“Killing Abby may have provided Ellie with momentary satisfaction at justice being served, but it wouldn't have changed anything. Joel would still be dead, and the cycle of violence would have continued.”— Noelle Corbett, cbr.com
“That’s intimacy, when you get down to it: knowing someone well enough to lovingly press their buttons.”— Patricia Hernandez, polygon.com
“It was a poignant reminder that human achievement has been leveled by the pandemic, too.”— Theresa DeLucci, tor.com
“People rarely change in horror fiction – they follow instincts and enact rituals until they meet their doom. Ellie’s inability to divert from her quest for blood gradually reveals her, not as a victim, but as a vengeful demonic entity, as ceaseless and uncompromising as the ghostly onryō of Japanese…”— Keith Stuart, theguardian.com
“Sometimes, bad things happen to people, and they never get better. People just do their best to deal with the pain.”— Bernard Boo, denofgeek.com
“It's a bleak, pessimistic world, and exploration issues aside, I didn't exactly want to leave it.”— Kallie Plagge, gamespot.com
“When I would write graphic violence ... I would feel so zen. It was ... like four hours of therapy.”— Halley Gross, latimes.com
“Whatever we say here ultimately doesn’t matter. Everything you need to understand the story is in the game, and whatever players take from it… their interpretation is right.”— Neil Druckmann, indiewire.com
“Are critics who were upset by the game’s violence crybabies? Are they entitled gamers? Are they just mad at SJWs? Is anyone who dislikes this game immediately a black mark to shun and mock?”— Erik Kain, forbes.com
“The Last of Us Part 2 offers a profound and thoughtful attempt to cause the player to dwell on what it means to aim a gun at another human being and pull the trigger.”— Simon Parkin, theguardian.com
“She is the only thing saving this story from being a very dull, stock revenge tale, viewed entirely from Ellie’s side.”— Paul Tassi, forbes.com