Everything We Know About The Last Of Us Part 2
Naughty Dog's critically acclaimed The Last of Us is returning with a full sequel featuring Joel and Ellie from the original. The announcement was made at the PlayStation Experience 2016.
The Last of Us originally released back in June 2013 for PlayStation 3 before eventually receiving a Remastered edition that launched for PlayStation 4.
It included updated visuals and the Left Behind single-player story campaign where Ellie and her friend Riley fought to survive before the events of the main game. Now fans finally have a full sequel from Naughty Dog...
The Story
Part 2 is set after the rather dramatic events that concluded the first game which was a rather harrowing final push for Joel to save Ellie. The sequel continues the adventures of Joel and Ellie five years later where the young girl is now grown up at 19. From what we have been teased with so far she is on some crusade against a particular group of people, with Joel keeping up with her. It's not clear what this group has done to earn Ellie's fury.
This group could be the Fireflies from the original game - as their symbol can be seen in the reveal trailer. They were around and fighting against the military ruled enclaves and was who Joel was trying to hook up with to hand over Ellie from his custody, but as things unfold it all takes a decidedly different turn.
The reveal trailer shows Ellie strumming a guitar and singing in a house littered with dead bodies, before Joel strolls through and stops to listen to Ellie perform. He eventually asks "...you really going to go through with this?" She responds: "I'm gonna find... and I'm gonna kill... every last one of them."
Love becomes hate in Part 2 with the first described as being about 'love' while this chapter "is about hate." From the look of Ellie... that's some serious hate.
Behind the Camera
Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson are reprising their roles as Joel and Ellie respectively. Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann understands some are worried about how the studio is handling these two favourite characters but he asks they trust them.
"So much thought went into this—I know there's trepidation about going back to these characters. We feel that as well. No one loves these characters more than we do, and we wouldn't do it if we didn't have the right idea. I had ideas with different characters and it didn't feel right. The Last of Us is about these two characters. All I ask is that fans of the first one put some faith in us—we're going to do right by you."
Game director Bruce Straley isn't leading the charge with The Last of Us Part 2 as he's off on a year-long break from Naughty Dog following the completion of the developer's other great work: Uncharted 4. It's not known whether he will return and jump on Part 2 or another project.
Release Date
The Last of Us Part 2 is in development for PlayStation 4 with no schedule attached, and it looks to be a while before it would make it to launch. The game is said to be in 'early development' and obviously Naughty Dog spent considerable time polishing this scene for the reveal trailer.
