Last of Us Running Thread

I have one playable chapter left in Part II. And man, I have thoughts. Conflicted thoughts. However, still been a great game and both games plus the show over the past month or so have been some of the most consumed by an entertainment product I have been maybe ever.

I may need to unleash some of those thoughts when I am done. Need to figure out the spoiler button!

 

All you have to do is click the insert button and scroll to spoiler, add a title and

Spoiler: spoiler

type in between the brackets like you would a quote.

Would love to hear your thoughts when you finish. I'm in Day 2 of Seattle with Ellie in my second playthrough and I've got a ton of stuff that I missed just rushing through the playthrough the first time.

 

I just finished Part II last week and really enjoyed it. It is a bleak, bleak world, though.

 

Deadly fungal infection spreading at an alarming rate, CDC says

Uh-oh.

Seriously, I post this mostly because a doctor they interviewed actually mentioned the show.

The new findings are “worrisome,” said Dr. Waleed Javaid, an epidemiologist and an infectious disease expert and director of infection prevention and control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York.

“But we don’t want people who watched 'The Last of Us' to think we’re all going to die,” Javaid said. “This is an infection that occurs in extremely ill individuals who are usually sick with a lot of other issues.”

 

I finished Part II. I very much enjoyed it, to get this done in two weeks and put 33 hours into it is a remarkable gaming feat for me. Most of the time that would take me a few months! But I was addicted, especially on the heels of the first game and the show. As I said earlier, the combination of both games and the series at the same time is one of the best entertainment experiences I think I have ever had. The game was beautiful, I can't believe how realistic and haunting Seattle was, and continues the story well. I was ready mentally for a lot of the brutality, although so brutal, but I still find myself conflicted with some of it and we'll see how that settles. Doesn't take away from the experience, though.

Anyway, spoilers part and may get lengthy:

Spoiler

One of the main things that struck me through this violent, brutal world is that this game had much more of what I believe was the intended tone of the TV show. It was much more people-focused. The fighting was almost completely between people. The infected were nearly entirely secondary in this game as opposed to the first. They were quite present, but that was because it was still a game based on them. And the new additions, especially the increased use of the stalkers, were freaky. That said, I can't think of one part where they really advanced the story. Maybe when they were trying to get out of the building after the failed bridge descent. This was totally a three-way people battle in a brutal war. It was also the continued, even more in-depth theme of everyone is good (or bad) depending on how you look at it.

The conflicting part. I didn't mind playing as Abby too much, although I never totally got into it. I knew it was going to happen since you play with her almost right away (I hadn't seen any spoilers of that element to that point). There was a point about halfway through her story where I was like, why are we doing this? But I barely could do the first fight between Abby and Ellie. I almost wished you could skip it or something. I knew there was a good deal of game left, but ugh, it was so tough. It is an interesting choice to take this character you have spent hours investing in and then try to kill her by someone else. There is something to be said for thinking outside of the box and the creative balls it took to do that, which has obviously created tons of controversy around this game, but they did it and I can't stop thinking about it. Much like Joel's lie. So I guess it succeeded.

I read a spoiler-free review of the game that said one of the best elements is that it forces you to do some tasks whether you want to or not. That was brought up earlier here too. The boundaries it stretches! Also, going to the good/bad element. Abby could have killed Ellie twice and Ellie could have killed Abby once. Obviously, neither followed through despite each hating the other more than anything. Speaks to some light in their heart? Who knows. They also both basically have the same story. Either a creative copout or another piece of brilliance.

Not much else. I did want to add, at the end when Ellie is caught in the Rattlers' trap and she used her immunity to get out of it was freaking fantastic. I'm glad they didn't do stuff like that more in the game, but It was great. Wasn't expecting it. Another little one I liked was Ellie telling Dina about Joel's coffee love in the coffee shop early in Seattle. Such a cool, and funny, little nugget from all three pieces of this adventure. Then Joel drinking coffee when Ellie really confronts him about saving her (a beautifully done way to basically end this). Finally, I love Pearl Jam so their involvement was pretty sweet.

 

I hadn't been listening to the podcasts, so I didn't realize Troy Baker was doing them. That makes sense given how invested he is in the story after providing the voice of Joel for the games. This is him answering questions after the final episode of first season of the show.

 

Spoiler: Replies

I go back to the first game, and Ellie's biggest fear was ending up alone. So we get this scene in the farmhouse Dina has cleared out and all of her stuff, including the guitar, is stashed in one room. I don't know what will eventually happen if there's a part 3 (and I suspect there will be), but I think there's a part of Dina who was super disappointed Ellie went to Santa Barbara but also probably understood the only way Ellie would ever get over her PTSD over Joel would be to have a final confrontation with Abby. That Ellie let Abby go ... it was interesting. I don't know if that happens if Lev isn't there.

The realism of Seattle was crazy. They totally recreated Lumen Field to a T, which was neat. Some of the scenes in this game were just so dark and horrifying to play through the first time, especially the first time you run into the Seraphites. The tunnels where you're fighting both WLF soldiers and infected with the creepy red light from the flares is disquieting. Both hospital scenes were tough. The hospital basement with Abby was one of the most white-knuckle experiences I've ever had in a game, and that's even before you get to the Rat King. Just the sense of rooting around that basement thinking 'it's too damn quiet down here' made me a little shaky. When the stalkers started popping off the walls during the descent from the hotel, I was like, 'come on!' Like you said, the infected weren't as huge a part of this game, but they were used perfectly. The attack on the Seraphite camp was just beautifully brutal, both in game play and cinematics.

I don't know where they go with a Part III. I've seen some suggesting that Ellie might willingly give herself up for research at this point if she reaches the rest of the Fireflies on Catalina Island, but I only see that as a possibility if Dina is totally out of the picture. Ellie and Abby seem to have reached a begrudging stalemate. If Ellie didn't drown Abby in the water there, I can't see her going back to try to kill her again. And vice versa on Abby's end. They've just been through so damn much. There is a story left to be told to wrap everything up, I think. I figure we won't get it for another several years until the PS6 comes out. What was it, seven years between Parts 1 and 2? That would put us at 2026 or 2027 at the earliest. Plus, with Druckmann so involved in the show, I don't know how much time he has to put into the game at this point.

 

Spoiler: More replies

Awesome stuff. I loved the cut scene at the end. Just visually stunning with definite references to past and future. Speaking of PTSD, when Ellie first had the flash of Joel after she rescued Abby I for a moment thought that was going to be her getting over it. But not quite.

I didn't forget about that first encounter with the Seraphites, but that was something. At the end when Ellie finally got through it all she says, Jesus. And I was like, no shit. I might hear those whistles in my head for weeks. I went back and watched someone sneak through it all and did it in like two minutes. That person has played the game way too much! Did you play the DLC in the first game? The first hospital scene sort of reminded me of some of that where you could pit infected against the humans looking for you (there was even a trophy in the DLC called live bait!). So it didn't bother me too much because I basically let them kill each other then there were only one or two left and easy enough to take out. I totally knew something big was coming in the hospital with Abby.

Overall, just a beautiful game even if totally haunting like you said. I have never really done anything like it. Completely immersed me in it. It will be interesting to see if and where they go from here. It was as much as an open-ended ending as the first, but maybe without as much shock value as the lie.

I will also add, the gameplay improved so much. Being able to go verticle and get into more spaces was a huge enhancement.

 

Anyone upgrade to Part II Remastered?

I am loving the No Return addition. Can get in a quick little game play of all the different battles faced in some familar environments. Can also eventually unlock all the characters and play as them. For me its been a great way to get back into the game, do a few different things and try to beat challenges, and maybe might even make me decide to replay it. I am not a big replay guy, but I do love these games so much (and I get tons of live streams in my socials feeds, so always watching others keeps me interested too).

Besides that, making the load time that of a PS 5 game instead of a PS 4 game might be the best reason to get it! Anyway, I find the $10 pretty worth it. For the new game mode alone.

 

May give it a shot. Of course I'm usually a couple of years behind on games, as I'm just now getting to Final Fantasy XV. I don't have the time to dedicate like I used to so I tend to wait until games are at a deep discount before jumping in. The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Part 2 may be the exception...