Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us: Part 2 has garnered plenty of critical acclaim even before its launch. There’s been praise for its presentation, characters, the gorgeous graphics and whatnot. However, one aspect that’s been somewhat divisive is the violence, the sheer brutality and realism of it. This isn’t an action game like DOOM that uses violence to propel the player forward, but rather enunciates every detail of it.
Director Neil Druckmann and co-writer Halley Gross sat down with BuzzFeed to share their thoughts on how the violence acts as a narrative tool. “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 want 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,” said Druckmann.
The exact story premise of the game hasn’t been revealed but we know that it’s all about hate. Ellie is grown up and adept at killing but why is she seeking revenge? We know that she’ll have a non-playable character alongside her, similar to Ellie’s role herself in The Last of Us (with some exceptions here and there). Other than that, we’ll have to wait for more information and a solid release date when Naughty Dog decides to announce it.
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