Before reading any further, consider that the following article is full of spoilers that will most likely make it to the game’s final release build. I highly encourage players who want to preserve their gameplay experience by the time of the game’s release to bow out now and stay off related social media for the time being.
SPOILER WARNING FOR THE LAST OF US PART 2
Are you still here? OK, now on to the rest of the article.
By this point in time, calling the production and development of The Last of Us Part 2 to be ‘troubled’ would be a massive understatement. Numerous delays and a myriad of crunch issues aside, Naughty Dog’s highly anticipated next title is now under a very unfavorable spotlight in terms of marketing as The Last of Us Part 2 is now the subject of a massive leak that includes revealing its major plot points.
While the origin of the leak in terms of its source forum thread can’t exactly be pinpointed, it is known that it comes from a Brazilian, most probably involved with the game’s localization and translation. The screenshots, including gameplay videos, are all pre-production dated sometime in March, which would mean that the leak comes from a fairly new release build of the game. Since YouTube videos involving the leak keep getting taken down, below are some Streamable links pertaining to a few key moments in The Last of Us Part 2.
- Joel and Ellie raiding a building gameplay video (along with some cutscenes)
- Important plot point cutscene of Joel getting beaten up
- Cutscene of Dina and Ellie, as well as Abby
- Gameplay video of Dina and Ellie while on horseback
The leak does not stop with mere videos and screenshots though, as there are also several key game features and plot points to go along with it. Below is the list of those confirmed points, as collected in this ResetEra thread:
- The game will feature two playable protagonists. The first half sees you playing as Ellie, while the second one features Abby, who was first introduced in a trailer for The Last of Us Part 2 back in Paris Games Week 2017. A leaked level list shows proof of this, which you can check out here.
- At some point in the game, you will fight Ellie as you play as Abby.
- Dina is pregnant, with Jesse being the father. These two characters were first introduced in a story trailer for The Last of Us Part 2. Dina is also planning to start a family with Ellie and the baby.
- Joel dies from a beating from Abby (as shown in the Streamable link above). This scene is then confirmed in a conversation between Ellie and Dina, as Dina mentions that both Jesse and Joel are dead.
- Abby and Ellie will face off, with Dina joining sometime in between. However, Abby proves to be more than a match for both, as she beats them soundly. Before she’s about to kill Dina, Ellie pleads for her to stop; as she’s about to slit her throat, Abby’s companion Lev convinces her not to, and they leave.
In addition to these points, some unconfirmed ones based on the videos and screenshots were also brought up. The veracity of these, however, are a bit muddled, thanks to videos being taken down before back-ups can be made. Take everything listed next with a huge grain of salt.
- Joel’s massacre in the first game inadvertently changed Abby’s life, as her father is supposedly one of the surgeons he killed. This would be in line with Abby’s motivation for revenge and her killing of Joel.
- Ellie and Abby are both after a cult which attacks the former’s settlement, while the latter has been in conflict with them, too. It is through these chance encounters that Abby becomes aware of Joel and Ellie.
- Abby found out about Joel from the Firefly records, while her dad supposedly talked about Ellie with regards to the cure.
All of that said, it will be interesting to see how both Naughty Dog and PlayStation are planning to handle a leak of this magnitude. Since it happened, there has been no announcements from either addressing it, but you can be sure that it is coming in the near future. What’s left to figure out is how this will impact the game’s release.
