The Last of Us: season two forgets what made its video game unforgettable

By Adam Jerrett, Lecturer, Faculty of Creative & Cultural Industries, University of Portsmouth
Peter Howell, Senior Lecturer in Game Design, University of Portsmouth

Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season two.

The Last of Us season two began with the familiar rhythm of its video game source material. Throwing bottles to distract “stalkers” (the second game’s new enemy type); Tommy (Gabriel Luna) facing down a “bloater” (a hulking in-game enemy); Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) moving through Seattle with the game’s iconic daily title cards.

At the start, like season…

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