The Last of Us 2, the latest effort of the Californian team N, is coming up PlayStation 4 next June 19, 2020.
Yes, six long years after the release of the first chapter - and with a masterpiece like Uncharted 4 as an interlude - Naughty Dog has given shape to a very complex, varied, mammoth, technically excellent and artistically satisfying interactive work. We have played it in preview, we have concluded it and we have laboriously worked it out in our heads. Because such a colossal and complex work as The Last Of Us Part II is capable of engulfing you, chewing you and spitting you out without leaving a way out. But we like challenges and that's why we dive headlong into this one totally spoiler free review.
A plot that grabs you and engulfs you
The plot of The Last of Us 2 it grabs you and engulfs you (and that's not necessarily good). In the last few days, I've seen people tremble with enjoyment at just being told "I'm playing The Last Of Us Part II". Why yes, the first chapter of this Naughty Dog survival video game, which crowned the end of Playstation 3 in 2013, was experienced by the general public with an unparalleled emotional transport. All this was possible thanks to the narrative talent of Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann, the two proponents of the first masterpiece, and to a meticulous and well-knit development team.
The plot of the previous chapter revolved around the figure of Joel, a disillusioned father and bitterly marked by the loss of his daughter, and of ellie, a thirteen year old girl who could represent the future of all humanity. Too bad neither of us knows.
We are immersed in 2033, for over twenty years the United States has been plagued by a pandemic that transforms infected humans into monstrous creatures without sight but with fine to acute hearing.
Ellie is a "package" that Joel will have to deliver to a rebel faction called the Lights. Joel has no interest in Ellie: for him, who is a smuggler by trade, it's just a job. Too bad that human beings often and willingly tend to empathize with their peers and it is thanks to a strange alchemy that, as the adventure progresses, Ellie stops being a simple delivery and gradually takes the place of her daughter, lost years ago. .
Il primo The Last of Us it is therefore not a usual survival video game with zombies (here defined as clickers) as it could be vulgarly defined but it becomes a complex work, which tells a simple and powerful story: the relationship that is established between two strangers forced to live something bigger of them. I will not spoil the end of the first chapter even if, after six years, you should have already enjoyed a masterpiece like this. And it is precisely by retracing the unforgettable end of the first episode that the second begins.
In the unpardonable case you missed it, I leave you a nice link here to fill in your gaps:
Discount
The Last Of Us Remastered (Ps Hits) - Classics - PlayStation...
- The Last of Us game remastered in 1080p with 60 fps
- The Left Behind DLC released on February 14, 2014
- The "Abandoned Territories" DLC released on October 16, 2013
La trama di The Last of Us 2 develops 5 years after the events that occurred in the first chapter. Ellie is now an adult, she is 19, she is marked by all the events of the past; adventures that she is shyly trying to erase, to hide "under the carpet" of her soul. She now lives in Jackson, Wyoming, within a small peaceful community that shelters survivors of the pandemic. A rural community, she suffered, which she lives with what little she has, a trigger-happy community, a community in which she dances to the notes of country music and which doesn't like homosexuality.
Outside this pseudo-idyllic place, the infected and other humans moved by despair threaten the stability of the village. The peace established in Jackson is shaken by a violent and brutal event which, for obvious reasons, I will not reveal to you. Ellie's fragile certainties waver until she embarks on another long journey in search of… what exactly? Justice? Vendetta? Truth? Perhaps all together, in an explosive mix that will blow your brains out like any self-respecting Clicker does. 
And so far everything is regular. The premises are excellent and also the development of the characters is really scary, also thanks to the performance of the actors who contribute to making the characters real.
With the continuation of the narration we will discover that the Lights no longer exist and that there are different "factions" of enemies. The first is the WLF (Washington Liberation Front), also known as "the Wolves", a well-organized militia, armed to the teeth and which has made its way through violence. The second is that of the Seraphites (the Hyenas), a fundamentalist sect, a cult with a deeply rooted belief that hardly forgives those who rebel. Of course there is no shortage of our monster friends: infected of all shapes, sizes and disgust.
You understand that the conditions for a violent game are all there and the expectations will be well maintained throughout the game. A violence that will disgust you and perhaps annoy you but that in the end will make you accept and remember: the human being is emotional, he remembers what makes him cry or what scares him.
If in the first chapter of this video game, the narrative was as linear as it was powerful (the relationship between Joel and Ellie), in The Last of Us 2 there is a decisive change of course. In addition to Ellie, there will be other playable characters thanks to which the narrative will undergo reversals that will lead the gamer to attack (physically) their affections. What does this mean? Simple. Some points of the plot will be “experienced” twice: once on the side of the good guys and once on the side of the bad guys.
But are we sure that the good and the bad are really good or bad? In short, with The Last of Us 2 you will be forced to redefine your conception of good or evil, of right and wrong. Because whether you decide to stay on one side or the other, you will still understand that the shaded areas, the gray points, are really many.
To be honest during the first few hours, the game struggles to get going, is a bit slow and doesn't seem to be able to fully express its strength. The early exploratory stages are very relaxed, although perhaps it is a gimmick used by the development team to get you into the game gradually.
Discount
The Last of Us 2 - Playstation 4
- One of the most famous and loved franchises in the PlayStation world with excellent sales results in Italy
- Revolutionized gameplay system that makes every challenge, every fight more realistic, engaging and satisfying
- Standard edition of the game
Then at a certain point the explosion, the twist that makes the machine of the gigantic colossal that is The Last of Us 2 engage. The more you go on, during the approximately 25 hours of total play, the more you will find that the plot is layered and courageously chooses to tackle controversial issues, hardly encountered until now in the world of video games. And to further complicate the story, there is no shortage of flashbacks, to give color and movement to the whole.
It will be a weird comparison, but in my opinion the The Last of Us 2's narrative resembles one of the balls from the Japanese video game Katamari Damacy. He starts by rolling a small ball and the more he goes on and the more he "wants to take it all" by leveraging on different themes: Ellie's explicit homosexuality, fundamentalist religion, the extreme violence of some characters (including Ellie), homophobia, betrayal, physical pain, monogamy, terror, selfishness and ethics.
There is really everything in the second chapter of The Last Of Us: a plurality of themes so vast as to simultaneously represent both the strength and the possible weakness of a colossal work like this.
An evolved and mature gameplay
Ok, we understand that the plot is complex, intricate and at times controversial. But what is the game like in the end? Well, the mechanics we already encountered in the first chapter remain fixed points. The weapons are difficult to use because they are half-rusty, found who knows where. The resources scattered around the game map are not very many and you will need them to upgrade weapons, build Molotov cocktails and craft bombs.
He makes his appearance a curious method of increasing skills: you just need to find training manuals to unlock new branches of your "skill tree". Here, know that the game does not force you to explore but if you do not do it you risk not to find these manuals, thus making progress in the game somewhat difficult.
The game map manages to look incredibly expansive even if in reality, if you notice it, it will tend to lead you to the same destination whatever your path. An excellently managed device from a technical point of view that will make the player believe that they have more freedom than there really is.
Also this time, there is no game map that can be consulted except in some points of the story. You will learn how to move around the playing area not only horizontally but also vertically. As I told during the preview of The Last of Us 2, published last week on these pages, finally we can also give ourselves to the vertical exploration of buildings. The game does not try to trace the absurd ups and downs of Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series. Here verticality is difficult to achieve (with ropes and risers) as it happens in real life.
The addition of the new dimension therefore does not distort the gameplay seen in the first chapter but enriches it with new variables.
Also nice is the introduction of a new means of transport: a motor boat - which will become iconic, but even here I cannot reveal why - and which can accompany you along inaccessible waterways.
As for the fights, these can be faced in two different modes: stealth with silent kills or in "enter-and-shoot-until-you-have-killed-them all" mode. Also in this case you will be led to believe that you can choose how to deal with the enemies but in reality the game forces you to certain approaches. In fact, resources and ammunition are not infinite: it is this contingency that will force you to hide and carry out silent eliminations as long as you can. Only at the end, when you are faced with an impasse, will you start shooting big. 
As a last resort, of course, you can make use of desperate and very violent hand-to-hand combat. Every time Ellie or one of the enemies takes a punch or a stab it will be as if she were inflicted on you in the first person, also thanks to the realism and attention to detail in the realization.
Finally, there are rare occasions in which the game forces you to "infinite runs", crazy races in which facing enemies is impossible. There will be only one thing to do: run away. But even then, it won't be your choice.
Summing up, the gameplay is very fluid, dynamic even if at times deceptive: you will have the perception of being able to choose where to go and how to approach the fights, when instead it will be Naughty Dog's friends to make the decision for you, without even you. notice it.
Flawless technique
From a technical point of view, the Naughty Dog team keeps expectations high, with a graphic and technical sector that really leaves you speechless for the extreme quality of what you will see on the screen. I would not trivialize it with a "has crazy graphics" because that would be an understatement.
Coming out with a new title at the end of a console's life means knowing every more remote feature, it means being aware of and masters of all the potential of PlayStation 4. This is precisely what has allowed Naughty Dog to achieve one. such a high quality standard to represent the best that Playstation 4 can offer.
PS4 - 500 GB F Chassis, Black
- Single-chip custom processor
- CPU: x86-64 AMD "Jaguar", 8 core
- GPU: 1,84 TFLOPS, AMD Radeon based graphics engine
May the Santa Monica team be obsessive attention to detail had already shown it, but here we go to a higher level. Not only for the level of realization but also for the commitment that the team of artists has shown in offering a variety of very different but above all finely crafted environments.
Snow-capped mountains, remote cottages, lush forests, blast-gutted and infested buildings, rotting sewers, subway tunnels lit only by red smoke, or dark environments where your only guide will be a rickety, shabby torch.
Another feature that will leave you speechless is the care with which the destruction of the environments was carried out. It seems trivial to tell but in truth it is difficult to recreate the chaos of the settings that you will find yourself exploring meticulously.
The work of the light designers was also excellent, who managed to give life to the settings and create contrasting emotions only through the use of light.
Finally, the work performed on the animations of the faces and movements that make the characters disturbingly realistic is impeccable.
Colossal but not for everyone
And now comes the difficult part, the one in which I am called to judge an extremely complex work such as The Last of Us 2, a video game whose realization required an incubation of 6 long years. Years in which the people of the team have changed, years in which its history has been written and rewritten.
The Last of Us part II is a colossal work that brings to life highly mixed feelings. You start the game with expectations and find yourself overwhelmed by something similar and completely different from what you remembered. That simplicity that characterized the previous chapter has been swept away in the name of a more ambitious and cumbersome project.
There are a lot of characters, a lot of storylines, a lot of narrative gimmicks and even flashbacks. It is a video game whose direction and photography are worthy of a Hollywood film but that "wanting to take it all" I wrote about at the beginning of this review stands out with arrogance. The game overwhelms you and often it does not leave you time to think about what you have just seen, what you have just experienced that immediately catapults you somewhere else. Don't get me wrong, The Last of Us Part 2 it is beautiful, it is madly "embroidered", but perhaps too much has taken something away from that simple and successful alchemy of the first episode.
Is it suitable for all players? I do not know. If you are expecting it with so much anxiety and hype, take it, play it calmly and savor every corner of the map, look everywhere, take everything that comes your way and read every letter you will find because it will be a rewarding experience. Maybe you will need time to digest everything you have seen but I'm sure you will eventually say "okay, in the end I liked it".
If you are a novice and are looking for a light game, a pastime like many others, forget it. The unprecedented violence, the very crude and strong themes could end up making you not sleep at night.
Good Naughty Dog, the expectations were high and you were able not to disappoint them, without ever denying yourself.
Even if sometimes too much is good.
