The Last of Us 2 (50/60$)

This is okay, the 3d is hard AF

I still can’t write bubble letters

The Last of Us 2 is a legendary game no matter what you may think of the story.  The level of precision and detail that went into creating the world and the gameplay  is incredible.  Shooting a bow in a post-apocalyptic setting has never felt so good. Which is saying something, because just about every other game now includes stealth and bow and arrows.  Stabbing someone to death has never felt so wrong but it is done so that you want to watch each time the knife rips their flesh.  If you have seen any gameplay trailers to this game, and thought that the animations were scripted because they looked too smooth and too adapted to the world.  You are wrong.  This game is an absolute joy to watch and to play.  Couple that with the incredible dialog and masterfully done story, you are left with an engrossing and emotional experience that will keep you locked in for hours and hours, just falling a little short on length (50/60$).  

The story picks up shortly after the ending of the original game, and is serviceable enough.  The well written dialog between characters will occupy you as you play through the first portions of the game.  The vast majority of which is spent in stealth combat.  Which is some of the best stealth sections I have ever played. Most stealth systems are very binary in the sense that they are seen and unseen.  TLOU2 sets itself apart by focusing on the searching in between those phases.Which allows the player to slip back out of sight much more easily than most games, but never to the point where the enemy completely forgets about you also unlike most games.  The whole system functions how you think these situations would go down in real life.  Last of Us II lives in this realism.  You feel bad for the characters that you burtally murder because it highlights the brutality of that murder. With your controller pulsing every time you make contact with their flesh.  It then carries that feeling into the story.  At first glance the writing might feel short and stunted, but as you play the game you begin to appreciate the fact that every character you meet talks like a human being and not like a character.  Even when compared to other well written games like God of War or Disco Elysium, TLOU2 shines above them because of how the aseptic and realism complement the story.  They don’t need paragraphs to explain things, they just show you first hand.  Even the main plot grapples with the negative effects of mental illness and revenge in a way that is unfair, real, and refreshing for video games.  

Now some people hate it.  They don’t like some of the twists and turns that it takes you on.  Which I understand completely.  Video games and other mediums are often seen as escapes from stress and from pressure, but the TLOU2 lives through those feelings and wants the player to confront them in all of their ugliness.  At one point a character suffers from PTSD, which has been done in other games.  However, the majority of those games use cliche to have the heroes overcome their own mental health.  The Last of Us Shows that there is a cost in defeating your demons.  It shows how rational can turn to irrational and unstoppable.  It shows that there are no heroes, only humans.  Which is so refreshing in a medium that is full of them. flourish and I do not blame them for that. One could make the argument that the characters in the story behave out of character and therefore are written poorly.  It is a valid criticism.  However, I think that it just highlights the overall stories theme of there being no heroes so well.  

The game took me 30 hours to beat and truly has no bad parts.  It is one of the few pure single player and story based games left around, and it is done so damn well that it easily adds more than 20$ of value.  There is a crazy amount of tech, care, and passion that Naughty Dog poured into this game. I personally have no problem paying full price for this game since I got the first one on sale and it was also amazing.  However, 30 hours is a little short for a 60$ game in my opinion and there is no multiplayer unlike past Naughty Dog titles which hurts replayability. The result is that there is little reason to play this game outside of completion of it’s story.  If you liked the TLOU and are itching to play this game, buy it for the 60$ and you won’t be mad.  That being said, you will be a lot happier if you wait till the holidays and buy it for 50$ (50/60$).