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Some Fans Think The Last of Us 2’s PGW Trailer Was Too Violent
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·2 min read

Some Fans Think The Last of Us 2’s PGW Trailer Was Too Violent

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Laura Bailey The last of us 2

Violence and the post-apocalypse go together like peanut butter and jelly – as much as we would like to be entertained by survivors sitting around a dilapidated couch and talking about what they think coffee used to taste like, it just doesn’t work.

Shows like The Walking Dead have shown this consistently over the years, that unless there’s some kind of strife powered by violence, it’s difficult to feel drawn into the world. What that says about us as consumers is something for a psychologist to broach and not some guy who’s mainly motivated by old zombie movies and ironic Halloween costumes.

The Last of Us is a prime example of bloodiness in the aftermath of the end of it all. The first game dealt quite liberally in death, treating it often like a routine, as if it was a formality that ever was lucky enough to get around for as long as they did. People were massacred in relentlessly grim ways, whether it was by their own hands or something decidedly more infected.

The Last of Us 2 new character

So when the new trailer was shown off for The Last of Us 2 to coincide with Paris Games Week, a little bit of brutality was to be expected. What we got, however, was something that might have gone a little bit too far according to some.

It’s a short scene, but in the released footage two women (presumably the protagonistic characters) are on the receiving end of the brunt of the violence. One has their arm broken in unflinching fashion while another is hanged before incapacitating someone for long enough so that the other woman can bury a hammer in the antagonist’s skull. It’s bleak, shocking, and merciless – it’s The Last of Us.

As expected, the reception to the trailer has been mostly positive, but there have been some concerned voices that it’s pushed the series over the edge into utter miserablism:

Even Polygon decided to write a lengthy opinion piece on The Last of Us 2’s depiction of violence against women. Written by Julia Alexander, it argues that learning who these women are would be a reward for sitting through their torture and that the overall tone of the trailer suggests it’s being used to promote the game, as if it’s directly marketing itself towards misogynists and sadists, rather than being an ensemble piece about how the end of days changes and impacts everybody.

This new trailer is just a small piece of the dour puzzle that makes up The Last of Us 2’s DNA and its unfalteringly frank appeal – its depiction of violence against women is not its USP, it’s its realistic representation of life in the post-apocalypse. Nobody gets a pass from the darkness.

While this is just a small sample of what’s to come from The Last of Us 2, it would be a stretch to suggest that it will be an entirely gloomy experience. The original had moments of great brevity, particularly in the patter between Joel and Ellie. Even if there are less of those moments next time out, The Last of Us 2 doesn’t need to shirk away from the harshest sides of humanity, and it absolutely shouldn’t.

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Jimmy Donnellan
Editor-in-Chief
Chubby gremlin in charge of this place. Won't know peace until I have Titanfall 3 in my hands.

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