The Last of Us Part II

## Development

### Director(s)

Neil Druckmann
Kurt Margenau
Anthony Newman

### Writer(s)

Neil Druckmann
Halley Gross

### Artist(s)

Christian Nakata
Erick Pangilinan
John Sweeney

## Release

### Release Date

**PlayStation 4**
WW: June 19, 2019

### Rating

**ESRB:** M
**PEGI:** 18
**CERO:** Z
**ACB:** R

### Genre

Action-adventure
Survival horror

***The Last of Us Part II*** is the second title in the *The Last of Us* series, developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was released on June 19, 2020 exclusively for the PlayStation 4, though the title will be playable on the PlayStation 5 via backward compatibility. The title follows 2013's *The Last of Us*.

Following the story of the previous title, *The Last of Us Part II* focuses on Ellie's quest for revenge after a group of strangers wander into her community, committing a horrible act. As Ellie arrives in Seattle, she is caught in the crossfire between two warring factions.

The title was met with high critical acclaim and praise upon release, though the consumer base met the game with significant backlash over its story and treatment of characters. The game has also won multiple awards, including Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2020. An HBO series focused primarily on the first game is set to be filmed and aired, with the series also adopting certain aspects of *The Last of Us Part II*.

## Development

*The Last of Us Part II* was first announced during PSX 2016, on December 3, 2016. The trailer featured a bloodied-up Ellie playing the guitar in the aftermath of a fight she had won. At the end of the trailer, Joel approaches her.

On October 30, 2017, another trailer was released featuring a story involving other new characters in the title. While the identities of three characters - Lev, Yara, and Emily - were revealed, a fourth, as-of-yet unnamed character with a seemingly more central (and possibly playable) role was also shown.

The title was featured once more during Sony's E3 2018 conference. Footage featuring Ellie at a party with another new character as they kissed, transitioning into early footage of game-play.

More footage was shown in the State of Play of September 24, 2019. This trailer shed some light on the story, revealing that Ellie's chief motivation for the title is revenge following a tragedy in her community. In October of 2019, it was announced that the title's original release date of February 21, 2020 would no longer be met, and the new release date was to be May 29, 2020.

On April 2, 2020, nearly a month prior to the planned May release, it was announced that *The Last of Us Part II* would be delayed indefinitely, partly to provide the game with extra polish, while also addressing concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

A later release date of June 19, 2020, was eventually confirmed, a bit less than a month following the game's second intended release date. However, just prior to this confirmation, a massive leak emerged online, revealing major plot details of the game, including several cutscenes and pivotal moments. Sony later confirmed that the leak came from a security breach in Naughty Dog's servers, and was not sourced from an employee of either Sony or Naughty Dog themselves.

A final State of Play revolving entirely around *The Last of Us Part II* was released on May 27, 2020, revealing more story details and finally revealing finished game-play footage.

## Release

Prior to *The Last of Us Part II's* release, the game sold over 1 million copies in pre-orders. Upon release, an additional 3.3 million copies were sold within 3 days. The rate and number of sales resulted in the title becoming the fastest selling PlayStation 4 release overall. It is the thirteenth best-selling PlayStation 4 game, at approximately 4 million total copies sold overall.

Despite negative reception attributed to leaks and review bombing upon launch, sales were largely unaffected, rendering the game to become a bestseller on release, with a still continuously rising number of copies sold.

## Reception

Trailers for the title have received criticism for their depictions of violence, though developers have stated the intention is for players to be repulsed by their actions. Adversely, they have also received praise for the kiss between Ellie and Dina, largely due to the difficulty of animating such an act.
Critic reviews for the title are largely positive, with IGN and Push Square granting the title a 10/10 each, while GameSpot gave the title an 8/10. Meanwhile, GamesRadar+ provided the game with a 5 star rating, while USgamer gave it a 4 and a half star rating. Critical reviews on review aggregator Metacritic resulted in an overall score of 94.

*The Last of Us Part II* has received several awards, including *PlayStation Blog* 2017's "Most Anticipated Game" award, "Most Wanted Game" at the 2017 Golden Joystick Awards, "Most Anticipated Game" at the 2017 Game Awards, as well as both "Special Commendation for Graphics" and "Special Commendation for Sound" at the 2018 Game Critics Awards. It was nominated again for the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards' "Most Wanted Game", but did not receive the award.

Audience reception proved divisive, with the game initially receiving an overall 3.4 on review aggregator Metacritic. Many fans cited the death of Joel as a reason for their disliking of the game, while others felt the story had pacing issues. The game was also subject to malicious review bombing, both positive and negative, in an attempt to skew the game's score. Despite the overall negative audience score, the title still sold millions of copies, and achieved the record of becoming the fastest-selling game overall on the PlayStation 4. The audience review score on Metacritic has since risen to a 5.6.