As The Last of Us: Part II draws closer and closer, our minds are left to speculate what is soon to come. We wonder what the writers over at Naughty Dog have in store for us in the long-awaited sequel to one of gaming’s finest crafted stories. We can only speculate at this moment, but we were assured that more would be revealed at E3 2018. Until then we’re left with only our hopes and dreams. This is Gaming Instincts’s top 10 things we want to know about The Last of Us: Part II.
Tommy was first introduced to us in the first few minutes of The Last of Us. He helped Joel survive outbreak day, it was only inevitable we’d see him later in the game, and that we did. Later we find that he has done well surviving in the aftermath of the fungal outbreak. He has set up a community of survivors along with his wife Maria.
Later on in the story he tells the Joel and Ellie duo that they are free to stay at the refuge whenever they’d like. After that we never really saw much of Tommy. During the game’s conclusion we can see Joel and Ellie making their way back to the power plant where the refuge is located. One wonders if Tommy is still alive or not. Before Joel and Tommy concluded their heated discussion back at the base, it was attacked by Bandits. Is this is a common occurrence?
Could Tommy still be back at the base? Could he have gotten ambushed by bandits on his way back? We found plenty of bandits as we were searching for Ellie, so it’s likely they’re everywhere. Tommy is an interesting character, and we hope he returns for the sequel so he and Joel can argue some more.
We experienced two periods of time in the original Last of Us, one being the outbreak day in 2013, the other 20 years later. During this time the government started to create military installations to keep the infected individuals out and the healthy individuals in check. Civil unrest started to arise and from this unrest came the fireflies, a radical group with goals to cure the infection and restore order. The two factions went to war with one another, with the military seizing control after a while. After a large battle with the military, the Fireflies in the Boston checkpoint were nearly gone. Their leader, Marlene, sends a girl who is naturally immune to the infection across the country with some smugglers to a lab where a vaccine can be created.
As we play through the story, we see that the world hasn’t recovered much. Most of the world we see is either filled with Clickers, Runners or Bandits. It doesn’t seem like the military has done much, besides keep people within the walls. Perhaps we could see some development in the sequel. Has the government started to reinsert itself into abandoned territories? Have more groups been formed across the country? We’re curious to see if the world is still in the same shape as we left it in our new journey.
The Last of Us had a pretty simple crafting system, one that clearly displayed everything you needed right on screen. After a while, you could even memorize them based on how often you used items. Even when crafting something, the game did not stop, you could hide and craft a smoke bomb and use it 2 seconds later, if you needed to. Some supplies were limited too, so you had to decide what you wanted to craft for your current situation. Crafting was simple and easy to understand. Our only hope is that Naughty Dog adds more craftable objects. But if the system remains the same, it wouldn’t be much of a let down.
A popular and more personal feature in video games is to let the player decide how the story ends, based upon their previous choices. This something that very well could have been done with the original game but looking back at it now, it feel like the original Last of Us was meant to have a sequel. Decisions made by Joel and Ellie could result in consequences for the other. Ultimately impacting the ending of the game. Encouraging players to go back and try out some other options. While some may not like this option it is something that could be incorporated into the story. In this wasteland, any decision you make could have huge consequences.
Probably the biggest mystery surrounding The Last of Us: Part II is the woman being hung in the second teaser trailer. Fans all across the internet have come up with their own theories and gusses. The most common across the web is that this is actually Ellie’s mother Anna. The woman doing the motion capture and voice recording is Laura Bailey. The official Naughty Dog twitter sent out this tweet back in October of last year.
When the first official teaser trailer dropped back at last year’s PSX, fans were greeted with their first look at The Last of Us: Part II. We got our glimpse at an older Ellie and what appeared to be Joel. The way Joel is introduced in this trailer is odd, he steps through a doorway full of light and casually walks over bloody corpses. Fans as well as us here at Gaming Instincts began to come up with theories for this strange entrance.
A Nintendo Switch trailer was also released.
According to SteamDB.
An announcement trailer was also released.