While it has been rumoured for a while now, today we got official confirmation that The Last of Us is getting a sequel that follows an older Ellie and Joel.
The first game was released in 2013 with a big cliffhanger that didn’t make it very clear what would happen to Ellie, so it makes sense for Naughty Dog to return to her. Given Joel’s decision to save Ellie, there’s a lot of juicy ground for a follow-up to cover. Does Ellie feel guilty? Does she… know? What happened to Joel and Ellie’s relationship?
Here’s the trailer:
Ellie sounds pissed, we know that much. And she’s got better guitar skills:
At the moment, The Last of Us Part II is in early development stages, so we’re likely not going to be able to play it for a while still.
So. Who do you think Ellie wants to kill, the Fireflies?
Finally, if you’re thinking to yourself that TLOU did not need a sequel, here’s creative director Neil Druckmann:
I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to finally be able to say that Ellie and Joel are back for another intense, harrowing, and emotional adventure. Like many of you, we have a deep love for the world of The Last of Us and its characters, and while a sequel may have seemed like a foregone conclusion, that wasn’t the case. We knew that it needed to be a story worth telling and, perhaps more importantly, a story worthy of Joel and Ellie. After spending years on different ideas (and almost giving up), we finally uncovered a story that felt special — a story that evolved into an epic journey.
Comments
42 responses to “Naughty Dog Announces The Last Of Us 2”
For some reason I read the title as “The Last 2 Of Us”.
Oh wow. I really didn’t expect this. Wish I could’ve been in that audience witnessing the reveal.
TLOU is one of my favourite games of all time, but it was also perfect as a self-contained piece. I truly hope that this is a worthy sequel, especially narratively.
I’m mixed as well I’m excited but so hesitant. The first game had a conclusive ending and there is so much to live up to with a sequel. It’s a big gamble doing it.
This, I just don’t see how they can equal or better the first; happy to be proved wrong. But part of the reason the first was so good was the gravity at the end of not knowing how things turn out.
Naughty Dog hasn’t let us down yet. I think the real gravity from the end wasn’t so much the ambiguiity, but having to justify to yourself siding with Joel and his actions condemning the human race to a horrible fate. When you think about it, *you* were the badguy, the Fireflies were good. Only one person had to die so the whole human race could survive, what he did condemned humanity. In the grander scheme, sure Ellie got to live, but everyone now has to face a future of death and destruction. I think that personally, far outweighed the ambiguiity and the repercussions of those actions are going to be *fantastic* to explore, especially when Ellie finds out what Joel did and what could have happened had she died.
Kinda the train track thing. But to be honest, there was no 100% guarantee that they could of made a cure.
Indeed, definitely no 100%, but Joel did take it from 90, or 80, or even 50 all the way to 0%. Some chance is better than none, and Joel *was* selfish in that regard.
That’s what made TLoU so incredible, the grey areas and the moral ambiguity. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that generated so many emotional responses from me.
One of the ones that really struck me:
When you go back to the hospital to rescue Ellie, and you walk in on the surgeons about to begin. I didn’t realise, you actually don’t have to kill them. But the first time I played TLoU, I didn’t hesitate. All I could think about was how much I cared for Ellie’s character and I didn’t want anyone to hurt her, and I’d kill those surgeons to protect her. I’m not a dad, but I kind of imagine that was something like 1% of the real deal feeling.You see, I’d love it if things like that were worked into part 2… “Did you shoot the surgeons? Then no cure was found at all… You didn’t? Reports came in they may have found one!”
The theories pour in: Keitaro333 on the Kotaku US site commented that Joel Might be a figment of Ellie’s imagination and he’s the catalyst for a rocking revenge story… Or not…
Or you know, not, but that would be a pretty interesting direction.
Aaaand spoiled. :p
That is pretty much my conclusion too, but i think he is long dead (he looks the same age as he did in tLoU) and Ellie is avenging someone else.
Thing is Ellie was, what, 14 in the first one? She might only be 3-4 years older here. I think it’s conceivable that Joel still had 3-4 years left in him at the end of Part I.
The more I think about it, the more it makes sense, especially with the hate theme Neil Druckman talks about in an interview with Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker after PSX.
I think Ellie swears vengeance against the Fireflies after they tracked down and killed Joel in retaliation for the shootout in Salt Lake City and for the murder of Marlene. The Joel we see is in her imagination because she can still “hear” him, she’s not ready to let go of him.
Really? A revenge story?! I thought the director dude said they found a story worth telling.
Also, since when do figments walk through a house while their host is focused on playing the guitar? Figments appear. They disappear. They’ll walk with you, but not without you. I’d expect more from Naughty Dog if that explanation were true.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we know nothing yet. Plus, the original at its core was merely a ‘zombie survival story’ too remember.
I’m just making a counter argument to the figment and revenge hypothesis. It doesn’t quite fit into what we see in that trailer.
Though I beg to differ about the original story. At it’s core, it was not about zombie survival. That was just a convenience to carry the core story and gameplay. It was about what a man would do when he finds that which may replace unspeakable loss.
We don’t know if that scene will be ingame, it might just be a good preview trailer
Exactly this, they’ve apparently barely started work on the game so everything in the trailer may have just been to give an idea of where it’s heading or even just to establish the setting for the game – though knowing ND they probably already have the entire story planned out so it might be straight out of the game.
Yeah. The original TLOU announcement trailer was a CG scene that didn’t appear in the final game. This may well be something similar.
This just made me so excited that it stopped a fight between my partner and myself instantly because omfg the last of us part 2!!!!!! Thank you naughty Dog for solving a domestic and making me too insanely hyped and happy to care yaaaayyyyyyyyy!!!
Cannot wait, the original was a fantastic gaming experience.
D’oh, I wanted a new cast & location.
Very much liked exactly how the first game ended & I wanted their future to remain ambiguous.
Hopefully they remove a minimum of 50% of the shooting.
Play as that other guy and his son that you meet.
If you’re talking about
Henry and his younger brother Sam, I’ve got some bad news for you…Yeah and?
Still could do a whole tale about their adventure up until then. Just because we all know the ending doesn’t take away from their story.
Yeah, maybe. Personally, if they were gonna move the story away from Joel and Ellie, I’d prefer a brand new set of characters rather than following some of the guys whose fates we already know. I think without some hope it’d be hard to get too heavily invested.
I’m willing to bet if the new Uncharted thing they announced today with Chloe and Nadine goes well they’ll do more spin-off things like that – already sounds like they modeling it off the Left Behind DLC from TLOU but larger scale.
This is just awesome. Not sure how ND can top the first, but it’s ND, so if anyone can, it’s them.
they can fix the retarded ai bugs and issues and make the gameplay more compelling. if they can do that it’s a perfect game.
i imagine they will though, it’ll just be the uncharted 4 engine with tlou story which will work well.
Is psx over i want bloodborne 2 :'(
The guitar part was a bit too cheesy, would have been heaps cooler if she played the original theme with no vocals. Imagine being at PSX and being fairly sure you’re watching a TLOU2 trailer then seeing the firefly symbol.. wow
Really wish this wasn’t an exclusive. PS4 players are really lucky with this series, i’m jealous
That was some of the most realistic guitar playing I’ve ever seen in animation. That aside, I don’t think I’ve been more excited for any video game ever.
Edit: Oops, that wasn’t meant to be a reply. But to make it one: yeah, it’s a shame that it’s an exclusive. The Last of Us deserves to be played by everyone. If anyone hasn’t played it, try seek out a friend that will lend you a PS3/PS4 for a few nights or, alternatively, convince them to allow you to occupy their couch for 15 hours.
Maybe but being an exclusive at least they don’t have to make hardware concessions when coding and can create to the strengths of the console instead.
Or, y’know, buy a PS4? They’re not very expensive these days.
Back on topic though … damn! I didn’t see that announcement coming. I thought TLoU wrapped up pretty neatly. Although, I can imagine that the knowledge of someone immune to the spores, would make some people quite desperate. It’ll be interesting to see if they show more about the fate of humanity, and whether there’s any hope.
Im pretty sure troy baker let it slip a while ago that they were making it. The reveal though is stil great, getting the walking dead vibes transitioning from season 1 to 2 playing Clementine.
That is the ideal option yes. But I don’t want to assume everyone has the means to plonk down a couple hundred on a console for a single game. I know I personally couldn’t justify that.
Yeah this announcement was a complete surprise to me too. Must have missed the Troy Baker hints.
That was my thought too! The 5th fret tune up, the correct voicing of the chords she was playing. ND certainly don’t take the half-assed approach.
Why is everyone saying they don’t want a new last of us. Ther was so much more to the game, that world and so many more stories to tell, then that ending. Or are really saying they don’t trust naughty dog ?
Same types of people said they didn’t want a new BioShock. How wrong they were and still are.
Maybe we’ll finally get an answer to the question of what happened to those giraffes after they wandered off into the distance.
I can’t stop watching this trailer….
just everything. her bloody nails, the blood dripping down her head, the tone, the song, her voice, Joel’s voice… having played the first it just reminds me of everything about it and I see all those big key moments happening one after the other in my head… It’s just utterly haunting….