The Last of Us Part II Made Me Do Something I’ve Never Done
Younger me would be disappointed, but older me is okay with it.
I love hard games. I play hard games. Some of my favorite games of all-time are... you guessed it... hard games.
But a couple of weeks ago when I launched “The Last of Us Part II” for the first time I did something I’ve never done before; I decided to play the game on an easier difficulty setting. My wife even commented, “You’re not playing this on hard?!?”
Nope. I am not playing “The Last of Us Part II” on hard... I’m not even playing it on normal. In fact, I chose the game’s “Light” mode, which is just one level above the easiest setting and one below its normal difficulty. It’s a decision I came upon a few months ago when a bunch of the game’s biggest spoilers were leaking all over the internet.
In the last decade, I’ve had the worst luck with spoilers ruining moments in things I love. For example: I learned about the major death in “The Force Awakens” (Yeah, THAT death) 30 minutes BEFORE going to a closed press screening a week before the movie was even released to the public! Someone literally called the radio station’s request line to tell me because they heard me talking about Star Wars on my show. I was so bummed!
Some people suck.
I couldn’t let that happen for this game because “The Last of Us Part 1” is my favorite of all-time. It’s an experience I’ve carried with me since the first time I rolled credits back in June of 2013 and it’s a story I’ve grown to love so much more since becoming a father.
I care about the characters of Joel and Ellie and I care about the world they’re in; but the environment of The Last of Us is brutal, and like I just mentioned, I’m a dad. My son is 4 so this isn’t a game I’m comfortable playing around him — which gave me even less time to tackle the almost 25 hour story and was even another reason I ultimately became okay with playing on baby mode.
Did it feel weird blasting through sections that should be challenging? Of course, but getting to finish this incredible story without it being ruined was worth it. Besides, that’s what a 2nd play through is for, right?
To those of you still finishing the story, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Now it’s time for me to activate hard mode ;)
Cheers!
