BLOCKBUSTER AWARD THE LAST OF US PART II

Writers are commonly advised to kill their darlings; clearly, Neil Druckmann took the advice to heart. Together with co-writer Halley Gross, Druckmann turned in the darkest, most challenging big-budget sequel in living memory: a tale about cycles of violence and their horrifying repercussions that made for one of the most harrowing blockbusters of this or any other year. In what has hardly been a vintage 12 months for triple-A games, this was comfortably the boldest of them all.

You only need look at the online reaction to understand the risks Naughty Dog took here. With Joel’s death alone, it enraged a not-insignificant portion of its audience. Having brutally dispensed with the first game’s protagonist – and so early, too – it then dared to make us sympathise with his killer (whose musculature, ludicrously, became the next topic of feverish Internet debate). Its biggest shocks wind you with their power, just as its beautifully-judged flashbacks break your heart. Not everything comes off: its central message is bludgeoned home with the force of its grisliest face-smashing kills. And Ellie’s undeviating downward spiral into vengeancedriven violence doesn’t just make her unsympathetic but borderline sociopathic. It’s to actor Ashley Johnson’s enormous credit – in what is likely 2020’s most gutwrenching in-game performance – that she finds nuance in a role that seems to leave little room for it.

Sadly, Johnson is not the only one who has had to work minor miracles in the making of this game. It would be remiss of us not to acknowledge the real cost of such artistry: with reports painting an ugly picture of the studio’s crunch culture, we can only hope Naughty Dog finds a better balance for its staff in future. That shouldn’t be ignored, but nor can we overlook the craft on display here. A firstparty game with the thematic weight to match its widescreen sweep, The Last Of Us Part II almost lives up to that Godfather-referencing title.