An important game for the industry: a review of The Last of Us Part II from Microsoft employees got online

In the document, two Microsoft employees named Mike and John, who represent Xbox team for working with internal and external developers, describe in detail the dark action game The Last of Us: Part II from the studio Naughty Dog, sharing their own impressions as part of a full-fledged review. Apparently, this text was later used at internal meetings of the Xbox division for the purpose of carefully studying the developments of competitors and general analysis of the gaming market.

Notably, Microsoft's "review" of The Last of Us: Part II was mostly positive. The text notes an expressive and effective approach to storytelling, atypical directorial techniques for games, outstanding game pace and variety of locations, serious gameplay improvements against the background of the original game, as well as" an unsurpassed level of visual quality in all aspects and directions", which significantly exceeds"any development of other studios on consoles and PC".

At the same time, some components of The Last of Us: Part II were criticized by the Xbox team. In particular, the experts did not like how the game implemented shooting - Mike and John are convinced that a good combat system, tied to the use of firearms, the studio Naughty Dog could not implement in any of its projects. However, the authors of the text make a remark that for the second part of "One of Us" such a disadvantage is not critical, since the main focus in the game is still given to stealth segments.

In addition, Mike and John from Microsoft were disappointed with the weapon switching system in The Last of Us: Part II. In their opinion, switching weapons through the crosspiece of the gamepad is not the best solution, since the player has to temporarily move his thumb from the left stick of the controller, which can negatively affect the gameplay, and the game allegedly does not represent an alternative, like a quick change of weapons. Curiously, this claim makes an actual mistake - you can also change weapons in The Last of Us: Part II using the R1 button, which allows you to quickly switch between the available arsenal without touching the crosspiece.

At the end of the review, Mike and John admit that The Last of Us: Part II has set a new bar and that in the future, Microsoft teams should try to achieve it with the arrival of new console systems (Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S). The resulting Naughty Dog game is called "important for the industry".

"Players clearly have the right to independently determine their attitude to the plot decisions made by the Naughty Dog team, to the idea of having two diametrically opposite protagonists in the project, as well as to the general guidelines of the final episodes. But if you look at this game from the perspective of people who care about the development of narrative language in interactive works of art, then, discarding all the details, the most important thing is the genuine skill with which the studio Naughty Dog told exactly the story that she wanted to tell. Not every game can match the visual quality of this project, and not every company can boast of the resources and talents needed to implement such a level. This development sets a completely new bar, and we hope that we will be able to reach it with the arrival of the new console generation," reads one of the paragraphs of Microsoft's internal review on The Last of Us: Part II.

The Last of Us: Part II premiered last summer only on PlayStation 4.