What I Wish The Last Of Us Part 2 Should’ve Been | My Fantasy Game Re-Design
So, after writing my first article on how and why The Last Of Us Part 2 (TLOU2) failed big time for me, I kept going back to the content of it. A part of me was afraid that I didn’t get my points across accurately enough. Writer’s anxiety, ya know?
But then another part of me went: “So what would you have done about it?”
If you haven’t played TLOU2 (or like me, watched, because I’m broke as hell and can’t be buying the game, so instead I go on YouTube to watch Let’s Plays) till now, it might help to get a bit of context, but for this article, I’ll try my best not to spoil too much.
Though I’ll be introducing the characters that were in TLOU2 as part of this “fantasy game re-design”.
How My TLOU2 Game Would’ve Been
In order to understand why I would change what I changed, one of the reasons (and honestly the main reason) why I hated TLOU2 was the forcing of a narrative that didn’t flow well.
I never felt anything for any of the new characters and despite the concept of “if you started playing TLOU — the first game — not as Joel and Ellie, but instead as Abby and her dad, Jerry, you would’ve felt differently about the main plot line of TLOU2 that triggered the avalanche of boring, convoluted, lack of emotion storyline.”
But the thing with TLOU2 is that Abby was immediately shown as the enemy — a very easy to hate enemy — and it was too difficult to forge a new perspective that ‘hey, she’s actually a really decent person but was pushed to the edge’ in only less than half of the game.
So why not let’s start with Abby from the get-go instead?
The beginning of my TLOU2 would’ve been following Abby (from her point of view) & Jerry around when the fungus outbreak started. Maybe even slightly before, kind of like how Joel’s story started.
As the player, we would understand who Abby and Jerry were in the pre-outbreak world. Maybe answer some questions about where and what happened to Abby’s mother (it might bring even more heartbreak and emotion into Abby’s storyline which helps) to how they joined the Fireflies (maybe Abby & Jerry were struggling to fight off hordes of zombies? Maybe they knew of the Fireflies and had to find them? Or signal to them that they need help/could be of help?).
We don’t even need to know who exactly Abby and Jerry are until halfway through the game. We could just see how Abby & Jerry were, and how their relationship grew, and even see how Abby became softer and gentler instead of the hard-shelled girl she was even when she was 14 (or something — there’s some speculation she’s transgendered, so that might be an interesting plot to explore provided it’s not just written to seem ‘inclusive’ or virtue signal, lol).
We could even see a bit more of Abby and Owen’s (another character introduced in TLOU2 that was so hard for me to care about) relationship bloom.
I might even bring in the flashbacks the writers wrote in TLOU2 for Abby & Jerry — for example the zebra that recently gave birth (which Jerry helped and monitored to make sure the zebra baby came out ok) that got stuck in a zombie trap and Jerry made sure to free the zebra before leaving with the Fireflies.
Basically, make Abby and Jerry actual likeable, caring, sympathetic human beings that I would and could give a shit about.
Heck, if the gameplay is sort of similar to first TLOU, I wouldn’t have been too annoyed.
Then, throughout this character and world building, there could be hints of Ellie and Joel in the same world.
Maybe a radio signal of ‘the girl who is immune’.
Maybe tie into what Joel & Ellie had done in TLOU, but now Abby & Jerry is doing in TLOU2 but they’re days ahead of Joel & Ellie, leaving some sort of track or hints that they were there prior in TLOU.
Ya know, a lot of easter eggs in TLOU2 that synced with TLOU?
Then halfway through my TLOU2, I would switch to Jerry’s perspective.
I would slowly hint at who Jerry finally is in relation to TLOU — the surgeon/biologist that somehow made his way to the top, next to Marlene as the Fireflies’ top surgeon/biologist who would eventually operate on Ellie.
As Jerry is in the Fireflies’ hospital, pre-surgery, discussing with Marlene, looking at Ellie’s vitals — whatever it is that he does.
I would make one pivotal change in the discussion of saving or killing Ellie which was initially suggested by this Reddit user — in order to make Jerry seem more sympathetic, show him begging to save Ellie’s life whereas make Marlene be the firm utilitarian that she should’ve been, who wants the surgery to proceed, instead of the other way around. Then when Marlene forces him to do it, she holds some kind of ultimatum (maybe something about Abby? Like threatening to get her exposed to the fungus so that she would get infected) over him so that he has to go through with the procedure.
We would finally roll into the climax ending of TLOU where Jerry’s prepping the surgery with Ellie asleep on the bed and we see, from Jerry’s view, Joel rush in and kill off Jerry.
We would be able to see a tragic ending filled with complex and mixed emotions about what Joel did.
Unlike what TLOU2 did.
TLOU2 made it pretty difficult to like Jerry and I almost shrugged when Joel killed him off, again. Yes, it makes me sound like a psycho but I really felt nothing for Jerry when he made the decision to kill off Ellie.
Also, at least I would’ve felt actual pain for Abby when she eventually discovers her father’s cold dead body and cries over it instead of cringing because of how much I hated her in the beginning.
For the rest of the game, I would do a time-skip and now begin where the original TLOU2 starts. Following Joel & Ellie in the aftermath of the hospital, 4 years later living in Jackson, Wyoming.
They would introduce all the new characters from Jackson that I didn’t really care so much about except for Dina. They would introduce the hordes of zombies migrating closer to Jackson and Dina and Ellie fighting them off whilst kindling their relationship.
We can keep all of that — even jumping back to Abby’s POV and her group of WLF friends in that mansion — until the final, biggest plot point in TLOU2 and end off my TLOU2 there as a cliffhanger.
And at that point it’ll be dependent on how and what the game developers want TLOU3 to be. Heck, even if TLOU3 never came to be because of how I would’ve written the story, I’m completely ok with too. Because no series that’s milked does well.
By my ending, you would’ve completely understood Abby’s POV. You would be extremely conflicted because now you’ve felt Abby’s pain and loss, along with Ellie & Joel’s familial love.
It would’ve been a much more remarkable storyline and would still hold up to TLOU’s writing.
And I wouldn’t have been so annoyed watching TLOU2 halfway.
What do you think about my TLOU2? What sort of changes would you have made? Let me know!
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