THE LAST OF US PART 2
Well, this one obviously had to be in there. For a good month or so in 2020 (if not more), the “gamer discourse” revolved almost exclusively about The Last of Us Part 2, and the many, many aspects of Naughty Dog’s game that proved controversial. The one that generated the most reactions, of course, Joel’s death- or, to be more precise, the manner in which he dies. His gruesome death at the hands of a newly introduced character barely an hour into the game didn’t set well with a large number of people, with the expectation, by and large, having been that The Last of Us Part 2 would be yet another story focusing on the Joel and Ellie duo. The fact that pre-launch marketing for the game cleverly misled and misdirected people in several ways didn’t help, and the fact that players then spent essentially half the game playing as Joel’s killer was just pouring gasoline on a raging fire.
