**There are some major spoiler details in the trailer, so if you want to go in fresh best avoid it and the first two paragraphs and just look at some pictures below**
Six years ago Naughty Dog released THE LAST OF US into the world and took gamers’ breaths away, and the sequel has been a long time coming. Sony did not disappoint when it came to an update about THE LAST OF US PART II during their State of Play convention, dropping a brand-new story trailer and revealing the official release date of February 21, 2020.
Fans got the first glimpse at some major gameplay last year with an extended look at the gunplay and hand-to-hand combat, with the developers promising an even more visceral, realistic style of play. We get to see plenty more of that in this new trailer, but more than that we get a hefty amount of story detail. Taking place five years after the events of the original game, players will take on the role of the returning Ellie (Ashley Johnson), who has found love with a woman named Dina (Shannon Woodward), but a tragic encounter leaves Ellie out for revenge. As she hunts down the people who took her world, she will once again team up with the main character from the last game, Joel (Troy Baker), who has aged so well (circumstances considering) that he begs to be played by Brad Pitt in a movie version.
[SEE MORE]
Director Neil Druckmann released a statement along with the announcement, and you can get a look at the intense box art and a look at the special editions of the game, with the Ellie Edition looking like it comes with a legit survival pack:
Thank you for being patient with us. Very patient. Even though we’ve been eager to share more about The Last of Us Part II and tell you its release date, we wanted to wait until we were close to wrapping up production and we were confident in the date itself. We have a bunch of new stuff to share with you today… starting with the fact that on February 21, 2020 the Last of Us Part II can finally be in your hands.
We began working on this game over five years ago. It’s hard to describe the immense pressure of following up the first game. We know how much you love this world and its characters — especially Ellie and Joel. Believe me, we’re fans as well. We love them. Which is why we spent years crafting a game that we feel will do them justice, telling a nuanced story that deals with the core question: how far would you go to exact justice against the people that hurt the ones you love? It’s a highly emotional story with complex themes that befit the world of The Last of Us. What we realized pretty early on is that we were putting together Naughty Dog’s most ambitious and longest game in our 35 year history. To tell this kind of story the game needed to be massive. Without spoiling too much, at the top of this post you can watch the brand-new trailer that we debuted earlier today on State of Play, which just scratches the surface of what the game has in store.
[SEE MORE]
So, gaming fans, are you excited to finally get to have this game in your hands in less than five short months? The story looks a challenging way to continue Ellie's story and highlight the dangers of the post-apocalyptic society, which was something that made the original game a triumph as well. If you're ready to play then it's only a matter of which copy will you pre-order. I'm more of a standard edition man myself, but that does look like a sturdy backpack.
THE LAST OF US PART II is on shelves on February 21, 2020.