Born under punches
I write in reference to your Sony@E3 coverage in issue 322, which was an excellent piece of reading.
I was quite surprised by your overview of The Last Of Us Part II, in particular the content of the cutscene which follows directly after the technically wonderful and brave direction of that ‘snog sequence’ where you see Ellie brutally execute that murder and the tone for the rest of the footage is pretty much set. I personally do not see the conflicting direction here, as let’s not forget: this is TLOU, after all. If this was a LittleBigPlanet game with Sackboy committing a similar act of violent depravity against another NPC in close-up glorious high definition, I’m sure that the immediate reaction of audiences, not to mention every parent, would unanimously be somewhere in the region of that this is extremely ‘out of context’ for that type of game – and that would be putting it mildly, of course!
This decision in storytelling direction, which is a current format in modern cinema, including TV shows, is to build the characters’ backstory in order for the story to inevitably deliver them to either a very compromising or desperate situation. In terms of this plot device TLOUII is no exception, I agree; however, would you honestly expect Ellie and Dina to have carried out the trailer with them holding hands whilst skipping to the backdrop of a glorious sunshiney day?
By opening this trailer with a technically groundbreaking moment in videogame history, to then drop us, the ‘audience’, from a blissful and tender moment suddenly back into the depths of human survival (basically hell on Earth) is not only fitting with the story material. Would this not justifiably be considered a masterstroke, not just in game direction, but also for any entertainment medium? Ross Shaddick To each their own, Ross, but we’re afraid it just wasn’t for us. If the purpose of the intro was to show progress – not just in subject matter, but in animation tech too – what followed merely reminded us that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps in the full game, that emotional disconnect will pay off. In an E3 trailer, though, it all feels a little cheap.