The Last of Us 2has been a long time coming, and its lengthy development cycle has seen delays, bubbling controversies over workplace crunch culture at Naughty Dog, and a huge uproar overleaked spoilers that director Neil Druckmannrecently said may have be partially falsified. Now the game is just over a week away from serving as one of the PlayStation 4’s last major blockbusters, and the official launch trailer has been posted to the PlayStation YouTube account.
For those who are perhaps still on the fence about whether they’re interested in purchasingThe Last of Us 2, the launch trailer alone probably won’t be a deciding factor. Over half of the 50-second long video is taken up by splash screens for the game’s launch date and links to other videos, but the opening bit with gameplay does show off Ellie in a number of different situations as dramatic music crescendos behind her assertion that she is going to, “Find and kill every last one of them.”
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There is some more to latch onto in the video’s description, which gives a concise summary of the plot: “As Ellie pursues vengeance after a traumatic event, she must confront the devastating physical and emotional repercussions of her actions.” However, there is not much here compared to the officialLast of Us 2story trailer that got a shot-for-shot LEGO remakeby Pavesome Films.
That being said, it’s hard to imagine anyone who has heard ofThe Last of Ushas not already decided whether they are interested in jumping on board come June 19. There have been plenty of official trailers and such up to this point that should let prospective players in oneverything they need to know before buyingThe Last of Us 2, and those certainly do a better job than the launch trailer.
Not all of Naughty Dog’s marketing forThe Last of Us 2has been stellar however, even discounting the controversies that have dogged the company for some time now. One trailer did not properly credit the song it used, Lotte Kestner’s cover of “True Faith,” whichDruckmann apologized for yesterday.
Hype for the long-anticipated game is no doubt as high as it has ever been, though. That excitement should extend beyond the release ofThe Last of Us 2as well, as anHBO series based onThe Last of Ushas been put into development and recently picked up Johan Renck to direct the pilot.
The Last of Us 2releases on June 19th 2020, exclusively for PlayStation 4.
