The Last of Us Part II

Part II is set in a post-apocalyptic Western United States and has many returning characters, most notably, Ellie (Ashley Johnson), Joel Miller (Troy Baker), his brother Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce), and the latter's wife Maria (Ashley Scott). The game starts in the town of Jackson, Wyoming run by Tommy and Maria. In it, Ellie befriends Dina (Shannon Woodward), a Jewish woman, and Jesse (Stephen Chang). They encounter the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), a paramilitary militia which overthrew the U.S. government authorities in the Seattle quarantine zone; the eight who travel to Jackson include: Abby (Laura Bailey), Mel (Ashly Burch), Nora (Chelsea Tavares), Owen (Patrick Fugit), Manny (Alejandro Edda), Jordan (Chase Austin), Leah and Nick, all of whom are led by Isaac Nixon (Jeffrey Wright), the leader of the WLF. Players primarily control Ellie, closely followed by Abby. The game features other real-world locations, primarily Seattle, Washington, followed by Santa Barbara, California, where Ellie encounters the Seraphites (Scars), a group of religious fanatics, and the Rattlers, a gang of bandits, respectively. Additionally, Abby befriends two former Seraphites: Yara (Victoria Grace) and her brother Lev (Ian Alexander), a transgender boy.

Five years after the events of the first game, Joel and Ellie are living in Jackson. Ellie, having befriended Dina and Jesse, entered a relationship with Dina after the previous couple broke up. In the winter, when Joel and Tommy go missing whilst on patrol for nearby Infected, Ellie and Dina go to investigate. At the same time, Abby is leading a group of eight WLF members (Owen, Mel, Manny, Nora, Jordan, Leah and Nick) to the outskirts of Jackson to kill an unknown member of the settlement. After Joel and Tommy save Abby from a large group of Infected, they take her back to her group, only to be subdued after introducing themselves. Abby reveals Joel as their target and beats him to death in front of a recently arrived Ellie. Affected by the incident, Ellie swears revenge.

Weeks later, Tommy, having learned Abby's group is part of the WLF and frustrated that Jackson lacks the resources to fight the WLF, pursues them to Seattle alone. With authorization from Maria, Ellie and Dina pursue Tommy, who has already killed and tortured several WLF members, including Nick. Upon arriving in Seattle, Ellie and Dina are confronted and captured by WLF patrols, one of them being Jordan, who Ellie later kills after remembering having slashed his face during a struggle while trying to save Joel. Avoiding WLF patrols in the city, Ellie and Dina set their sights on Leah. However, upon arriving at her outpost, they find Leah and the WLF patrols already slaughtered by a mysterious cult. The couple are then attacked by a large group of Infected and, upon escaping, Ellie reveals her immunity to Dina, who in turn reveals she is pregnant. The next day, with Dina physically weakened by her pregnancy, Ellie pursues Tommy alone and encounters Jesse, who followed them to Seattle, but is fatigued, leaving Ellie to continue her journey alone. While searching for Nora, another WLF member who participated in Joel's murder, she encounters the Seraphites, a religious cult that sacrifice their enemies through disembowelment and who are battling the WLF over control of the city. Eventually, Ellie tracks down Nora and violently interrogates her for information on Abby's location. As Nora succumbs to her injuries, Ellie learns she is a former Firefly, causing her to recall how, two years ago, she investigated the hospital Joel rescued her from and learned he lied about the Fireflies being unable to find a cure.

The following day, Ellie heads out to track down Abby while Jesse pursues Tommy, upon learning the WLF potentially found the latter's location. Ellie finds Abby's hideout and comes face-to-face with Owen and Mel. At gunpoint, Ellie demands information about Abby's whereabouts, however, they refuse and a struggle ensues that results in Ellie shooting Owen and fatally stabbing a heavily pregnant Mel. After Ellie rendezvouses with Dina, Jesse, and Tommy at their hideout, they decide to return to Jackson, but are ambushed by Abby, who kills Jesse and holds Tommy hostage, while explaining her motivation to kill Joel, prompting a flashback that reveals Abby as the daughter of a Firefly surgeon in Salt Lake City that Joel killed whilst saving Ellie five years prior. The flashbacks also reveal Abby previously having been in a relationship with Owen. She then narrates her actions in the past three days, prompting another flashback.

Upon learning that Owen had gone missing while investigating Seraphite activity, Abby confronts Isaac for keeping it a secret. Isaac then reveals that Owen might have joined the Seraphites, and explains his plan to assault the Seraphites' island settlement to obliterate them. Abby then goes searching for Owen and, upon being captured, is rescued by Yara and Lev, two siblings who are runaway Seraphites. In the process, Yara's arm is shattered by Seraphites. Abby eventually finds Owen, who, disillusioned with the war between the WLF and Seraphites, is attempting to sail to Santa Barbara, where he believes the Fireflies are supposedly regrouping. Abby takes Yara to Owen and Mel for medical attention and retrieves medical supplies from the WLF hospital alongside Lev, where they encounter Nora before her death. Lev then reveals he was on the run from the Seraphites for shaving his head. After Yara's arm is amputated, Lev runs away to the Seraphite island settlement to convince their mother to leave the cult, forcing Abby and Yara to pursue him. Along the way, they encounter Manny, who is then killed by Tommy. The pair eventually find Lev, who had killed his mother after she attacked him, only to be forced to flee when the WLF's assault on the Seraphites begins. Yara sacrifices herself to allow Abby and Lev to escape, killing Isaac in the process. The pair then return to find Owen and Mel dead, and a map left behind by Ellie leading to her hideout.

Back in the present, Abby shoots Tommy and brawls with Ellie and Dina, overpowering them, though she spares them at Lev's insistence upon learning the latter is pregnant. Abby warns them to leave Seattle.

Months later, Ellie and Dina are living on a farm, taking care of the latter's child. Due to Joel's horrific death, Ellie suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder. When Tommy arrives with information on Abby's whereabouts, Ellie, unable to leave her past behind, leaves for California to confront her, despite Dina pleading her to stay. Meanwhile, Abby and Lev arrive in Santa Barbara searching for the Fireflies and manage to contact them. The pair are instructed to head to Catalina Island, before being captured by the Rattlers, a group of bandits who enslave survivors. Ellie arrives in Santa Barbara searching for Abby and eventually locates her after overpowering two Rattlers. She rescues the pair, who are weakened after enduring weeks of torture by the Rattlers, and initially allows them to leave. However, Ellie recalls the image of Joel's corpse and subsequently fights Abby. Ellie is dominant but has a moral epiphany and relents, allowing them to flee. Returning to the farm, Ellie finds it empty, as Dina left with her baby. Recalling a recent memory where she promised to try to forgive Joel, Ellie leaves Joel's guitar at the farmhouse and heads off to an uncertain future.

While the second trailer was well-received,[52][21] it drew some criticism for its violence.[53] Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe president Jim Ryan defended the trailer, saying the game is made by and for adults.[54] Druckmann explained: "We're making a game about the cycle of violence and we're making a statement about violent actions and the impact they have ... [the idea] was for the player to feel repulsed by some of the violence they are committing themselves."[55]

The cutscene featured in the 2018 E3 presentation in which Ellie kisses another woman, Dina. The game was praised for this kiss—frequently considered to be difficult to animate—passionate and believable.[56][57]

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 94/100[58][lower-alpha 1] Review scores Publication Score Destructoid 8.5/10[59] Game Informer 10/10[60] GameRevolution [61] GameSpot 8/10[62] GamesRadar+ [63] IGN 10/10[64] Push Square 10/10[65] USgamer [66] VentureBeat 95/100[67] VG247 [68]

The Last of Us Part II received praise for its improved gameplay, graphical fidelity, and cast performances. Jonathon Dornbush of IGN praised the game, calling it "a masterpiece worthy of its predecessor" and writing that "it delivers a layered, emotionally shattering story on top of stealth and action gameplay that improves the first game's mechanics [... and] still makes time for a stunning, nuanced exploration of the strength and fragility of the human spirit."[64] Andy McNamara of Game Informer concurred, calling it "the best narrative game I have played" and "a sequel unlike any other, taking video game storytelling to new heights."[60] Kaity Kline of NPR called the game an "emotional rollercoaster" and writing: "I think The Last of Us Part II has changed me a bit as a person. It made me very aware of the little things in my life that I take for granted, the kinds of things you don't appreciate until they're ripped away forever."[69] Kallie Plagge of GameSpot called it "beautiful and devastating", and wrote that "the more I reflect on it, the more I appreciate the story and characters at its core."[62] Christopher Byrd of The Washington Post called The Last of Us Part II "an astonishing achievement — a searing demonstration of how a video game can marry heart-stopping gameplay, gorgeous environmental storytelling and anxiety-inducing moral complexity. [...] The Last of Us Part II is not a game about zombies. It's a meditation on loss — not simply loss of life, but of community, family, and individual capabilities — and the effort it takes to muddle through maddening grief." Andrew Webster of The Verge wrote, "The Last of Us Part II is uncomfortable and exhausting, but that's what makes it great... those dark, disturbing moments are what make The Last of Us Part II so powerful. It's not just a game about violence. It's one that grapples with the impact of that violence and shows players the consequences."[70] The performances of its motion-capture cast was praised by The Guardian's Keza MacDonald, who said that much of the game's effectiveness was "the result of some fine acting from The Last of Us Part II's human stars, and the immense technical skill on show in translating those performances to the screen [...] It is rare in games for the moments when you're not playing to be as memorable as those when you are."[71]

Some reviewers took issue with the game's narrative and its attempts to explore themes of violence and revenge. Maddy Myers of Polygon criticized the game for being "a story about characters who seem unable to learn or grow," comparing it unfavorably to games from the last decade in regards to how it attempts to discuss acts of violence; commenting, "if Naughty Dog makes you feel bad enough, maybe next time you won't do ... the thing the game forces you to do?"[72] Riley MacLeod of Kotaku wrote: "Late one night, I paused the game and asked myself aloud if the developers thought I was stupid, if they thought the existence of violence had just never occurred to me before," and judging it as lesser than that accomplished in its predecessor.[73] Rob Zacny of Vice came away believing that the game had been "poorly served by a Naughty Dog house style that has become less a signature than a straitjacket," in a negative review that comments on the story's inability to delve into its characters, noting, "nobody ever reconsiders their quest for vengeance. Everyone acts under a kind of vindictive compulsion that goes little remarked and unexamined."[74] Moreover, Jeuxvideo.com opined that characters like Jesse and Manny lacked character development which were important to Ellie and Abby respectively but were simply used for advancing the narrative.[75]

Stacey Henley of VG247 wrote about the transgender community of whom some were dissatisfied with the treatment of Lev, a transgender boy.[76] Criticism was directed at the fact Lev is sometimes referred to by his dead name. Additionally the game was criticised for the fact that non-transgender writers created him.[76][75] Henley rebutted that the deadnaming was done sparingly and that a transgender male actor provides the voice and motion capture of Lev.[76]

The game was the subject of review-bombing on Metacritic, resulting in a user review score of 3.4/10 at its nadir.[77][78] Reporters noticed the review bomb occurred shortly after the game launched and observed that it was too early for these users to feasibly have finished the game by this time;[79] Jeuxvideo.com suggested that users' ratings in this time period were primarily based on the incomplete information contained within the plot leak.[78][75] Commentators found that many of the negative reviews expressed complaints towards the game's story, specifically its characterization and plot holes.[79][77][80][81][82] Others noted that a proportion made statements about the perceived "social justice warrior" politics of the game and observed that some of the angry response focused the presence of LGBT+ characters and diversity within the game.[75][77] CNet's Daniel Van Boom wrote that despite the vocal proportion of fans making such claims, the review bombers do not represent the majority of players who otherwise have no problem with diversity.[83] Writing in Kotaku, Riley MacLeod noted that Metacritic's opaque system that focuses on scores over review content "fails to take into account the diverse critical opinions of the game" thereby in the case of the game creating a situation that "shows a bunch of meaningless numbers and a lot of rage, very little of which paint any picture of how players are actually finding the game".[79]

The number of pre-orders for Part II were higher than Marvel's Spider-Man in Europe three weeks before their respective releases.[84]

In the UK, Part II became the fastest selling game for the PlayStation 4 for its debut weekend, outselling the previous record-holder Uncharted 4: A Thief's End by at least 1% in physical sales, and outselling its predecessor by 76%.[85] In Japan, it was the best-selling game during its first week of release, with an estimated 178,696 copies sold.[86] Neither of these figures include digital sales.[85][86] In its release weekend, the game sold over 4 million copies worldwide becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive beating Marvel's Spider-Man's 3.3 million and God of War's 3.1 million.[87][88]

In 2017, The Last of Us Part II was named Most Anticipated Game of the Year from PlayStation Blog,[89] Most Wanted Game at the Golden Joystick Awards,[90] and Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards;[91] in 2018, it was awarded Most Anticipated Game at the Gamers' Choice Awards,[92] and nominated for Most Wanted Game at the Golden Joystick Awards.[93] It received Special Commendations for Graphics[lower-alpha 2] and Sound at the Game Critics Awards in July 2018.[94]