Naughty Dog first revealed The Last of Us Part II in 2016 with a cryptic trailer. Since then, fans of the original Last of Us have been eager to hear more about the sequel. A trailer shown during Paris Games Week 2017 was especially stirring--rather than show the original protagonists Joel and Ellie, the video introduced us to characters we've never seen before in exceptionally brutal conditions. Then, at E3 2018, Sony and Naughty Dog gave us our first extended look at both Ellie and at gameplay, and now we can make more sense of everything we've seen.
We've compiled everything we know about The Last of Us Part II so far, including how combat works, the characters we can expect to see, where Joel is, and more. We'll continue to update this feature as we learn more about Part II, like its release date.
You Play As Ellie
In The Last of Us, you primarily played as Joel. In the sequel, you play as Ellie, and it seems that much of the game revolves around her. The reveal trailer, which shows an older Ellie playing guitar and singing in a house filled with fresh corpses, ends with her vowing to kill "every last one." It's still not clear who she's referring to, but it's very clear that she means it. That comes through in the gameplay we've seen, with Ellie performing brutal takedowns fueled by anger.
Writer/director Neil Druckmann confirmed that Ellie will have an NPC companion in the game, though he didn't specify who or in what context. "Well, so, Ellie used to be an NPC, but she's the protagonist in this story, so the player is controlling Ellie," he said. "It's safe to say with the game that we made in the past that there will be some NPC with you in this story, even though we're not showing [the NPC] in this demo."
Story, Setting, And Other Characters
Like the original, The Last of Us Part II is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which you have to fight both humans and zombie-like creatures infected with the Cordyceps fungus. Part II is set some time after the events of the first game; Ellie is now 19 and, according to Neil Druckmann, she has found "a semblance of peace and normality" following the horrific events of the original. We also know that a large part of the game takes place in Seattle and that the theme of this game is hate (whereas the first game's primary theme was love).
In the gruesome Paris Games Week 2017 trailer, we were introduced to four new characters: Yara, Lev, Emily, and an unnamed character played by actress Laura Bailey (Uncharted 4, Gears of War 4). Bailey has said that she feels like throwing up every day on set because she wants to live up to expectations. That same trailer also showed some infected.
A vague but intriguing story detail came during PSX 2017. Druckmann said of writer Halley Gross (Westworld), "After her first day, Halley goes home and says to her husband, 'I think I got someone pregnant.' And you'll see what that means [in The Last Of Us: Part II]."
The E3 2018 trailer introduced us to two more characters: Dina, played by Westworld actress Shannon Woodward, who kisses Ellie, and Jesse, who seems to be Dina's ex and mentions Ellie's "old man."
So Where's Joel?
Joel has been largely absent from everything we've seen of The Last of Us Part II; while he appeared in the reveal trailer, he was not present in the subsequent trailer or the gameplay we saw at E3 2018. We know that he's in the game--and that actor Troy Baker is reprising his role--but it's not clear what part Joel plays in this story. When asked if Joel dies, Druckmann teased that "no one is safe" in Part II, not even Joel and Ellie.
How Combat Works
While similar to the original game, combat in The Last of Us Part II has been significantly updated. What we saw during E3 2018 seemed very cinematic, almost like parts of it could have been scripted, but Naughty Dog says that's actually not the case; co-directors Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau confirmed in an interview with GameSpot that dynamic dodges, healing animations, and more are all in your control during combat.
Ellie can now go prone and crawl under cars, and the way she dodges an attack depends on the weapon used, the angle of the strike, and other factors. There's also a mechanic specific to the new arrow enemies; when Ellie has an arrow lodged in her body, it causes a status effect that disrupts aiming and other combat abilities. You have to actively find a good time and place to pull the arrow out and clear the effect.
Listen mode returns from the first game, though the co-directors did not give any specifics or discuss how it has evolved. The most important thing about combat is that it's closely tied to the game's expression of Ellie and who she has become, and it seems to be more involved that it was the first time around.
According to Druckmann, "We've completely overhauled our engine, developed new combat mechanics, created a new analog stealth system, and revamped our animation system to fully express Ellie's desperation, resourcefulness, and unique agility."
There Will Be Multiplayer
The original The Last of Us included a multiplayer mode called Factions, which ended up being a surprise hit. In an interview, Newman and Margenau confirmed that Part II will also have multiplayer. They did not provide any other details, but Newman did refer to it as Factions.
Release Date?
Naughty Dog has not yet revealed the release date for The Last of Us Part II.
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