Naughty Dog is a famous video game developer that brought some popular ones like Uncharted and the first Crash Bandicoot games. They are well known for their skills and level of the detail they put into their games. Their great trajectory led them to create one of the most playable and popular games of all time - The Last of Us! Of course, I have to do a post about this great franchise which I like a lot, and also will give my own opinion about the different comments and opinions of the people about The Last of Us Part II, where there are people that love the game and people who hate it. (SPOILER ALERT in this post!!)
The Last of Us 1:
Synopsis:
The game starts in 2013 with the main character Joel Miller and his daughter Sarah having a good relationship until the virus infection, which is a mutated Cordyceps fungus, has already started. Joel and his brother Tommy go to get Sarah and run away from the outbreak. They almost escaped from the infected until a guard stopped them and he was ordered to shoot Joel and his daughter because this was something new that was happening and the government did not know what to do in this case except eliminate possible infected people. Joel tried to evade it but as a terrible result, his daughter died. Then, after twenty years, people have to learn to survive in a completely new and cruel world with the infected. After many years, we find Joel doing some jobs with his friend Tess until their destinies get crossed with the leader of the Fireflies (a revolutionary militia group) - Marlene - and then they are assigned a job to deliver a girl called Ellie to their facilities. Later on, we learn that Ellie is immune to the virus and she and Joel will feel an affection between them where their bond is gonna be more and more stronger. While we enjoy the story and the moments they share, Joel and Ellie must go through many challenges, dangers, and hard times in order to deliver Ellie to the Fireflies and create a cure for the virus.
Graphics:
I remember trying this game in 2013 and I was impressed by the quality it had since day 1. The textures, the environments, and the details were astonishing at that time. In those times there were just a few games that approached the quality of The Last of Us. You can also enjoy for example the details in the textures of weapons, characters and so on. Of course, the graphics kept improving with each new console Playstation was bringing to the market. Also, I would say that the game became even more famous because of how it looked on PS4 and the remastered version they brought. Here you can see too the behind of the scenes and the remastered version:
Gameplay:
The graphics in the first version were very good, but what actually made the game famous the first time, was because of two reasons and the first one is the gameplay. There were already some video games about exploring, finding, and optimizing the supplies you collect in order to survive. A good example is Resident Evil. But this game could implement the searching for supplies better as with those materials you can craft some interesting weapons or other things like a health kit.
There are interesting puzzles too where you will be rewarded with nice supplies if you solve them. Also, some of the supplies would be very well hidden so you have to be creative while you explore the places. On the other hand, they implemented well the idea of optimizing the supplies you have because you will never know if later you will need for example a knife to defend or kill faster a clicker. Also, they might be a large infected horde where you might need a Molotov for example. So, this game encourages you to be more strategic, and while you try to do that it is interesting how much fun you have too.
They also implemented a nice approach for this game, because many times the characters from other games about zombies are professionals working for the government. The idea of their games was just to accomplish their missions. Here we can take a better look at what normal people are willing to do in order to survive, and many of them wouldn't trust everyone and are willing to kill if they want or think they need to. We can see how would be a day-by-day life in a world like that and how are their relationships gonna be. Also, they are groups that already have their strategies, operations, logistics, and more. An obvious example of this is when a man pretends to be injured, so he and his group can actually corner other people and kill or steal them.
Now, here is the best and funniest feature of the gameplay, the STEALTH!! Here is where we can experience the creative idea that Naughty Dog has, which is the Listening Mode. In this mode, we can identify and hear the enemies in a certain distance range. This mode has its tricks too, and it encourages you to create your own strategy and your own way to play. This helped you to decide which weapon and item you want to use instead of others that might come in handy for other difficult situations. Combining this mode with the optimization of supplies, was one of the best gameplay experiences ever created. Because of that, the stealth was always entertaining.
The success of the last feature is also thanks to the environments, places, and buildings cleverly created. The places where you can move, hide, craft, and so on, provide enough freedom to do your strategies and play as you like. If they would create small or even lazy places with zero creativity, the whole gameplay including the stealth would be a big failure. You get also other things to do that also help the freedom of the gameplay like throwing a bottle to distract people and take them down.
Besides the freedom you get in the game, the variety of infected challenges you also in the use of your supplies, weapons, and strategies. This way you get a balanced gameplay that gives the enough features to play on your own but also challenges you depending on what kind the enemy you will face later the current one you are facing.
Story:
The second reason for the success of the franchise is of course the story. Returning to 2013, this was the best narrative I've ever seen and experienced in a video game. You will be always interested in what will happen next to the characters. It delivers a high and rich mix of feelings. It catches everyone's attention from the beginning to the end. The bond Joel and Ellie create is not forced, it is natural and believable, like they were meant to each other to have a close father-daughter relationship. Joel was obviously not the same after losing his daughter and he tried to not feel affection for Ellie because anyone can die at any moment later in this cruel world. So it was pretty interesting the character development and see how Joel changes at the end of the game.
This was the breaking point of the story, as Joel and Ellie became close, Joel wasn't ready to lose another person he loved no matter what. And this brings us to the most debated topic of all time. Because Joel eliminates the Fireflies, they cannot kill Ellie to create a cure. He preferred to live in a world with infected instead of losing Ellie. This ending surprises everyone because what initially a person might be thinking is that there is no way one person can be an obstacle to the survival of the whole of humanity, but Neil Druckmann provides this interesting scenario and gives us a What If - what happens if a person is not willing to give the cure to save the humanity and prefers saving a person he loves? Everyone admired the bold final they gave it to the end.
For me, the best experience is watching how people debate over something like this because both sides can be right but at the same time not. The game communicates to you that sometimes there are no good or bad decisions and that sometimes the right decision depends on a person's perspective. The game provides a wide variety of stories, topics, and valued information which makes the story complex but very interesting. What they did here, and how the people reacted, created this environment where people debate about if what Joel did was right or not was amazing. Naughty Dog did this on purpose and created a great experience where people interact after finishing the game, something like that didn't ever happen before. The way they make us sympathize with Joel and Ellie and put us in their shoes is astonishing.
Its structure, purpose, and the actions of each character are very well justified, and the deep message it delivers makes this the best narrative I've ever seen in the industry.
The Last of Us part II:
Synopsis:
5 years later after the events of the first part, Ellie and Joel find themselves living in Tommy’s settlement in Jackson, Wyoming, where we learn about the new bonds Ellie has formed in that time like Dina and Jesse, who before were a couple. After the two of them break out, Ellie wants to start a relationship with Dina. Also, later we learn that Ellie figured out what Joel did too, and because of that she does not want anything to do with Joel. On the other hand, a new playable character is introduced, Abby, who is an ex-member of the Fireflies and wants revenge for the death of his father, who was the doctor who was supposed to do the surgery and kill Ellie five years ago to obtain a cure for the virus. So, this game would deal with the tough decision Joel made which will lead him to a cruel death. Therefore, the whole game would be about vengeance and the consequences of it.
Graphics
Let's start where we all can agree on, these new generation graphics were the best ones ever created. Now it looks like a movie! I remember seeing videos where people are trying the game and spending more time with Joel riding the horse at the beginning of the game to keep enjoying the beautiful landscape. The textures and expressions were impressive! Everyone loved it, and that way they could enjoy more the gameplay while fighting the infected too who also look better and more scary than before.
Gameplay:
This was the best gameplay experience created for many people too. They took all the features of the previous part and improved them to a new level. You have even more expanded places where you can have more freedom to explore and make your strategies too. Besides, they took the great decision of keeping the listening mode. They also put other objects you can interact with like a climbing rope for certain places, or entering the buildings in other ways that were not allowed in the first part. One of the parts I think we will always remember is when you are with Dina riding a horse in a big expanded environment and you can see through a map. Here there were many things to interact with and explore. This is where the freedom in the gameplay is shown at the most and you enjoy exploring and discovering great rewards and supplies that will come in handy through the story. Of course, if you want, you can skip them.
Also, thanks to that, they put even more details and objects. It was interesting to try to think of new ways to reach secret places where there are more supplies that you even wouldn't think you could before. Naughty Dog always has this talent to create great places and put something hidden and discrete. This is something that comes very well because it looks natural in the gameplay and is not forced. That is why you enjoy discovering them because it encourages you to solve this kind of puzzle and do a successful exploration.
Also, there are new weapons you can enjoy and some would be different between Ellie and Abby. As in the previous game, you can also improve them with the supplies you find. There are new types of infected too.
So, in summary, and considering the gameplay, this is a unique experience you will never get in other games, where the quality of the gameplay is 11/10!!
Narrative:
Here is where there were divided and too many opinions of the people, where some of them liked the story and others hated it. Some comments were actually too strong with people angered. Of course, I have my own opinion about this but first, let's just review the most talked topics. First of all, the story is split into two, you will control Ellie first and see her perspective and then we change to the new character who didn't appear in the previous game, Abby, and see where she was while we were controlling Ellie. We can see the perspective of both characters in a way.
One of the main complaints about the game was Joel's death and also the way he was killed because it wasn't like something epic or worthy to remember the character. It was cruel, Abby tortured him first and then she killed him with a golf club.
Also, the final scene is another of the topics most complained, about because, after everything Ellie does, she decides in the end to let Abby go and not to take revenge.
Another thing that some people complained about (but not too much as Joel's death though) was that there is forced inclusion. There is also a small percentage complaining about the bond Abby creates with Lev, because each one belong to a different group and both ones are in war. Abby is supposed to be in a group called The Washington Liberation Front W.L.F (or the Wolves) and Lev belongs to a cult group called The Seraphites (or The Scars).
My opinion and the REAL PROBLEM with The Last of Us Part II
I do not think there were narrative mistakes, the actions of each character are pretty well justified. I mean, how would you react if your father was killed in cold blood because he wanted to save humanity? Since your perspective only you will desire the worst for the one who did it. Abby's storyline was actually justified. Every decision you make in life is going to have consequences, it is reality, and they show here pretty well what would happen if you make a decision that would affect others' lifes and make them suffer.
Like I said in another post, I like how Joel died. Do not misunderstand me, I actually like the character a lot, but I am aware that Joel is more like an antagonist. In this cruel world, many people do things they are not proud of and Joel is not an exception. Also, the way he died is more realistic in this world with infected. No normal person would have an epic death in a world with infected and I like how realistic they were to demonstrate it to us. The death of all of us would be cruel too and, actually, all the deaths of the characters from the first part were cruel. I think they actually communicate this very well and that is why I agree with the way they decide to end Joel's life.
Another thing in which I want to give my perspective is that many people said Joel's death was nonsense because we watched him doing a lot of things in the previous game and it would be impossible for him to get killed easily. This is something interesting for me to analyze and actually debate. I personally think that first we have to analyze the different situations, Joel in the first game was aware that there would be many dangers in his journey because we would visit some places he knew there would be dangerous groups or others he even didn't visit where he have had to be even more careful. Knowing everything of that, he obviously tried to be the most prepared he could to survive, he was always focused. The situations he found himself in and the information about the dangers he knew from his past helped them to survive. On the other hand, in the second part, Joel was completely in a new situation where he would never guessed the girl he found was the daughter of the person he killed in the past. Also, he was in Jackson where all people were supposed to be friends and help each other.
But what is important about Joel's death is that this provides another very good message and is that no matter the things you did in the past, first your decisions would have consequences, and second you are still a human and you can die at any time in this kind of world Naughty Dog created.
Now, about the final of the game, after playing with both characters, I interpreted that Ellie understands finally why Joey saved her in the first game, but also she knew that despite knowing Joel loves her, he made a bad decision. In the end, I think she could understand more the perspective of Abby and how she felt when his father was murdered because she felt the same thing when Joel died. So I actually think there is a logical reason why she decided not to take revenge and maybe not to create a violent circle where everyone can end dead too.
Talking about the inclusion, I do not think either it was forced, because in the first game, there was a DLC that revealed Ellie's past and the relationship he had with her friend she talked about in some dialogues with Joel. If you didn't play the DLC, you can also make an idea by paying attention to the dialogues. So knowing that, I do not think there was a forced inclusion.
Moving now to the bond Abby makes with Lev, I can actually agree here with some comments because I think they tried to repeat the same formula that worked with Joel and Ellie. Obviously, they didn't do very well on this one in my opinion, because I didn't feel the same spark I did in the first part. I would say that this was what they forced and not the inclusion.
Speaking more about Abby, I can agree that maybe they made a mistake by introducing her all of a sudden without even knowing about her existence in the first game. Maybe it would have been better if they put some notes, or scenes showing a little bit of her in the first part, some hint or clue. Or it would have been better too if they did a whole game with her first so they could introduce her into the franchise in a better way would and then doing this second part.
WHAT IS THE REAL PROBLEM THEN?
I can summarize this in one sentence: The most unethical and worst marketing strategy I've witnessed in the video game industry. Before the trailers of The Last of Us, many people actually thought that, if there was a second part, Joel probably would be dead. So many people were actually prepared to see a second game without Joel as a playable character. But then the trailers came out and here they did some things that I would say are the source of how people reacted when they tried the game.
Nowadays people use a certain strategy in the trailers of their projects which is to deliver a trailer but remove some characters from scenes, replace them with others, or just hide them. Many companies in the entertainment industry do this in order to surprise people when the final project is out and people can see it. The most common example of this is Marvel of course, but why did Marvel succeed in doing that and The Last of Us didn't? The answer is obvious and it's because what Marvel does is not show the things we do not want to see until the movie comes out, so that way we can be surprised and happy when we see the final version. Their purpose in the strategy meant something nice for the audience, even if they lied in the trailers, they did that with a positive objective for us and to not reveal so soon the surprising things that will happen with some characters. On the other hand, The Last of Us did just the opposite thing, because we were prepared to see Joel's death or a game without him but they made us see and think in the trailers that he will be alive and become a playable character again. They sold us a terrible lie with a selfish objective because their purpose was to play the fans and make them wish to play the game sooner and enjoy a new experience with Joel and Ellie again.
That's the difference between these two companies that used the same strategy, one thinks of surprising the fans, and the other one is playing with the fan's feelings so more people will buy the game. I think this is the main source of many hate comments they make nowadays. I've never seen before a bad strategy like that.
But what is worse is that they even didn't need to do that. They could deliver honest trailers and with that, they even would increase sales more, because that way they would communicate better to us the message they want to actually deliver in the game.
Why did I say some parts of the trailers made the people believe that the story would be other than the real one? Of course, there would be more maybe, but here are the ones that were the main breaking points:
Here, the images from the left side are the ones that appeared in the trailers and the right ones are from the game - its final version. We can see in the trailers that what they did is making us believe we will see a lot more from Joel with Ellie in their current versions and that he would help her in her revenge but at the game we realized those scenes were actually just flashbacks. They change the old Joel and even Ellie to their young versions. With just two of these examples, they already fooled us and many people thought Joel would have another role. In the last pictures, we can appreciate that the part of the trailer where many people were surprised and happy to see was actually and fake one, where it is not Joel who meets Ellie but Jesse, who is a new character in the video game. Of course, many people liked the character Jesse but he is not as relevant as Joel, instead of being happy, people just felt disappointed when they reached this scene in the video game.
Another unethical lie they sold us is in this particular story trailer, where just after hearing a dialogue of Ellie trying to find Dina, we jump to the cabin scene where the murder happens.
In summary, many things they put in the trailer that made us excited and sure about the path the story was taking were fake and they took a very different path and message to deliver than what we thought and saw in the trailers.
Conclusion:
The Last Of Us Parts I and II are actually masterpieces where big messages are delivered and offer a new perspective of how it would be the world in an apocalypse zombie, what the day-to-day life of normal people who try to survive would be and how much cruel it can be. Everything in this game is well made with passion and a story that makes sense and justifies the actions of every single character. It is actually pretty well constructed.
On the other hand, what made people a lot angry and I might be included here too, is the fake communication and messages they delivered in their trailers. I think they did something unethical here and that led to many kinds of bad comments and reviews. Some of these comments they deserved to receive for choosing this bad strategy but others may not. I hope they paid attention to their mistakes and if they do another part or other story apart in The Last of Us universe, they communicate better what actually they will sell us. On the other hand, I appreciate the hard work they did in creating these two high-quality games where you can enjoy one of the best gameplay ever created!
Of course we still have to dedicate a nice acknowledgment to the person behind the story Neil Druckmann, to Gustavo Santaolalla who is the one that did the beautiful soundtracks, and all Naughty Dog workers that gave it all to do these awesome projects.
Extra features:
If you enjoy exploring or love to hunt trophies, there are collectibles in the game and you will be entertained trying to find them too. In the first game, you can find Fireflies pendants and comics, and in the second part you can find trading cards containing superheroes and different types of coins too. On the other hand, in both games, there are training manuals that allow you to learn new skills and abilities.
Even the sound effects are the best. The sounds when you shoot, while you are riding a horse, playing the guitar, throwing bottles, killing the enemies, even when you are improving the weapons, are very realistic.
Also despite the games being about surviving in a cruel world, they manage to create some spaces and scenes where you can enjoy the peace they deliver, like when Joel and Ellie find a giraffe or when Ellie plays with the guitar.
Finally, there are even more small features and details that give more admiration to the quality of the game, like, while we are improving the weapons, we can actually see Ellie changing the parts of the weapons. Just improving the weapons and seeing and hearing the animation was something satisfactory too.
Remake:
Besides the remastered, they actually did a remake for the first video game where they took advantage of more of the technology they used for the second part and delivered a game with better graphics than the remastered. Maybe this was not well seen for the PlayStation users, but as it was something for PC too, maybe it suits for them.
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