How ‘The Last Of Us Part II’ Deals With Trauma

It is expected that The Last of Us Part II will take a new approach to depicting violence, making it significantly more realistic and showing the effects of trauma. 

The game’s co-writer Halley Gross recently spoke about this decision. “We definitely wanted this game to feel as grounded as possible,” he told Games Radar. “So a lot of research was done by every department, you know, the animators, the art directors, we wanted the violence to feel real so that the trauma could feel authentic.”

Gross also noted that one of the people working on the game, Neil Druckmann, grew up in the West Bank and his experiences helped, as well as the experiences of other members of the team, shape the experiences the game’s characters will experience. 

Given all that is going on in the world, The Last of Us Part II could have the ability to show the effects that violence has on people. “What becomes scary and what we wanted to unpack is this cycle of violence conversation, this idea that violence begets violence,” he said. “A person who feels wronged and is driven by that sense of retribution can ultimately be so much scarier because they’re human. Because they’re calculating. Because they’re thoughtful. Because they are unrelenting.”

The Last of Us Part II was released on June 19.