The Last Of Us 2: 10 Things Fans DON'T Want To See

9. Unchanged Mechanics

The Last of Us 2
Naughty Dog

A video game sequel has to pull a lot of weight in order to justify its existence. Whereas a film or book sequel can just continue character arcs, expand the lore and worldbuilding and what not, a video game sequel has to do all of that AND expand/tighten up the gameplay from the last one. If Uncharted 2 hadn't tweaked the shooting, made the climbing more satisfying, increased the challenge of the puzzles, and improved the story, there wouldn't be an Uncharted 3.

Case in point, The Last Of Us, which had some really good gameplay for its time, but there are some hiccups that a sequel can and should iron out. For one, a lot of the fights are pretty scripted, so the player should have more agency whenever combat breaks out. The stealth could also benefit from an upgrade, perhaps by going the Thief route by making light levels an active component in how easy/hard it is to sneak around. But when you get caught, fighting your way back to safety shouldn't be as punishing as it could be in the first game.

The previous game was fantastic, but there are some areas that a sequel should look into tightening up.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?