Among the unavoidable excitement for the sequel to Naughty Dog’s ground-breaking post-apocalyptic heavy hitter, there has also been an undeniable wave of controversy.
While a small amount has forced the spotlight on the work environment inside the award-winning studio, most of the attention has been surrounded by massive story leaks. In a recent interview with EuroGamer, Naughty Dog Vice President and Director Neil Druckmann visited the topic to relay a positive message to fans heavily anticipating the upcoming sequel.
EG: Did you ever worry it was a consequence about making a game about hatred that it kind of begets more hatred in kind? I guess I think a lot of players are uncomfortable with having any kind of a mirror held up to themselves in that respect.
ND: Oh, it’s interesting that some of the reaction is very much indicative of what the game is designed to do. And I think it’s a bit into spoiler territory, but we want to elicit certain feelings from the player and then have them reflect on those feelings for the second part. So for us, it’s like okay, we got the first part. Now let’s see if we can get the second part once the game is out there because again people just don’t know. There’s all these theories about what the ending is but the ending is not out there. You actually don’t know how it all comes together.
We’re finally getting it into people’s hands, to see this meticulous journey that we’ve crafted for Ellie and how these events affect her, the highs and lows of that journey – that there’s beautiful sweet moments and these dark, hard moments to deal with. And we want it to be challenging, right? It’s like, yes, there are games that are just comfort food. This is not one of those games – there are moments in the game that are comfort food, and there moments are really challenging emotionally to play through. That’s part of the design of it.
With just a little over a week until The Last of Us Part II is finally let loose into the wild, anticipation continues to build. All eyes are on Naughty Dog. We are either about to see one of the most successful video game releases of all time, or an absolute train wreck.
Regardless of those possible outcomes, the fans are ready for a finale to this seven-year journey known as The Last of Us.
The Last of Us Part II is set to release on June 19th exclusively for PlayStation 4.