Rage, Fear and Awe: Impressions of The Last of Us Part II (Topic)

Naughty Dog assures us that The Last of Us Part II will be the largest and most ambitious project the studio has ever done. It is for this reason that the game has been in development for so long and will take as many as two discs when it gets to release. Not so long ago, game journalists were allowed to play it, and then tell about their impressions of The Last of Us Part II. We have collected the opinions and assessments of The Last of Us Part II of Western journalists.

Feeling Rage

According to Game informer, the original of The Last of Us explored the child-parent relationship between Joel and Ellie. Naughty Dog says that while the first game was about exploring that kind of love, the sequel explores a completely different kind of emotion: rage.

Ellie is a child who grew up in a ruined world, but at the end of her journey in the first part, she ended up in a shelter and got a chance to continue on her way. She even met her love - a girl named Dina. However, there is a key event that changes Ellie and seemingly makes the calm life [although it sounds difficult in the post-apocalyptic world], as shown to us at the beginning of the game, terrible.

“Naughty Dog is still silent and does not hint at what this tragedy is, but she forces Ellie to go in search of revenge. In the second part of this story, we'll see how Ellie punishes those who hurt her. You can see how terrible feelings appear as wrinkles on Ellie's face every time she sneaks up behind an enemy and sticks a knife into his throat. This game is not for the squeamish. "- Game Informer.

Dogs are not a joke

The publication also notes that the gameplay is often not inferior to the original and the best way to survive is to constantly move:

“Like the first game, the sequel is no less cruel to the player. Enemies coordinate their attacks and even call each other by name. Ellie's luck can quickly end if she is surrounded, because for all the rage, the enemy has a numerical superiority. One of the best strategies is stealth and one-by-one reprisals against enemies. Fortunately, the surroundings are well designed to make it easy to run and find cover and catch your breath. However, the enemies will not forget that they saw you and are constantly watching Ellie. This adds tension to the action. It seemed to me that I was constantly on the move. ”

Polygon also notes that the AI of the enemies is on top, and he doesn't step back a step from the original game. The studio tried to humanize enemies, so that your actions were a burden on you. They especially distinguish dogs. They will often be seen as companions of opponents and are able to track you down. For example, while you are hiding, they may smell your scent and start looking. At this time, the enemy will begin to follow her, preparing to attack.

“I can throw a brick or a bottle, distract the dog so that it loses my scent. If I have nothing to throw, I'll have to move enough distance between me and the dog to lose me.

Keep in mind that this type of scenario usually happens in a scenario where you are completely surrounded by enemies. Running from one dog makes me visible or audible to another enemy or other dog. The simplest solution is to seize the moment and kill the dog with an arrow when it gets out of sight of its owner.

But it immediately becomes uncomfortable if a person finds a body, uttering a heartbreaking cry. All people in the game are personified, and they will worry about each other and exclaim: "Oh God, Stephen!" If they stumble upon Steve's corpse.

But these exclamations pale in comparison to grief when they find the body of their faithful four-legged companions. Anger and sadness give me a clear sense of the lifelong bond that this man and the dog shared, when he was a puppy, then an adult dog, and now he is dead. ”- Polygon.

Game writer Halle Gross told Kotaku that they are trying to make characters rich in personality, even the ones you only meet once:

“You have never met this person, but by the end of this level, you learned that he has a shelter, he likes to smoke weed, he was a Firefly [special unit of the armed forces], was involved in some kind of terrorism and left his family to continue fulfilling this mission, which he considered to be something more, ”said Gross.

Combat and leveling

Best combat system, IGN described:

“In the second game, the developers did not try to re-do what worked well in the first game. Ellie has access to a vast arsenal of weapons that can be modified, from pistols to shotguns and rifles, in addition to her stealth skills, archery is added.

Ammunition and resources are still scarce, to survive, you will need to look for supplies in every locker and desk drawer. Items like first aid kits and Molotov cocktails can be obtained in the same way. Ellie has several skill trees that can be improved by collecting pill bottles, some of which improve stealth or combat, other abilities, health, and more. ”- IGN.

Gamespot adds that by pumping, we will be able to open up new possibilities for crafting, for example, creating consumable silencers. Most of the improvements change how your weapon works and controls, making it a much more important part of the mechanics.

The studio wanted the weapons in the second game to feel like a part of your character when you customize them to enhance or enhance your playstyle through choices when you upgrade both Ellie and her weapons.

Awesome environment and fear

The game is also praised for its sound design, a journalist from Kotaku highlighted a whole large paragraph on admiration for working on sound in the game:

• “The clickers screamed, yelled and, of course, clicked with characteristic inhumanity, surviving even accurate shots. I was shaking with fear until the moment when I finally killed them [...].
• Every time I hit an infected with my shiv, metal hit the wet flesh and bone, while the infected hesitated and screamed, their sounds shrill like they were screaming in my ear [...].
• [...] After breaking the glass of the vending machine, I heard a crushing sound that almost made me jump out of my chair, even when I was sure that there were no infected survivors who could run to the sound of the glass, they found me. "

The Last of Us Part II at the moment remains a project that is already causing positive emotions. It is very good that this will be one of the first games to welcome us in the new year.

The Topic of Article: Rage, Fear and Awe: Impressions of The Last of Us Part II.
Author: Jake Pinkman