What We Want And What We Know: Dissecting The Last Of Us Part II

Put your finger to your neck and feel the beat of your heart. Is your pulse elevated? Can you feel it? Yup, The Last of Us Part II is coming. Ever since the release of this classic PlayStation exclusive in 2013, fans have wondered whether we'll return to the world of Ellie and Joel, where humanity has been oppressed by the might of a parasitic virus, and nature runs wild in the absence of governing. Yesterday, Naughty Dog unveiled The Last of Us: Part II at the PlayStation Experience, beginning with a bleak trailer followed by a panel discussion that offered further insights into the new story. Series writer Neil Druckmann was quick to address the issue of crafting a follow-up to one of the best standalone games of all-time. The original denouement was so brilliant, so steeped in sticky moral ambiguity, that it could have been left as is. But Druckmann acknowledged those fears and set them to one side. "So much thought went into this - I know there's trepidation about going back to these characters. We feel that as well. No-one loves these characters more than we do, and we wouldn't do it if we didn't have the right idea. I had ideas with different characters and it didn't feel right. The Last of Us is about these two characters. All I ask is that fans of the first one put some faith in us - we're going to do right by you." So, as we sit and wait for more information on the sequel to come to light, we've put together everything we know so far about the game, and what we'd like to see from it. Enjoy! What We Know: Ellie Is The Main Character The bulk of Part I (as we can now call it!) focused on Joel's determination to take care of his surrogate daughter after the death of his biological child. But as various sources are now reporting, we'll now be playing as Ellie. It feels like a smart move to adjust the lens from the gruff would-be father to the woman morphing at his side, and given that Ellie is all grown up and on the cusp of twenty, she no longer needs a doting dad following her around. How has their relationship changed, though? We already know the depths Joel will go to save his loved ones, but how far will Ellie go? Well, she's not going to be squeamish about bloodshed. The reveal trailer shows our heroine smeared in blood and coolly strumming the strings of a guitar as Joel enters and addresses her with his unmistakable southern twang. Ellie looks up, cold, cruel eyes twitching. "I'm going to kill every last one of them," she says. If the first game was about love, Druckman says the story this time is about "hate." We can expect a revenge dish with gore aplenty; a bleak story of moral greys. What We Want: Answers So, here's what we don't know. Will the final moments of Part I be central to the events of Part II? Does Ellie know that Joel has lied to her? And does she have any idea that she might hold the key to unlocking a cure to the virus? These questions could be the central axis upon which the new story rests, but on the other hand, Naughty Dog could go in a new direction totally. Setting the game five years in the future opens up the possibility of side-stepping many of the cliffhangers teased in the final moments of the original. Our only hope is that we get some resolutions to those delicious, unsolved teasers that made The Last of Us just so memorable. If not, why make a Part II at all? What We Know: Neil Druckmann Is Writing The Story Let's all breathe a sigh of relief: Neil Druckmann is writing and directing this new installment - and as the person responsible for Part I, as well as the fantastic Uncharted 4, that can only be a good thing. The bad news? His co-director and writer, Bruce Straley, is on a year-long sabbatical. The best writers often come in teams and if Straley was instrumental in the success of the previous title, his absence could be felt keenly. Anyone remember True Detective season 1 versus 2? Exactly. But I'm cautiously optimistic on this one. Druckmann seems to have the skill and foresight to recognize what makes his games so deliciously different: they're about real people that we can empathize with. And to date, he's been darn good at bringing those sorts of people to life. What We Want: Emotional Connections Part I of The Last of Us was a fantastic action game. But it was also a very moving story about two ordinary people stuck in extraordinary circumstances, and in following Ellie and Joel through many months of hardship, we learned to care about their blossoming friendship. Over the course of a sixteen-hour story, we laughed beside them and empathized with their painfully human foibles. They seemed to be like you or me: with fears, hang-ups and genuine personalities. There's no doubt the dynamic between the pair - a surly older man paired to a optimistic teenage girl - worked beautifully. Now that Ellie's grown up and her youthful exuberance has seemingly faded, how will the dynamic change? Will Ellie be the key to Joel's salvation, as he grows old, weak and tired? The shifting focus presents enticing new moral dilemmas, but also the chance to examine a relationship subtly changing before our eyes. What We Want: A New Setting With Changing Seasons One of the many things The Last of Us did brilliantly was tie individual chapters to specific seasons during the course of a single year. We had the foreboding hue of fall, the icy depths of winter and the hopefulness of spring sunshine. Looking back, each of these chapters stands out not only for the action that unfolds but for the colour palette of the individual seasons. I'd like to see a return to this method of storytelling, with the story set in different seasons, played out over varying terrain. This time around, we can expect bigger, denser environments; locations that that take full advantage of the PS4's computing power. If Uncharted 4 is anything to go by, Naughty Dog will continue to demonstrate their mastery for linear levels that funnel you in a single direction without ever appearing linear at all. The trailer for Part II points to Ellie and Joel situated inside a woodland cabin in the heart of a forest, and as settings go, it looks like a perfect opportunity to show off the technological strides made in Naughty Dog's engine. Here's hoping forest areas are replete with dense foliage, wildlife and atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife. After all, the series has always focused on the juxtaposition between the beauty of untamed wilderness versus the savagery that runs its soil red. What We Know: Ellie Wants Revenge After the lighthearted adventures of Nathan Drake and Uncharted 4, Neil Druckmann is keen to return to murkier, bloodier waters, and it looks like The Last of Us: Part II will be an unflinching examination of humanity at its worst. The first game succeeded in presenting groups of people who were neither good nor bad, but somewhere in between. The trailer for Part II points to Ellie undergoing moral degradation (presumably after years of hard toil), and this could turn her into a fascinating anti-hero. As unmissable television shows like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos have proven, truly memorable characters blur the line between good and evil. We know why they're committing their crimes, but we don't always feel comfortable condoning them. With Ellie in search of revenge against a mysterious party, will we be made to question our allegiance to her? What We Want: Evil Humans! Possibly the scariest scene in all of the The Last of Us comes during the winter time as Ellie befriends a group of bandits. They're eager to usher her under their wing and take care of her. But it turns out they're cannibals, and Ellie's torso is destined for the sake. The chapter culminates in a face-off against the slimeball leader, David (voiced by none other than Nolan North, AKA Nathan Drake) amidst the burning remains of a restaurant going up in flames. The Last of Us has always been good at demonstrating how civility is a social construct, and underneath the platitudes, we're capable of true horrors. The manipulative David is a brilliant portent that stands for humanity at its most depraved, and I'm looking forward to more encounters with formally good people who have survived, and now view a world without rules as a vehicle for hedonism. Zombies and clickers are one thing. But a devil masquerading beneath the quiet assurances of a "good man"? That's true evil.