the last of us 2 review ps4

The Last of Us 2 Review | A Bloater stuffed to the brim

By Michael Leri

The Last of Us’ ending was so sacred that just the mere idea of a sequel seems sacrilegious. Ambiguity as poetic as that is woefully uncommon and a follow-up could easily dismantle that purity. Instead of letting naughty dogs lie, developer Naughty Dog decided to make the inconclusive ending more conclusive with The Last of Us 2. This remarkably ambitious sequel shares…

  • Tense combat mechanics encourage strategic play, resourcefulness, and improvisation.
  • Convincing animations, impressive visual fidelity, and awe-striking attention to detail make it one of the system’s best looking games.
  • Practical puzzles are satisfying to solve and open the door for more environmental storytelling.
  • A surprisingly welcome amount of accessibility and difficulty customization options.
  • New cast, with a few exceptions, is mostly unremarkable.
  • Story tries to do too much and goes on far longer than it should.
  • And that fluff also makes the gameplay grow repetitive, despite how solid the core is.

7

Michael Leri
Michael Leri

Michael Leri is Evolve's senior gaming editor. He prides himself on playing and finishing as many video games as he can in all sorts of genres from shooters to platformers to weird indie experiments. There's always something to learn from rolling credits and that thirst for experience and knowledge is mostly what drives him. You can find him on Twitter, Backloggd, Bluesky, and Letterboxd as @OrangeFlavored.

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