The Last of Us Part II
The Last of Us Part II is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Set four years after The Last of Us, the game focuses on two playable characters in a post-apocalyptic United States whose lives intertwine: Ellie, who sets out in revenge for Joel's murder, and Abby, a soldier who killed Joel and becomes involved in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult. The game uses a third-person perspective; the player must fight human enemies and zombie-like creatures with firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth.
The game's development began in 2014, after the release of The Last of Us Remastered. Neil Druckmann returned as creative director, co-writing the story with Halley Gross. The themes of revenge and retribution were inspired by Druckmann's experiences growing up in Israel. Ashley Johnson reprises her role as Ellie, while Laura Bailey was cast as Abby. Their performances included the simultaneous recording of motion and voice. Gustavo Santaolalla returned to compose and perform the score. The developers pushed the PlayStation 4's technical capabilities. Development reportedly included a crunch schedule of 12-hour workdays and cost around, making it one of the most expensive video games to develop.
Following delays, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Last of Us Part II was released for the PlayStation 4 in June 2020. A remastered version was released for the PlayStation 5 in January 2024 and for Windows in April 2025. Part II received acclaim for its gameplay, audio design, score, performances, characters, and visual fidelity, though its narrative and themes divided critics. Discourse became adversarial and the game was review bombed on Metacritic, with some players criticizing the story and characters. It is one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games and the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive, with over four million units sold in its release weekend and ten million by 2022. It won multiple accolades from awards shows and gaming publications, including 326 Game of the Year awards.
Gameplay
The Last of Us Part II is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective featuring elements of the survival horror genre. The player traverses post-apocalyptic environments such as buildings and forests to advance the story. The player can use firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus. Control intermittently switches between Ellie and Abby; the player also briefly controls Joel in the opening sequence. The nimble nature of the player character introduces platforming elements, allowing the player to jump and climb to traverse environments and gain advantages during combat. The player can break glass objects such as windows to access certain areas or obtain supplies. Some areas are navigated by horse or boat.In combat, the player can use long-range weapons such as rifles and bows, and short-range weapons such as pistols and revolvers. The player is able to scavenge limited-use melee weapons such as machetes and hammers, and throw bricks and bottles to distract or attack enemies. Collected items can be used to upgrade weapons at workbenches or craft equipment such as health kits, Molotov cocktails, and makeshift silencers. The player can collect supplements to upgrade skills in a skill tree; training manuals found throughout the environment unlock additional skill tree branches, allowing upgrades to attributes such as the health meter, crafting speed, and ammunition types.
Though the player can attack enemies directly, they can also use stealth to attack undetected or sneak past them. "Listen Mode" allows the player to locate enemies through a heightened sense of hearing and spatial awareness, indicated as outlines visible through walls and objects. In the cover system, the player can crouch behind obstacles to gain advantages in combat, and can also crawl in a prone position to evade enemies. Hostile enemies use artificial intelligence; they may take cover or call for assistance, and can take advantage when the player is distracted, out of ammunition, or in a fight. The player may be impaled by an arrow, which will progressively decrease their health meter and disables Listen Mode until removed when in cover. Player companions, such as Dina, assist in combat by killing enemies or announcing their location. The game introduces guard dogs that track the player's scent, which can be visualized in Listen Mode.
Plot
Joel confesses to his brother, Tommy, his responsibility in preventing the Fireflies' attempt to develop a cure for the Cordyceps fungus pandemic by saving Ellie from a non-survivable surgical procedure. Four years later, Joel and Ellie have built a life in Jackson, Wyoming, though their relationship has become strained. While on patrol, Joel and Tommy rescue a stranger, Abby, from an Infected horde. They return to an outpost used as a temporary hideout by Abby's group, former Fireflies now part of the Washington Liberation Front, a militia group based in Seattle, Washington. The group attacks Joel and Tommy; Abby seeks revenge against Joel for murdering her father, the Firefly surgeon who was to operate on Ellie. Meanwhile, Ellie and her girlfriend, Dina, search for the brothers. Ellie enters the WLF outpost and witnesses Abby beat Joel to death. Abby spares Ellie and Tommy, who swear revenge.Tommy sets out for Seattle to hunt Abby, and Ellie and Dina follow him. In Seattle, Ellie reveals her immunity; Dina, in turn, reveals that she is pregnant. The next day, Ellie pursues Tommy alone and encounters Jesse, Dina's ex-boyfriend, who had followed them. While searching for Abby's friend Nora, Ellie encounters the Seraphites, a religious cult locked in a battle with the WLF over control of Seattle. Ellie tracks down Nora and tortures her for information on Abby's location, an act that traumatizes Ellie. The following day, she kills two more members of Abby's group, the pregnant Mel and her boyfriend, Owen. A flashback reveals that, two years earlier, Ellie traveled to the Firefly hospital in Salt Lake City and learned the truth. Devastated, she cut ties with Joel. In the present, Ellie's group is ambushed by Abby, who kills Jesse and holds Tommy hostage.
Three days earlier, Abby learns from WLF leader Isaac that Owen, her ex-boyfriend, has gone missing while investigating Seraphite activity. Abby searches for Owen and is captured by Seraphites. She is rescued by Yara and Lev, Seraphite siblings who have been branded apostates after Lev defied Seraphite traditions. Though Yara suffers a broken arm, Abby leaves them to find Owen, who, disillusioned with the war, plans to sail to Santa Barbara, California, where Fireflies may be regrouping. Abby returns to rescue Yara and Lev and travels across Seattle with Lev to retrieve medical supplies so Mel can amputate Yara's crippled arm. After the surgery, Lev runs away to the Seraphite home island to convince his devout mother to abandon the cult. Abby and Yara find him in the Seraphite settlement, where Lev has killed his mother in self-defense. The trio flees as the WLF mounts an invasion of the island. Abby betrays the WLF to save Lev, and Yara kills Isaac, sacrificing herself to allow Abby and Lev to escape. The pair return to find Owen and Mel dead, along with a map leading to Ellie's hideout. After killing Jesse, an enraged Abby shoots Tommy in the head and severely beats Ellie and Dina. At Lev's insistence, Abby spares them and demands they leave Seattle.
Several months later, Ellie and Dina are living on a farm, raising Dina and Jesse's son, though Ellie suffers from post-traumatic stress. Having survived his injuries, Tommy arrives with information on Abby's whereabouts. Though initially hesitant, Ellie leaves to find her, despite Dina's pleas to stay. Abby and Lev arrive in Santa Barbara searching for the Fireflies, who they discover are regrouping at Catalina Island, California, but are captured, tortured, and left to die by the slave-keeping Rattlers. Ellie arrives at Santa Barbara and rescues the pair. Ellie forces Abby to fight her, during which Abby bites off two of Ellie's fingers. Ellie overpowers and nearly drowns Abby but has a change of heart after having a flashback of Joel and ultimately spares her. Abby and Lev sail to the Fireflies. Ellie returns to the abandoned farmhouse. She tries to play Joel's guitar with her damaged hand, recalls her last conversation with Joel in which she expressed her willingness to forgive him, and leaves.
Development
Early story concepts for The Last of Us Part II were conceived during the development of The Last of Us in 2013. Naughty Dog began development in 2014, soon after the release of The Last of Us Remastered. By August 2017, with the release of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, the entire 350-person team at Naughty Dog had shifted to develop Part II. Neil Druckmann led development as creative director and writer, reprising his role from The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau were selected to be co-game directors for PartII, overseeing gameplay elements such as level design and mechanics. For the final months of development, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team operated via remote work arrangements. In total, approximately 2,169 developers across 14 studios worked on the game. According to documents from publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment, the 70-month development peaked at 200 full-time employees and cost around, making it one of the most expensive video games to develop.Druckmann wrote the story with Halley Gross. The team experimented with different plot structures and considered scrapping the project until they settled on an idea that mirrored the first game; Druckmann said that whereas The Last of Us is about the extreme measures one would take for love, Part II is more about how far one would go to bring justice for those they love. The themes of revenge and retribution were inspired by Druckmann's experiences growing up in Israel, where violence was a frequent topic. He recalled watching footage of the 2000 Ramallah lynching, and how, after hearing the cheering crowds, his mind turned to violent thoughts about bringing the perpetrators to justice. He wanted the player to feel a "thirst for revenge" before making them realize the reality of their actions. Druckmann said other themes include tribalism, trauma, and the pursuit of justice. Artists at Naughty Dog traveled to Seattle to analyze the architecture, vegetation, materials, topography, lighting, and capture photorealistic textures.
File:The Last of Us Part II motion capture 1.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Motion capture recording for The Last of Us Part II in Playa Vista, Los Angeles|alt=A bright white stage with actors in black suits and camera operators
Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker reprise their roles as Ellie and Joel, respectively, while Laura Bailey was cast as Abby. The actors' performances were recorded at a studio in Playa Vista, Los Angeles using performance capture, recording motion and voice simultaneously. Gross noted that a goal of the writers was to "create the most multifaceted characters you've seen in games". She particularly wanted to explore the multifaceted behavior of Ellie, showing her power as well as her insecurities. The change of player character from Ellie to Abby was inspired by the change from Joel to Ellie in the first game, though emphasized in Part II due to its focus on empathy. Druckmann wanted the player to hate Abby early in the game, but later empathize with her.
The developers pushed the technical capabilities of the PlayStation 4 when creating Part II, adding more enemies and larger environments than in previous games. Druckmann noted that any drops in detail would ruin the sense of authenticity, which required consistent optimization of the technology. Improved artificial intelligence allowed for deeper connections with characters and the creation of bonds through gameplay. The Last of Us Part II was originally planned as an open world game with hub worlds, but later the game transferred to a more linear style as it better served the narrative. Naughty Dog wanted to increase the accessibility options introduced in Uncharted 4 to ensure that all players could complete the story, and the developers attended conferences and worked with advocates.
Gustavo Santaolalla returned to compose and perform the game's score, as he had done with the first game, while Mac Quayle contributed combat music. The developers received permission to use the songs "Future Days" by Pearl Jam and "Take On Me" by A-ha. To achieve the sound of the Shamblers, the team hired voice actors Raul Ceballos and Steve Blum, and used items such as grapefruits to create the explosion sounds. The dialogue team referenced whistled languages such as Sfryria and Silbo Gomero for the Seraphites' whistling, and hired actors Stevie Mack and Lisa Marie to provide the whistles in three styles.
According to a report by Kotakus Jason Schreier, the development included a crunch schedule of 12-hour work days. This continued after the game was delayed. Schreier suggested that development was slowed due to the enormous turnover of employees following the development of Uncharted 4, with few veterans left on the team. Some of the developers allegedly hoped that Part II would fail and prove that the working conditions were not viable. Sony granted Naughty Dog an additional two weeks of development for bug fixes. Druckmann felt that he had failed to find the correct balance for employees on Part II, and said the studio would receive external assistance for future projects.