The problem with the theme of this game --that violence is bad -- is not that, that theme has been used a lot in videogames in the last five years, but that this is the wrong genre to do so.
The game is basically trying to justify how much violence is on screen by simultaneously showing it, and they trying to make you feel guilty about that.
When it was done before, Hotline Miami, Spec op and to some extent COD. These were purely first person shooters -- so you made some sort of pact with the developer: You want to shoot? Well this is what shooting entails.
But with the Last of Us 2, a lot of people didn't come here for the gore (I partly did admittedly) they came for the story. So to then twist that into a shallow moral lesson, which forces you to go on a revenge mission whether you like it or not, seems excessively cheap, not to say hectoring. It reminds me of the film Funny Games, purely because it takes such a moral high ground.
It seems like Naughty Dog have quite a bit of contempt for it's audience, and feel like they have to lecture them in some way, like they're actually not aware they're playing a videogame or can distance themselves from it.
So I'm left with the feeling that the developers, whilst trying to lecture us, actually lost sight of the target -- Not only are they not aware this anti war message is trite, but also they were dumb enough to not understand what made the original game so special.
Why, would you spend 7 years making a game that revels in violence if you thought violence was this bad?
Only if you were sanctimonious enough, and thought you were intellectually above others, would you have the gall to do such a thing. That's what I think.
It's such a superb game in so many ways, but it's message is so shallow, dumb and confused.