The Last of Us Part II

• 1. Introduction

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  The Last of Us Part II is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It unfolds in a post-apocalyptic United States, four years after the studio's The Last of Us of 2013. Two playable characters, Ellie and Abby, are bound together by a killing and by a hunger for revenge. The player fights hostile humans and zombie-like creatures with firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth. What drove a studio to build an enormous blockbuster around the price of vengeance? Why did a game that critics celebrated also draw waves of hostile user scores and harassment? And what did making it cost the people who worked on it?

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• 2. Two Women, One Revenge

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  Jackson, Wyoming, is where Joel and Ellie have built a settled life, though the bond between them has grown strained. Early in the story, Joel confesses to his brother, Tommy, that he ended the Fireflies' attempt to cure the Cordyceps pandemic. He did it by saving Ellie from a surgery she could not have survived.

  On patrol, the brothers rescue a stranger named Abby from an Infected horde. She leads them to an outpost used by her group, former Fireflies who now belong to the Washington Liberation Front, a militia based in Seattle. There the group turns on the brothers. Abby is avenging her father, the Firefly surgeon who was meant to operate on Ellie. Ellie slips into the outpost in time to watch Abby beat Joel to death. Abby spares Ellie and Tommy, and both swear revenge.

  Seattle, Washington, becomes the hunting ground. Tommy leaves first, and Ellie follows with her girlfriend, Dina. In the city, Ellie reveals her immunity to Dina, and Dina reveals that she is pregnant. Ellie then runs into the Seraphites, a religious cult locked in a fight with the militia for control of the city. She tracks down Abby's friend Nora and tortures her for Abby's location, an act that traumatizes Ellie. The next day she kills the pregnant Mel and Mel's boyfriend, Owen. A flashback shows that two years earlier Ellie visited the Firefly hospital in Salt Lake City, learned the truth, and cut ties with Joel.

  Then the story rewinds three days. Militia leader Isaac tells Abby that Owen, her ex-boyfriend, has gone missing while investigating the Seraphites. The cult captures Abby, and two Seraphite siblings, Yara and Lev, rescue her. Both have been branded apostates because Lev defied the cult's traditions. Abby crosses Seattle with Lev to fetch medical supplies, so that Mel can amputate Yara's crippled arm. Lev later runs to the Seraphite home island to persuade his devout mother to leave the cult. He kills her in self-defense just as the militia invades. Abby betrays the militia to save him, and Yara kills Isaac, sacrificing herself so the others can escape.

  Abby and Lev return to find Owen and Mel dead, with a map leading to Ellie's hideout. An enraged Abby kills Jesse, Dina's ex-boyfriend, shoots Tommy in the head, and severely beats Ellie and Dina. At Lev's insistence, she spares them and orders them to leave Seattle.

  Several months later, Ellie and Dina are living on a farm and raising Dina and Jesse's son. Ellie suffers from post-traumatic stress. Tommy has survived his injuries, and he arrives with news of where Abby might be. Ellie leaves despite Dina's pleas. In Santa Barbara, California, a slave-keeping group called the Rattlers has captured Abby and Lev and left them to die. Ellie rescues them, then forces Abby into a fight. Abby bites off two of Ellie's fingers. Ellie nearly drowns her, then remembers Joel and lets her go. Back at the abandoned farmhouse, Ellie tries to play Joel's guitar with her damaged hand, recalls her last talk with him, and walks out.

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• 3. The Thirst for Revenge

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  Neil Druckmann grew up in Israel, where violence was a frequent topic of conversation, and that upbringing shaped the sequel's central idea. He recalled watching footage of the 2000 Ramallah lynching. After hearing the cheering crowds, his own mind turned to violent thoughts about bringing the perpetrators to justice. He wanted players to feel a "thirst for revenge" and only then to see the reality of their actions. Tribalism, trauma, and the pursuit of justice became companion themes.

  Story concepts for the sequel were already forming in 2013, while the team worked on the first game. Druckmann wrote with Halley Gross, and the pair tried several plot structures. The team even considered scrapping the project. They settled on a design that mirrored the original. In Druckmann's framing, the first game asks what extreme measures a person would take for love. Part II asks how far someone would go to bring justice for those they love.

  Halley Gross said the writers aimed to "create the most multifaceted characters you've seen in games". She especially wanted to show both Ellie's power and her insecurities. The switch of the player's role from Ellie to Abby echoed the first game's switch from Joel to Ellie, though Part II pressed it harder because of its focus on empathy. Druckmann wanted players to hate Abby early on and later to empathize with her.

  Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker returned as Ellie and Joel, and Laura Bailey was cast as Abby. Their performances were recorded at a studio in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, with motion and voice captured at the same time.

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• 4. Engineering Seattle

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  Artists from Naughty Dog traveled to Seattle to study its architecture, vegetation, materials, topography, and lighting, and to capture photorealistic textures. The studio pushed the PlayStation 4 hard, packing in more enemies and larger environments than in earlier games. Druckmann said any drop in detail would ruin the sense of authenticity, so the technology needed constant optimization. The game was first planned as an open world with hub worlds. It became more linear because that structure served the narrative better.

  Listen Mode, a heightened sense of hearing, shows enemies as outlines through walls and objects. It sits inside a third-person game with survival horror elements, where humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated Cordyceps fungus both hunt the player. The player can use rifles, bows, pistols, and revolvers, scavenge machetes and hammers, or throw bricks and bottles to distract enemies. Enemies take cover and call for help. New guard dogs follow the player's scent. Companions such as Dina kill enemies or announce where they are. Some areas are crossed by horse or boat.

  Gustavo Santaolalla returned to compose and perform the score, and Mac Quayle contributed combat music. The developers won permission to use "Future Days" by Pearl Jam and "Take On Me" by A-ha. Voice actors Raul Ceballos and Steve Blum created the sound of the Shamblers, and grapefruits helped produce the explosion effects. The Seraphites' whistling drew on whistled languages such as Silbo Gomero. Stevie Mack and Lisa Marie supplied the whistles in three styles.

  Uncharted 4: A Thief's End had introduced accessibility options, and Naughty Dog wanted to expand them so that every player could finish the story. The developers attended conferences and worked with advocates to do it.

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• 5. Crunch and Delays

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  Development began in 2014, soon after the release of The Last of Us Remastered. By August 2017, when Uncharted: The Lost Legacy shipped, all 350 people at Naughty Dog had moved onto the sequel. Druckmann served as creative director and writer. Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau were co-game directors, overseeing level design and mechanics. About 2,169 developers across 14 studios worked on the game. Sony documents describe a 70-month effort that peaked at 200 full-time employees and made it one of the most expensive video games ever developed.

  Kotaku reporter Jason Schreier reported a crunch schedule of 12-hour workdays, and he said it continued after the game was delayed. He suggested that heavy turnover after Uncharted 4 had left few veterans on the team. Some developers allegedly hoped Part II would fail and prove the working conditions were not viable. Sony granted Naughty Dog an extra two weeks for bug fixes. Druckmann later said he had failed to find the right balance for employees, and that the studio would receive outside help on future projects.

  The 3rd of December 2016 brought the announcement, at the PlayStation Experience event. At E3 2018, Druckmann said the studio would not name a date until the game was "very close to release", to avoid disappointing fans. On the 24th of September 2019, a State of Play presentation gave a date of the 21st of February 2020. On the 25th of October, Druckmann delayed it to the 29th of May 2020, to "bring the entire game up to a level of polish we would call Naughty Dog quality".

  The 2nd of April 2020 brought a second blow. Sony said the game was almost complete but indefinitely delayed because of logistical problems from the COVID-19 pandemic. The team spent the final months working remotely. In late April, videos leaked online showing cutscenes, gameplay, and major plot details. Druckmann tweeted that he was "heartbroken" for fans and for the team. On the 27th of April, Sony set the release for the 19th of June 2020.

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• 6. Critics Divided

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  Metacritic recorded "universal acclaim" for The Last of Us Part II, and OpenCritic reported that 95% of critics recommended it. IGN's Jonathon Dornbush called it "a masterpiece worthy of its predecessor". Game Informer's Andy McNamara wrote that it was "the best narrative game I have played". GameSpot's Kallie Plagge called it "beautiful and devastating". Many critics also felt its graphics ranked among the best on the PlayStation 4, and Push Square's Sammy Barker called the sound design "stunning".

  Performances drew some of the loudest praise. Oli Welsh of Eurogamer found Ashley Johnson's Ellie "standout" for its "rawness, vulnerability, and rage". Alex Avard of GamesRadar+ said Troy Baker "steals some of Part 2's best scenes as Joel". Welsh also praised the game's representation of female and LGBT characters, calling it "a game about women". Reviewers described the enemy artificial intelligence as some of the most advanced of any game, and Polygon's Stephen Wilds called the accessibility options "an amazing gift".

  The narrative split reviewers more sharply. Kat Bailey of USgamer thought the game ran five hours "too long" and found a dissonance between its stance against violence and the violence it requires. Maddy Myers of Polygon and Riley MacLeod of Kotaku argued that the game delivered its themes without giving the player any agency. Rob Zacny of Vice wrote that despite its many narrative moments, "it doesn't have much to say". Emanuel Maiberg, also writing for Vice, drew parallels between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the militia and the Seraphites. He argued that presenting two equal sides in this allegory was poorly considered.

  Some critics questioned the cost of the polish. Christopher Byrd of The Washington Post wondered whether the detail was worth the "human cost" of Naughty Dog's crunch culture. Yannick Le Fur of Jeuxvideo.com felt that new supporting characters such as Jesse and Manny existed mainly to advance the plot.

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• 7. Backlash and Harassment

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  A Metacritic user score of 3.4 out of 10 marked the lowest point of the review bombing. Reporters noticed that it began soon after launch, too early for users to have finished the game, and some suggested the reviews drew on the leaked plot details. Many negative reviews attacked the characterization and plot, and some answered the LGBT characters with vitriol. Kotaku's MacLeod pointed to thousands of positive reviews and dismissed the bombing as "a bunch of meaningless numbers and a lot of rage". Metacritic responded by adding a 36-hour waiting period before user reviews can appear.

  Joel's death divided players. Some saw a gap between his cautious nature in the first game and the trusting man who meets Abby. Matthew Byrd of Den of Geek replied that Joel had protected young women before, so trusting Abby was not "entirely unreasonable". Sam Clench of News.com.au called the scene "extremely strong, purposeful writing". Josh Hawkins of Shacknews saw it as fitting retribution for Joel's brutal acts in the earlier game. Other players felt that trailers with altered and replaced characters amounted to false advertising. Druckmann answered that the goal was to preserve the experience, "not to bamboozle anyone or get their $60", and cited the marketing of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty as an influence.

  Laura Bailey became the target of online death threats because of Abby. Some players objected to Abby's playable chapters, and others criticized her muscular physique, and theories spread that she was transgender. Amy Coles of The Independent and Patricia Hernandez of Polygon argued that this reaction reflected a lack of body diversity in games. Naughty Dog released a statement condemning the threats, and James Gunn, Ashley Johnson, and Craig Mazin were among those who backed Bailey.

  Lev, a transgender supporting character, prompted a separate debate. Some in the transgender community objected to villains using his deadname and to the use of trans stories as tragedies. A writer for Paste, Waverly, praised the casting of transgender actor Ian Alexander but felt the story gave too much weight to Lev's gender identity and suffering. Stacey Henley of VG247 called the character "a major step for trans characters in gaming". Alexander said the writers "might have missed the mark a little bit" with the deadname.

  In Games and Culture, Robert Letizi and Callan Norman described users of the subreddit r/TheLastOfUs2 as "alt-fans" still posting hateful material years later. In July 2021, one of its users claimed to have received death threats from fans of the YouTube channel Girlfriend Reviews. The channel found that the user had fabricated them.

  The studio and its critics also clashed. Zacny said Sony contacted him on Naughty Dog's behalf to discuss his critical review, which he found unusual from a large publisher. Hernandez argued that critics fearing backlash from publishers and fans was no environment for honest criticism. Bailey of USgamer wrote that the strict review embargo prevented meaningful discussion of the narrative. Druckmann said the leaks prompted the embargo. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates banned the game, a decision attributed to its depiction of LGBTQ characters.

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• 8. Records and Afterlife

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  More than four million copies sold worldwide in the release weekend, making it the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive. Marvel's Spider-Man had managed 3.3 million in the same stretch, and God of War 3.1 million. In the United States, it was the best-selling game of June 2020 and finished the year sixth. In the United Kingdom it became the fastest-selling physical PlayStation 4 game, with 543,218 copies sold over the year. Japan saw an estimated 178,696 physical copies in its first week. By June 2022 the total passed ten million.

  Tracking websites counted 326 Game of the Year awards, which several outlets reported broke the record set by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015. Elden Ring later surpassed it in 2022. At the 38th Golden Joystick Awards in November 2020, the game won all six categories in which it was nominated. It led the Game Awards 2020 with eleven nominations and won seven, the most in the show's history, including Best Performance for Bailey. The National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers nominated it twenty-four times, and the 17th British Academy Games Awards nominated it thirteen times.

  In November 2023, a PlayStation Store listing leak preceded the announcement of The Last of Us Part II Remastered. It reached the PlayStation 5 on the 19th of January 2024. Among its additions was No Return, a roguelike survival mode with twelve playable characters, where each run has five encounters and a boss fight. Lost Levels offered three scrapped gameplay sequences, with commentary by designers Pete Ellis and Banun Idris. Some journalists asked whether a remaster was needed within four years, though OpenCritic reported that 90% of critics recommended it. A Windows version arrived on the 3rd of April 2025, built with Nixxes Software and Iron Galaxy.

  An internal Microsoft review, published as a court document in the Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit in 2021, said the game "sets a new bar for what we should hope to be able to achieve going into a new generation of consoles". The story has also moved to television. The second season of The Last of Us premiered in April 2025 and covers the Jackson chapter and Ellie's three days in Seattle. Kaitlyn Dever plays Abby, and Jeffrey Wright reprises Isaac from the game. The third season is expected to shift to Abby's perspective, and showrunner Craig Mazin suspected a fourth might be needed.

  In 2023, Druckmann confirmed that he had a concept for a third main game, saying there was "probably one more chapter to this story". In March 2025, he warned fans not to "bet on there being more of Last of Us", since the television series "could be it". A year later he spoke of "few stops that remain on the road ahead", a remark some read as a hint at a sequel.

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