By Eric Vallen
The Last of Us Two holds the title as one of the most hated games in the past 20 years. And for what? It has an amazingly composed story, wherein a player plays as both the protagonist and antagonist, to the point where both are indistinguishable. Upon its release, it had some of the best graphics the world had ever seen on the Playstation 4. Realistic water physics, fire physics, whatever you like. Seamless voice acting, precisely formulated levels, satisfying and realistic combat. sounds like a 5/5, 10/10 right? But no. It isn’t. Solely because people, in general, can’t seem to develop an inch of open-mindedness. Before the game was released in June of 2020, leaks came out that there would be a lesbian relationship between the main character Ellie and her friend Dina. To us, that fact is harmless. Barely even affects the story. However, to hundreds of thousands of people, this was a deal-breaker for them. An abundance of people was so close-minded that they couldn’t overlook an honestly harmless aspect of the story. Following this, upon release, people became egregiously upset concerning the contents of the story. Spoilers beyond this point. Short story: Joel dies. Big shocker, this is entirely justified. He quite literally doomed the human race in the first game. He is completely selfish, only thinking of himself. He ruined, ended, countless lives. Joel deserved to die. There is no rebuttal to that, he did. If in reality, someone doomed the world, would you not want to see them dead? Exactly. A story doesn’t deserve to be set afire because people don’t like the avenue through which it sets off. The first Last of Us game was Joel’s story. By Last of Us 2, there is nothing to know. Joel has already had his life, nothing could top the events of the first game, so the second game has to be Ellie’s story, no matter how beloved Joel is. Instead of offering a bland, repeat of a story with Ellie and Joel, we were given a rich story of revenge that analyzes revenge as a concept and its worthwhileness. We see Ellie grow into a different person, one of rage and menace, only to realize her wrongdoings in the end. Instead of giving players a payoff of killing Abby in the end, both characters go their separate ways. They realize revenge is futile. If we’re being honest with each other, The Last of Us Two is in a league of its own when it comes to story. No other notable game lets you play as the antagonist. No other game even comes close to the amount of sympathy one feels for the antagonist in The Last of Us Two. At the end of the game, you don’t even want to play anymore because you just know one of these two beloved characters will die. You simply cannot find the experience that The Last of Us Two gives you anywhere else. It’s a one-of-a-kind game. One of a kind experience. One of the best story games to ever be released.