The Last of Us 2 may be on the receiving end of controversy right now, but it's impossible to deny the sheer amount of work that was put into the game from the team at Naughty Dog. When the first gameplay footage was revealed at E3, fans went wild for the next installment of the beloved series and now that the game has been released the studio is revealing just how much detail went into the creation of the blockbuster game.
After a few story trailers, The Last of Us 2 brought its A-game to E3 in 2018 with a story and gameplay combo sequence that sent excitement soaring. The trailer began by introducing a 19-year-old Ellie and new characters Dina and Jessie at a festival in their home of Jackson County. This then transitioned into some gameplay footage of Ellie sneaking through a Seraphite camp, debuting a look at new gameplay features such as dodging and crawling as well as the much larger map areas of The Last of Us 2's world.
Once the game was released this sequence became one of many survival-stealth gameplay areas to overcome in the lengthy narrative of The Last of Us 2. But when encountered in-game, many players remembered it from the E3 demo. The gameplay reveal was the first actual footage audiences had seen of the new game mechanics and it certainly set high standards for levels of beauty and detail in the post-apocalyptic world. Art director for The Last of Us 2, John Sweeney, recently shared on Twitter some of the pre-planning documents that went into creating the E3 demo.
The E3 demo color script that was shared shows the care taken by the art design team to create contrast between the four main areas of the world, those being the festival, woods, overpass, and makeup store, which all transition seamlessly. The cinematic cutscene sequence during the festival makes use of warm, inviting colors and textures, though when the scene switches to the forest gameplay the colors reflect the threatening situation the player is in. Details in The Last of Us 2 were so minute that they even trickled down to the colors of the makeup palettes on the shelves of the store, ensuring that everything was in sync with the gameplay environment.
Since The Last of Us 2 released, the team at Naughty Dog has been able to proudly share its work online. Most of the behind the scenes concept, gameplay, and art design that goes into such a large game normally go unnoticed, which is testament to how smoothly the game runs. However, creative director Neil Druckmann has been supportive in bringing the whole team's work to light, sharing it on social media, and promoting the art station where many of the artists have shared their concept designs.
For players interested in seeing more of the designs that went into The Last of Us 2, finishing the game will unlock a whole range of concept art for every sequence and character in the game. Although many features of The Last of Us 2 have been criticized, the care and thought put in by the Naughty Dog team is certainly unparalleled.
The Last of Us 2 is available now exclusively on the PlayStation 4.