The Last of Us: Part 2

The Last of Us: Part 2 — an exciting third-person action-adventure with RPG elements in the post-apocalyptic world of "The Last of Us". The events of the second part begin 5 years after the first and continue the story of Ellie, who has grown into a young woman and found herself in a brutal world where not only mushroom-like zombies but also humans pose a threat to all living things.

Work on The Last of Us: Part 2 began in 2016, after the release of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. According to Naughty Dog, Sony allocated a lot of time for the game's development, and the studio did 20-30 takes per scene to get everything just right.

The game was announced as a PlayStation 4 exclusive and maintained this status at release, but it may lose it in the future, like the first part and some other eighth-generation exclusives.

The second part of The Last of Us surpassed the first in terms of graphics quality, animation, and level design, with each aspect impacting the gameplay.

For instance, people and horses leave tracks in the snow, which can be used for tracking, but during a storm, everything will be covered. Events unfold over several seasons of the year in different weather conditions — snow and frost, fog and mist, rain and sunshine, with visibility directly affecting character detection.

Realistic grass and shrub thickets have appeared on the levels, in which you can hide and crawl past guards. This is balanced by a new system of sounds and smells: one careless move and enemies (humans and zombies) will immediately react to the noise. Characters leave a pheromone trail that dogs and some zombies can easily pick up, quickly finding them.

New animations are responsible for creating atmosphere in cutscenes and feelings of incredible tension during fights — they have become tougher, bloodier, but still rely on pressing the right buttons. Additionally, characters' bodies show bruises after hits, scratches after falls, and bloodstains after injuries.

The Last of Us: Part 2 introduced a character development system, represented by five branches: survival, crafting, stealth, accuracy, and explosives. Characters gain new perks as they find magazines of various orientations in the game world (somewhat reminiscent of character development in Fallout 4).

Each branch has five perks that can, for example, speed up aiming, reduce weapon sway, increase crawling speed. The system allows for different builds that change the gaming experience and let each player customize the character to their preferred play style, which is especially noticeable on maximum difficulty.

Through the efforts of the developers, the game world of The Last of Us: Part 2 has become more expansive and made with an emphasis on maximum realism. The playthrough is still divided into levels, but the location design allows for greater freedom of movement, new spaces, secrets , and enriched with numerous details and visual beauties.

The "verticality" has increased: characters crawl, climb, and jump a lot, moving forward through gaps between floors, across awnings and roofs, using cars, carts with cargo, and ropes to climb higher.

The design of the locations allows for running away, hiding, slipping away, and using parkour elements, which will be equally useful for combat and stealth. The enemies' AI has been improved; they act together and communicate with each other, adapting to the location and the player's actions.

During the playthrough of Part 2, the player will visit many different places, both in terms of landscape and climate. The action begins in the small settlement of Jackson, in the central USA, where the journey of the girl Ellie and her guardian Joel ended in the original. Over time, the action will move to Seattle, an abandoned metropolis in the northwestern USA, and Catalina Island.

At the beginning of the second part, Ellie is 19 years old; she is no longer a teenager but a strong and independent young woman, the main character, from whose perspective half of the story will be shown. Ellie lives in relatively safe Jackson, patrolling the surroundings, looking for supplies, and killing zombies.

In Part II, Joel is not the second main character because Ellie found out about his wrongdoing at the end of the original and got upset. Although the characters are not as attached to each other as they used to be, Joel occasionally appears in Ellie's flashbacks.

Instead, Naughty Dog introduces a new main character — a girl named Abby, a member of the paramilitary group "Dogs," who unexpectedly encounters Joel and Ellie. Her story and the revelation of her motivations will occupy the second half of the plot.

Additionally, The Last of Us: Part 2 features several secondary characters on each side, each with their own stories and roles: Joel's brother, Dina's ex-boyfriend, Abby's friends, and her love interests.

Everything was fine until a certain incident, after which Ellie became embittered, consumed by a thirst for revenge, and set out on a long journey. As stated in the project's synopsis, before Ellie can exact her revenge, she must go through an "endless cycle of violence," accompanied by shooting, dismemberment, and death screams.

The plot is deliberately built on mutual antagonism: the player's actions will generate hatred towards them and revenge in the future or are a reaction to revenge for previous wrongdoings by the characters they hate. None of the game's participants are unequivocally good or bad; each has a long list of right and wrong actions.

There are many antagonists in Part 2. The paramilitary group "Dogs" formed from the familiar "Fireflies" from the first part, having no issues with survival and a lack of food or ammunition. A new faction has appeared: the "Seraphites." This is a well-armed and motivated group of religious fanatics who want to cleanse the world of all infected.

The latter also participate in the game's events; they have evolved, and new, more dangerous, and deadly types have appeared. According to the plot of the second part, Ellie and Abby are forced to fight on two fronts — against aggressive infected and hostile humans. All this creates a sense of pursuit and constant danger (there are no safe places in the game at all).

The basic gameplay concept has been preserved: исследование мира, поиск полезных предметов, периодические жесткие стычки или возможность их избежать, скрытно пробравшись мимо врагов или зомби. Элли не такая сильная, как Эбби, поэтому в бою больше полагается на свою проворность и хитрость. Эбби больше использует мощное оружие и нередко лезет в пекло.

Авторы отошли от разделения игры на уровни для исследования и для боя, заменив их малыми и большими локациями, наполненными врагами, зараженными и местами интереса. Игрок должен последовательно проходить каждый уровень, адаптируясь под условия, применяя разную тактику действий и выбирая разные маршруты движения.

Помимо обозначенных выше геймплейных новшеств, доработали возможности движения: персонаж умеет протискиваться через узкие проходы, прятаться под машинами, использовать оружие ближнего боя, оброненное оглушенными врагами, и по-разному взаимодействовать с окружением.

Открытый конфликт — не единственный способ пройти игру, скрытое передвижение серьезно улучшили, даже плотность травы и позиция Элли влияет на её видимость врагами. Была расширена и доработана система создания предметов, появились новые виды оружия и патронов, Элли может многое скрафтить сама.

Геймплей за Элли и Эбби стал более напряженным, чем был за Джоэла в первой части, а разработчики тем самым показали разницу между персонажами и предлагают играть тактически правильно. Благодаря широким возможностям ведения боя, как в рукопашной, так и с огнестрельным оружием, можно придумывать разные схемы боя.

The Last of Us: Part 2 не получит собственного сетевого режима, как первая часть, а будет полностью однопользовательской. Однако Naughty Dog может после релиза выпустить сетевой режим «команда против команды», похожий на тот, что был в оригинале. Игрокам придется развивать свой клан, убивать врагов в сессиях, выполнять игровые задания и заниматься выживанием.