THE LAST OF US PART II

Big country, small details

Format PS4 ETA 29 May Pub Sony Dev Naughty Dog

This sequel is going to be big. So big it needed one more short delay to polish the details, but we’ll give Naughty Dog the time; it’s in the developer’s DNA. Where the original game was a fairly narrow adventure that rarely strayed away from Joel and Ellie’s story, The Last Of Us Part II looks to have broader narrative strokes. The world is larger, and alive.

The surviving humans have begun to rebuild society. Camps have become towns, and there’s a semblance of normality in Ellie’s life – previous gameplay teases have shown us the warmth of this new world as she dances with her girlfriend, Dina.

Outside those walls it’s a different story. Some people aren’t content to rebuild the world how it was and prefer to raise twisted, cultist empires instead. It’s this world that was revealed in the latest hands-on.

A FUN-GAL

Ellie has grown between games and is fully capable of handling herself. We see this in our hands-on when she stabs a man in the neck from the shadows. Our moment of satisfaction is abbreviated as a lone voice screams “Dad!” We just killed someone’s father and now we feel slightly guilty. (Every enemy in the game has a name and backstory, we were told at the hands-on event back in October.)

Combat is more flexible than ever, as Ellie is able to scurry across rooftops and use the detritus of the apocalypse, such as discarded living room furniture, as makeshift cover. Attack dogs are able to sniff out our upholstered hidey-hole, but Ellie can counter with a ‘go prone’ move to silently shoot a dog from the sanctuary of tall grass.

Our girl is equally at ease taking on the infected, the game’s organically zombified ex-humans. They come in three types – Bloaters, Clickers, and Runners – that combine in combat to present a uniquely different danger to angry men with dogs.

Clickers can kill in one hit, Runners will charge you down and limit your options, and Bloaters are gaseous, shambling creatures that emit a cloud of skin-burning vapour. In-game the three combine to deadly effect; the Bloaters’ gas will burn but it also masks the environment, acting as a smokescreen from which Runners can take you by surprise. It not only makes every encounter feel unique, but it’s hella scary.

RAISING ELL

Giving you an edge against these dangers is the new upgrade system. Rather than unlock upgrades that offer simple stat boosts, the new game enables you to stack unlocks to create new and unique variants on Ellie’s skill set.

One ability revealed enables Ellie to hold her breath as you aim down the sights for a steadier aim. It’s not a default skill but one learned as you unlock and combine upgrades. There are also crafting ‘menus’, for things like building a silencer for a pistol, that can you only gain if you’ve learned the correct character upgrades.

Potentially this means everyone’s version of

Ellie will be slightly different, and tailored to how you play the game.

Behind the scale of The Last Of Us Part II it’s the finer details, the eerie sight of a Runner in an acidic haze or an emotional connection to an enemy, that really show the potential this sequel has to trump its precursor.

“STACK UNLOCKS TO CREATE NEW AND UNIQUE VARIANTS ON ELLIE’S SKILL SET.”