The Last of Us 2: Remastered Walkthrough

A good many things happened when Last of Us 2 game out. A literal pandemic, endless flame wars, among other things. Upon playing it again a while after it's initial release, there I things I appreciate about it more and things about it I view more critically than before.

I'll start with the latter first and that is the story. What I noticed more about it this time around is that I have two major issues with it. The first being is that TLOU 2 forgets or is ashamed of being a post apocalyptic zombie story and the constant red herrings.

To illustrate my first point, I have to bring up the infamous death scene of Joel. I'm not against the fact that he didn't die a hero's death or live happily ever after with Ellie. It's more so how the whole thing began because the story is following the rules of a setting that has law and order. Why is one of the family members of who Joel killed dedicated her life to revenge? How many others did he also do it too but suddenly this person is important. I bring this up because TLOU's setting is the post apocalypse. There's no law and order and killing and pillaging is what you do survive. Doing what Joel did is what everyone does. Then when the revenge happens, Abby and her crew doesn't kill Ellie because they'd be no better than him. What good does showing compassion and being righteous do in this situation? The characters are in a setting where it's kill or be killed. Being righteous has no real benefit. Abby does it again later and Ellie spares Lev but the latter is the only witness. Once again in a setting like this being righteous has no real benefit since it makes you look good or upstanding when there is actual laws.

This leads into another issue. The infected have been hit by villain decay. In TLOU 1, they were everywhere and were a constant threat in TLOU2, they feel like they pop up on occasion when Ellie and Abby need to go through a long trek to get to their destination.

It's now a gangster movie with the different factions. You got the Jacksonville crew, you got the WLF and the Seraphites so it's more of a gangster movie than a zombie apocalypse. Abby's part of the story is her trying to "leave" the life.

It's funny, Ellie's the revenge cowboy film and Abby is the tragic gangster tale which is TLOU 2's way of admitting it doesn't want to be a post apocalyptic zombie story anymore.

This leads to the next issue and can really mess up the game for me even with the gameplay and that is the red herrings. There's quite a number of them. Abby spends multiple chapters trying to heal Yara's arm. She dies not too long after. Ellie goes on a multi level journey to find Abby in the Aquarium just to not have no evidence on where she is when she gets to her destination. Ellie once again goes on a multi level journey to kill Abby and it ends with her being spared. Abby has no involvement with the WLF and the Sepraphites and they destroy each other without her involvement with Issac dying a quick death in his second appearence.

There's so many that it can make going through the levels feel hollow.

Gameplay is where things are an improvement over the first TLOU. The levels are much larger than many of the levels in that game, there's more verticality and more interiors to hide in during outdoor city encounters. The prone adds more depth to the stealth can make it feel more tense when there is tall grass. How you are evading enemy sightlines when going prone under tall grass and waiting for the right moment to slip by to crouch and hide back in again. The lack of enemy awareness indicators actually makes the sneaking feel more immersive now since it's not just crouch and cover stealth like TLOU 1.

There's also a dodge button making melee combat more dynamic now instead mandatorly taking blows from enemies when it's their turn to attack.

I also like the addition of silencers for the pistols. You need resources to craft them and they can only be used for a few shots so every shot in stealth has to count. You can also use the various arrows for both characters but they are projectile rather than hitscan and have a charge time.

It's also really interesting how enemies react to when you kill their allies and might notice one dying during stealth. They'll even try to run up and flank you too. Infected could also be nearby an enemy arena so they could shoot their loud guns and can have them be lured over to them by accident.

Ellie and Abby having different abilities is also really adds some cool dynamics to combat. Ellie can stealth kill with switchblade. Abby's incenary ammo can really feel satisfying to use and her 3 shot burst rifle can also feel really satisfying to use.

My only big complaints is that the dodge button timings can be a little hard to adjust to when you've been sneaking around for so long and a mandatory action section comes

The jump arc for both Ellie and Abby can feel a little to small.

Overall, I appreciate gameplay more while story less so.