At PlayStation’s last State of Play event in September, the proverbial lid was finally taken off The Last of Us Part II. And it was AWESOME. (I’m a huge fan of The Last of Us series. Some of my thoughts of the first are here.)
First, we got a trailer. It started with Ellie and Dina; presumably the night after the town celebration in the E3 2018 Demo. (Dina coyly asks Ellie to rate their kiss on the dance floor.) Then, Ellie, Dina, and a few others were sent on patrol around Jackson, checking for infected and other survivors in the midst of a blizzard. And of course, shit hit the fan; I can only assume from the tidbits we’ve gotten before this that Dina is killed in some fashion. Tommy comes along to warn Ellie about the path she’s about to choose, then we’re shown images of brutal other survivors, and of course, infected.
And Ellie. Poor, poor Ellie.
Rounding out the trailer, we finally get an answer about one of the mysteries Naughty Dog teased in the first reveal of the game. Theories ran rampant; was Joel dead? Was Joel just in Ellie’s head, acting as her conscious?
Nope, he’s alive! But I think they’ve been separated at some point during this five years between the first game and this one, but again, that’s just another theory. After seeing Joel and Ellie interact in the trailer, it faded to black, displaying the logo for Part II, and the text “2.21.20.”
That’s right, kids! February!
Neil Druckmann also announced the editions for the game, ranging from the typical $59.99 standard edition, to the $229.99 “Ellie” edition on the PlayStation Blog after the trailer was revealed on the State of Play. The higher editions, of course, seemed to sell out almost instantly.
So, INCREDIBLE news, right? Before today, I had thought we probably wouldn’t see it until May or June of next year.
Can’t Please Everyone Apparently
Sigh. This is the internet after all, where there’s always people that aren’t happy. A day after the State of Play, it was announced that the single player story was so expansive, it would require the use of two blu-ray discs (like Red Dead Redemption 2).
But still, crickets on any multiplayer information. (They had said at E3 2018, almost a year and a half ago at this point, that multiplayer was still going to be a thing. This was also one of the last times multiplayer had been mentioned publicly.)
On September 26th, Outbreak Day to those familiar with the universe of The Last of Us, Naughty Dog finally addressed the lack of multiplayer news from State of Play and subsequent days. Writing on their official Twitter account:
“We wanted to address multiplayer in The Last of Us Part II. As we’ve stated, the single-player campaign is far and away the most ambitious project Naughty Dog has ever undertaken. Likewise, as development began on the evolution of our Factions mode from The Last of Us Part I, the vision of the team grew beyond an additional mode that could be included with our enormous single-player campaign. Wanting to support both visions, we made the difficult choice that The Last of Us Part II would not include an online mode.”
They then went on to say that Factions IS NOT DEAD.
“However, you will eventually experience the fruits of our team’s online ambition, but not as part of The Last of Us Part II. When and where it will be realized is still to be determined. But rest assured, we are as community and are excited to share more when it’s ready. big a fan of Factions as the rest of our community and are excited to share more when it’s ready.”
No Multiplayer =/= Not Caring
Remember when EA was on the “single player games” are dead kick? I do. But I’m not going to delve into that train wreck. I just get super salty. (RIP Visceral Games and Project Ragtag.) Remember when EVERY YEAR there’s always (something like) five games that get called out over lootboxes, being “pay to win” or coming out with a lesser product because they’ve put on a multiplayer? (Because that happens. Every damn year. Call of Duty didn’t even have a campaign this year, and still charged $60.)
It all goes down to this. Yep, they said multiplayer was still a priority in 2018, but we all know that development can be a rough business. It may have taken them a few days, but Naughty Dog was honest and transparent about what was happening regarding multiplayer in The Last of Us Part II. This isn’t a developer who talks a lot, even though sometimes we’d really like them to (Haha).
It’s not like they’re paring down the campaign, either. If anything, they’re paring “up.” The last game to use two blu-ray discs was, as I mentioned, Red Dead Redemption 2, which was also a game that didn’t launch with a multiplayer component, either. And it wasn’t a tiny game, that’s for sure.
So, what’s the TL;DR here?
Trust the Dogs, dudes and lady dudes. Be mad at them if they say “no, we’re not exploring those multiplayer options anymore.” Be mad if they never talk about it again. Trust me, I’ll be the first person in line if they do a complete 180 from this statement.
Trust the Dogs.