Naughty Dog is known for creating truly captivating gameplay, pushing hardware to its limits to provide gorgeous visuals, and crafting compelling narratives that pull at the heartstrings in ways only films have previously achieved. They’re among the most prominent developers in gaming, and while the Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter and Uncharted series helped define generations, 2013’s The Last of Us proved to be the PlayStation 3’s swan song and showed that they were capable of more than bright and light-hearted games.
In fact, The Last of Us was not only dark and foreboding, but it was also utterly heartbreaking and emotionally-draining in a way that quickly placed it in an entirely new bracket of games and changed how the world viewed Naughty Dog as a whole. After its stunning conclusion, many felt that The Last of Us had achieved what few games ever had – it had told exactly the story it needed to tell, left players feeling complicit in a cycle of violence, and answered just enough questions to leave it never needing a sequel. So, when Naughty Dog announced a followup was, indeed, on its way, many felt concerned that it would be unnecessary and could ruin the perfect cap placed at the end of the original story.
Well, worry no longer. If all of the reviews thus far are any indication, The Last of Us Part II is one of the best titles to ever release on the PlayStation 4. As a matter of fact, it currently sits at a 96 on Metacritic with 81 positive reviews and only 3 mixed, making it the best reviewed game of 2020 and the third best reviewed game on the console altogether. So, the overwhelming majority of critics agree that it’s a sequel very much worth checking out.
Our review of The Last of Us Part II gave the game 5/5 stars and in it, Todd Rigney says:
Although players will find themselves on a blood-soaked adventure that sends its characters on a violent and controversial quest for revenge, The Last of Us Part II feels like the next logical step in this story. Technically and narratively, it’s easily one of the best games available for the PlayStation 4 — if not the entire generation. Gaming doesn’t get much better than this.
The Last of Us Part II launches June 19th exclusively on PS4.