The Last of Us Part II
Scored 8.8/10. Naughty Dog's bleakest swing: a revenge story that makes you carry both sides of the knife.
Five years after the first game, Ellie and Joel are settled in Jackson, Wyoming, and one violent morning burns the peace down. What follows is the most argued about story in modern games, and arguing is the point: Part II makes you play the other side of your own revenge and sit with it.
THE CRAFT IS UNDENIABLE
Seattle is a drowned, overgrown masterpiece of a setting. The combat is desperate and physical, the animation and sound work are the best of their generation, and the performances carry scenes most films would fumble.
WHY 8.8
The pacing sags in the middle stretch and the story's structure asks a lot of a player's patience right where it also asks for their sympathy. Bold, bruising, and a little exhausting by design and by accident. 8.8.
THE INDUSTRY NUMBER
Two scoreboards live on this page and they never mix. The score at the top is Moe's, argued above and signed. The industry's number, the collective critic aggregate, sits here for reference: Metacritic 93. Same game, two verdicts. Read both, then play it yourself.
