Absent that context in the sequel’s trailer, it’s hard to read the reaction. Naughty Dog was able to build a beautiful core of emotion, told through the gradual and often reluctant bond between a young girl and her surrogate father in the first game. But then so is the world of The Last of Us Part 2. Were the people in the crowd at the PlayStation E3 event cheering because they cared about the characters? Where they cheering for good triumphing over evil? Did they understand the point - innocent teenage emotionalism juxtaposed with barbaric (if necessary) violence? Or did they just like to see buckets of blood sandwiched between kisses? “It’s hard to know what’s inside someone’s mind and how they’re reacting”ĭevoid of that context, the trailer could be read differently. Just like anyone, she’s dealing with different emotions at 19 than she was when she was 13. In The Last of Us Part 2, Ellie is older. It was the tragic, if unavoidable reality of being a teenager in The Last of Us. When she said “Fuck, Joel!” in disbelief after some particularly gruesome killing, players felt the pang of her reaction. She was a young, relatively innocent teenager. Part of what made the original game work was Ellie’s age. And what the game broadly addresses is that question in conversations about violence, presenting it very contrasting way for E3.” Image: Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment “And without talking too much about the story, it makes you think about how did she get here? What is the context with the situation? Which is kind of the point of it - to raise those questions in your mind. “It’s a game about what you would do and the lines you would cross in search for justice, and we’re seeing a side of Ellie, a part Ellie that we haven’t seen before,” co-director Kurt Margenau said. And that’s something that its directors say will be a theme throughout the game. In short, the juxtaposition between the kiss and the killing was intentional. We really wanted to combine that into one experience for our audience.” “So our game is a very holistic experience where it’s examining both the highs and lows - the sweetness and the brutality of the human experience. “How did she get here? What is the context?” This is the world that she’s forced to confront. We really wanted to show that side of her - that sweetness - and the relationships that are at stake for her in this world, and then transitioning into after a violent act is committed in Jackson kind of wrecks that world. She’s been able to kind of be a normal teenager and have teenage romance. “In Jackson, Ellie has been able to find this sense of normalcy. “The Last of Us is really about high stakes at its core, and we really wanted to show what is at stake for Ellie,” co-director Anthony Newman told Polygon at E3 2018. And growing up in a world gone mad shaped her character - just as, I suspect, it would shape you and me. We know from a line at the beginning of the The Last of Us Part 2’s E3 trailer that her pocket of what passes for normal human civilization in Jackson, Wyoming is vulnerable. This is the world into which the game’s protagonist, Ellie, was born. There is at least one pocket of something resembling pre-outbreak life, but most of the first game takes place in a world where humans are as much of a threat as the fungal infected. The Last of Us universe is inhospitable and inhumane. According to its co-directors, it’s designed to show the two worlds that Ellie inhabits - and imply a question. It bookended unspeakable gore with sweet teenage love, a stark juxtaposition that got crowds whooping. The Last of Us Part 2 trailer at E3 2018 was anything but subtle.
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