The Last of Us was first released in summer of 2013, and since then there hasn’t been a shortage of rumors flying around that Naughty Dog would be (or at the very least should be) making a second game. Today at the PlayStation Experience 2016 (PSX) Keynote, we finally got the confirmation we have been looking for these last three years when The Last of Us Part II was announced.
From the four-minute trailer, The Last of Us Part II follows a noticeably older Joel and Ellie. The focus of the trailer was primarily on Ellie, as she sat on the edge of a bed and played her guitar while singing “Through the Valley” by Shawn James. Oh, and there’s a dead body on the floor in front of her. Although Naughty Dog does not show Ellie’s face immediately, there were small indicators that fans at PSX instantly picked up on for confirmation that it was, indeed, her.
Joel then enters the run-down house and stops in front of the room where Ellie is playing her guitar. We obviously don’t know what happened leading up to this moment, but Ellie is more than upset when she looks up and says, “I’m gonna find and I’m gonna kill…every last one of them.”
The trailer told us so much and yet absolutely nothing at the same time. There were many questions raised- Who does she want to kill? Why does she want to kill them? What happened? (Weren’t they going back to Tommy’s at the end of the first game?)- that the anticipation to have them answered may be nearly unbearable for many fans. Not only was the ending of the first game open-ended, but it also left gamers with a note of moral ambiguity that resulted in people talking about it for months following. It was more than enough story there that could be expanded on in the second game, and there is still some unfinished business with the Fireflies…
In The Last of Us, Ellie was fourteen. Though she was hardened by the post-apocalyptic world, she still carried a sense of humor and a sort of light-heartedness as she experienced the outside world for the first time. The Ellie that we knew seems long gone based on that small trailer we saw. She has a motive for revenge now, and it’s clear she won’t stop until she gets it.
The Last of Us Part II is still in the early stages of development, so there was no window for a release date at the end of the trailer. Now that the game has been officially announced, we can expect Naughty Dog to be releasing more information as the months go on, especially at E3 2017.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Wnvvj33Wo[/embedyt]
