After game developer Naughty Dog released the open world action-adventure third-person shooter video game “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” in May, there were reports saying that it would still not focus on the development of the horror survival video game “The Last of Us 2” since it would reportedly be coming out with DLCs for the first game.
At the close of the PlayStation Experience on December 3, game publisher Sony Computer Entertainment pulled off a major surprise when it released the reveal trailer for “The Last of Us 2.”
That surely had fans of the long-anticipated sequel to the original game extremely excited with delight, realizing that Naughty Dog has already calendared the development of the game.
Contrary to previous speculations that “The Last of Us 2” shall only feature Ellie and no longer Joel, the reveal trailer showed that Joel is still around. The short trailer showed Ellie singing a folk song and vowing revenge.
Ellie was seen singing a tune with the help of an acoustic guitar. Joel, her complicated father figure, enters the room and asks if she wants to proceed with an ambiguous plan. Ellie replied that she is going to find and kill every last one of them.
A story worth telling
Neil Druckmann, the creative director of Naughty Dog who was both responsible for the “Uncharted” series and “The Last of Us” franchise, said that the development of “The Last of Us 2” is still on its early days. Druckmann assured fans and gamers that there would be more details about the game in the coming months.
Druckmann explained that he is also very elated to say that Ellie and Joel will be back for another intense, harrowing, and emotional adventure in “The Last of Us 2.”
He added he shares with the millions of fans and gamers the same love for the world of “The Last of Us” and its characters.
The creative director explained that because of the success of the first game when it was released on the PlayStation 3 in 2013 and got remastered for PlayStation 4 a year later, a sequel became imminent.
However, he and the development team all agreed that the sequel needs to have a story worth telling which shall involve Joel and Ellie again. After spending a few years on different ideas, the development team finally came up with a very special story for the game. Druckmann said that the story is going to be an epic journey, details Polygon.
Another surprise
In addition to the reveal trailer for “The Last of Us 2” during the final day of the PlayStation Experience event, Naughty Dog also made a second big announcement which is the disclosure on “Uncharted: The Lost Legacy,” reports The Verge.
It is not clear as of this time if “Uncharted: The Lost Legacy” is a new game in the “Uncharted” franchise or is merely a DLC for “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.”
It can be recalled that Naughty Dog also stated that “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” is going to be the last in the video game series even stating that it is to be the final adventure of series protagonist Nathan Drake.
Meanwhile, in addition to Neil Druckmann, voice actors Nolan North and Troy Baker also confirmed as early as last year that “The Last of Us 2” was already in initial development.
Nolan North, who voiced a different character in “The Last of Us” said then that “The Last of Us 2” was already in development but he will no longer be part of it since his character already met an untimely demise in the original game.
That statement might have spawned the speculations that Joel shall no longer be around for “The Last of Us 2” but it was actually Troy Baker who voiced Joel and not Nolan North.
Baker was quoted as saying last year that he does not know if they are going to do another game for the franchise or not.