Among the dozens of games that come out each month, very few arouse an expectation like that caused by the second installment of “The Last Of Us” (“The Last of Us”). Available for a few days, this PlayStation 4 title follows on from a unanimously acclaimed first opus, sold at 17 million copies, price of the Etoile du Parisien.
The bar was therefore very high for the studio Naughty Dog, a subsidiary of Sony. But with 4 million copies sold in just three days, the title beats a record for a PS4 exclusive. In terms of graphics, “The Last Of Us 2” hits the bull’s eye. It offers a magnificent final bouquet to the PlayStation 4, which will be replaced by the PS5 at the end of the year.
Breathtaking in realism, he stages the same two characters, Ellie and Joël, always struggling with adversaries infected by a pandemic virus and a tattered America. Impossible not to think of the coronavirus crisis. The progression mechanism is sometimes as demanding as it is stressful. Like when the young heroine finds herself, in the first hour, trapped in a neglected supermarket and prey to a horde of characters with deadly capacities increased tenfold by the effect of the virus.
Players are calling for the script to be rewritten!
Not recommended for people under 18, “The Last Of Us 2” is a dark, violent and destabilizing adventure. Sensitive souls will abstain … Despite this darkness, “the magnificent scenography” and “the moral complexity capable of causing anxiety”, as described in the Washington Post in his review of the game, are applauded by specialists in the sector. For the Gamekult site, which gives him an excellent score of 8/10, it is “a gigantic blow of latte in the jaw, which leaves the player struck, upset, moved and furious”. The Jeuxactu.fr site goes even further, speaking of a masterpiece deserving of a 20/20.
On the player side, opinions are much more divided. Many regret that the mutual aid relationship forged during the first episode between the two characters, Ellie the flayed girl and Joël, the 40-year-old man who does everything to save her, is now lost in a scenario abandoning emotion . Others accuse the too great place given to the narration, with long moments where the player becomes simple spectator while waiting to be able to regain control of the character.
A choice yet assumed by the creators of a work leaning both on the side of interactive film and video game. Finally, some voices are raised against the “too visible” presence of characters displaying their sexual preference, starting with Ellie falling in love with a young woman or even a transgender character. The debate is therefore lively around this second aspect. He even went so far as to mobilize aficionados demanding, through an online petition launched by a Canadian player and signed by more than 30,000 internet users, the rewriting of the scenario! A first in the history of video games.
