THE LAST OF US PART II
Thought Naughty Dog was done with its exhilarating apocalypse? Think again. Join us as we delve deep into the haunting world of The Last Of Us Part II
From concrete facts to fan theories, we unpick what’s known about the game everyone wants.
But I know, when I die, my soul is damned.” Hoo boy, Ellie. Talk about a glum tune. She may have starred in one of gaming’s great endings, but Naughty Dog won’t let its pottymouthed teen (or her new acoustic guitar) walk into that apocalyptic sunset. Despite containing the most complete, cathartic finale in recent memory, the story of The Last Of Us is far from over. The big takeaway from Part II’s mournful debut trailer, aside from all the machete murder and moody ballads? The most celebrated studio in the world is making a direct follow-up to the game you voted the greatest in PlayStation history in OPM #100.
See, things are beginning to look cheerier already. Well, not really. “If the theme of the first game was about the love between these two characters… then this story is the counter to that: it’s about hate,” says Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dog’s chief creative director speaking during a panel at last December’s PlayStation Experience event. After watching The Last Of Us Part II’s first trailer until our eyes almost implode through nuclear-grade depression, we’re under no illusion it’s about lollipops and kissing puppies. This is still the universe where children get shot, humanity’s baser instincts rule supreme, and the living envy the dead.
TRADING PLACES
The setup may be gloomy, but at least it gives us some idea of the direction this sequel is headed in. Set five years after the original, Part II places you in the blood-soaked sneakers of Ellie, not Joel. Now 19, the only known member of the human race who’s immune to the fungal zombie pandemic that has doomed our species is seriously brassed off. Hate may be the current buzzword, but grief-fuelled fury, pain, suffering and revenge are also on the tip of Ellie’s tongue.
Understandably, Naughty Dog isn’t giving much away with Part II’s trailer. Over those tantalising (superdepressing) four minutes, all you essentially see is Ellie sitting in a cabin in the woods, the corpses of her apparent murder victims splayed across bloody floors, before a suspiciously calm Joel glides in and asks his surrogate daughter what’s she’s going to do next. Damn you, trailer cliffhanger!
For his part, Druckmann is keeping his lips firmly sealed. He admits Ellie is now the main character, yet beyond that, he won’t offer up many details about how the shift in playable star may affect gameplay. “Ellie plays differently than Joel… I’m getting into risky territory here,” he reluctantly reveals. “Some things are evolution, some things are reinvention, but there will be a gameplay reveal down the road.” Ooh, you big tease.
NAUGHTY BY NATE-URE
The trailer offers up diddly-squat when it comes to clueing us in on how Part II may play, but knowing Naughty Dog’s track record, we’d be surprised if some of Uncharted 4’s better features don’t make the cut. The ‘wide-linear’ sections of Nate’s swansong were superbly realised, so it wouldn’t be a shock to see the more expansive environments of A Thief’s End – like the Madagascan plains you rumble through in a Jeep – find their way into this sequel. Can we get wide open areas to prance around on horseback? Pretty please?
Stealth was the dish of the day last time out (usually served up with a spoonful of viscera), and we expect Part II’s combat to be informed by these same cat-and-mouse skirmishes. Again, Drake could be a major influence here. The enemy tracking system of Uncharted 4 would make it easier to keep tabs on foes, though coupling it with TLOU’s echolocationstyle Listen Mode might make it too easy to prey on baddies.
Regardless of how you end up shivving enemies, Naughty Dog is bullish you’ll be stabbing folk in the shoes of the most visually sophisticated character ever to hit PS4. “Within Sony’s group this is by far the most advanced character model we’ve ever created,” says Druckmann on Ellie’s revised design. “Just the way the flesh can move over the bone… we could never cut to a close-up of eyes before, because we could never get the fidelity. Now we can.”
Such advancements in character rendering obviously benefit The Last Of Us’ already stellar brand of storytelling. New motion-capture techniques should also prove a boon to Naughty Dog’s artists when tackling the sequel’s cutscenes: even though the studio is already at the forefront of mo-cap sorcery, Druckmann has revealed Part II benefits from a fresh way of importing an actor’s performance into virtual form.
DOUBLING DOWN
“A lot of games use digital doubles, where you cast an actor who looks as close to the character as you can. Well, Ashley [Johnson] doesn’t look like Ellie, and Troy [Baker] doesn’t look like Joel, so we had to come up with this different process.” Said process was teased in a special behind-thescenes video from the PSX panel, where footage reveals a render of Ellie that combines the character’s features with that of actress Ashley Johnson.
If you’re currently having Brundlefly-esque nightmares of two entities being forcibly blended together, fret not. The resulting render is for internal use only, designed purely to help Naughty Dog’s artists capture the essence of Johnson’s performance. And really, the character model still looks like the actor, just with a bunch of Ellie’s unmistakable freckles plastered over her face. “Our artists created a whole new sculpt, a next-gen sculpt, of Joel and Ellie,”
“A UNIVERSE WHERE HUMANITY’S BASER INSTINCTS RULE SUPREME, AND THE LIVING ENVY THE DEAD.”
Druckmann continues. “We’re trying to take the performance of the digital double and transpose it onto Ellie.” Judging by the trailer’s incredibly subtle, lifelike gestures, this new technique is working a treat.
Such is the obsessive devotion Naughty Dog games inspire, even the choice of title has set the interwebs ablaze with frenzied chatter. Part II seems like a very particular choice. It immediately conjures memories of Mario Puzo’s Godfather trilogy, further distancing this from run-of-themill sequel syndrome. “‘Part II’ is us 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,” says Druckmann of the name.
PART II’S COMPANY
This is not a paint-by-numbers sequel, then. It’s deliberately Part II, rather than The Last Of Us 2. That’s no accident. Druckmann’s choice of words suggest this is a game which is emotionally linked with its predecessor in a way few follow-ups are. The Last Of Us isn’t about a world ravaged by mushroom-headed zombies or ruthless survivors who make The Walking Dead’s Negan look like Ned Flanders. It’s a deeply personal tale of a relationship between unlikely allies, something Druckmann freely admits. “The Last Of Us is about these two characters specifically.”
That all means Part II has some pretty weighty questions to deal with right off the brain-smeared bat. Unless you’ve recently had your memory wiped by a suited and booted Tommy Lee Jones, you’ll recall the first game ended on one hell of a lie. When we last saw Joel and Ellie, the former was trying to perpetrate a fib that had extinction-level consequences. Unbeknownst to Ellie, he had sabotaged any hopes of mankind finding a cure for the outbreak through an incredibly selfish (albeit loving) act. By preventing the Fireflies from removing Ellie’s brain in TLOU’s closing act, he effectively destroyed the faction’s only chance of discovering a way to stop the Cordyceps Brain Infection. Bad Joel. The consequences of this lie and what impact it has on Joel and Ellie’s relationship going forward isn’t lost on Troy Baker. Gaming’s hottest vocal performer is acutely aware of how important his character’s deception is, both to the sequel and the original’s wonderfully ambiguous ending. “To me, it’s the most honest, perfect end to a videogame I’ve ever seen. Ever,” Baker proudly proclaims. “It lends itself so well [to questions]. Does Ellie know Joel lied to her? What does that ‘okay’ mean?”
LIE TO ME
Whether she knows her father figure is telling porkies or not, something is weighing heavily on Ellie’s mind in the trailer. As she strums Through The Valley – a superbly sober track by Shawn James & The Shapeshifters – every trembling guitar note hints at some deep-seated conflict. “There are reasons,” admits Ashley Johnson, when asked about Ellie’s shaking hands. “She’s gone through some sh*t. What a shocker.”
Somehow, we doubt those freshly slaughtered corpses are causing Ellie’s internal strife. If we know one thing about TLOU’s steely teen, it’s that she’s one seriously tough cookie – she’s killed more Clickers than she’s had hot dinners. Whatever chain of events has inspired her reflective ditty,
“AS SHE STRUMS THROUGH THE VALLEY, EVERY TREMBLING NOTE HINTS AT DEEP-SEATED CONFLICT.”
it’s clearly wounded her deeply. Ellie’s only spoken line? “I’m gonna find, and I’m gonna kill every last one of them.” Talk about ominous.
She made have faced some tough choices in the first game, yet even for such a resourceful survivor this savagely delivered promise points to a girl besotted with vengeance. Unsurprisingly, her miffed state of mind has prompted some interesting (if wildly speculative) fan theories. None more so than the ‘JOEL IS ACTUALLY DEAD!’ argument. That’s right: some people think the Joel you see in the trailer is nothing but an apparition cooked up by Ellie’s grief-stricken mind. It’d certainly explain her thirst for revenge.
DEAD AHEAD
Whether you think Naughty Dog would pull a Sixth Sense on you or not, there’s definitely something a little strange going on with Joel. The way he enters that house seems strangely aloof, almost serene. He’s also oddly unmoved by his corpseladen surroundings, while his choice of words is notably passive, too. “What are you doing, kiddo? You really gonna go through with this?”
Adding further fuel to this guesswork-heavy carburettor is Joel’s appearance. He doesn’t appear to be covered in blood, which is somewhat strange considering Ellie has just been involved in a massacre and there are bodies all over the place. Indeed, Naughty Dog is seemingly doing its best to obscure his face – you never catch a clear shot of it during the trailer. You can clearly hear Troy Baker’s trademark Texan drawl, we know it’s him, so why isn’t the developer showing off his mug?
As Joel enters the room where Ellie is playing, you can catch the briefest side profile of the gunrunner. Despite Part II taking place a good half decade after the original, he doesn’t really seem to have aged. There’s little sign of his hair or beard showing visible signs of greying, while some fans on Reddit are even suggesting he looks younger than in the first game. That final assumption would certainly double down on the ‘Joel’s a ghostly figment of Ellie’s imagination’ angle.
GUITAR HERO
Still, for our money, it’s a bit too much of a rug pull, even if Naughty Dog has been known to mess with us in the past – one particular trailer for the first game appeared to show Ellie preparing herself to shoot Joel. Besides, Joel not physically being by Ellie’s side would surely kibosh the AI companion template Naughty Dog loves… unless it’s pulling *slight spoiler* an Arkham Knight-style Joker twist on us?
Another interesting fan theory? Ellie is pregnant, and that guitar has been strategically placed to obscure a baby bump. If this seems like wild conjecture, a little Easter egg that crops up in Uncharted 4’s epilogue may change your mind.
Last May, many eagle-eyed Drake fan’s spotted a TLOU-related poster at the end of Drake’s journey. Titled ‘The Last Of Us: American Daughters’, some believed this was a direct nod to Ellie and Joel’s next game. Now, the presence of a Dark Horse logo could point to this little bonus alluding to a future TLOU comic. Then again, it may be dropping massive Part II story hints – the poster clearly shows a heavily pregnant woman who looks an awful lot like Ellie.
It’s possible the poster may mean nothing, of course. Even if it is more than a harmless Easter egg, it could merely be hinting at a forthcoming comic prequel – the woman could well be Ellie’s mother, not Ellie herself. Still, an existing piece of concept art, which goes back a couple of years, makes us think the guitar’s prominence in that trailer isn’t mere happenstance.
Said art, first revealed not long after the first game launched, shows Ellie huddled around a campfire, absentmindedly strumming her guitar as a posse of tooled-up, militaristic troops approach her position. There are theories doing the rounds that this suspiciously well-supplied group may have nefarious plans for Ellie, with some suggesting they’ll take advantage of her immunity to the Cordyceps Infection to forcibly impregnate her with a child. After all, the events of DLC Left Behind would suggest the normal avenues of procreation may not be at the top of Ellie’s agenda.
CLICKER BAIT
For the time being, these are merely interesting theories. Look closely back at the trailer, though, and a few more concrete throwbacks to the first game begin to rear their zombified heads. The room Ellie is playing in clearly belongs to a teenager; the hi-fi system and a good dozen band posters – the largest of which has the words ‘theseus’ and ‘overclock’ scrawled over it – out the space’s adolescent (probably dead) owner. This rather specific setting seems like a pointed nod to the original’s ranch scene; the one where Ellie both mocks and pines for the sort of normal life teenage girls could enjoy before the outbreak.
“Is this really all they had to worry about? Boys? Movies? Deciding which shirt goes with which skirt?” It was one of the pivotal points in Joel and Ellie’s heartfelt, deeply earned relationship; a moment where our heroine allowed herself to be vulnerable when admitting everyone had left her but “f**king” Joel. It’s the sort of naked vulnerability her 19-year-old self again shows here with every blood-soaked, shakily strummed guitar chord.
Hell, even the windowsill she’s sitting by feels like a knowing wink to the last game. The broken glass; the tattered curtains slowly blowing in the breeze; dust particles dancing through the hazy air. Visually, it’s all a dead ringer for the original’s main menu scene. Even if it’s merely a piece of
“JOEL DOESN’T APPEAR TO BE COVERED IN BLOOD, WHICH IS SOMEWHAT STRANGE.”
incidental detailing, it shows this is still a world that shares the sort of eye for bleak beauty Ellie and Joel’s debut adventure excelled at.
SEX, FLIES AND VIDEOTAPE
Skip back even earlier, and the presence of a Firefly sign is also intriguing. Is this forested encampment a stronghold of the group? Are those poor sliced up sods in the cabin Fireflies? Has the faction now sworn vengeance against Joel for his grisly actions back at that hospital in Salt Lake City? It’s testament to the narrative richness of the original that even a road sign can throw up so many talking points.
There are still so many other topics we barely have time to discuss. Like the tattoo on Ellie’s arm, for one. Is there any symbolic significance to the creeping vine design, beyond covering up her bite mark? And what about the release date? Considering the multiple delays both the first TLOU and Uncharted 4 suffered, is there any chance of seeing Part II before 2019?
“We have an idea, but we’ve learned now several times not to say that publicly until we’re confident,” says Druckmann. “We’re going to hold off on saying when it’s going to come out for a while.” Hmmm, a wise decision.
Above all, it’s clear this is a game that’s been in Naughty Dog’s thoughts for years. Druckmann admits his first conversations around Part II started before his involvement on Uncharted 4, something detailed in an anecdote he shares with the crowd at PSX.
“We went to a restaurant, and I told her [Johnson] we were going to do this DLC called Left Behind, that’s where we discussed Ellie and her sexual orientation, and who she is. So as we walked through the whole story of Left Behind, Ashley’s crying at the end… Then I’m like, ‘I have one more story I want to pitch’, and I walked her through the story of Part II, and she’s bawling by the end of it.”
LAST AND FOUND
The enormity of the task Naughty Dog faces isn’t lost on Druckmann. You best believe neither he, nor any other person working on The Last Of Us Part II, is taking the responsibility of following up one of the most beloved games of the last decade lightly. “I know there are a lot of people that feel this trepidation in coming back to these characters, and revisiting what that ending means… You have to understand we feel all those things as well. No one loves those characters more than we do, and we would not being doing this unless we felt we had the right idea.”
The original may be blessed with a superbly complete finale, but if any studio has banked up enough goodwill to deserve the benefit of the doubt, it’s Naughty Dog. If the studio believes there are more stories to be told in this universe, that’s there’s a larger overarching plot ahead of Joel and Ellie, who are we to argue?
Even with the spectacularly high standards set by the first title looming large, you’d be mad to complain about getting a follow-up to one of the best videogames of all time. In spite of all those frenzied theories, and apocalyptic questions, one thing is crystal clear: you should trust Naughty Dog to take PS4 to places you’ve never seen before. “Put some faith in us, we’re going to do right by you,” says Druckmann. We believe him.
“HAVE THE FIREFLIES NOW SWORN VENGEANCE AGAINST JOEL FOR HIS ACTIONS AT THAT HOSPITAL?”