I am really not digging this THE LAST OF US: PART II Trailer

I'm really not into doing write-ups on trailers for this blog (despite this being my second in a row), but it takes a certain kind of naff to make me less excited for a sequel to, arguably, the best game of the PS3 era. Sony, somehow, managed to find it (and it's not for the faint-hearted, either):

Wow. That was surprisingly rubbish. Almost to the point where it feels like one of those fake trailers featuring footage from an entirely different game.

I don't think it's even purely about the violence, but more to do with just the complete lack of intrigue and justification for the violence on display. To clarify: there's been a lot of talk regarding this trailer about how dark and nasty it is and I agree; it's not an easy watch. But outside of that direct reaction I have no idea what's supposed to be going on here. We have a woman who sounds like Ellie (and might be her Mum, apparently) who is hung by the neck whilst another girl has her arm smashed by a hammer. I'm not desensitised enough to shrug that off like it's no big deal, but the combination of that violence mixed with characters and a scenario that isn't understandable or even slightly interesting just makes for a great big pile of nothing that I'm honestly shocked to see associated with a Naughty Dog game, let alone TLOU2.

Look: I'm on board the Naughty Dog hype train and you don't need me to tell you that the studio has been killing it the past couple of years. The Last of Us has pretty much become shorthand for 'great game', Left Behind is some of the best DLC ever released, Uncharted 4 is the most accomplished piece of cinematic storytelling in videogame history and The Lost Legacy...okay I haven't played that one yet but I hear it's good! So why why why is none of that creative street cred on display here? The whole thing even feels vaguely cheap with a one-shot approach that comes across as if no-one could be bothered to spend time editing it.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to achieve beyond making people talk about it (which, given my Twitter feed, they haven't even accomplished that), because I really can't see why anyone would be interested in TLOU2 based off the back of this.

If I'm being optimistic at all about this, it's that the scene may not even properly slot into the game and may just be a cinematic slice curated purely for promotional purposes. That might even explain why the scene is creatively at odds with the rest of Naughty Dog's output, including the waaaay better trailer that was released last year.

Am I off the mark about all this? It just doesn't sit right with me that we hold up The Last Of Us to be one of the pinnacle acheivements in videogame storytelling and yet the trailer for its sequel might as well be for any try-hard grimdark videogame mush.

#thelastofus #thelastofuspart2 #thelastofus2 #tlou #tlou2 #ps4