Druckmann says not to let disconnected bits of information color your opinion.
We are now two weeks away from Naughty Dog’s latest action adventure title, The Last of Us Part 2. The game promises to continue the story of Joel and Ellie, and also promises to be something that may very well make you very uncomfortable as it portrays a raw, brutal world that they must face head on. If you weren’t aware, the game saw a pretty high profile leak a few months back, and most of the story is floating out there in the world wide web. The reception to it has been…mixed. Yeah, let’s go with mixed. But the game’s Director doesn’t want you to just go by these disconnected bits, and also warns that you may not know the story at all.
Director Neil Druckman talked to Eurogamer and when asked about the spoilers admitted that it was something of a bummer for him that the game did leak in the manner it did. But he also warned that there were fake spoilers out there, so those who have partaken in spoiling themselves may not actually know the story. Even if you do, he also wants you to judge the story as a whole narrative, not in the bits and pieces you’ve consumed through leaks.
“There’s all these theories about what the ending is but the ending is not out there. You actually don’t know how it all comes together,” he said. “There’s so many false things out there. We don’t want to go out there and correct anything because that would be spoiling the game in a way – by saying what it isn’t, we’re kind of saying what it is.
“Nothing compares to being Ellie and feeling those moments, not just in cutscenes, but in gameplay, conversations, the music and the emotional effect that has on you. And the story was constructed in such a way that it’s really not about twists and turns. It’s about slowly ratcheting the crank and feeling the tension with the choices the characters make.
“So okay, it sucks. But we know once people get their hands on it, they’re going to feel what it is we’re after whether they’ve seen it or not, and that’s that’s what made us confident.”
He does have a point. Even if you have read spoilers, the way in which they are presented may not be what you expect. We’ll see when The Last of Us Part 2 releases June 19th.
