The Last of Us Part 2 - Theories, Hints, Facts and What We Know So Far

The Last of Us was one of the highest-rated games of his generation as well as Sony's fastest selling new IP in history. Consequently it comes as no surprise that the Last of Us Part 2 is currently the most anticipated PlayStation game. But when is it coming out, how will its gameplay be like?, is Joel dead?, who is the girl in the second trailer?, and what will the story be about?.

Let's begin with the name, why is it called The Last of Us Part 2?. why is it not simply the Last of Us?. While Naughty Dog says it named it Part 2 for a couple of reasons. It is directly connected to the events of the first game it retains the duo of the main characters and together with part one it will form a larger more comprehensive tale. And while in many ways it will stay true to the original game. It will also be its opposite in some respects for one as you might have heard.

via Youtube

The game will be focused on hatred between Ellie and Joel. Unlike 2013 original which was more about the love between the two characters. The difference is done and there however as gameplay will see major changes. We play as Joel for most of the first game, but we will play as Ellie in the sequel. It has been preferred that she will play differently when compared to Joel and this will likely be reflected in new ways to approach enemies as well as in new sets of weapons. The fact that we play as Ellie now will certainly affect Joel. While in the first game Joel as the main character used very diverse weaponry which included flamethrowers, bows, sniper, rifles, etc. It's hard to imagine Joel using the same weapons in part two as he will be an AI controlled sidekick. And with regard to weapons is believed to be even more scarce in part two. That would mean a bigger focus on stealth and melee combat, making the sequel even more difficult than the already challenging first series.

The game's development started nearly four years ago and since then we saw several very important personal changes at Naughty Dog. Bruce Straley (co-director of Last of Us), Christopher Balestra (co-president of the company), and Amy Hennig (writer of the Uncharted games), all left the studio. We don't really know how this affected the making of the game, but fortunately it is the writer of the original Neil druckmann who's leading the part-2 team along with Gustavo Santaolalla, composer of the first game. The actors who played Joe and Ellie are all involved in the project, thus it's safe to say that Part 2 is in good hands.

New people are participating in the project, if you're a fan of Westworld HBO, sci-fi, Western, thriller, TV show - well good for you because not only one but two ladies from the west-world team are also working on the game. They are writer Halley Gross and actress Shannon Woodward. We've learned about the latter on Twitter where Shannon posted a selfie of her in a motion capture suit in the very same way. We've also learned about somewhat stranger things about the game including that there will be a motion captured. We might also see horse combat this time around judging by this shot of the west-world actor doing motion capture for a scene where her character will be riding a horse while shooting a shotgun. Thanks to the same picture we also found out that there will probably be a baby present in the story, since a baby-sized dog prop was spotted in the background.

via Gamezone

Another thing that we know about the game's motion capture is that it will be better than in any other PlayStation exclusive. Neil Druckmann stated that Part 2 will have by far the most advanced character models within Sony's group and well with games like the new God of War. Druckmann also said that in the past they could never cut to a close-up of eyes in there because the fidelity would be too low. Now in the Last Of Us Part 2 it's finally possible and we've already seen a small glimpse of this in the reveal trailer. Both of the two trailers we've seen so far they weren't CGI, they were actually captured in real time running in engine.

via Youtube

Now while the last of us was obviously an incredible offline experience it also had a surprisingly interesting multiplayer and the online component will be making a comeback in Part 2. Thanks to the fact that Naughty Dog is looking for multiplayer game designers and that the Last of Us Part 2 is currently the only major project they're working on.

When a great game comes out usually the fans of the title asked the developers to make a sequel. The Last of Us though was a rare instance of a game being so great that most of the fans were asking Naughty Dog not to make another one. They were saying that the originals ending was perfect and that no continuation could ever top the first story. Naughty Dog says they thought about this more than anyone and that they wouldn't be working on Part 2 if they didn't think they had the right idea for it. The idea what will the story be about is revolves around hate. Ellie is now 19 years old and that's about all the official information we have on the narrative. But that can't stop people from speculating.

At the end of uncharted 4 there was an Easter Egg, a cover of a comic book named Last of Us: American Daughters. It showed the pregnant woman wearing a gas mask, there is a consensus that it is most likely either Ellie or her mother Anna. Now if it were Ellie, however why would she be wearing the mask?. She doesn't need one as she's immune. Personally we lean towards her being Anna for a couple of reasons. First, there's the mask problem, but then we know that Anna was a good friend with Marleen the former leader of the fireflies. And if Marlene was a mother too, that would explain the American Daughter's title. In fact, back when The Last Of Us Left Behind first came out, people were already speculating about more being a mother. Specifically about her being the mother of Riley. The two did seem to have a very close relationship and left behind and they also share certain facial features. They share some facial features as they even have freckles on the same spots. So was Marlene Riley's mother. And did we see her best friend Anna on the poster in uncharted 4?. We think it's likely and the second trailer for the Last of Us Part 2 backs a lot of this up.

via Last of Us Brasil

In a tweet Naughty Dog revealed that this character is played by Laura Bailey who also by the way played Nadine in uncharted 4. And so obviously it's not Ellie. Otherwise she would be played by Ashley Johnson, thanks to the very same tweet. We've also learned that the name of Laura Bailey's character is four letters long. Supporting the Anna theory, Naughty Dog also implied that this isn't a new character since they revealed the names of all the characters in the trailer. But for her in addition there is a hint in the trailer suggesting that the girl is pregnant. Finally this theory gets even slightly better because we actually know when Ellie's mom was pregnant and that's around fall of 2018 or early 2019 in the real world. This is the exact timeframe in which the Last of Us Part 2 is expected to drop. Is this just a pure accident or is it the part of Naughty Dog's ingenious plan, we will let you decide for yourself.

There is one that's even more so as you might have guessed, about the Joel is death Theory. Why do people think that Joe is in fact dead in Part 2?. It's because something's in the reveal trailer are just really strange. Joel appears almost angelically from the light of the doorway. We don't get to see his face at all. He looks suspiciously young and his clothes are super clean when compared to how Ellie looks like. We don't really think Joe is that or at least it's not as simple as people think. This theory was being widely discussed on the very next day after the Part 2 announcement. We really don't think Naughty Dog would make such an important part of the plot this predictable. But even if he isn't, that which again we don't believe this.

via Playstation Universe

We can't overlook the strangeness of this scene and it doesn't only concern Joe, but Ellie too. She seems to be wearing the shirt Riley wear and left behind while playing the guitar she got from Joel. We know about the guitar from the one night live performance written by Neil Druckmann which included an after credits scene. Taking place only a few weeks after the games ending, Joel gives away the guitar and promises to teach her one day. In the trailer, Ellie is sitting in a room where there's a window which looks almost exactly like the loading screen from the original Last of Us.

Sometimes believed that Ellie's infection is getting worse which causes her mental breakdowns and the weird dialogue sure do make it seem like this could have been only a dream or a hallucination. Perhaps Joel is indeed dead and Ellie go after his killers and all we can somewhat safely assume is that the fireflies are involved in this in some shape or form. It is more or less safe to say that we know the part of the game will be set in Seattle, Washington. Official concept art as well as scenes from both of the trailers were compared to certain locations in Seattle and the results are super impressive.

via Denofgeek

Let’s talked about the game's development, when the game was revealed we were warned that it was still in early stages, and until August of 2017 the majority of the Naughty Dog team was focused on Uncharted Lost legacy. For those reasons early 2019 seems like the most possible launch window for the Last of Us Part 2 in our opinion. And we are kind of getting into the PlayStation 5 territory here as we believe Sony's next console will come out around 2019 or 2020 like the original that we have in both Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 platforms.

Anyways there you have it this is about all there is to know about Last Of Us Part 2 right now. please make sure to put your thoughts on the game down in the comments. And as always, thanks for reading.