Despite a number of leaks leading many to discover major aspects of the game’s narrative early,The Last of Us 2is still garnering a lot of excitement and hype in the lead up to its June 19 release date. It seems Sony is really beginning to build up to the upcoming sequel’s release date as well,showing off newLast of Us 2trailersthat highlight more of the game’s story and integral gameplay aspects.
It seems theLast of Us 2’sdevelopers have also been more vocal on what separates the long-awaited follow up from its predecessor, detailing exactly howthe game is the biggest Naughty Dog has created to date. One of these gameplay features appears to beThe Last of Us 2’ssemi-linear world which, according to Anthony Newman in the latest of Sony’s deep dives into the game, will be so vast that a lot of players won’t experience everything it has to offer.
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Discussing what this statement means forThe Last of Us 2, Newman claims “we’ve gone so far in making the level design open that there are actually entire story moments, entire combat encounters, full scripted sequences that you may completely miss.” He continues, “there are things that we feel like, even though a portion of our player base may never see these things, the fact that when you do encounter them, you feel like you discovered them, it lends them this charm and this magic I think is unique to games. That this happened to me, because of what I did and the place I explored.”
Evidently, there will be significant aspects of the game that will be discoverable through extensive exploration, even to the point of having whole combat encounters and scripted moments that players could miss entirely. This seems to lineup considerably with claimsNeil Druckmann,The Last of Us 2’sdirector, has made in the past, with industry icon telling IGN that, at certain points within the narrative, players will be told: “Here are some optional things you can go explore, some side stories, or you can go directly next to where you’re meant to go.”
Naturally, this is a big departure from Naughty Dog’s former games, the majority of which have often been fairly linear. That being said,Uncharted: Lost Legacydid play around with a more open approach to level design than previous games from the studio, so this could be an evolution of that idea. Regardless, Druckmann did also claim that “It’s not padded, it has that pacing of the first game,” so players looking for a more traditional Naughty Dog experience should be appeased as well.
The Last of Us 2will be available exclusively for PlayStation 4 on June 19.
