still pending to find a vaccine to alleviate the effect of cordyceps, is now more affected than ever by the presence of factions with an ambition clearly placed in the territorial domain: if that place is safe, it must be ours; whatever it takes. Everyone has changed. A five-year period is enough time to grow, mature and assimilate fears; also to awaken new goals. The first two hours of departure of The Last of Us Part 2 are an example of how a sequel should begin, both in rhythm and in character presentation, of the world we are in. No one will feel lost. It would make little sense for that peace that we were talking about initially to be maintained for a long time, so a conflict appears that changes everything for Ellie and motivates her to start in what remains of a ruined, hostile and opposed Seattle.
Ellie is the angular axis of this equation. A total character where the narrative will of Naughty Dog is projected and in which the true leap forward executed in the playable plane is captured. A trip of which we want to tell you little, because talking more about the account would end up staining a plot interest raised wonderfully, without forgetting the cinematographic aspect that so characterizes Nate’s parents. Not surprisingly, we understand the words of Halley Gross, narrative director, when defining this nineteen-year-old Ellie as “the most complex character I’ve ever seen in a video game.” During the adventure, we are understanding the reason for these changes, of a polished and steeped personality to forget all kinds of stereotypes, without losing track and naturalizing as never before that to be the protagonist it is not necessary to fall into topics. Her relationship with Dina, a character amply presented in a multitude of trailers, speaks for herself through looks, words, gestures. There is complicity beyond cinematics because it is felt through gameplay. A very natural, innocent and organic sentimental construction that connects the player with what he sees on screen. Those little touches or brushstrokes of costumbrismo work almost always, with surprises that we don’t see coming.
The complicity of Ellie and Dina in the looks, pure non-verbal language
Identity: only possible as a video game
This is how we find a better video game at the controls, in the strictest sense of the word, than the original work. Continuist, without revolutions, although I didn’t need them either. Aspects such as mobility, a generally more vertical and peripheral design for all types of scenarios have been polished and options such as jumping are implemented. Not everything works the same way, but playably it does not fail at all. It is a game that draws heavily from the design structure of the latest Sony productions of this generation; sometimes slower, sometimes more similar to Uncharted and, with special success, drawing open scenarios in the style of The Lost Legacy.
Naughty Dog has understood very well the use of heights in the grass, as Horizon: Zero Dawn already did. We are not exaggerating when we say that the team led by Neil Druckmann has combined his narrative courage with a calculated inheritance from the studio’s cousin teams. Sometimes a breakthrough pace reminiscent of Sony Santa Monica’s latest God of War; in others, a visual and gestural richness similar to that of the Guerrilla Games title. Stealth feels very clean, although it doesn’t end up being as fluid and precise as in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. No recent game has ever come so close to Konami’s work in this regard.
It is as important not to be seen as it is not to be heard. It’s not just about attacking, but dodging. Sometimes you have to understand that the offensive is nothing more than an approximation to the cruellest and most violent death. You assume, only through what you see before your eyes, that you have to run, that you have to flee; you can’t make noise. That balance between exploration of scenarios, action, stealth and verticality results in a video game with a level of openness of sophisticated design and, in some cases, the best we have seen of the Californian company. This is where the game feels most true to its name, because hand-to-hand combat has been significantly improved; all this accompanied by the excellent contextual animations. Choreographed battles. Believe us, this title would not have been possible in a previous generation, nor would it have been possible in any other cultural medium: it replicates the language of the video game like few others, and that has much merit. The improvement is noticeable, thanks mainly to such realistic animations, more complex movements when dealing blows and also when receiving them.
All our actions have consequences. The trail we leave is always maintained in each phase. The structure of the levels, which divides each chapter into stages, usually does not last longer than expected and has memory. If you break a crystal to break through a couple of adjacent buildings, when you retrace your steps the crystals will follow on the ground. The action is orchestrated; almost melodic. If we say that it lends itself to replayability, it is precisely for all this. Let’s forget about loading times, everything is perfectly camouflaged between phases. The intersections between narrow corridors, stairs or other passages take advantage of loading what comes next … and you do not realize it. Thanks to this, the absence of black fades during the action allows us not to disconnect. Cinematics will take care of those breaks.
Including a jump button favors exploration, it allows you to access areas where you previously needed an element of the environment to advance. Now there are more opportunities. The use of the rope streamlines the gameplay and encourages such exploration. If there is a rope, you can do something with it. Forever. There are some levels where we have been surprised by the good use it has, especially the first ones. Once it reappears before us it is more predictable, it allows us to glimpse where it wants to take us. As we will see later in the Reviews, there is an added flaw: sometimes the feeling of surprise disappears by lengthening more than necessary.
Down to earth: Smart scenario design exercise
The Last of Us Part 2 has subtracted the predominance of the scenes from the original so that the gameplay gains weight: it is hilarious. It is a video game full of details, one of those that you can hardly appreciate in a single game. Replayability is based on discovery, on doing a double reading. A work that is analyzed in our head because the Californian team wants it that way. Obviously, it is not playable for its history, but for its approach and its large number of secrets (including hidden scenes). It was not until the second lap when we began to understand the true potential of the most open scenarios, when we began to internalize a comfort at the controls that improves any other title of this firm.
No two games can be the same since the scenario design has so many possibilities that it lends itself to being replayed. There is no choreography here, it is completely abstract. It is a game that contemplates more the vertical axis, that makes you look back and up, not only forward. When we finished the adventure the first time we didn’t like it as much as when we did the second, we are not going to lie to you. Despite the fact that the surprise disappears, that the narrative channel no longer goes at cruising speed, playably we found it even more fun. What was once action we turned into stealth; what was initially stealth we transformed into an exchange of arrows and a watchful eye. Works.
The enemies look for you, they want you; they pull you out from under a truck at the least expected moment. Ellie reacts even to the impact of bullets or arrows, she is very reactive. The capture of movements goes beyond realism and gives importance to details such as fatigue, the weight of weapons or the need to dodge, not at all free, while also leading to a certain loss of agility or precision in the blows. The AI, surely one of the weak points of the already distant title of 2013, is now cleverer. The humanizing nuance even in the enemies, who pronounce the name of their colleagues when they die. It’s just a gimmick, but it works. For example, when fewer individuals from the enemy group remain, they will adopt a more vehement and impetuous behavior; they risk more, they even seem to go crazy. Strategy plays a decisive role in this regard. There are closed scenarios where we will not only have to face humans, but also infected. Clever use of stealth, bombs, or other objects can cause them to face each other so that we just run away. This contrast between being a game of pure action and being able to read between the lines that sometimes we have no choice but to run away, escape, favors the disappearance of the feeling of wear. That yes, they give much more game the parts against humans than against infected by the cordyceps, to whom it is easier to contravene and break.
What’s left of us
And speaking of infected, there are new types. Of the well-known runners, who are newly infected and are more aggressive than in the past, including the blind snappers; as deadly as stalkers. Now we have a new name on the table: the wobbly ones. Large, unpleasant to look at and surrounded by pustules, spores sprinkle around them when they are hit. These spores are capable of burning, so we must know how to use them to our advantage if we meet enemies at the same time.
We were amazed at the generous difficulty setting. Apart from the five base options, which start from Very easy to Survivor, we can select parameters to our liking in a personalized way in any of them. On the one hand, the damage we receive from enemies; the frequency of control points; the precision of the enemies’ shots; aggressiveness of the allies; sensitivity level of enemy perception through the senses; durability of melee weapons. Everything can be configured to suit each type of player. For example, if we are slow to move, we may be interested in the enemies not being as precise despite the other options being more challenging. In addition, the title gives value to every minimum progress, with control points that do not force repeating areas unnecessarily, but have been calculated quite correctly. You do not move in vain.
The lighting of the game is bright | Capture ingame.
What does The Last of Us Part 2 tell us?
There were two options to justify the second part of a title that closed its history without the need for continuity: either revolutionize in the playable plane or do it in the narrative. They chose the second. Again, we move away from concrete details, so let’s talk about the message: what The Last of Us Part 2 is trying to tell us. The first title was about Joel and Ellie building a juxtaposed relationship. Here it is spoken through them of all of us, of what we are and what we are capable of being. The story is concerned with giving answers to the unanswered questions of the first part and answers those questions that we wanted to hear, but it has another message. The cycle of revenge, make it clear that there are no heroes or villains; which is not all black and white because we all have light and shadow. A grayscale work.
A journey guided by the thirst for retaliation, a vital engine capable of making us lose control and record that this road wears out, destroys, exhausts. There is a time when you realize that surviving is not enough, that you find yourself searching for your goal, mediating between two sides whose sole purpose is to dominate what remains of a devastated Seattle. That’s the way things are and that’s how they tell us. The challenge, however, lies in how to count them. Naughty Dog wanted to surprise on the narrative level and has succeeded. It would have been useless to also trace the way of narrating the story; inheriting the playable scheme of the first part has been enough.
The Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross team therefore had a bigger task in the script: closing certain storylines while opening others. Obviously, here it will depend on each one how connected one feels with the stories, in the plural. The main problem is that, sometimes, what happened during that last five years – what happens between both works – hides more interest than what is about to happen. The fact that he is so openly extensive in his approach is a double-edged sword: he does not always know how to keep up. One of the shortcomings of The Last of Us Part 2 and for what has prevented him from aspiring to a higher rating is that there are stretches where recursion is sinned, magic is lost. That initial originality, with about the first seven hours that aspire to absolutely everything within the current generation, does not remain at those indices of excellence.
The effort to explore, retrace your steps and play, never better said, with the stage, sometimes sins of wanting to be too Uncharted. The result of those sections is not bad, it is not at all, only that the direction of the title sins of wanting to exceed in some areas. There are certain sections of shootings left over, confrontations with a very large number of armed enemies that can make the next point of plot continuity take longer than necessary. Consequently, the moments of lucidity – which are practically the entire knot – do not shine as they could because they wanted to extend so much. To have counted the same thing in less hours would have been more effective because everything would still be present in your retina; You wouldn’t notice that it’s been so long since that climactic moment and a cliffhanger touch.
Luckily – and here we return to the premise that it is a team with enormous talent for building a narrative – the outcome is a real delight. Naughty Dog has accustomed us to good endings, to close their stories wisely; that those little details make a difference. Here it happens. Of those outcomes that lend themselves to being discussed with your friends, discuss whether this or that would have been better. He does it for conversations, for words, looks and the consequences of what we did in the past. An end of which we are not going to say anything, which measures to the millimeter every second and knows when to stop. Too bad that in some chapters it was not known how to stop before, lighten sections and relieve territories from both shooting and jumping. The action was taken in those parts too far. Otherwise, a work written immaculately.
We would have liked some characters to have a little more strength and charisma. Ellie’s weight is so, so great, that others know themselves perhaps wasted. It is not just the screen time given to each of them, but their moments of splendor, sometimes non-existent. The first The Last of Us knew better how to give that minute of glory to some of the temporary companions of the contest. Here you try, you can empathize, but the difference in attractiveness is evident between the others and Ellie.
There will be a sector of the community that will not understand some of the decisions made. The title constantly maintains a pulse with intolerance, worries about being inclusive and representing all groups. He does it correctly because he does not fall into stereotypes, he does not write his characters according to what we are used to, but rather tries to give entity and identity to each of them regardless of what they are on the outside. They have not only dared to take a step to normalize certain social aspects, rather they have taken a stride. The script is stimulated by the naturalness with which these subjects are treated.
Crafting, in tune with exploration
The use of objects and the interface is very similar to those of the original game, only improved, more visual. To heal, the option of holding down the medicine cabinet for a few seconds remains; The same to generate resources if we have the necessary materials. This time everything is taken one step further. The first one already introduced crafting options, although they were limited by the simplicity of finding the resources: they were too linear levels. Now, with more open and explorable environments, the place where there are no objects that we can use to improve our weaponry is rare. The range of possibilities has been greatly expanded. You feel that each rag, each bottle of alcohol, counts as an individual resource to make your own goods. It is well measured.
Simple, but effective weapon customization and upgrade – the changes are noticeable
In the most open worlds we have gone round and round, we have gone up to each floor of the buildings in search of something; whatever. With this, the game has some workbenches with which we can improve our weapons and combine those resources to expand the ammunition capacity, cadence, durability, stability … In addition, they are elements that go beyond aesthetics. If we include an optical sight in a weapon, it increases in volume; if we inject more damage into a shotgun, its tip will be elongated. The grace is that not all the pieces work and there are no indications about their location. There are pieces of greater rarity, so any player who wants to maximize the improvement of their weapons will have no choice but to collect everything found, without exception, because everything has use. Also collectibles, with an innumerable amount of secrets that, when we later see the total number in the chapter selection screen, comes as a surprise.
Ellie also has a skill tree. This small approach to the role is very subtle; it is far from necessary to move forward. That is the meaning of the multitude of pills that we find in drawers, tables and trunks. To unlock those skills there are a kind of magazines in the form of recipes. We can go unnoticed and ignore its existence; not surprisingly, it is again an incentive to explore and look around us especially indoors. For example, in our initial game we improved Ellie’s stealth ability, which allowed us to move noticeably faster when we are crawling on the ground. It was useful for us when playing at difficult level to better go unnoticed. There is also an ability to heal faster. At the end of the day, it all depends on our style of play. Whoever prefers to solve problems based on gunshots, will surely be less interested in the ability to be stealth, for example.
We take the opportunity to say that ammunition is scarce. We have seen each other on many occasions — especially on a difficult level, the fourth highest of the five available and the one we recommend the most for its balance between manageability and frustration — without a single bullet. Neither pistol nor shotgun; sometimes even a knife, too. You therefore have to look around, pull your wits and take advantage of that brick on the table … and throw it. Make noise so that the enemy reacts to your presence. Only in this way can we execute an action plan based on attacking from behind, without making noise and taking the victim’s weapon or ammunition. And start again. This poses a scenario with few alternatives: you have to be calculating, choose how much to shoot, when and where exactly to shoot.
To make matters worse, dogs can follow our trail with their sense of smell. It is shocking to hear the screech of these animals when they are attacked. It is visceral. Luckily, they can be circumvented and there is no need to kill any animals throughout the game – in fact, it is challenging to get ahead while avoiding physical contact with them. It is not easy, but it is possible.
It is surely in the puzzles where The Last of Us Part 2 fails most. Predictable and repeated excessively, its first appearances are fun and do not take you out of the action because you have just started, you are hungry to continue; You hope that everything will get more, that what was seen in Uncharted 4 was going to be improved on par with the improvements in other playable aspects discussed. It is not like this. We will move containers again to reach great heights, we will take stairs over and over again to connect areas and intersections … We expected much more, because there are a couple of times throughout the campaign where we believe that the action is broken somewhat, that Could have solved better. In a title twice as long as the original, between 24 and 25 hours, it took a little more effort to resolve those situations. He has run out of gas with his puzzles.
PlayStation 4 Tech Roof
The debate about a hypothetical downgrade deserves only a couple of lines in this Reviews. And we write them with a half smile while shaking our heads, because graphically it invites you to think that we can perfectly last a couple of years with this generation. The reality is that Naughty Dog is not the rule, it is an exception. It looks scandalous.
The Last of Us Part 2 is the most spectacular video game in view of PlayStation 4 to date not only for its graphics, but also for it. Only Red Dead Redemption 2 is compared to this project on a visual level. His interpretation of lighting is different, because while Rockstar’s work further lengthens the visual path of light rays and makes more use of on-screen white contrasts, Naughty Dog has squeezed his engine with a little more nuance and saturation , especially with the green and red ones.
Very realistic landscapes await us, with rural environments, forests, cities or urbanizations. Using HDR is smart. The insistence on detail is constant, we insist: they are not just graphics. The animation department does outpace any other recently released console title. The enemies do not have as much effort as the character we control, sometimes they have less natural behaviors; the anatomical recreation of the protagonists is on another level. And that directly affects the realism of the action scenes. The way tears flow down the cheeks, the movement of the hair, wrinkles in the skin when expressing themselves or the opening of the eyes. Immersion at first sight.
None of this would be the same without an excellent soundtrack and top-notch dubbing. We have to say that there are certain problems of sound equalization with the voices in Spanish. Curiously, as in the original, the sound is not always perfectly synchronized with the lips of the interlocutor, there are expressions that have not been translated correctly (some answer that does not completely coalesce with the question when being located in Spanish), they are minor details fixable with a patch. What does not need any intervention is the dubbing; to highlight, that of María Blanco as Ellie. Let’s be very clear: it is among the best of Sony in the last decade. The nuance given to Ellie seems to be the original; nothing to envy to the dubbing in English. Similarly, we liked the Tommy played by Claudio Serrano more than the Anglo-Saxon. The direction of this location does not fail: each voice is perfectly selected.
Santiago Santaolalla’s music, accompanied by Mac Quayle, does not have a theme as characteristic or iconic as that of the original work; Here, the sound direction has preferred to focus on serving as an intrinsic element in the setting. This sequel has great melodies, but the purpose of the sound is different, to speak for the scene when the characters do not. It is the bridge between moments of tension and playable relief. Sublime.
Narrative courage without the need for consensus
Naughty Dog has dared to make the video game they wanted, with a knot and an outcome that is not necessarily what people want to hear. Luckily, we are talking about a team with special talent capable of molding a complex mass, also unique. Because seeing this at an AAA has made us gulp and look around. That’s right, and in its creative definition, it feels natural. You just have to let go and accept that complacency is not an a la carte menu; that disappointment is part of life. This is one of the fundamental messages: your own motivations can also be your worst allies. Go all the way.
You have to feel it and want to understand it in order to enjoy it as it deserves. Many of the decisions made will awaken polarizing opinions and demand that it be the player who surrenders, that we give a vote of confidence to Naughty Dog.
Druckmann’s team wants you to shake hands and understand that this work is authentic, that they are not lying to you. That everything makes sense. The truth is that this is the case, despite the fact that the price to pay is too high for those who are not willing to be patient and … wait. Because the moment comes, go if it does. Fortunately, he is not late, but he does interrupt himself to make things clear, answer almost all of our questions, and can be exhausting. It would be a shame if the future buyers of the game remain half-hearted, that they do not see the credits. Let them not finish this story. We can only recommend that you continue, although we are the first to think that this whole set should have been narrated in less hours.
There is something that no one can doubt: the game is coherent and its existence is justified. We take a deep breath when we realize that The Last of Us Part 2 makes sense and, now, we can’t think of a scenario to avoid this title if we already played the first part and Left Behind, the necessary DLC of the original title. The company was complicated; the result is exceptional. An outstanding video game.
CONCLUSION
The Last of Us Part 2 had the difficult task of facing himself. After a first game that is part of the history books in this medium, now it is accompanied by a work that takes over with courage, ready to set a precedent never seen in the narrative plane and which makes clear that the use of the Technical power can be used to surprise beyond the graphic: no video game has been so realistic in its animations.
Playable fun, balanced in action and stealth, features an Ellie who eats the screen; there is no doubt that the wait was worth it. Perhaps it is this effort to constantly surprise what has ended up resulting in a longer adventure than necessary, which exceeds in some sections and prevents the rhythm from being maintained with the plot connection. Equal their puzzles, below the desired. It is not round.
Luckily, its excellent gameplay allows us to revisit, explore and choose different ways to solve its many open areas. It is early to know if in seven years it will have left a trace similar to that of its predecessor, if it will transcend beyond the present, but the merit of having narrated something like what is happening here is worthy of all our recognition. Excellent work of Naugthy Dog. Turning point for the study.
THE BEST
- Ellie
- A blow on the table at the narrative level
- The best animations we have seen in a video game
- Stage design: opening, exploration, replayability
- Improvements to the combat and stealth system
WORST
- Recursion in certain sections: it lengthens excessively
- Simple and somewhat repetitive puzzles
Excellent
A benchmark title in its genre, which stands out above its competitors and that you will enjoy from start to finish, surely several times. A game destined to become a classic over the years.
