Why The Last Of Us 2 Is The Most Important Video Game Of This Generation

Abby's Perspective Is Impossibly Complex (And Necessary)

Perhaps the most important move that the game makes is forcing us into Abby's shoes. As I've previously mentioned, and as is written by many others who resonated with the title, this is paramount in understanding that personal investment doesn't dictate who lives and who dies. We hate Abby at first, we don't connect with her (and might not even by the end of her section), it's icky as hell playing as both her and a WLF member who we've seen callously rule their lands with a bloodied iron fist, but the forced perspective is a way of peeling our eyes open to really see there's no such thing as good and bad.

Abby changing and growing and having her own journey post smashing Joel's head isn't there to be enjoyed. You don't have to like her, or even sympathise with her - remember not even her "friends" do for the most part as Mel chews her out late in the game - but you do have to understand what's she's doing and why. And long story short, she's now the Joel to Lev's Ellie, another story all in itself that earns her an uncertain allegiance from the player rather than outright devotion. She's done bad things that we can't reconcile, but she'll do so many more good for being allowed to live.

Personally, I struggled to come to terms with having to play as Abby for a large portion of her opening days in Seattle, as I'm sure many others did too. But I can't begrudge the experience because I eventually opened up to learning from it, and then to the incredible character work in turn. It's not forgiveness for what she's done, but letting go of the pain she's caused to move on. And that's exactly why Ellie has to let her live at the end of the game as well.

Ellie loses everything to this woman, but she could have cut her losses far earlier on. Instead, she threw away her girlfriend, her child, her beautiful home, hell, even her guitar-playing fingers all in the efforts of feeling whole again - but this brutality can't last. Vengeance is fruitless, but she's so broken by the world around her she can't let it go until she's in control of that decision, no matter how deeply she knows it to be wrong.

Ellie chooses to let Abby live at the moment should could have killed her, in some sick unsatisfying (yet absolutely right) twist, because it's the one thing she can say is a result of her choices that means something. That's important for a woman who's living a life that doesn't feel like it belongs to her.

I go through all this as what could be more generation defining than a story this unafraid to dig so deep into the nastiness of the human psyche? Abby's involvement, arc, and our eventual compliance in her story to the point we're beating our beloved Ellie round the head is something so striking we've never seen it in a game before. It's bold to push your own audience away and make them work through their discomfort to TRY and enjoy your game, when it would be so easy to deliver a hefty slice of fan-service we'd have all been entertained more instead.

This is the most emotionally complex, brave, and unapologetic title put to screens, devastating in its understanding of human nature and in its impressive scope, and making you work through such a quandary is something that might not ever appear in quite as poignant a way again.