Naughty Dog's long-awaited and somewhat polarizing sequel The Last of Us 2 has been praised for its numerous technical accomplishments since its release in mid-June. Some have drawn attention to the game's utterly stunning visual effects, others to its smooth animations, while many have claimed that it has some of the best video game audio design to date.
The YouTube channel Sound Works Collected was clearly very interested in the latter, with the audio-focused team reaching out to Beau Anthony Jimenez, a Sound Designer over at Naughty Dog, for more information on how The Last of Us 2' audio came to be. The results are utterly fascinating, with Jimenez sharing everything from how they created the unique audio of the game's zombified antagonists to the source of the immersive impact sounds of arrows hitting a target.
The video begins highlighting how the intimidating Shambler enemy's distinct bark was brought to life by Naughty Dog, with Jimenez showing how he tapped a metallic object against a mic and processed it before adding a heavily slowed down rendition of himself making a grotesque squelching sound. The enemy's acidic explosion sound is perhaps more inadvertently hilarious though, with the team squashing fruit by a mic, using a bellows clogged with oatmeal, and inflating what looks to be an airbag to create the corrosive explosion.
It also goes more into the sounds of weapons, with bows clearly taking a lot of time to perfect. One part of the video highlights how Ellie drawing the string back on her bow is actually created by moving the tuning pegs on a violin, while the impact sounds of the arrows were created by Naughty Dog actually firing into surfaces such as wood and mud. The video also spends a significant amount of time showing how the breathing audio of The Last of Us 2 works, noting that the animations of the characters sync up with meticulous audio changes depending on whether the protagonist is tired or injured. Overall, it's a superb example of the painstaking care that went into ensuring The Last of Us 2 was as immersive as possible.
Of course, The Last of Us 2 has been a big talking point online over recent months, with the game's large fanbase getting into heated debates about whether Naughty Dog's highly-anticipated post-apocalyptic sequel was worth the wait. Overall though, everyone seems to be in agreement that its technical aspects were some of the best in any game to date, with the sound design being a huge aspect of that universal acclaim.
The Last of Us 2 is out now exclusively on PlayStation 4.