A running list of all the things I wrote down while playing The Last of Us Part 2

This is an unedited, spoiler-filled, and raw list of notes I wrote down while playing The Last of Us Part 2. Or II. It’s stream of consciousness, goes chronologically, and may not make sense unless you’ve experienced the entire game. I’m not sure what other context to provide, there’s no explanation needed, this is just what I felt going through my first 30 hour playthrough. I hope you enjoy this, or understand where I was coming from, because what a mind fuck this entire game was. I’m still reeling.

• so twitter/youtube just outright spoiled last of us part 2 in such a blatant way with hashtags i no longer see the point in highlighting popular hashtags anymore as a feature of social media
• So the part that’s everyone is mad at, and is all over twitter, is early on in the game. What a cruel, mean, manipulative thing to piss everyone off. This game is getting review bombed for a reason, you spend all this time and money to make a beautiful game and just piss it away on some bull shit
• I’m so afraid this game is all the bad parts of what waypoint/polygon said it is on those early podcasts and overshadows the good parts everyone else talks about
• It’s not quite metal gear solid 2 bait and switch but it’s not far off either
• imagine if the hospital scene from 1 was like the whole game for 2, Where you’re like “stop being dumb you idiots, don’t do that” the whole time
• The first game had more memorable moments and conversations and this game doesn’t elevate its gameplay enough to counteract its story so far. Also I can’t imagine playing this for 25 hours more dude
• torture porn?
• What a bizarre turn for naughty dog, to not double down on the lightness of 1 that juxtaposed the infected. This game isn’t interested in that at all
• This is the wrong game at the wrong time in so many ways
• Ghost of Tsushima, another revenge game, will be a PALETTE CLEANSER next month
• Okay so there are some flashbacks that make LoU2 more endearing but it seems like this is not the bulk of the experience, just a reprieve from all the killing and guilt
• Sometimes I’m playing this game and think “who is this for?” And then an amazing moment happens with Ellie and I continue to question what I feel about this game because sometimes there are fantastic sequences
• The two Last of Us games are second to none in this regard: generating discussion and critical analysis, in a way only like mad men used to do. I miss talking about what mad men was doing, that’s what these games do. Anger and please and make us all talk about it
• At several points in this game, I thought “someone learned all the wrong lessons from Children of Men”. i hope its not going to end with a huge bummer, from this mysterious boat in the main menu!
• Also god of war does companion and enemy AI way better, several times I’ve noticed dumb AI and it ruined immersion or got me caught in stealth
• I should not have played days gone before last of us 2 bc it does some stuff way better like looting and melee combat
• did you know this game is about the LoSs oF iNnOcEnCe
• This game rehashes the first a lot (because it knows it’s a better game)
• Every time I criticize 2, I end up playing an hour of incredible stuff that makes me say “god damnit Druckmann”
• I’m so scared this second half is going to suck, because the first half is jam packed with both the highest of highs and some lows that are questionable
• Ok I just hit THE plot point of the game. IT WAS ABOUT THE DOCTOR THIS WHOLE TIME??? Fuck you Druckmann you mother fucker. OF COURSE you would. I’m both delighted and disgusted by what they did. OF COURSE. im smiling and nodding but also mad but also like come on what really. the doctor?
• I keep laughing and saying “fucking Druckmann” over and over in both good and bad ways. Jesus christ, if I had only known what the previous vague podcasts were REALLY saying
• I’m pacing around my room right now. They REALLY just did that to me. Just know if you have any questions about this game they ANSWER them. Fucking Druckmann!!!!!!!! You got me. Son of a bitch. Idk if I’m happy or pissed. Dude get a microphone now I have some THOUGHTS. THATS what this game is about???! This whole time???????
• Druckmann put himself in this game, also a fun fact! Once as an Easter egg once as a lookalike character with a similar accent
• This game cannot leave well enough alone and keeps unspooling the first game in a way that makes me think if they should have
• There’s no civilization or society anymore, it’s not like someone can be arrested. Frontier justice is the only thing left, of course murder will happen!
• There’s a story in Hollywood that Robert Redford asked woody Allen to write him a comedy, and redfords comment on the first script was about this small character being removed. So every version of the next draft kept making that one small character a larger part until he was the protagonist. That’s exactly what Druckmann did with this game
• Also the jump button they added could have been auto jump, unnecessary imho. It doesn’t lift you from the ground enough to warrant its inclusion.
• Clickers? Not nearly as scary or hard to deal with
• This game is 50% holding down triangle to push a door open while the next area loads. the other 50% is GUILT
• the longer this game goes on the more times I say “what the fuck Druckmann”
• So the extra length in this back half is because of a story reason and I really don’t know if it was necessary or will pay off. really dragging in this later Abby stuff, im not sure i give a shit about the WLF enough to care about starting over on my gun/skill progression
• owen sucks, im glad he’s dead and im glad i killed him
• So I’ve been hanging out with the trans character for like two hours at this point and only just heard a line of dialogue about it, and then I realized
• You’re gonna HATE what they do later in the game. Which is some Dances with Wolves shit, literally, and also Druckmann invents Christianity all over again and you should see what the followers do in the name of the prophet. Like hate trans people! And do the crusades!
• It’s so on the nose, it goes through the nose
• like there’s some great character work and interactions, but then some dumb ass plot point shit and then your character jumps off a platform and dies and you restart
• I just want to scream MAKE A TV SHOW so real critics can insult you and not gamer gate fanatics
• But did you know we’re all alike? And that humans are bad and do violence? But we’re not so different after all?
• Ok so I just did an hour long level, which was whatever, JUST to get to this one part and OH MY LORD ITS INSIDE. Ripped off Inside in such a way I’m aghast. It’s cool as shit though but like so unoriginal. And staged very deliberately so you know where it’s going but JESUS. Also some of these death animations are brutal in ways Tomb Raider thinks is too much. These programmers and animators must be treated for PTSD
• Dude this level is resident evil and it’s fucking awesome
• A lot of convenient Game of Thrones season 8 traveling in between cut scenes, too much for my liking. “How did they get there?” Type stuff
• Also, bad dream sequences. All bad. None good.
• The pockets of humanity they sneak in, is why this game works. The smallest moments, not the big ones. More games need these small genuine things that flesh out the world
• This game doesn’t mix infected and soldiers that much, which is lame
• some characters who go missing just SHOW UP and it’s like, come on game
• How do people in the apocalypse keep their teeth so white and clean. Explain that to me Druckmann!
• Okay this game is hopefully nearing the end (I’m going to say that a lot) and is getting to some Midsommar type shit now?
• Now it’s turning into the wicker man!?!?!?
• This game makes me so nervous that I have to pee constantly, and no it’s not the Mountain Dew I’m having
• So many hours spent on stuff that either goes nowhere or doesn’t matter, it’s such a waste of my time story wise, what is going on. Who made these decisions
• Now there’s some RE4 island shit going on
• Rubble falls perfectly to block exists, like real life and not a video game. Too many coincidences for my liking
• This game is nasty as fuck
• This game is more ambitious in that there’s just MORE story and characters but not like, anything meaningfully new or interesting from what I’ve experienced previously. But boy does it hold your attention
• the map as a plot point is really good
• we spent so long as abby that i forgot about ellie and jesse, and they feel like villains now but im not sure thats a good thing? by design, yeah, but like, eh?
• this franchise loves to make you be people doing things you dont want to do, a bold strategy for any fan who wants to like these games lol
• has any movie followed the bad guy and made you feel guilty for watching their actions? funny games? was that a satire, i watched both versions and felt it didnt accomplish whatever Hannake intended on doing
• stop beating around the bush and choose game! which protagonist do you want us to play in the third game!? WHICH
• i cant believe they turned ellie into a stealth boss battle like they did with the bloater in the first game, the shamblers in this game, and the Inside ball of men at that hospital WTF
• so ellie didnt let her away, abby let herself away, damn
• awwwwwwwwww they let them live! how nice of the druck mann
• OR IS THIS A DREAM SEQUENCE???
• in what world do those two heal up, survive, and make it back to wyoming alive, baby fine and all
• was this a big apology for the entire game so far?
• ok i smiled at the name JJ
• god i wanted them to end on a poop joke so bad
• this is like THE nicest most adorable ending they thought of, its maybe too dreamy and ideal? i dont even see scars on them or anything. one took an arrow to the shoulder and the other got her arm jacked up
• WOW they really wanted to make us happy, holy hell tommy
• that journal is really good, love the journal
• who knows how to paint so well?
• ellie should have played the theme song to this game, made it really meta
• music as trauma therapy
• wow they end the game with the first cut scene shown off, thats kind of novel
• i wonder how long they knew this would be the literal end of the game
• sweat physics are real in this game
• bigotry bad! gays not welcome in a family event!
• oh i forgot they ended in a bad place, aww that sucks. tell your loved ones you love them!
• this game wants to be better than the first so bad. i dont think it is
• how is this game still going?
• thank god she didnt make the same mistake twice, dont make me play a third game about revenge again NO NEVERMIND
• are you kidding me, she literally wants to go all the way to santa barbara and now i have to play as abby again?
• return of the king syndrome, end the game already end the story, we dont need this
• what the fuck, owen was right? fireflies are back?
• when is the boat from the main menu coming back?
• dina and abby are mad hot, thats my ultimate takeaway from this game
• what the fuck is this game? why is it still going? why is dog the bounty hunter in this game? why does everyone they introduce just die? i dont understand anything anymore
• why is there so much more game why am i still playing this, why why why so long too long
• do they hire editors at naughty dog, at all
• some of the most bloated storytelling ive ever seen, i cannot believe this game still keeps going
• ARE YOU KIDDING ME SHE GETS CAUGHT IN A TRAP AND STABBED BY A TREE
• IS THIS A JOKE
• these cuts to black are going to be the death of me
• THEY BRING SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING INTO THIS GAME????????????
• the backwards hats in SoCal are very ’90s and i love it
• is this song from Spec Ops?
• dozens or hundreds of developers were crunched just to make this portion of the game?
• “The Pillars” is one of the most haunting things ever made in a game, and that’s saying something, considering we got a Knack 2
• everyone has short hair now
• what a performance by Laura Bailey though, that’s this game’s highlight is her
• the fucking boat, i knew it
• they get so much imagery out of joel’s corpse
• like what is ellie thinking and why, just why, does she want to fight and/or die, just why
• so many instances of “dodge twice then hit square. do it again, now dodge three times” just degrades all these moments
• this is the saddest They Live fight, i dont want to do this, why am i doing this
• druckmann i hate you
• they made ellie and joel and abby truly irredeemable characters and i hate them for it, i dont care if she lets her get away on the boat anymore
• its not noble for her to leave her WIFE AND BABY for revenge only to let them go
• its just stupid
• i remember how they handled white guilt in django when christoph waltz’s character came back to save them
• AND THE GAME KEEPS GOING wow okay
• divorce her dina, do it
• this norman rockwell painting of a house
• and still she survives, how much medical equipment do these people own on the road
• good leave her dina
• oh man she cant even play guitar anymore she had her finger bit off, what a bitter game this ended up being
• your actions have consequences, thank you druckmann for that depressing 35 hour explanation
• this game cuts to black more times than employees are crunched at naughty dog!
• oh ellie you had absolutely nothing under control, not a single relationship or decision
• cant believe this game is still going after that perfect cut scene with joel
• the definition of the word pretension, in the dictonary, reads as
• The game constantly resets itself gameplay and progression wise, it wants the story to do the heavy lifting. But I don’t think it does because it has 7 acts too many
• This game fucked me up in such a way that I’m still thinking about that schindlers list tweet, the level design, the game spot review, and what a hurricane of bad timing in all of our lives this entire last few months was, I don’t think I’ll ever experience a whirlwind on the same level, and this current moment is impossible to quantify let alone with the added context of this games release and games journalism burning down just like Haven 
• Can’t sleep. I think I need more time to process this game than the first, which is remarkable. Dunkey’s review was very on point
• When Ellie needed Dina to go, she did. When Dina needed her to stay, she didn’t. ellie you suck, what a moron, how could you do that, i cant empathize with that, i just cant
• i think the Gamespot review is the closest to how i feel
• The game isn’t as brutal as the crunch Naughty Dog employees felt, because those developers are real people and the characters in the game are fictional and only made of polygons. Polygons cannot unionize, unlike game developers, who should.
• Okay a day after I beat it, the astronaut moment and the Aha “Take on Me” song are the best parts of this game and are up there with the giraffes from the first. I’m going back to play Days Gone now, wish me luck scrubbing all this zombie gore from my brain as the country around me descends into a third world nation, with a way-too-late full blown revolution mixed in
• not as good as the first game, not as fun as uncharted 4, but they left nothing unexamined and nothing on the cutting room floor, for better and for worse