Jeeze, I had a whole big thing written out on that other thread, and then lost it, and it got real big so I made it its own post.
A short note on the idea that it is a AAA Videogame (derogatory) with AAA Violence and that it gamefies violence because its main gameplay verbs are Shoot and Cut and so it just has more violence than it should and it causes ludonarrative dissonance because it's a game with a lot of killing, which I feel I am saying in response to this [Polygon article](https://www.polygon.com/2020/6/26/21304642/the-last-of-us-2-violence) which has a rare example of unintentional url humour... I dunno, at least as far as _The Last of Us_ is concerned, I think this is ultimately kind of a simple even boneheaded take, just 'cause I feel like if any AAA (derogatory )game at least sort of justified why its narrative and setting was inundated with constant, stifling violence, it was _The Last of Us._ I mean, I don't see a _whole_ lot of people mention this, but I felt the level of violence was appropriate given the situation, and more specifically, I think it was characteristically a sort of post-post apocalyptic society that would emerge, specifically out of the United States of America going through that sort of apocalypse and responding by immediately descending into hyperviolent individualistic plaguefascism. "Human beings are the monsters after all because gun" is pretty reductive at least of _The Last of Us Part 1,_ for sure even if _Part 2_ is less interested in portraying that aspect of the setting. Like, I thought it made sense that a culture of extreme violence would come out of a situation where a hyper dominant and deeply arrogant cryptofascist state became compelled to eat most of itself to survive a disaster, but also what it would look like if the powerful were relatively successful in hanging on to power, especially in a situation where soft power structures collapsed overnight, and once that happens, the power of being already militarized can't really be argued with. So I do think the _setting_ justifies its omnipresence of violence, but to a certain degree it feels like a setting that only makes sense emerging out of the corpse of America if it were to be murdered in a certain way. I have this private fantasy about the concluding shots of The _The Last of Us_ Series showing the arrival of ships or aircraft full of highly organized soldiers and doctors from Africa and/or Asia who have been planning a continental rescue mission for North America for the last 20 years, and come armed to the gills with weapons specialized for killing Infected and a vaccine ||they didn't even have to kill a kid for.|| And they'll just look around and think, huh, yeah, ok, this makes sense, but damn, really?
Anyway, enough of that.
I gotta say, I felt Tim's statement of ".............but that game is just REAL good" in my bones. Cause... yeah... that game is REAL good.
For the record, I had not played _The Last of Us_ until, well, last year. I remember seeing the [E3 2018 Gameplay Trailer](https://youtu.be/btmN-bWwv0A) and thinking there was no way that that could be actual gameplay and that the cinematic and dynamic way it unfolded must have been AAA Games (derogatory) doing what they do and making a AAA Trailer with gussied up AI and carefully choreographed action with trailer unique animations and scene blocking to make the combat look more visceral than it actually would play like. After Tim announced he was going to review Part 1, I figured, okay, there might be something to this. I had foolishly gotten a download code for _The Last of Us: Remastered_ with my PS4, and dismissed it so heavily as _"just another AAA zombie game,"_ that I intentionally did not ever enter the code, and, thinking I was too cool to have a PS4 for any reason other than to play _Bloodborne,_ even semi-intentionally lost the slip of paper at some point. Finally playing that, however, made me see that, that's a good game, and also think that, hey, maybe this Part 2 trailer _isn't_ bullshit... just based on how everything felt in TLOU1. And honestly, it really wasn't bullshit, which is still kind of mindblowing to me. Maybe some of those animations are gussied up for the trailer, sure, but behavior of the enemies as well as the level of interaction you have with the environment is pretty much faithful to the gameplay, which is ridiculous.
It makes TLOU2, in my opinion, the new gold standard for stealth action games, 3rd person shooters, and maybe even just broadly games which adhere to at least some entertainment focused facsimile of realism (we're not so naive as to think this game would be better if it was _actually_ realistic, what we love about games like this is that it gives the _feeling_ that it is realistic). The way physical spaces in the game simultaneously feel realistic and that they will act and be navigable, but also like they are tailored to foster good gameplay, is nothing short of a marvel. I think this is because so much work was put into making the game play in a way where, simply by knowing what it's like to navigate and interact with physical spaces in The Real, you feel you know how physical spaces will work in _The Last of Us Part 2._
Disclaimer, but I played the game on my first playthrough with all of the difficulty settings maxed for most of it. I did this because I felt _The Last of Us 1_ as well as other Stealth Action games prepared me more than adequately for it, and that after seeing that trailer I really wanted to see what the game could throw at me. I had a blast gameplay wise doing this, I really love stealth actions games and when I get into them I go hard. Mid game spoilers, ||to give a less stealth oriented and more action oriented run-'n-gun feeling to Abby's sections, which for me felt more thematically appropriate and gameplay-wise mechanically refreshing, I lowered the survival settings for Abby's section but kept everything else at max, so I could still have intense combat but feel less constant tension. I also did this just 'cause I had no idea I was only like 60% of the way through the game and that Abby's Literal Half wasn't more of a diversion to lead into the ending than such a huge part of the game. But once I realized it really was basically the back half of the main dramatic arc of the game, I realized setting it that way was a really good idea and I had a lot of fun playing that way.|| Particularly with stealth mechanics, it doesn't feel Videogame-y. By which I mean, for instance, as much as I love those games and for how particular of a weirdo was at the helm of them and who I imagine could only have been constrained by tech limitations, you very very very rarely get even a whiff of that cognitive dissonance like in _Metal Gear Solid_ where these supersoldiers with genetically enhanced hearing and vision can't see Snake's boots poking out from under the truck. Sure, having the rifle slung on Ellie's back clip through the wall won't reveal your position, but aside from stuff like that that probably wouldn't even be fun to have to deal with anyway, everything else makes the gameplay come together in a way that feels so visceral, dynamic, and communicable. Like, the shooting and aiming and movement is all great if not excellent, but it's the way you can see a physical space before you and know how interacting with it will work in a way that frees it from feeling like a videogame with rules to its physical spaces that don't line up with reality, or, again, perhaps more accurately the entertaining fascimile of realism, that forms expectations in the player for how to play and move and approach combat challenges and problem solve.
That's not exactly what I find to be so good about TLOU2, though. I think what really set it apart for me was that the action on screen and the way in which control and deliberateness of control was finely crafted makes that control disappear as I became immersed in the gameplay, action, tension, and, yes, the violence.
Now, this is going to make me sound like an ultra freakazoid serial killer weirdo. But bear with me, because it is not exactly a "good" or "cool" thing... TLOU2 gives me too accurate of a feeling of what it could be like to stalk and pounce on and kill a person.
In a more fantasy based or less morally slate gray setting, stealth action is empowering. It's cool in _Sekiro_ to blitz around killing legendary creatures or loyal warriors to a feudal lord or ||The Feds,|| swiftly and stylishly. In _Metal Gear Solid,_ we get moral complexity, but also melodrama. And depending on what game, you can even put in extra effort to exclusively use non-lethal force, which, honestly, feels Canon.
In this relatively grounded story in this relatively grounded world, though, the pragmatism of its murder is uncomfortable. What's even more uncomfortable is that you barely notice it getting easier and easier as time goes on, and then, a brutal moment in a cutscene snaps you right back. It is not a Murder Simulator, delighting in crass and shapeless acts of murder. But it does simulate murder. Those visceral and synapse level responsive controls and communicable mechanics are not just for having fun doing a Gameplay. They place you in the role of the live choreographer plotting out the survival and mortal combat undertaken by the player character.
One of the ways it does it so effectively is by what I think amounts to stiletto precise employment of cutscene QuickTime Events, believe it or not. At their worst, QTEs are simply ways in which the laziest developers are making sure that you are paying attention to their boring cutscene, or want something Cool to happen visually and felt it acceptable to rob the player of standard gameplay to do it. At their best, they are a powerful part of the way action on screen, player immersion, narrative authorship, and player control of a character can greatly enhance the immersive experience of playing games. I ultimately don't know how deliberate some of this is, but two moments in particular, as I both played them and thought about them afterwards, made me feel gutpunched by how powerfully the game used these subtle psychological manipulations on me, and all it was were, of all things, QTEs.
The first moment is... detailed spoiler heavy story description. ||When Ellie corners Nora in the basement of the hospital. Nora is doomed because of the spores, and so Ellie demands that she tell her where Abby is, in exchange, she will quickly mercy kill her. Nora remains defiant. Ellie tortures her to get Abby's location.||
Vague, less spoiler-y but still certainly a spoiler description: ||Player character Ellie needs information out of someone whose death is all but certain. They are defiant, because it would involve betraying a friend. Ellie tortures them to get the information.||
Something Tim said during his Action Button Review of TLOU1 stuck with me and now I think about it a lot when I play games, especially ones like this. In TLOU, I never feel like _I_ am Joel or _I_ am Ellie. It feels much more like I am simply in control of their survival instinct. I choreograph, but I do not choose anything important. I have no narrative authorship. In this moment, that aspect of the game feels like a slap in the face. If was not being generous, or, frankly, I was not glued to the action on screen when I played it, I would probably feel that this is a Kick The Puppy moment big time, because while we do not get any input as to whether our player character chooses to use torture to get what they want, and they will do so no matter what, _progression in the game_ is gated behind the player Pressing The Square Button to Initiate Torture. And the game knows that you don't want to see the character do this, because it doesn't show you the victim, it shows you the player character's face from the ground up. We have to press Square not once, not twice, but three times, to further the cutscene.
It is easy, I think, to say that must simply be the game going "yeah you loved that didn't you, you sicko, you pushed the button to Torture. you should feel bad because you made that moral choice, didn't you, but _of course you don't you sicko,_ you _love sicko shit_, if you didn't like it you wouldn't keep playing would you, you sicko???" I think this is a reductive view of what the effect (if not the deliberate intent) was on forcing the player to press buttons to proceed with the action on screen. It was at this moment I felt that the game was doing something more than that, because, it seemed to be aware if not predictive of how I was feeling and how it felt to have control in this game, because, it is definitely aware that I am not Ellie and I don't _feel_ like Ellie, what I do is I direct and time her movement and action. I am deliberately not given authorship over whether to Torture or not, but, I am also not given any authorship at all. What, in that intense sequence _am_ I being given authorship over? It struck me like a lightning bolt--what I'm in control of is the emotive expression of the player character. In that moment, I am not controlling me, or Ellie, or even Ellie's actions. What I am in control of is more abstract, it's not someone's body or survival instinct. I am in control of someone's emotions, I am in control of Ellie's hesitation, the internal conflict that knows what she is doing is horrific and wants this to not happen. It's the emotion I'm feeling when I am not pushing the button, it's one of the most intense feelings I've had from _not_ pushing a button. I am desperate for there to be another way. I don't press Square exactly because I've figured out the game is indeed going to gate progress and give me an alternate scene. I press Square because the rage in Ellie's face tells me that Ellie has made her decision. My hesitation is superseded by the narrative authorship, and ultimately, what I am controlling is momentary internal pleading with a blind rage. I press Square. All of the same emotions come back, stronger, but it's the same. I press Square again. My hope for a different outcome is ground to dust when still nothing changes. I press Square again and the screen goes black shortly after.
The other moment is almost its polar opposite: ||Day 3. Ellie finds Mel and Owen in the Aquarium. She catches them unaware and has a gun on them. She frantically demands information from them to find Abby. She tries to set up Tommy and Joel's torture tag team on her own (we get this feeling that Ellie is way too comfortable with resorting to torture). As they inch closer and Ellie becomes more frantic, Owen rushes her. After a short struggle, she shoots him in the gut and he collapses. Mel rushes her, gets on top of her on the ground with a knife to her throat. Ellie is able to throw her off, and then overpower her fairly easily, stabbing her in the neck, killing her instantly. Owen dies shortly after.||
Vague description but still spoilerific: ||Player character Ellie finds two friends of the person they are hunting, and pulls a gun on them, demanding to know where their friend is. Player character is frantic and tries to force them to co-operate by using a manipulation torture tactic she learned from a complicated mentor. This tactic requires two people, though, and in her franticness, one of them rushes Ellie when their guard is down, and gets shot in the gut after a brief struggle. The other tackles them to the ground, is almost able to kill them with that momentum, but in the end, Ellie shoves them off and overpowers them easily, killing them in the process. The other person shot in the gut dies shortly after.||
At this stage in the game, I think we are supposed to be getting real tired of seeing Ellie kill people senselessly. I don't see how at this point the sins aren't weighing on you. And I think that is deliberate. The QTEs, or rather, QTE, here, though, is actually immersive in the ways in which they are _absent_ rather than present. For most of the game, we have gotten the idea that if we get physically overpowered we will need to mash the Square button or whatever, in a cutscene, we may be asked to finalize an act of violence with a button press. However, that's not what happens here. Ellie gets rushed and loses control of herself. She shoots reflexively, instinctually. And in that moment, it's the last thing that we the player want to see. We don't necessarily feel sympathetic to what Ellie wants to do but we very likely don't want her to murder to get it if she doesn't have to. And yet, she does. But where the game gets you invested in Ellie's feeling of frantic loss of control is how it does and does not use QTEs. To this point we have become physically used to the way in which with our body (controller in hand) we move and direct another body (Ellie). Often that means controlling murders. But in this moment where we are surely tired of murder, there is only one QTE--the moment Ellie is overpowered and needs to fight off her attacker to survive. The way in which Ellie kills them in this scene is not connected to our sense of control at all, It is not the result of a button press. Again, we are forced to be dragged out and crammed back in to control of this character, but the only control we can muster is the control to keep her alive. We are as out of control of the act of killing her attackers as she is.
Ultimately, _The Last of Us Part 2,_ rather than epitomizing what I think is seen as this flaw or incongruity between gameplay and narrative and player control as that Polygon article concluded, instead feels like a logical conclusion to the sorts of things in games that have been talked about since _Bioshock._ That discussion as it pertains to like how _deeeeep_ it is maybe even felt almost like we were beating a dead horse, and sometimes it feels like the morality aspect of it is at least a near dead horse. That's a bit unfair I think and this game made me think about it a lot. There is still plenty of ground to cover in terms of the potential for videogames as an immersive form of media to immerse the player by being more _aware_ of what "control" is, whether control is just what you do to enact gameplay and clear interactive challenges, or if control can be extended to narrative effectively, or if we can control something like emotive performance or if a game can play with our emotions, and what it feels like to have it, not have it, be given it, and have it be taken away, and so on and so forth. TLOU2 was a stellar game, mechanically, audiovisually, in terms of accessibility, but I think for me that's what really put it over the top. It made me think about and feel what was happening on screen in a way that was uniquely intense and gripping. I've maybe kind of gotten to a point where if I'm gonna be killing people in a videogame, they better be unambiguously evil (and then at that point it already isn't a realistic setting unless we talkin' Nazis or Cops (derogatory)), and if it is a realistic setting and I have no real reason to believe the people I'm killing are deserving of death, the game better make me feel really uncomfortable about it. And, I guess, it is conducive to my enjoyment and engagement with the game that I can lean into that discomfort willingly.
As I said in the opening paragraph I think the first game established at least a setting in which this level of horrific violence makes sense, I can't imagine the psychological impact of living in a world where some people are forced to destroy human shaped things (that were once human (but are definitively not human anymore)) before in their parents' world they would be legally allowed to operate a motor vehicle (because that could kill someone done irresponsibly!). And excessive and relentless and graphic though TLOU2 was about the idea of persons taking lives, I don't think it was gratuitous. If anything I appreciated the brutality of it. If you are going to portray an ugly world like this or refer to the worst parts of the one we actually live in, I want it to be honest, my interest and frankly patience for a lack of authenticity with regards to how our existence is inundated with constant horrendous violence has been gone for a while. Tthe subject matter is about things that are disgusting and depraved and not even a lifetime of shooting person shaped things prepared me for it. Despite being a blockbuster AAA title, it really does make the game hard to recommend, because I think it's good at what it set out to do. It is a sicko game about sickos who do sicko things and if you don't like going into sicko mode at least reasonably enough it can be if not _should_ be offputting. Genuinely, I say, if you don't think you would enjoy it, don't play it! Don't even watch a Let's Play. It's a game that does mean to make you feel immersed in intense and awful experiences. Even though I can't deny that it isn't a niche title commercially, thematically it basially just should be. Whether or not Naughty "Coolcorporate Overlords" Dawg really deserve to grant themselves the creative licence to do something like this is up for debate (I don't really play their games so idk!), but least when I played it I did not feel like the game was "gamifying" violence or making me feel that the violence was part of a Videogame, because its omnipresence is so cloying, in a way that at least for me felt like a conscious rejection of the idea that there can be something poetic or dramatic or meaningful about murder. It's murder, it's there, it's inescapable, it's not even natural because as a species we aren't really murderous, but it has been unnaturally made ubiquotous. Murder means life, which is, no hyperbole, the most fascinating and precious thing we, as life, concretely know of, is utterly destroyed, forever, and nothing will ever be the same ever again such is the complexity and depth of it, and those left behind don't have meaning or purpose or a duty, they have trauma and a void, a permanent absence that can never completely fill in such is the depth and complexity of it, and it can even grow and consume more things around it when you do nothing to even try and fill it. Yet the people in these situations murder as easily as they scratch an itch in public. It's horrible!! But... I think it makes sense to me.
And I guess finally while we're at it, Revenge = bad is so played out, but I dunno, I didn't expect it to have anything to say about that, at least nothing profound, and yet, the resolution ||feeling like it was the result of a sudden momentary impulse and nothing else, was at once shocking and predictable in a way I found kind of incredible, what with the overall shape of it all.|| It really left me feeling like it could have gone any which way because the motivations and stakes at play seemed developed enough (not complex, developed) that it really did all just come down to ||chance, an almost intrusively sudden emotional shift. I did not feel the character redeemed themselves. I did not feel drama, or poetry, or language, or heroism and certainly not justice. It was not a "right" thing to do so much as it was a moment where an impulse to understand and be aware that what felt like the pursuit of some tireless obsession was just a pitiful and downright petty destructive cycle she was set on by nothing more than her own pain and guilt, and that impulse somehow illuminated however faintly the bottom of that void, and then, the illusion of meaning that pushed Ellie forward on a relentless path of violence evaporated, at least, in the most important moment, it was able to let go. And she loses _yet another_ irreplacable, precious thing over it, but finally there is an acceptance of the reality of that, that it was at least a decision someone else made and one's own will should not be imposed on the existence of another, like the way she had erased life as nothing more than an obstacle. And so instead of a void, since no death is involved, we are left with a lessening of the correctness of form... not a void, and not a good change, but the impact of a poor choice poorly made, landing with an appropriate, awkward discord.||
I dunno. That was a real dynamite videogame I guess. Is it high art, and profound? Maybe not, but man, it made me feel a whoooooole lot of feelings, and at some point, there's no difference.
__
One final note on the last chapter.
||Good idea to place the one group of irredeemable bastard motherfucker humans who are Literal Slavers who are seemingly remnants of the LAPD, right at the end, where, damn, I was tired of having to emotionally and immersively loathe violence! FUCK those guys!! Felt good to liberate and arm their slaves!! They're in videogame hell!!!!!!!!!||