I’m 31 years old, and I started playing PC games back in the Windows 98 era. I’ve played countless titles, from the newest AAA releases to indie games that no one knew existed; it has been a fun, exciting, and sometimes boring experience.
When I first played The Last of Us Part I, I couldn’t believe how well-designed and well-written it was. Naughty Dog didn’t just create another game; they created a masterpiece that was hard to continue.
I mean, how many times did we witness a sequel being as good as the first one? Yep, that’s right, not many.
Editor’s Note
This review is filled with spoilers from both the first and second installments, so please be aware if you haven’t played the game.
The story behind Part II
The Last of Us Part II takes place five years after the events of the first one, and it starts as brutally as it goes. The game begins by showing what happened with Joel and Ellie, and what Joel had to do in order to save her from the Fireflies.
When Joel took Ellie to them, he quickly found out that they were going to kill her in order to try and find a cure, which didn’t sit well with him. Instead of letting them, he killed them all, took her with him, and ran back to his brother.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending), Ellie was sleeping, and she didn’t know what exactly happened, with Joel saying that there were tons of other kids with the same condition, and that they didn’t need more, so they returned.
This is where we meet Abby, a soldier from the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) whose father was killed by Joel inside the hospital. It’s worth noting that her father was the Firefly surgeon who was going to operate on Ellie to create a cure. Abby had a plan: find and kill Joel, whatever happens. When she actually found him by accident, she brutally murdered him in front of Ellie,
Fueled by grief and rage, Ellie sets out from Jackson to Seattle with Dina (her girlfriend) and Jesse with a clear plan: Like Abby did, Ellie wanted to kill everyone who was in that room and took part in Joel’s death, including all Abby’s friends (Jordan, Nora, Owen, Mel).
The journey is all about hunting them down while trying to survive and killing them one by one. During that time, you learn that when you killed Abby’s friend, Mel, she was pregnant, and you know who else was pregnant? Ellie’s girlfriend, Dina, is with Jesse’s child.
It takes a huge turn when it switches to Abby’s story. Yes, that’s right, you play as Abby, and believe it or not, she’s not as bad as you may have thought. Considering what Joel did to her father, she had every right to be angry and want to kill him for what he took from her.
This is where we actually learn that Abby is not a villain, and bonds with Lev and Yara, two siblings from the Seraphites (a cult-like group). She’ll meet Ellie soon, inside a theater, but instead of killing her, she’ll spare her life and leave. Abby’s mission is not Ellie anymore, but instead, is protecting Lev.
We then go back to Ellie once again, where she lives on a farm with Dina and her baby, JJ. Ellie is still haunted by Joel’s death, and when Tommy returns and urges her to finish what she started, she leaves to hunt Abby.
Abby and Lev search for the Fireflies but are captured by a group called the Rattlers. This is where Ellie tracks them down and rescues them both, but demands a final fight with Abby. The fight was hard, and Abby bit off two of Ellie’s fingers, but Ellie gained the upper hand, only to spare Abby’s life in the end.
The game ends with Ellie returning back to the farm, but Dina and JJ are gone. She tries to play Joel’s guitar, but considering that she now misses two fingers, she knows she can’t anymore. Ellie leaves the guitar, symbolizing her letting go of Joel and the past.
It’s all about the gameplay
What can I say? It’s exactly how I wanted it to be. First, is all about looting everything that you can find, because if you run out of ammo, you’re either dead or very lucky.
Basically, if you’re not bored exploring this beautiful and scary world that Naughty Dog has created, you can find lots of things, locked safes that make you search for the code, and sometimes, better weapons.
It’s a game that has some fairly scary, weird, romantic, friendshiship, and even brutal moments, and way too many cinematic clips that they make you feel like you’re watching a movie (which is something that I really like in games, unlike Nora, she hates them and couldn’t stand playing Red Dead Redemption 2 just for that reason).
You also get to upgrade your weapons now and then, and that’s whenever you find a spot that lets you do that. Upgrading every single option in each of your weapons is not easy, and it takes time, if you want to enjoy the game to its fullest, you may want to replay it again using the New Game+ mode, which means that you can replay everything, but this time with all the skills that you unlocked during the first gameplay.
What was most exciting for me during my gameplay in The Last of Us Part II was switching between Ellie and Abby. Although most will hate her because she killed Joel, playing her was fun because she had different moves and gameplay style than Ellie, which was something different.
I mean, to me, the best moments in the whole game were with Abby, especially that scene in the skyscraper, which was filled with zombies, it was dark, and you had a little girl to protect, making it even more difficult.
On the other hand, depending on the difficulty level that you’ve chosen to play, it may get way too difficult to complete. For example, the harder the difficulty mode, the less looting and ammunition you’ll find during your gameplay.
The Last of Us Part II can be played in lots of different ways, including using all your stealthy techniques to start shooting whatever you see. But if you want to make it through the whole storyline without constantly running away because you run out of ammunition, I’d suggest that you save your bullets from the very beginning.
A backlash that Naughty Dog will never forget
I remember watching for the first time the “Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II” documentary (which is pretty new, as it was released in February 2024), when I started seeing one of their female team members crying on camera. This is what happens, unfortunately, when people start losing their minds over a simple game with its own unique story.
When Naughty Dog released The Last of Us Part II back in June 2020, a significant backlash started from many fans. There were many reasons why the fans were angry, which I’ll explain in a bit, but none of them can excuse a backlash like that one.
For most people, the biggest problem was Joel’s death. Now, unlike most characters, many didn’t realize that Joel wasn’t the actual protagonist in the sequel, and many couldn’t even stand looking at Ellie watching Joel die in front of her. Some hate the fact that they had to play Abby’s story after killing Joel, and some said they even asked for a refund just for that reason.
Another issue was the LGBTQ+ representation, including Ellie’s relationship with Dina, a trans character, as well as Abby’s muscular physique. Did you find all those reasons silly? Yep, I figured.
In case you’re free for the next 2:00:33 hours, here’s the documentary:
Can you run it? Here are the requirements
When it comes to the remastered version of The Last of Us Part II, although you can theoretically play the game with an Intel Core i3, you’ll need more than that if you actually want to enjoy it.
Here are the minimum and recommended requirements to run the game, including what hardware you need to run it in high and very high graphics:
| Info | Minimum Requirements (720p @ 30 FPS, Low preset): | Recommended Requirements (1080p @ 60 FPS, Medium preset): | High Settings (1440p @ 60 FPS, High preset): | Very High Settings (4K @ 60 FPS, Very High preset): |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OS: | Windows 10/11 64-bit (version 1909 or higher). | Windows 10/11 64-bit (version 1909 or higher). | Windows 10/11 64-bit (version 1909 or higher). | Windows 10/11 64-bit (version 1909 or higher). |
| CPU: | Intel Core i3-8100 / AMD Ryzen 3 1300X. | Intel Core i5-8600 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | Intel Core i7-9700 / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | Intel Core i7-11700 / AMD Ryzen 7 5700X |
| RAM: | 16 GB | 16 GB | 16 GB | 32 GB |
| GPU: | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (4GB) / AMD Radeon RX 5500XT (4GB). | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB) / AMD Radeon RX 5700 (8GB). | VIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 / AMD Radeon RX 6800. | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 / AMD Radeon RX 7900XT. |
| Storage: | 150 GB SSD space (SSD required) | 150 GB SSD space (SSD required) | 150 GB SSD space (SSD required) | 150 GB SSD space (SSD required) |
As you can see, the game explicitly states that you need an SSD to run it, which is another step towards the death of the classic, old, slow but beloved HDDs.
Your CPU also needs to support AVX and F16C instruction sets, which most modern CPUs already support, but just make sure to check that too before getting the game.
Oh, and make sure that you have updated your graphics card’s drivers to their latest version if you want to run The Last of Us Part II as smoothly as possible.
Will there be a The Last of Us Part III?
Well, you’d have to ask Naughty Dog about that, but rumors say Naughty Dog and its creative director, Neil Druckmann, have “one more chapter” ahead.
In the “Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II” documentary, Neil Druckmann explicitly stated that he believes there’s “probably one more chapter to this story.” He revealed that for years, he struggled to find a concept for a third game, but that has since changed.
He now has a “concept that is, to me, as exciting as 1, as exciting as 2, is its own thing, and yet has this throughline for all three.“
Naughty Dog is currently focused on a new IP (intellectual property) called “Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet,” which is their next major single-player game. They are also working on another unannounced game where Druckmann is more of a producer. This means The Last of Us Part III, if it happens, won’t be their next release and would likely be several years away.
Estimates from fans and industry observers range from 2028-2030 at the earliest.
Another thing that is worth mentioning is that, given the massive success of The Last of Us franchise (both games and the HBO show), there’s a strong financial incentive for Sony to continue the series.
The HBO show is currently adapting The Last of Us Part II over multiple seasons, with Season 3 confirmed for a 2027 release. This extended timeline for the show could also provide Naughty Dog with more time to develop a potential Part III game without the show running out of source material.
Only the future will tell.
Was The Last of Us Part II worth it?
With a simple word: Yes. It was a phenomenal game for me, especially with all those beautiful scenes and landscapes, the empty towns, the well-created cinematics, the brutality and drama that it offered, the discoverability that allows you to explore its whole world, everything was more than great.
It’s a game that won’t leave you disappointed, except if you’re a hardcore fan who doesn’t like specific things, like the ones included in the backlash. Then just leave it be.
And hey, if you complete the whole story, playing it with the New Game+ mode is even more fun, and sometimes easier, thanks to all of your upgrades.
Have you played The Last of Us Part II? And if so, what did you like and hate the most about the sequel? If you haven’t, what’s keeping you from getting it? Let me know in the comments down below!
