'The Last Of Us Part 2' Writers Talk Violence, NPC And More

Gameplay footage for “The Last of Us Part 2” was shown at E3 2018 last month and it produced a slew of various responses from critics and fans alike. Game director Neil Druckmann and co-writer Halley Gross recently talked about the upcoming game and how it was made.

One of the topics of discussion was how violence is portrayed in “The Last of Us Part 2.” The gameplay footage that Naughty Dog showed at E3 2018 featured very realistic and brutal violence. Druckmann explained to BuzzFeed that this is all in service of the story that they are doing to make the game “engaging” but not necessarily “fun.” Gross also said that the idea behind the violence is to explore its cyclical nature, which should create a conversation among people.

Druckmann also talked about why they decided to make the violence very realistic and why it should make players feel uncomfortable. “I mean, our aesthetic approach to violence is to make it as grounded and real as possible, and we watch — sometimes uncomfortably — a lot of videos from the world, right? The world that we know, and trying to say, Okay, we don’t to make it sexy. How do we make it real? How do we make it uncomfortable because art at times should be uncomfortable?”

“With the story we’re trying to tell here, it should at times make you uneasy to move forward, and yet you’re so invested in the characters that you are moving forward, and hopefully you’re reflecting on the actions that you’re taking part in,” Druckmann said.

During the interview, they also talked about how Ellie was an NPC (non-player character) in the first game and now she’s the protagonist of “The Last of Us Part 2.” Druckmann said that Ellie will have an NPC as a companion but didn’t reveal if it will actually be Joel.

“Well, so, Ellie used to be an NPC, but she’s the protagonist in this story, so the player is controlling Ellie,” Druckmann said. “Umm, it’s safe to say with the game that we made in the past that there will be some NPC with you in this story, even though we’re not showing [the NPC] in this demo.”

The director also revealed what “The Last of Us Part 2” will be about. He explained that the first game was about “unconditional love a parent feels for their child.” For the new game, it will be more about “hate” and how it’s more complicated as it brings people’s minds to somewhere more “primitive.”

“The Last of Us Part 2” is being developed by Naughty Dog exclusively for the PlayStation 4. Unfortunately, the upcoming game still doesn’t have a release date, as pointed out by Game Rant.