The Last of Us Part II2020

One of the most important games of the 2020s and for me the proof that modern storytelling in gaming can now go far beyond the medium. Naughty Dog has created something here that does not have to hide from film and literature. 😭 ❤️ While half-pop culture, just classic action fiction, feels vengeance glorified as a legitimate form of justice, The Last of Us Part II completely dissects that very notion. Where other stories run the credits after the death of the villain, Naughty Dog only begins to negotiate the real consequences. And boy, what an emotional imposition that is in part. 💀 The genius for me is this radical change of perspective. One hates characters partly abysmally, justifies one’s own violence and is eventually forced to question precisely this moral self-certainty. Perpetrators and victims are not fixed identities here, but depend very much on whose perspective we experience history. I find this incredibly relevant in socio-political terms, because it shows how quickly personal trauma, enemy images and dehumanization can legitimize a cycle of violence and retribution. And then this narrative MUT. The first part, despite its moral grey areas, was still a relatively classic, emotional journey of two characters. Part II, on the other hand, deliberately refuses the expected continuation. Even marketing played with this expectation, which I look back already quite brazenly, but also damn clever. 😭 The fact that this game has polarized in 2020 fits almost ironically well with a story that questions our willingness to allow other perspectives at all. What I also find ill is how consistently Naughty Dog stages the violence also play mechanic. For me to this day the KING of third-person shooters. The animations, the dynamic stealth, the opponent AI and this incredibly raw hit effect. Opponents call themselves by name, react panickingly to their dead friends and suddenly even the hundredth kill no longer feels completely irrelevant. At the same time, gunplay is absurdly fun and this contradiction between playful satisfaction and moral discomfort is simply GENIAL. 🏠 One of the best post-apocalyptic zombie settings ever. The overgrown ruins of Seattle, the religious and military factions and this permanent struggle for resources and sovereignty of interpretation. Even after the collapse of civilization, people reproduce again the same authoritarian structures and enemy images. One could almost think that the infected would not be the biggest problem here. What I was missing was a little more focus on Tommy. Especially his relationship with Joel and their past together could have gotten a completely different emotional depth through additional flashbacks. Especially because Tommy himself is going through one of the most tragic developments in the whole game. Also Ellie’s immunity, which was still the central narrative foundation in the first part, is a little too much in the background for my taste. I understand that Part II deliberately sets other priorities, but this break in particular could have been taken more seriously. But that's why this thing remains so extraordinary to me. Naughty Dog has not produced a compliant sequel, but a game that contradicts its own fans and consistently denies them the emotional satisfaction of a classic vengeance story. Breaking the cycle of revenge and anger. Sounds like a pretty simple message at first, but rarely has a game made me question my own hatred of fictional characters so much. Absolute bread. ❤️ 🎮 The game is for you if... * you love morally complex stories that also let you consciously work against your own beliefs * you are into uncompromising stealth, brutal gunplay and incredibly detailed game worlds * you’re up for an unconventional sequel that really risks something narratively 💀 The game is NOTHING for you if... * you expect a classic Joel-and-Ellie road trip as in the first part * discourage explicit violence, psychological distress and extremely unpleasant changes of perspective * you need a consistently high narrative pace during long games and can do little with deliberately frustrating decisions

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