Naughty Dog and Sony released an extended look at The Last of Us Part II this week to preview the game ahead of its June release. Neil Druckmann, the director of the new Last of Us game, appeared during the latest State of Play event as well to offer commentary on the footage seen in the stream. Insights into threats and different parts of the story were capped off by a lengthy gameplay demo. The game’s releasing on June 19th following a delay that pushed it back out of May, so it won’t be much longer before players are able to experience the game themselves.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The gameplay presentation started by recapping parts of the story from The Last of Us before setting the foundation for what’s happening in the new game. Ellie, the protagonist of The Last of Us Part II and the co-protagonist of The Last of Us, is 19 now and is out for revenge after a traumatic event befalls her and Dina, another character who she’s in a relationship with.
Throughout the gameplay presentation, we got to see many of the enemies Ellie will be up against. The infected enemies are of course back to represent the effects of the pandemic that infected people worldwide, but there are also human threats in the form of warring factions that Ellie has to fight through. These enemies are often at odds with each other as well, so in some situations, Ellie can manipulate or avoid conflicts entirely by forcing her enemies to work against each other.
A big part of the gameplay presentation was also the ways that Ellie will work differently from Joel, the character who was the main protagonist of The Last of Us and appears again in the sequel. We’ve seen previews of those gameplay differences in past presentations with some of that gameplay and commentary recycled for this latest State of Play. Ellie’s nimbleness adds some verticality to her encounters since she can climb and jump on top of things to take enemies by surprise. She can also go prone to be hidden by tall grass or crawl underneath things, but doing so isn’t a guarantee that enemies won’t start searching in those places for her.
The Last of Us Part II is scheduled to release on June 19th, so look for any more gameplay previews before that date to see more on the game. If you’re looking to pre-order it, you’ve got several options.
