As expected, Sony offered up another look at The Last of Us Part II at this year’s E3 event. Also, as expected, the game still has no set release date. In place of a concrete launch plan, however, we got another gorgeous look at The Last of Us Part II. The latest trailer for The Last of Us Part II opens on a cutscene. Ellie is attending a lively dance in a well lit barn, and everyone is smiling and laughing (which seems out of place for the post-apocalyptic series). Ellie stands on the periphery and watches the room. Then a young woman approaches her. They share a tender kiss, and suddenly the dance is gone. We’re back in The Last of Us we know and love, meaning it’s dark as hell. In what looks like actual gameplay, Ellie kills a series of would-be killers with various weapons, including knives and guns. At one point, the player quickly pulls up a crafting menu and builds a bow before using it to take out a few final enemies. Then, all of a sudden we’re back at the dance. The young woman tells Ellie she “should be terrified” and the video ends. That’s it for now, Last of Us fans. See you again next year? Maybe then we’ll finally get a Last of Us Part II release date. Check out even more of our E3 2018 coverage, including updates on the Fallout 76 beta, Microsoft’s latest plans for the Halo series, and Battlefield 5’s new Battle Royale mode.<doc-sep>Naughty Dog’s latest trailer for The Last of Us Part 2, which the studio debuted tonight during Sony’s E3 2018 press briefing, takes a somewhat different tack than the hard-to-watch trailer from Paris Games Week 2017. This, the third trailer for the upcoming action game, features the same brutal and violent combat we’ve come to expect from the franchise — but bookended by cutscenes of Ellie at a dance. Sony held its Last of Us Part 2 presentation in a makeshift church it had constructed in a tent, and kicked off the show with a musical performance on banjo by Gustavo Santaolalla, the composer for both games. Then the segment shifted to footage from the game, which began with a cutscene of Ellie and a male friend named Jesse being wallflowers at a dance. It sounds like Joel is around at this point: Jesse refers to Ellie’s “dad,” saying that he laid into Jesse. Then another friend — or perhaps more — named Dina comes by and pulls Ellie onto the floor for a slow dance. Dina takes Ellie in her arms and kisses her ... and then the camera cuts to Ellie stabbing a man in the throat in a rainy forest. From there, Ellie tries to make her way past some enemies while remaining in stealth. She comes across the bad guys literally disemboweling a man who is already hanging from a noose. Ellie later eliminates some enemies using her bow and arrow, but eventually she gets spotted, and that’s when she has to take down a couple of people with some melee combat. It looks like enemies drop weapons when they die, like knives, and it appears that Ellie can’t use them forever. That was the case in the previous game, but a new element is the ability for Ellie to hide underneath a car. From down there, she shoots a woman in the face and then has to run into a beauty shop, and a number of enemies follow her. Ellie quickly crafts an explosive arrow on the spot, and eventually, when she gets to the last guy, she uses a machete she has picked up and takes a big swing at his neck. Sony announced The Last of Us Part 2 in December 2016 at PlayStation Experience. The original Last of Us was released in June 2013 on PlayStation 3. The company did not give a release window today. Correction (June 12): Ellie’s romantic interest is named Dina, not Nina. We’ve edited the article to reflect this. Dina is voiced by Shannon Woodward, who is best known for playing Elsie on Westworld.<doc-sep>Naughty Dog Sony's E3 conference began strangely, taking place in what seemed like a church. Turns out it was a segue from the real world to the digital world. The trailer for The Last Of Us Part II took place in a space almost exactly like the location for the conference. Very neat. The game itself felt absolutely savage. After showing Ellie at a dance, the game quickly cut to gameplay familiar to anyone who's played the original game. Naughty Dog Everything is ramped up. The stealth, the combat, the impact of the combat, the animations, all of it. Now playing: Watch this: E3 2018: The Last of Us Part 2 gameplay revealed The Last Of Us Part II looks absolutely fantastic. Naughty Dog is continuing to set a high bar here. E3 2018: Everything you need to know E3 2018 coverage at CNET: All of our E3 2018 coverage in one place. Now playing: Watch this: E3 2018 preview E3 2018 coverage at GameSpot: Wall-to-wall coverage of the show from our sister site, GameSpot. E3 2018 coverage at Giant Bomb: Still more commentary and news from E3, from our colleagues at Giant Bomb.<doc-sep>
The Last of Us 2 – a strong contender for the most anticipated PS4 game – finally has some gameplay footage to show. During Sony’s E3 presentation we were shown a new trailer for The Last of Us, showing Ellie at a dance with her friends. It seems like some remnants of society have returned, even if we know the rug is about to be pulled out from under us. It’s…extremely sweet, on some level (Ellie gets to enjoy a little romance, kissing another young woman on the dance floor, which we’re very much here for), but with a mounting tension, since we know what we’re in for with The Last of Us. And then, boom, gameplay footage! This opens with Ellie stabbing a guy to death – it looks like she’ll be the main protagonist of the game, with Joel nowhere to be seen, only alluded to. Watch on YouTube The sequence shows Ellie sneaking around, taking in the sights, and eventually coming across a man being hanged and stabbed. This game is going to be grim. There’s minimal UI, letting us appreciate the environments fully. Eventually Ellie pulls out her bow and starts stalking bad guys through a dilapidated parking lot, taking them out one by one – until she gets spotted and the combat gets more vicious, with Ellie taking apart enemies at close range with her axe. A chase breaks out as Ellie flees from her enemies, who signal to their people with a whistle. Soon she’s surrounded, and crawls under a truck. The animation is amazing, and the game seems very contextually reactive – there’s no sign of Ellie being railroaded, although the demo feels a bit manufactured just by virtue of how much of what we see feels like a set-piece. It ends up cutting back in on that kiss. We hope Ellie gets to have some more happy moments in the full game. This is the first we’ve seen on the game since last October’s new trailer. The original trailer is something we still revisit, too. The Last of Us 2 was about half done last December. It seems to be coming along nicely, although we still don’t have a release date. Keep an eye on our E3 conference time guide for all the upcoming conference times and stay on top of all the big E3 2018 announcements.