The Last of Us Part 2 Review: We’re better Than This | Polygon

The Last of Us Part 2 depicts the future, yet it fails to escape its own past.

[mrsolidsteel20]

Polygon, you knew this game was going to be extremely violent, so why in God’s name is that bothering you now?

[Profchaos]

It's like they actively search for things to complain about most times and when there is nothing they fabricate a complaint.

I mean did you ever see their south park fractured but whole review they blasted it for dergatory content which is absurd.

[mrsolidsteel20]

I did not actually, but it’s not surprising.

[Eonjay]

I have never seen so .any gerfect scores for a game before. The metacritic page looks crazy.

[UltraNova]

All these so called journos, more like snowflakes might wanna stick with Nintendo games and leave mature games to people who can actually differentiate between family and adult content. Enough with these fools.

[NecrumOddBoy]

"The Last of Us Part 2 gives us a grizzled-beyond-her-years white teen lesbian in the lead role, which is a refreshing change, but the conceit remains the same."

"Ellie embraces the role of antihero, just as Joel did, and Naughty Dog makes its queer woman protagonist act just as violent and self-involved as the legions of grizzled straight-white-dude video game protagonists who have preceded her."

Holy hell, this is my problem with the left. Diversity isn't about orientation, skin color, or any of that social identity politics crap; it's about the difference in ideas and the uniqueness of a person's mind. Was Polygon seriously mad this game isn't woke enough? They seemingly are dancing around the story bits as all these reviews are. There are clear concerns with the direction but as "leaks" led people to think it was about some SJW content, it seems to be more that it's not SJW enough for progressive journos who wanted this game to be some sort of pillar of wokeness. Ellie is still human and that transcends her love of a woman or whatever...

Either way, next week, it's on. Game looks intense.

[jahcure]

@eonjay, you aren't looking hard enough then. Go look at uncharted 2, uncharted 3, uncharted 4 and Last of us 1....all of these game by the same developer. They have a long standing history of high quality games

[IamTylerDurden1]

I have counted 47 of 83 Metacritic reviews as being 10/10.

More than half the reviews gave it a perfect score.

It's wild looking. 10's for days. 96 Metacritic. That's with some ridiculous troll scores on a controversial game. Bravo Sony.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Polygon.... Stick to treehouse and Seaseme street. Leave games like this too the real gamers and grown-ups.

[mikeslemonade]

So two take aways. The people who said the game didn’t need a sequel are wrong. And two, this game should be a PS5 exclusive, ps4 holding it back.

[scofios]

Because Polygone are pathetic clickbate losers .

[NeoGamer232]

Agreed, Polygon doesn't see the art here. They are just looking for reasons to hate the game.

[Sinemetsu]

Normally, I would agree, or at least question Polygon's motives. But, in this case, I think their review holds plenty of weight. The above comments clearly didn't read the whole review, because it isn't just the use of violence that the writer takes issue with, but how it is used and how it correlates with the story and characters. The writer didn't like the story, and there are a LOT of people that are going to feel that way, and they aren't just snowflakes and SJWs for feeling that way.

[TheScotsman]

I think this is an accurate portrayal, in that world it really would be kill or be killed, and all justice would be brutal.

[derek]

@Sine read the whole review? All 100 pages of it? I hate long rambling reviews like this one, she should have chopped at least half of that sh**. So many words yet saying absolutely nothing.

[frostypants]

Polygon gonna Polygon.

I get that given the way the last few months have been that some people might be less keen on the idea of such a dark game, but people have to judge the art on its own merits.

[crazyCoconuts]

@necrum, that excerpt alone is enough to self ban polygon on. Imposing stereotypes based on skin color or sexual pref is bad no matter which way it swings. Leave that crap out of game reviews - it's not what I'm thinking of while trying to enjoy my game.

[dietis_h]

can't complain about the so-called wokeness so pick on the violence!

doesn't matter what they say. the game is doing extremely well.

[WelkinCole]

Perhaps they think that everyone will be all great and nice post acylopitco lol

[MetalGearsofWar]

It's clever marketing.

[RazzerRedux]

lol.....I have no care in the world for any polygon opinions. No matter what it is.

[crazyCoconuts]

They are now dead to me. I picture them sitting in a lonely bar having to talk to GamingBolt all day. If that isn't hell I don't know what is 😏

[RazzerRedux]

LOL

[UltraNova]

Yes this seals the deal. I made the mistake of posting some of their articles a while back because I thought they had some good stuff here and there, never again. They can keep their twisted woke agenda to themselves. They are dead to me.

[rainslacker]

Great.

That just means GamingBolt will quote the polygon staff where one quote is made into 3 different articles.

We'll get three times the stupidity, instead of just having to deal with it once, and forgetting about them until the next stupidity comes along.

[darren_poolies]

Is it any wonder Polygon is a dying site?

[Looper]

The failing Polygon huh? Wonder who else employs those tactics.

[crazyCoconuts]

I know... The New York Times? Did I get it right?

[seanpitt23]

If a reviewer complains about the violence they need to really think about getting a new profession.. this game needs this amount of violence and I commend naughtydog for not shying away from it.. this is what the real world would be like dog eat dog.. kill or be killed.. hopefully they make the lasT of us part 3 on the ps5 tech

[frostypants]

And it's frankly no more violent than lots of games from a superficial perspective. I think the thing that truly bothers them is it's done in such a way as to actually make you feel something when you kill these NPCs. Which is pretty unprecedented. A game that involves the player's conscience and makes them feel some of the conflict the character feels.

[rainslacker]

Seems more they're taken aback by the idea that a white female lesbian is going to be just as violent as a straight white male, as if a person's gender and sexual orientation somehow determines their personality, or potential socipathic tendencies.

[tontontam0]

I guess they hate games that can make you feel bad when doing violent kills.

But they like violent games like GTA where they feel rewarded for doing violent things.

[CrimsonWing69]

Polygon, how is this site still around!?

[Cmv38]

Ms still helps balancing of the books

[crazyCoconuts]

What's the connection between Microsoft and Polygon?

[rainslacker]

MS seeded start up money for Polygon when they were a no-name site that no one ever heard of. For a while, they were pretty much MS lapdogs, and were extremely critical of Sony at every step.

I don't think any of that staff still remains at Polygon, and they do have a new editor. I also don't think MS funds this site anymore, at least not in such a direct way.

[chiefJohn117]

Fan reaction to the reviews are hilarious.

[harmny]

96 metacritic

[LiViNgLeGaCY]

You're right. The ones who were downplaying this game saying how ND ruined it, then all the reviews come out stating otherwise, making them eat crow has been hilarious. Haha. Definitely agree with you. :)

[starchild]

I honestly couldn't care less what the critics think. They're as irrelevant to me as movie critics. I know that this game is filled with identity politics and other leftist propaganda and that's enough reason for me to boycott it.

[Silly gameAr]

@starchild
No one cares.

[LiViNgLeGaCY]

@Starchild
Yeah, and it's a good thing nobody on this site even remotely takes you seriously, or even cares what you have to say. You're pretty much a joke on here.

[WelkinCole]

@star. Bet you call them snowflakes right?.

[Bathyj]

That's honestly pathetic Starchild. YOU'RE better than this.

[RazzerRedux]

@Bathyj

No, he isn't.

[dietis_h]

@starchild: you haven't even touched the damn game. are you serious?

[imtiyaz6]

@starchild Ellie was gay since left behind. Even if she were straight, she’s still fictional. Even if she were real, you wouldn’t stand a chance. Get over it. You don’t tell an artist how to draw an art, don’t tell ND how to make their games. They have an artistic vision, either you experience it or stfu!

[AnnaDea]

Leftist journalism bitching about game of the year based on their limited insight of things.

Ok, gotcha, bye.

[Atticus_finch]

Shit up bro.

[Kabaneri]

Polygon reviews games based on their politics first and foremost.

[refocusedman]

A reviewer states a violent game is violent and its labeled as leftist journalism???????? That comment makes a absolutely no sense.

[lodossrage]

@refocusedman

Don't try to be logical or make sense on this site. It will drive you insane with the sheer amount of foolishness that people type on here.

[rainslacker]

It is when they claim that the leftist progressive stuff falls into the same conceits as the things that Polygon is known to have a great disdain for...which is straight white males being straight white males....except now, it's a homosexual white female.

It's not about equality with them, it's about exceptionalism, and they probably would have only been happy if Ellie had found a way to talk it out, and become a strong leader type, emasculating every male in the process, adopting an asexual hermaphroditic black asian child who identified as a Walrus, and somehow taking over the world, while releasing a virus on humanity that caused all men to turn into barbaric monkeys who flung their own feces.

[AnnaDea]

Because games became being violent with this game.

Not that blowing up hookers with a Bazooka in GTA V is violent.

An extreme leftist site that condemns violence criticises a violent game for being violent.

Yes, absolutely no sense at all.

[Keltech]

So a "so-called Leftist" game company that made a brutal game is being attacked by "leftist" journalism that has a problem with the brutality?. You people make absolutely no sense.

[lodossrage]

@Keltech

I say the same to you that I said to refocused man, Don't try to make sense on this site. Foolishness seems to be what drives things here.

Common sense and logic need not apply.

[AnnaDea]

That is what we call a paradox my friend.

And in the other ring corner we have the homophobic incels that spoiled the game for the group the hate, also known as Polygon sympathisers.

[SpinalRemains138]

This isn't InfoWars.

Ok, gotcha, bye.

[waverider]

of course because in world like that everybody is singing and giving flowers to eachother. Love and peace! Bro...

[Pricey]

If history is anything to go by we are not better than this. It emphasises the value of what we have, it can very easily be lost.

[P_Bomb]

It’s like they slept through the past week of America burning.

[Doomeduk]

Only just a couple of weeks ago I seen two woman fighting like animals over the last pack of bum roll in the store, if they were anywhere near the cutelry aisle honest to god they would have knifed each other they were that viscous, both their husbands didn't want to pull them apart and they ran to get security instead
So I'll play this as a human nature simulator to prepare for the next pandemic
Top job ND...... and polygon you can FO

[rainslacker]

Come to think of it, every year, it's always women I see fighting over stuff in the store on Black Friday. usually the crazy fight videos from walmart also involve women.

I know men are violent, and love to posture and fight sometimes, but yeah, you're right, women are also prone to getting violent. Who'd have thought?

[Chaos_Order]

Okay, so their main complaint is that Ellie kills so many on her journey without ever empathising with those she kills. Hmmm... Maybe has something to do with her experiences in the first game with almost becoming a sex slave, the fact the world is essentially kill or be killed, with gangs of looters, murderers and rapists roaming around, I dunno, maybe all that might have something to do with the way Ellie acts?

[rainslacker]

I never really understood this kind of thinking when applied to games. I mean, how many protagonists do we see lament over their crusade of death from the start to finish of a game? It's so rare to see this happen, it begs the question of why it should be expected at all, and if it shouldn't be expected, why is it something to rate a game on?

It's not for the character to have feelings on, it's for the player to have feelings on. They can decide if it's right or wrong, and still not be fussed about it because it's a game, it's fictional, and they themselves are not psychotic to the point that they have no empathy about the death of hundreds.

[Phoenix76]

Incredible!
You can practically feel the "activisim" written into the article.
Poor piece of so called "gaming journalism".

[Benficaman]

I hate call of duty because there are to many deaths and we shoot to many bullets. Stupid review.

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

This is such a horrible take..look around thew world..we really aren't..Polygon continues to be trash, 96 Metcritic.. Maybe he should watch shindlers list, this is such a naive take.

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

This guy is Naive, watch Shindlers list or the news...what a load of garbage form Ploygon.

[Rikimaru1977]

if you talk bad about a potential GOTY, you'll get other to click on your dying website.

[DeadManMMX]

Without even reading this. I lost a large amount of respect for Polygon way back with the way they covered that Riot firing Jessica Price situation. I’m not even a fan or Riot or any of their games but they took a common sense situation where an employee was being rude to fans on Twitter and made it about Sexism. It was madness. Then they posted the article with no comment section. They seem to be the antithesis of fair and biased journalism. So it doesn’t surprise me that they could somehow play the sequel to one of the most violent and gritty post apocalyptic games ever made and somehow hold against it that a game that occurs in that world would bring more of the same. Also I’m so sick of this “Women in Refrigerators” argument. All supporting characters are under a guillotine in all works of fiction at all times.

[rainslacker]

I lost respect for them when one of their contributors and prolific writers said we didn't matter as gamers, and then they went on a crusade to demonize the gaming community as misogynistic pigs(their words), and colluded to shape the narrative of all gaming journalism in back handed ways which basically removed anyone from journalism that didn't follow what they wanted by putting pressure on people that the journalists needed to do their jobs....which led to gamergate(what it was really about, not what the staff at Polygon changed it into being to the point that even the Wiki page is wrong about what it was), which was a pre-cursor to all this nonsensical pandering to small groups that didn't care anything about gaming.

Since then, they haven't gotten better, or shown any signs that they think they were in the wrong, and they still demonize the gaming community whenever they can, but still expect the gaming community to support them.

[JeffGUNZ]

I just LOL at all reviews for a game like this. Naughty Dog has clearly established that they know how to make masterpieces. No review will turn me off in the slightest for this game.

[Melankolis]

"Did you know murder is wrong?"
- Polygon on the The Last of US Part 2 review, 2020 -

Hahahahaha....
Yes, i did....hahahaha....

[F0XH0UND922]

Leave it to polygon to completely degrade journalistic integrity lol

"Too much violence in an apocalyptic world... 5/10” -Polygon

[telekineticmantis]

Theres no way you want me to believe these joirnalists were not affected by the leaks and the months of uproar over them, too much violence. So Mortal Kombat is a trash game according to Polygon.

[Elda]

Just stop. Next.

[TommyVercetti88]

It's a good game the only thing i hate about is that sjw agenda.

[SpinalRemains138]

What agenda? Gay people actually exist. Why does it bother you? Seriously.

There is no agenda. She is just a character.

[WelkinCole]

SWJ : Excessive violence in games = Right wing agenda

Anti SJW : Different people in games = Left wing propaganda

For the vast majority of us sane gamers its just a game.

[jahcure]

the only thing i'm torn about is waiting to play this on PS5 or just playing it on PS4. Problem comes in because i am still rocking my LAUNCH DAY ps4..not the updated pro :(

I just bought myself a q900 tv and updated my surround sound in anticipation of the ps5 and i would hate to do this game the injustice of playing it in it's lesser form...

advice anyone?

[oakshin]

This is almost as bad as complaining about cutscenes in death stranding so clueless

[drunkenspy007]

Just remember, polygon.com isn't a video game site, they have an agenda that caters to a social group that has nothing to do with gaming at all.

[drunkenspy007]

https://www.polygon.com/use... - Checked the writer and that angry mug explains it all.

[P_Bomb]

Oml, I have concert t-shirts older than that! *exits thread*

[derek]

This review is an exercise in aggressive stupidity.

[monochromer]

Wahhh.

[JEECE]

I hate Polygon as much as most people, but I have to admit it would have been hilarious for them to give this game a 7.5.

[rainslacker]

It's kind of amusing that Polygon thinks they're better than anyone.

At the very least, their site is always good for a laugh, until you realize they're actually serious, then you just want to shake your head and wonder where humanity went so wrong.

[tontontam0]

We are not them.

[Good-Smurf]

"Yet it fails to escape its own past"
You know yourself well Polygon I knew you gave the first game 7.5 "The Last of Us made me feel sick to my stomach"
If the same guy review part 2 he probably would die from food poisoning or choking his own blood.

[kayoss]

Polygon complains about the violence and gore in the last of us 2, but they're ok with Mortal Kombat 11... Go figure.

[frostypants]

Yeah, irony is lost on most extremists.

[VTKC]

Well at this point I am surprised they didn't complainto say there were too many white characters in the game. Didn't they complain about how there was too much water in a game awhile back? Or was that somebody else? IGN?

[TeamIcoFan]

IGN, was a review for one of the pokémon games if I recall.

[rainslacker]

No. Polygon likes to complain about gamers. They were the one's that helped kick start gamergate with their, "gamers don't matter" article, which was actually released on a respectable site at the time, by one of their contributing writers, at the behest of a cabal of gaming journalists who tried to control the discourse and narrative of the entire gaming press(which is what gamergate was actually about).

One way they complain about gamers is by pointing out how we're all misogynistic and discriminatory because we can't accept anything other than straight white males, so anytime they complain about straight white males in a game, an we say that they need to grow up and stop being idiots, they turn it back around on how we're terrible people, and should be chemically, or physically castrated in a vain attempt to emasculate us into submission.

No doubt within a few days, we'll have an article addressing the fallout of this review which will express how they've been harassed by us terrible gamers....which won't show up on here due to N4G rules about game journalists and their woes not being newsworthy.

Edit

@TheRealTedCruz from further down below.

Ran out of bubbles, but hope you see this.

"They appeased the woke crowd, so now Polygon has to attack the violence so they can still have something to cry over."

I guess they went so far to the left, that they're now the extremist right?

[Articuno76]

That was IGN. And TBH it wasn't as daft a criticism as it seems, it was just summarised really poorly so it came across as picky.

[Focus40]

Damn the crying over a person's review is pathetic and sad damn it's just a opinion as long as you enjoy it it shouldn't matter

[quenomamen]

Apparently Polygon only likes killing in the other 90% of video games they play, but not this one, 🤦‍♂️

[LucidIllusion]

Muted

[sourOG]

I’ve read some of the 80-85% reviews and it seems like a solid buy. What do you guys think so far?

[sourOG]

Whoops not out until next week lol.

[ironmonkey]

Wow violence is to much? I can't even Think to have an explanation for that. Like what?

[Sprucegoose77]

It's a video game Polygon, calm down!

[MadLad]

They appeased the woke crowd, so now Polygon has to attack the violence so they can still have something to cry over.

[antarius]

Skill up on YouTube has a great review of it. No politics or alphabet agenda behind the score. So so story with fantastic gameplay and graphics. All these 10’s are catering to the Alphabet Squad, afraid of being called a homophobe if they give it anything less.

[CaEsAr-]

That doesn't make sense. So all Netflix series/movies should have 10's with no regards to quality? You know, since they put a gay/lesbian character in every fkn show.

[ThePacemaker]

The website is clearly dying. The only way out is a clickbait by trashing a great game.

[MadLad]

You played it?