Like a truckload of heavily-armed WLF soldiers and a savage pack of infected following close behind, a bevy of negative reviews have descended upon The Last of Us Part II. At release, the common takeaways were simply magnificent with most numerical rankings sitting at a perfect 10. Interestingly, some outlets without numerical scores for their reviews had negative experiences, like Will Bedingfield for Wired. After The Last of Us Part II debuted and the common fan finally got to revisit this dark and violent world, an influx of negative user reviews highlighted that something was afoot.
Despite all of this, in addition to already being entrenched in controversies like the leaked story spoilers and internal Naughty Dog working conditions, The Last of Us Part II still broke records in sales. This highly anticipated sequel, arriving like its predecessor on the advent of a new console generation, now sits at a 4.5 user rating on Metacritic and holds an average 7.0 on IMDb. What gives? Is it the story? Is it current events? Was it the leaks? Was the gameplay maybe a little too repetitive? Or, could it be another case of politically-minded review bombing?
Unsurprisingly, it's a combination of all these theories and then some.
A World of Opinions in Turmoil
Fan or not, The Last of Us Part II has been met with a multitude of varied opinions. Some players praise it for imbuing newfound horror elements into the series, while others call into question certain story decisions that may or may not have been presented in a better way. Sequel to one of the very best Sony exclusives, The Last of Us Part II essentially hasn't lived up to its predecessor, due not only to certain grievances with the story, characters, and gameplay but also to necessity. This last aspect will be touched on in the final section, yet it's clear that an extraordinarily violent and brutal video game centering on a revenge story was the last thing anyone needed at the moment.
While it's near impossible to prove if the ongoing pandemic has had a direct impact on the way some players experienced this game, there is no doubt that The Last of Us Part II is a specifically individualized experience. Given its revenge plot and themes focusing on the consequences perpetrated by both playable characters, each new player will connect with the story and characters in a multitude of varied emotions. Proof of this is encapsulated by the boisterously-proclaimed distaste for Abby put forth by YouTuber AngryJoe. To counter Joe (and a large portion of the fanbase), Forbes wrote a piece in defense of Abby, but to the majority of The Last of Us fans, the damage has already been done...
An Ineffective Round of Review-Bombing
Common conjecture points to an influx of politically-minded review bombs, which account for a majority of that low Metacritic user score. From Ellie's relationship with Dina to, as Neil Druckmann states above, Abby's own sexuality, The Last of Us Part II is easy prey for the ignorant. Others ask why these character aspects are even pivotal to the story, but as underscored in the prior section, the narrative seems designed to present different viewpoints in order to challenge the audience. It asks players to look at the deepest and darkest aspects of themselves, to face consequences and survival via extremely brutal and controversial routes. Not every player will enjoy that, nor can they look beyond their own ideologies to appreciate the beauty of Dina and Ellie's love in spite of the treacherous world surrounding them. This is what the game is asking of its players, after all, ever-alternating, almost jarring emotional sequences compounded by an incredibly moving score. It's not meant to be fun. This game was intended to be impactful and, clearly, it worked.
The Last of Us Part II is the most brutal yet beautiful of depictions among zombie apocalypse tales. In the same vein that it must be met with multiple opinions, it likewise must reach a wide array of players. In so doing, it can be theorized, Neil Druckmann effectively cut off a large number of longtime fans merely for the way he tried to imbue diversity into the experience. Uncultured distaste coupled with allegations of poor writing has coalesced into an array of misinformation. Instead of playing the game in full and experiencing it for themselves, most will simply judge the sequel through second-hand emotion. As previously mentioned, this sequel is (in my opinion) superb as an apocalyptic tale for the way it makes me feel inside throughout my playthrough, yet I also find specific aspects of the plot to be more than a little careless and tone-deaf to what fans may have expected in a sequel.
The Spoiler-Ridden Disappointment
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Characters are oftentimes the most integral part of a narrative. Their backstories and cohesion within both the setting and plot, all the more uplifted with several underlying themes, are what make experiences like the original The Last of Us simultaneously extraordinary and memorable. Specifically for video games, the relationship shared between the player and playable character is as equally important as the relationship shared amongst in-game characters. Grand Theft Auto V would be nothing without its Trevor, nor would any single The Legend of Zelda game be worthwhile without an incarnation of Link, yet these personalities are made all-the-more relatable (and, hence, playable) through compelling relationships with other characters, such as Michael De Santa and Ganon, respectively.
In the case of The Last of Us Part II, not only does one of the most beloved characters meet a rather brutal and unceremonious demise, but the emphasis on the relationship shared between Joel and Ellie made poignant in the original lost all meaning upon the bludgeoning of the former by the hands of a new playable character, AngryJoe's favorite, Abby. It can be understood, then, how a large portion of the fanbase has turned their back on the series. Joel's demise left more than a sour taste in most fans' palettes and, while the character's voice actor, Troy Baker, stands by and defends the dev's decisions, fans remain in ample disagreement as to how this sequel should have panned out. Which begs the question: did The Last of Us really need a sequel?
As Nathan Ditum writes in his 2016 Eurogamer article:
"...The Last Of Us is about people. When we talk about the game's seriousness or respectability, what we're really discussing is its attempt to bring some kind of emotional realism to a familiar gaming scenario in which characters typically react with inhuman bravado. It's the end of the world, and they feel like shooting stuff. Joel and Ellie, though, are frail and scared in all the ways we'd expect. The Last Of Us revels in an icy, immediate mortality that forces the people inside it to consider what's truly meaningful."
The Last of Us Part II lost sight of this. Instead, Naughty Dog chose to depict the inverse of the original, brutality and vengeance in their deadliest and most ferocious forms. How this sequel has been received is exactly how players are intended to feel: angry, distraught, and uncomfortable. It's not for everyone, longtime fans included.