'The Last Of Us Part 2' Is Massive, And Naughty Dog's Longest Game Yet

After over a year of near-complete silence from Naughty Dog as the studio locked themselves away to work on The Last Of Us Part 2, the past 24 hours have been a whirlwind of emotion and - more importantly - brand new information regarding the hugely-anticipated sequel. Last night, PlayStation hosted a State of Play livestream, during which an incredibly exciting, dark, and goosebumps-inducing trailer for the upcoming PS4 exclusive was shown off.

In it, we saw an older Ellie attempting to live something like a normal life following the devastating events of the previous game, before a tragedy inspires her to take up arms and travel across America on some kind of revenge mission. The details of what pushes Ellie towards this destructive path have purposefully been kept unclear for now (thankfully), but one thing is obvious: Ellie is out for blood. The trailer also gave us our first look at an older Joel who (seems to be) alive and well(ish), and also finally confirmed that The Last Of Us Part 2 will be arriving on February 21, 2020. It's all been very exciting, but it doesn't stop with the release date trailer.

Soon after the trailer was posted online, The Last Of Us Part 2 Director Neil Druckmann shared an in-depth blog post detailing his thoughts on the game so far, as well as teasing some of the things we can expect in the next few days. Thanking fans for their patience over the last few years, Druckmann said that everyone at Naughty Dog loves Joel and Ellie, and explained that's why the studio spent years working out a new story that they felt would do the characters justice.

Druckmann also added that The Last Of Us Part 2 is the most ambitious, and longest game that Naughty Dog has ever made in its 35 years as a studio, describing it as "massive." While he didn't specify exactly how long it might take a player to get through the game (because I don't think any developer ever actually wants to answer that question), he teased that what we saw in the most recent trailer "just scratches the surface of what's in store."

The Last Of Us Part 2

"How far would you go to exact justice against the people that hurt the ones you love?", Druckmann wrote of the game's core concept. "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."

While the release date trailer would probably have been more than enough to tide people over for another few months at least, Druckmann also promised that we can expect a raft of new gameplay details tomorrow (September 26), which also happens to be Outbreak Day - the day in-game during which the cordyceps fungus reached critical mass and tore the world apart. We'll be sure to have impressions, footage, and updates for you as soon as we're able, so stick with us.