Exploring the Controversies Around The Last of Us Two: Why Fans Were Angry and How the Studio Responded

In 2020, The Last of Us Part II was supposed to be a gigantic leap for the gaming industry. As a sequel, it was designed to build on the huge and undoubtable success of the original The Last of Us, which was released in 2013 to universal acclaim from critics and gamers and has sold over 17 million copies. For developments in story, gameplay, and technology, the eyes of the gaming world were all turned toward Part II. What the first game did well — and it did so many things well — would be taken even further in the sequel. But for studio and secret-keeping purposes, the same basic cast of characters would return. Only torches and pitchforks awaited if millions of gamers were to be let down in how the narrative in The Last of Us Part II was handled.

And those millions of gamers were let down. Controversy ensued, and this was no ordinary controversy. We’re used to gaming controversies. But we aren’t used to seeing this level and degree of “gamer rage.” More gaming controversies seem to follow an ideological bent: the “too many women in Battlefield V” controversy, for instance, or the “too much feminism in The Last of Us Part II” controversy. These are goofy and even dangerous gaming controversies in part because they’re based on simplistic assessments.

The Last of Us Two Studio Response

The Last of Us Part II came out and, almost immediately, was assailed by a very vocal part of the fanbase. It’s the sort of melee situation where you can really get in there and mix it up on social media. The much-anticipated sequel from Naughty Dog was bound to be salaciously and savagely sandwiched in the middle of a fandom possessed by the original game. The Last of Us, after all, was the sort of game where if you asked ten of the biggest fans of the game to make a list of their top ten video games, The Last of Us could very well occupy ten lines of that mostly-because-they’re-allowed-to-do-that-anyway list.

That said, the latest lists moment for the game made for the lifeless and assaulted way some used social media to lie famously or anything-but-historically about it. The sort of using-a-game-as-an-idol moment going on here that once happened in the heady and dreamy days of the Metal Gear Solid years is now happening again with the much-hyped The Last of Us Part II. The latest big-time sequel was supposed to print more money but, boy, was it going to be fun to watch them try. Running out to buy this game was going to be one of those self-on-self moments where your younger and still-really-sincerely-innocent self slaps around your older but still-really-awesome-and-not-dead-yet self.

The Initial Hype and Anticipation

The first game’s success had created lofty hopes for the sequel. Marketing for the game was as urgent and as over-the-top as you’d see from the industry’s biggest and most ambitious AAA projects, with promises of a “bigger, bolder, and more immersive” experience. We were flooded with trailers and teasers. We were told about the “deeper narrative” and the “better physics” and an allegedly “unprecedented” amount of, like, what are often called “things to do.” More and more fans were stoked for every lip-smacking taste of new marketing, and every new batch of promises ratcheted up our excitement even further.

And somehow, even though we should have really known better, a lot of us got suckered in. Many, many fans felt their mouths watering in sweet anticipation, and … they really have been disappointed. Clinically Abysmal Reviews Were Not Hyperbolic When They Said The Game Was Quite Bad For Those Who Found Themselves Forced To Play “With A Friggin’ Slide Rule, “Or By Using A Fricking App. On Their Phone. Many Player Comments And Almost All Reports After …

The Last of Us Two Controversies

The Last of Us Part II was released in 2020 and was soon surrounded by controversy. Many fans were deeply incensed by the largely unanticipated direction of the new game’s plot and the decisions its characters made, which proved to be major focal points of severe disappointment and, in extreme cases, even emotional distress. In this context, “story” refers to the narrative arc commonly found in a book, film, or stage production, which is what many video games try to approximate.

Despite TLOU2’s vitiated vitriol and accusations of “treason,” there has yet to be a real discussion in the media about what precisely led to such feverish antifan uprisings. As an industry bloated with “hot takes,” there’s little acknowledgment of the actual reason TLOU2’s storytelling took such a big step down in quality, which is also what many fans aimlessly dispute: whether or not the game and its characters were honoring those of us who have played the first game, as well as whether or not the Santa Monica-based production company was honoring its own edict when it genuinely communicates authority to a player.

The Last of Us Two Fan Anger

“The Last of Us Part II,” released in 2020, had only been out for a few days when it was met with an immediate and significant backlash, largely amplified by social media, from what seemed to be a considerable portion of the game’s fan base. The outrage was over the story. On platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit, fans expressed their disgust with certain narrative and character decisions that the game’s writers had made. The first game from 2013 was (and is) beloved; it had left an indelible impression on millions of players. And the characters of Joel and Ellie had seemingly become as cherished as family members.

Anyone who has spent time in online gaming communities knows that these communities lack for nothing in sheer, ear-shattering volume whenever a controversy strikes. But in discussing the cases of severe fan backlash having to do with narrative and character decisions in a video game, it could be that we give insufficient weight to the sheer volume of noise that a fan base can produce. Backlashes, after all, invariably tend to be noisy and tend to involve the greater use of social media now. Crowds may or may not be able to act as effective taste police. But if they have one sure talent, it’s never the police’s siren they can’t raise to a keening wail.

The Last of Us Part II launched in 2020 and was greeted with much controversy. From the beginning, this happened even before its release. The reason for this was that key art of the game was leaked online, and from that key art, we got some indication of what would be happening in the story. And let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. A lot of people had a figure in the image with what was happening in the game’s narrative because of these characters’ significance in the plot of the first game. Some decisions were arguably poor choices that conveyed the impression of beloved figures as being lifelessly tossed to the wind. I voiced my concerns regarding what I thought were going to be obvious points of outrage among the gaming community, and I ended up being correct.