

I was asked to execute those actions or watch them happen without a chance to intercede, and to understand the reasoning behind them from their perspective. Even if I disagreed with an action, I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Play Part 2 is peppered with brutal, tragic, and poignant moments that hit harder because you take part in them, like it or not. But doing so would strip away layers of the act of playing through Part 2 yourself, so I’ll speak about its story in largely general terms.


But with The Last of Us Part 2, developer Naughty Dog rises to that challenge with not only a complex, profound story that gives it a reason to exist, but also deep and satisfying evolutions to the original’s third-person action/stealth gameplay.I can’t tell you much about some of Part 2’s best aspects, but not because I don’t want to – I’m bursting to talk with anyone about all the moving, uplifting, and heart-wrenching moments that have been replaying in my mind for days since I first beat this adventure. Its story is largely poignant because of how self-contained it is: not knowing what happened between Joel and Ellie after his fateful, final decision burned a mark into the brains of many who played it, and that open-ended question has lingered for years. The Last of Us is one of the rare beloved games of the past decade that not only didn’t demand a sequel, but actively seemed to resist the idea of one.
