'The Last of Us Part II' Is Brilliant But Difficult To Accept

THIS ARTICLE IS INTENDED FOR THOSE THAT FINISHED THE GAME

I wanted this game to fail when I read the leaks. They translated like cheap sophomoric attempts at subverting expectations from a creator who wanted to prove that he is far more open-minded than the common neanderthal. Instant flashes of Rian Johnson's "The Last Jedi" raced across my mind, where predictions were curtailed due to lazy screenwriting. When time succumbed to pressure, I decided to bite the bullet. I slapped down my $65 for something that may have destroyed my love for the first game. To my great enjoyment, I was struck by how wrong my suspicions were. Sadly, this isn't the right time in history for such a painfully reflective tale.

The contentiousness in user reviews for "The Last of Us Part II" cannot be understated. Treading familiar ground, it seems that the discord between critic and consumer is vastly opposite. I don't believe the user reviews to be filled with bigoted trolls even if there are some. For those that finished the game who are furious with the direction that Neil Druckmann took his story, I entirely understand your feelings. Druckmann did not make a game that was meant to be easy to digest. With the first game being scrupulous in its ending, it was still accessible. The ideology of love eclipsed its ambiguity regarding Joel's actions in the hospital. His passion for Ellie blinded us to the type of man he is. Although it is questionable at the end of the game if Joel was right or not, Mr. Drucman alludes to us siding with him. By pulling the rug underneath our feet, Druckmann challenges us to reexamine everything in a manner that could be his purposeful early resignation from the gaming industry.  

Slowly being recognized as a work of art, the writers for most story-driven games continue to fear to challenge the player with plotlines that may test what they consider to be enjoyable. Most games finish like an episode of your favorite popcorn flick with the protagonist winning. Always is our hero on the right side of things. When he/she is in the wrong, usually, the game lets us know at the forefront that we are the villain. Hardly have I discovered a game that finds the grey between its absolutes for the idol. 

THIS IS WHERE I SPOIL THE PLOT FOR ANALYTICAL REASONS

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

Seriously, leave now if you don’t want it to be spoiled

Taking the moral ambiguity further than the first game by a mile "The Last of Us Part II" makes Joel pay for his sins in one of the most brutal deaths I've seen in a video game. Like Janet Leigh getting stabbed in the shower, nothing is glamorous regarding Joel's demise. My initial thoughts on Joel's execution was that it's a tacky attempt at what Hitchcock did in 1960. If you're going to pull a "Psycho," you better have a good reason for doing so. Admittedly I was anxious to get revenge. Amidst my slow investment in the story, Druckmann once more pulled the carpet underneath me. 

Midway through the first act of the game, the narrative switches to Joel's killer Abby. The story becomes convoluted from here where it would be told out of continuity and reference to characters' names I didn't even remember. I felt like Neil Druckman was far overreaching with his theme of hatred, forcing us to see things from the side of a character we're involuntarily playing as. Who're the scars again? Why does the WLF hate them? Why is Abby's friend disavowing her? Shouldn't this be a spinoff game? Can we get to the scene where Abby finds all of her friends dead so we can get back to her fight with Ellie? Much like how sequels sometimes try to grasp far beyond its reach, I grew frustrated with Neil Druckmann's desperate plot linking. Much like a great novel, context is all I needed when the book was closed.

I didn't want to fight Ellie when cutting back to the current day. I also didn't want Ellie to throw away the new life she made with Dina. Much like the original, the game ends on an opaque note with Ellie returning home only to find herself alone once more, traveling down a road unknown. As Ellie trotted away from the farmhouse, I pondered what I just played. I think Neil Druckmann made a work of art that's meant to question the very fabric of our love for violence in video games. Although not entirely successful as many of its grisly deaths felt gory for the sake of being gruesome, the actions of its characters let alone the ones we were forced to make when holding the controller hit close to home. 

Creating a story meant to question the actions a player takes when holding the controller has been examined before, whether it be "Metal Gear Solid 2" with its meta ending that's disturbingly relevant today, or "Shadows of The Colossus's'" tragic conclusion. None of those games made me question my feelings towards the people I met or took control of to this extent. Mostly their intentions are righteous or outright consciously evil. Here we are asked what we think of the character we control on a sociological level. I hate to admit it, but Joel got what he deserved. Not only did he doom humanity for his selfish desire to have a child once more, but he never reached out to help other people. You can go as far as the beginning of the first game to see what type of person he was. 

Joel's daughter Sarah holds a birthday card in her room, telling her dad that she still loves him despite his negligence. Moments later, during the outbreak, his brother Tommy and Sarah plead for him to pick up their neighbors who are begging to be saved. There was room in the van they were using, but he ignores everyone's requests leaving them to die. Years later, there's a fight between Joel and Tommy, where the two haven't spoken in some time. Whatever that fight was about, we don't know. What we do know is that once more, Joel was probably looking out for number one. The hospital incident was simply Joel showing the player his true colors at full display. 

Real hero

Basic psychology teaches that being around toxic people can make you toxic yourself, which is precisely what happened to Ellie. Starting as the light amongst the dark tunnel of "The Last of Us," Ellie kept spirits high during the post-apocalypse. From her intentionally bad jokes to her vulgar yet humous persona Ellie made us smile. After finally discovering the truth from Joel regarding her "rescue," Ellie distances herself from him. Unfortunately, much like being attached to someone for too long, Ellie comes crawling back, informing Joel, "I don't know if I can ever forgive you. But I can try." 

Through that forgiveness, Ellie feels the way the player feels. Although perhaps a monster, we love Joel. We think that he needed a hero's exit, not a golf club, to the skull. Through Ellie's anger, we are unleashing our frustration at Druckmann in a way, by brutally killing everyone in sight, not taking a step back to notice what we're doing because we're mad that he took out a beloved character the way he (or Abby) did. When seeing things from Abby's side, the very thought of controlling someone who took something that we cared for is heinous.  

Despite its sloppy plotline, Abby's story is a sobering look at compassion. Her father could have saved the world, but was killed by Joel's hand. When going out of her way to help others, Abby is rejected by everyone she cared for, immediately labeling her as a pariah. When Ellie destroys Abby's world, she has nothing to lose yet still spares Ellie twice. For her compassion, Abby is met with rejection from everyone in the game right down to the player. Blinded by our nostalgia for Joel and Ellie, we fail to see that consequences have actions. We only know Abby as the executioner. Even when getting to know her, we still hate her because she's new. As consumers, we are blinded by our yearning for familiarity. Audiences always shout when not given what they want, myself included. 

Rather than delivering a safe sequel involving the two characters from the first game, everything is examined through a microscope on a metaphorical level. "The Last of Us Part II" is a final gamble for Neil Druckmann unashamedly displaying his cards fully aware that fans might tarnish his name after this title's release. Why? Because he cast a mirror that's especially difficult to gaze upon. Depressingly, Druckmann didn't anticipate how relevant "The Last of Us Part II" would become. 

Unless you worked in the highest branches of epidemiology or government, you could have never predicted the world would be where it is now. Releasing a game about a pandemic during a pandemic should at least have an inkling of hope or optimism that the player can latch onto. People are desperate for something good. Ellie's exuberance was what pushed forward through the first game. Having a sequel examining humanity's hypocrisies is another slap in the face to an already disastrous year. Much like how Druckmann displays man being torn into various factions, art imitated life. Either you're a mask wearer or an anti-mask user. You're pro-cop or anti-cop. You're a bleeding heart Liberal SJW or a bigoted Nazi Conservative. 

Amongst the coronavirus pandemic, nations have displayed their reflection. Having a game demonstrating our divisiveness within the narrative and, more importantly, our reaction to what it requires us to think about is a tough pill to swallow. Although only being 41, Neil Druckmann has perhaps made enough money and accolades to retire. With the ability to tell the story he wanted, Neil had nothing to lose. So he made a game that will initially be hated by many yet analyzed, then hopefully, appreciated for years. 

Much like how the world is spread amongst factions with this pandemic, audiences are split into pieces regarding "The Last of Us Part II." Either you love it, or you hate it. A game with the theme of hate wasn't meant to win everyone over. At this point in history, audiences want comfort food. Eating their vegetables isn't ideal. The thought of questioning who we are when it comes to our emotional maturity is a burden that isn't welcoming at this moment. With that said, "The Last of Us Part II" is an important game to play regarding how much we should care for each other rather than those we immediately know. Much like realizing someone you know isn't who you thought they were, this is a game that displays a hard truth for the audience to accept. Humanity, by its very nature, is driven by hate.

When faced with something novel, we lean towards antagonism. It's a hard truth to accept, but we're better off for it. Knowledge means growth. Perhaps in letting Abby go, Ellie had her moment of self-forgiveness. Hopefully, she walks towards the path of redemption in the game's final few frames. If "The Last of Us Part II" came out a year earlier, it would have been more widely accepted. Perhaps not. Either way, it's a game that challenges the very fabric of the violence within its medium and our capability for unanimity. Time will hopefully be kinder to it than the understandable knee jerk internet vitriol.