The Last of Us Part II
I am well aware that it is a polarizing and controversial game (especially on here), but even if you just look at the game from a completely unbiased technical and objective point of view it is quite obvious that this is the biggest achievement in video games that we have ever seen. The graphics in this game are out of this world and considering that it runs well on the 8 year old PS4 which has 1/10th the power of modern day consoles or even less compared to high end Graphic Cards and it still manages to be the best looking game ever released blows my mind. On top of that you have the best animations and systems (like the breathing system for each single character and enemy in the game that most people aren't even aware of). Moreover the attention to detail makes it feel like you play a game that was created in the Dragonball Room of Time. I would love to start a list here that includes stuff like shattered glass pieces sticking to the faces of enemies that you smashed with a bottle, bleeding through bandages, enemies adapting when they realize that your weapon is out of ammo, surrounding you or simple things like documents being wet when you go into the water and your backpack becomes wet, but there is not enough space for this here and there are plenty of videos that go into the depth of how many little mindblowing details are in this game.
Furthermore there is the gameplay, and I am normally a PC person who adamantly swears on Mouse and Keyboard as the best way to play any game that involves aiming, but good lord the gameplay in TLOU2 for a Third Person game just feels absolutely perfect and a gigantic step up compaerd to the previous game. It is grounded, but easy to control at the same time and immerses you extremely well into the world. The weapons feel great and moving around with Ellie, who is a lot more agile, just seems so right for this game.
I guess it goes without saying that the motion capture and voice acting in this game are completely unparalleled and we probably have to wait another 2-4 years until we see something of similar quality on modern hardware. The story is hard to swallow and the emotional components are on a completely new level that no other game has ever managed to make me feel like that.
The game is daring and doesn't fear to upset people, but it was required to push games as a medium which have become so stagnant.
As for the negatives I think it could have been a bit cleaner. It is hard to explain what I mean by this, but it is a 30+ hour game which is huge for a wide linear game that doesn't need to fill itself with boring open world areas and bland characters to do meaningless side quests for. It has a bit of jumping back and forth which could make it harder for people to follow who are not playing as much and coming back to this game after a few weeks or months instead of playing through it in 1-2 weeks. And it is a very dark game and some people are just not in the right place for it and they would need something that cheers them up instead. I can totally understand that, but not every game has to be a feelgood story and I am glad this game is the way it is and it made me realize that in many ways I could have become a victim to my own expectations if I weren't able to break that barrier and opened up a litte bit.