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I was hoping for the discourse to die down on The Last of Us II so I can say my peace. Ultimately, it's a very emotionally draining experience with some exceptional moments of brilliance. Some of the best acting bar none. But a story whose themes and pacing does it no favor.
Trying to affect the theme of "revenge is wrong" in a landscape where the game has you murder your way through zombies, crazy cultists, sociopaths, slavers, and fellow soldiers with no moral conniption - and then to hit that beat in the end is completely stupid.
"Revenge is wrong... unless it's directed at one dimensional monsters, then it's OK" or "Revenge is wrong... which is why the player MUST kill in order to progress through the story"
The pacing is just really bad. I get the attempt at having Ellie go through most of the game killing soldiers, people, dogs and then trying to say, "Oh but they were still people you mean monster!", but it doesn't quite work when they have a 'shoot on sight' practice.
I mean, "revenge is bad" sure, but Abby just burnt down a whole ass camp of cultists and transphobic monsters. I'm pretty sure this is fine. I mean, should I apply this lesson in retrospect? Should I suddenly question my actions killing them? Because you can't be selective.
(The answer is let them burn: Lev is the best of us)
It's honestly such a genuine attempt at trying to affect this really serious deconstruction of the nature of videogames but it's so self-serious and half-hearted that I expected Abby to scream, "SAVE MARTHAAAA" at the end.
It's honestly such a genuine attempt at trying to affect this really serious deconstruction of the nature of videogames but it's so self-serious and half-hearted that I expected Abby to scream, "SAVE MARTHAAAA" at the end.
