weeks before the last installment of N for PS4 hit the stores, a harsh leak appeared on the internet to destroy the story and annoy the surprise to many of the players who have been waiting for the game for several years. I was one of those people who saw the damn image (things from having to keep up with the news), so I am going to tell you how my experience with the game has been after having said information in my retinas (spoilers ahead).
matter of revenge
It would be quite ironic to think that the person who leaked the spoiler image did. for revenge (I remind you that if you keep reading I'm going to break the story with game spoilers in the next few lines). And that is exactly what the story of The Last of Us 2 is about, a revenge that Ellie herself wants to collect after seeing how an unknown woman named Abby murders Joel with extreme harshness based on blows with a stick. golf.
The image circulated through all kinds of forums and social networks, and of course, it reached my eyes, so I could know ahead of time that Joel would die. Was that the end of the game? I thought. Nothing is further from reality. That was neither more nor less than the beginning, a jug of cold water that would quickly put us in a situation and encourage us to pass sentence in a personal trial for the damage done to one of our favorite heroes.
the art of deception
It is true that the official synopsis of the game tells that Ellie begins an adventure after a tragic event, but I perfectly remembered an official trailer for the game in which Joel was seen telling Ellie "did you really think I was going to leave you alone in this ?”, so I thought death should be at the end of the story. Deluded of me, I completely swallowed the intention of said scene, since I was able to verify later that it was a modified scene so as not to reveal details of the story.
In the game, this phrase is not said by Joel, since he is dead, but by Jesse, a good friend of Ellie who was not going to allow her to be alone in the face of danger, and shows that at Naughty Dog they have been playing with the users with the idea of not giving clues about history. Do you remember those images of Ellie riding a horse alone through the streets of Seattle? Well, actually she doesn't go alone, but accompanied by her faithful companion Dina de ella.
The work of details
I admit that the day I saw the image of Joel dead I lost hope with the game a bit, however, the scene is so harsh that it feels completely different to experience it while playing it. Part of this blame lies with the incredible characterization of the characters, who offer facial animations capable of expressing all kinds of feelings without articulating a single word.
The work in this aspect is incredible, to the point of living a real movie in each cinematic. Curiously, it seems that the developers have wanted to demonstrate and show off their work in a rather nice way, since in one of Ellie's memories, we can play with her in front of a mirror simply by activating a series of grimaces with the control stick. Although it seems silly, this allowed me to enjoy the technical quality of the details in the facial expressions, and to feel Ellie with an amazing naturalness.
The best thing is that the game is full of sick details that allow to convey a spectacular vision of the real world. The way in which the snow falls from the trees when we collide with their branches, the mist that we exhale when we breathe, how the blizzard moves the clothes we wear or even seeing how the warm blood of an infected person melts the snow little by little, are some examples of the details that have been included. Seriously, it's crazy.
These are things that probably go unnoticed, but they are present in the game almost without realizing it, and they allow you to feel the game more real than you might expect in a vicarious way, completely in the background and almost without noticing it.
Infiltrate or become a killing machine
When playing The Last of Us Part 2 you will recover memories of the past. The game maintains many of the mechanics of the first installment, and at times it feels too familiar, but new features have been included that work so well that they allow the player to define their own style of play.
On the one hand, you can hide in the bushes, throw glass bottles to distract enemies (including trained dogs) and reach that door that will take you to the next level without being seen. Or, on the contrary, you will be able to unleash your anger and finish off all those present at the stroke of a trigger.
It won't be easy, since ammunition is scarce, so you will have to learn how to manage resources, craft medkits and various accessories instantly and, in short, survive on the go. This improvised management of resources will feel fair and limited at times, a feeling that is the result of the perfect balance that has been applied in the game. In my case, I've played on moderate (normal) difficulty, and thanks to my obsessive habit of checking every corner, I've been able to go full of resources on most occasions. Because yes, exploring is going to help you a lot in The Last of Us 2, to the point of being able to find new weapons well in advance.
If you have played TLOU2 keeping your distance and making as little noise as possible, we encourage you to play it again doing just the opposite. In this way you will be able to discover new behaviors of the enemies, contemplate dismemberments with shotgun blasts and a whole avalanche of absolutely visceral gore that will make you feel the rage that Ellie and Abby hide inside. Pretty much the game feels completely different.
It's not an open world, but it looks like it
This to explore is something relative, and it is that the scenarios they are not excessively big. Most of them repeat the same structure, with the exception of the Seattle city area, where the game presents its most extensive map. In this area, we will be able to walk between streets in search of passable buildings, however, much of the city is cut off and is not explorable, so that feeling fades quite soon.
This is the part of the game where we feel more freedom, since the rest of the levels are maps with a beginning and an end, with some branches that allow exploration, but with a clearly identified main path that will allow you to continue with the game without getting lost. .
But, you know what? No matter how limited the map is, I have enjoyed it as if it were infinite. The fault lies with their design, a sickly level set and the way in which the characters interact as we walk through the area. In short, the stage remains alive.
You can sneak through a window of a building by breaking the glass, enter a bedroom and feel that someone lived there. And it is that the room has its own personality, with posters of musical groups, notes with memories, an unmade bed, collections of books... each room has a meticulous design that hides stories prior to the pandemic that is suffered in the world of The Last of Us.
A story in parallel
Would you be able to put on the skin of the enemy and understand their reasons? Could you understand the other side and forgive? That is the dilemma that he proposes to us The Last of Us 2, and it is that after a first part in which we place ourselves at the controls of Ellie in order to hunt down Abby, the game returns us to the beginning to put ourselves in the shoes of her enemy, with the idea of knowing her origins and understand the reason for all this situation by repeating the three days of history from the other side.
The approach is fantastic, but the gameplay unfortunately repeats itself (although Abby offers a more aggressive and powerful melee and weaponry), and this can get tiring for many. And it is that, after 20 hours of play, the game still has a long way to go, reaching in my case at 30 total hours of gameplay. Knowing that you have to repeat the 3 days of history from the other side can get tiring, and that is perhaps one of the biggest drawbacks we have found in the game.
Explore, kill infected or enemies, enjoy the environment, solve a puzzle and witness a memory from the past. Over and over again the cycle is repeated, not only from Ellie's side, but also from Abby's, so many might feel a certain repetitive aftertaste in the game. Something that I see completely normal.
the pain of forgiveness
But if there's one thing this story has taught us, it's that revenge only brings more pain, and can even come with more loss. The story of The Last of Us Part 2 It is very necessary, because it deals with very important issues in our society and, furthermore, it makes us feel firsthand that revenge is of little use.
Like any game, it has its lights and its shadows, since it has not been as groundbreaking as the first installment on PS3 was and it feels less innovative than one might think, but narratively and technically we are facing a work of art that must be played yes or yes, and that is once again the finishing touch that the current generation of consoles deserves.
As much as it hurts, you have to play The Last of Us Part 2 and again.