-LucIfeR- Posted January 28, 2020 Posted January 28, 2020 The Last of Us 2 has us wishing the rest of 2019 away since news of its delay until 2020, but from everything we've seen of the PlayStation exclusive, it will absolutely be worth the wait. Our hands-on with the game, a chance to see a new, deadlier Ellie in action, was a wild ride of emotions and brutal violence that promises The Last of Us 2 will pack the same emotional punch as the critically acclaimed The Last of Us did way back in 2013. Developer Naughty Dog has still be careful to keep the storyline under wraps, so while we know we'll get to see Ellie making a new life, and a love story, with a group of fellow survivors, there are still questions we need answers to. Where is Joel, so ominously absent from the hands-on or the trailers? Can Ellie's love interest survive the first few chapters? Who knows Ellie's secret? We'll have to wait until May 29, 2020 to find out, but The Last of Us 2 is shaping up to be a wonderful swan song for the PS4. Fast facts The Last of Us 2 release date: May 29, 2020. Formats: PS4, PS4 Pro Developer: Naughty DogThe Last of Us 2 Release Date The Last of Us 2 will now be released on PS4 and PS4 Pro on May 29, 2020. "I know," director Neil Druckmann wrote on a recent PlayStation blog announcing news of the delay. "It was just about a month ago when we had our big blowout for the game, letting media play over two hours of it along with debuting our new story trailer and revealing the release date... However, it was during the last few weeks, as we were closing out sections of the game, that we realized we simply didn’t have enough time to bring the entire game up to a level of polish we would call Naughty Dog quality." The Last of Us 2 Story Will Focus On Joel And Ellie. But Joel Is Still (Mostly) Missing We haven't seen Joel yet, but we (probably) know he's still around, as the latest E3 gameplay demo makes explicit reference to Ellie's "old man". Still, that doesn't name Joel explicitly, so there's still a chance his presence will be a psychological one rather than a literal one. Naughty Dog does love misdirecting its audience before its big games release. When discussing the possibility that the game might follow a new cast, director Neil Druckmann has stated that “The Last of Us is about these two characters specifically,” at last year's PlayStation Experience. “‘Part 2’ is saying this is going to be a larger story; it’s going to be a complementary story to the first game, but together, the two combined are going to tell this much larger tale.” So yes, Joel will be a major part of the story. We just don't yet know in what capacity. Joel's daughter, Sarah, was the driving force of the first game, and, well... Intriguingly, Joel's voice actor Troy Baker recently revealed at a Manchester Comic Con panel that "I don’t think Joel believes he’s a hero. If he was to lean anywhere I think that Joel would consider himself a villain, which is why he can say that he’s been on both sides." Either way, judging by Druckmann’s comments, this follow-up is going to be much more closely linked to its predecessor than many other triple-A sequels. Seeing as the last game ended on such a wonderfully ambiguous, quasi-cliffhanger, we expect The Last of Us 2 to deal with the lie Joel told Ellie during that emotional epilogue. *Spoilers below* Don’t forget, the weathered Texan smuggler basically doomed humanity to extinction when he stopped the Fireflies from performing a lethal operation on Ellie that could have produced a cure for the Cordyceps Brain Infection. Sure, he saved his surrogate daughter’s life, but he also went against her wishes; damning humanity to generations of scratching out an existence against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse. Whether or not Ellie bought Joel's lie is currently unknown, but what we do know is that she seems really, really angry - though not without humanity. In the game's first trailer, she states an intent to "Kill every last one of them" (whoever "them" might be), and the E3 2018 trailer intercuts moments of tender friendship and romance with extreme violence on a par with with the graphic horror of French New Extreme cinema. Whatever's going on, Ellie is in an interesting place. The Last of Us 2 Gameplay Shows Ellie Meting Out A Whole Lot Of Bloody Violence As of Sony's E3 2018 presentation, we've now, finally, had an intensive look at some The Last of Us 2 gameplay. And "intensive" is indeed the world. Very much taking its cues from the first game's meaty, improvisational, evasion-driven guerrilla combat, The Last of Us 2 looks to take a somewhat quicker, more nimble approach with Ellie as its protagonist - she can grab bottles and hurl them seamlessly at attackers without breaking a sprint, for instance, and her transitions between various types of cover and combat look a lot slicker than Joel's. That said, the level of graphic violence has clearly gone up. The Last of Us was no slouch when it came to uncomfortable gore, but the Last of Us 2 gameplay demo is on a whole other level. Following a tender scene of friendship and romance, we starkly cut to Ellie, knife already in a man's throat, gutting him like a fish. It only stays messy from there on out, the violence depicted as hovering somewhere between extravagantly graphic bloodletting and gritty, anatomically realistic unpleasantness. It's nasty, crunchy, choking, gurgling, and wheezing stuff throughout. Hopefully there's a reason for that. The first game was, after all, a violent game about violence, in which the unglamorous depiction of killing with repercussions formed a great deal of the point. With so little context for Ellie's actions so far, it's hard to know whether The Last of Us 2 is doing something clever here, or just trying to win a 'maturity' arms-race with itself. We'll probably only know for sure when we get hold of the final game. The Last of Us 2 Trailer Selection Is High On Mood And Threat, Low On Context We've actually now had a few different The Last of Us 2 trailers, yet still, somehow, we have very little idea of what's going on. The first was an ambient piece, reintroducing Joel and Ellie while giving very little detail of the scenario. The second was a sustained, grueling bout of violence, depicting a bunch of characters we don't know, but hinting at a far more tribalized society with at least one murderous cult in its midst. As of E3 2018 though, we have a proper, focused look at Ellie and her story, told through both cutscene and The Last of Us 2 gameplay. Though you probably watched it on the way to scrolling down here. No, we're still not sure what's going on either. The Last of Us 2 Takes Place In Seattle (Partly) A fiery scene links The Last of Us 2 to current Seattle landmarks. Fans had already worked this one out pretty well, but The Last of Us 2 director Neil Druckmann confirmed it at PlayStation Experience 2017: a "large part" of the game will take place in Seattle. The original began in Boston then went on a journey across the United States as far west as Salt Lake City. When we last saw Joel and Ellie, they'd headed back east a ways to Jackson County in Wyoming, planning to stay at the settlement led by Joel's brother Tommy. We don't know how long that arrangement lasted, but Ellie's clearly done more traveling since then. Still, that's just a "large part". It seems unlikely that The Last of Us 2 will remain rooted in the Pacific Northwest after how much roving the first game did. Maybe Ellie will make her way down the coast? We don't know if things are as bad on the western seaboard in terms of infection and military oppression. But it wouldn't be much of a survival story if Ellie just traipsed down to Portland and lived happily ever after. The Last of Us 2 Is Being Co-Written By One of Westworld`s Writers Gross is actually a talented Jack - should that be ‘Jill’(?) of all trades - having also acted in shows as diverse as Comedy Central’s Broad City to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. It’s not clear if Naughty Dog approached Gross following Westworld’s astronomical success, or if she’s been helping out on The Last of Us 2 for a while. Regardless, it’s super exciting to see a writer who’s penned scripts for the hottest show on the planet get involved with the story of The Last of Us 2. The Last of Us 2 is not co-directed by Bruce Straley After directing both The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 alongside Neil Druckmann, it’s been revealed that Bruce Straley won’t be co-directing The Last of Us Part 2. Considering his last two games are stone cold classics, it’s an undeniable bummer. Naughty Dog confirmed Straley won’t be involved with The Last of Us 2 in a statement to Kotaku, though the developer did hint he may be working on his own game (a new IP, perhaps?) when he returns to work: “Bruce recently decided to take some much deserved time off after shipping two critically acclaimed games in the last few years. He’s looking forward to returning to the studio soon and jumping back in on his next project.” Whether Druckmann will take on the dual roles of both creative director and game director on The Last of Us 2 is unclear. Perhaps Naughty Dog will bring in a new director to allow Neil to concentrate fully on ensuring this sequel’s script lives up to the impeccable standards set by the original. The Last of Us 2 soundtrack will feature the original game's composer Gustavo Santaolalla is the man. Specifically, a man who is very, VERY good at writing music. The Argentine composer won back-to-back Best Original Score Oscars for his work on Brokeback Mountain and Babel, before going on to conduct The Last of Us’ masterfully melancholic soundtrack. Druckmann recently confirmed Santaolalla is returning to compose the music for the Last of Us 2, especially notable as it’s the first time he’s returned for a sequel. “We’ve been talking about this project for a couple of years,” Druckmann admits at the PlayStation Experience. “He’s never done a sequel to anything he’s done. He’s so prolific and so good. He has these passion projects he just picks and chooses. He doesn’t care about the money. He started writing some new themes for us, and for this trailer you hear some new themes at the beginning, and a new rendition for the original theme at the end.” Buckle up, eardrums. If /that/ giraffe scene is anything to go by, The Last of Us 2 is going to be one of PS4’s most invigorating audio experiences… Update: Bruce Straley has since left Naughty Dog, so he definitely won't be joining back in on the company's future projects, either.
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