The protagonist, a young woman named Ellie, endures something terrible, and everyone involved in perpetrating it must pay with their lives. In The Last of Us Part II, nearly every character is as far from a “good day” as a person can be.
Trouble is, The Last of Us Part II thinks itself clever by making this the point of its story, seemingly unaware that one does not need a thirty-hour video game to make this point. If you heard it all without the benefit of context, perhaps by being in an adjacent room while someone played, you’d register a parade of murder that would seem exceedingly difficult to justify. For hours on end, thanks to the craftsmanship of top-notch audio engineers and dedicated performers, you will hear sounds of human misery: people shrieking in pain, pleading for their life, gagging and gurgling as blood seeps out of them. The Last of Us Part II is the worst video game I’ve ever heard. A moment of solemn reflection amid bloodshed? Or doomscrolling Twitter?
