[WARNING: Spoilers for The Last of Us: Part 2 below]
Now that The Last of Us: Part 2 has released, it’s clear that the official story trailer for the game was not an accurate representation of what fans should expect. The Last of Us: Part 2 has been met with divisive reviews, especially when split between fans and critics, and the trailer has only added fuel to the controversy.
Fans of the franchise were thoroughly expecting to split their time playing as Joel and Ellie, as was the case with the original game. The trailers for The Last of Us 2 confirmed that expectation when it gave equal weight to both of the characters, making it seem as though they would have equal importance in the game's plot.
[Final Warning: Spoilers for The Last of Us: Part 2 below]
However, many players were shocked when Joel was killed off suddenly at the beginning of the game. They’d barely had any chance to play as him up until that point and had also just been introduced to a new playable character – Abby, the same character that takes Joel’s life. Needless to say, the trailer didn’t prepare most players for such a shocking turn of events.
How The Trailer Did The Last Of Us 2 Dirty
For anyone expecting The Last of Us: Part 2 to be like the trailer and teasers, they were thoroughly disappointed. All of them appeared to give more weight to Joel than he's actually given in the game, considering the character is killed so early on. The official story trailer, in particular, paints a completely different picture than what takes place in the game. The main issue is the focus the trailer gave to Joel, whereas in the final version of The Last of Us 2 he’s only present and alive for a short snippet of the game. The trailer begins with Joel narrating in the background, implying his character will be central to the story. Even though his death was the catalyst for the beginning of The Last of Us: Part 2's plot, new characters that weren’t in the original still got more screen time than Joel, which feels a bit like a slap in the face.
It’s not just how much Joel was featured in the story trailer that’s an issue. It’s how the sequence of scenes were edited, making it look as though Joel has a bigger physical presence in the game than he actually does. Granted, the Last of Us 2 trailer makes it clear that Ellie is on a quest for revenge. But the way the clips from the game are edited in the trailer makes it seem like she tells Joel she’s leaving to seek vengeance, not that he’s the reason she has to in the first place. This led players to become hopeful that Joel would Ellie in her mission, but alas, there were very few combat scenes featuring the classic duo.
Another issue with the official story trailer is that it wasn’t honest about the role new characters take on in The Last of Us: Part 2, namely Abby. The trailer makes it seem like players will split their time evenly between playing as Ellie and Joel, but even when he’s killed off in the beginning, many players assume they’ll spend the remainder of the game playing as Ellie. But not only do gamers play as Abby before she offs Joel, but they spend almost the entire second portion of the game in her shoes. The trailer barely featured Abby at all, and it certainly didn’t imply she was going to be a central character, let alone a playable one. But in the end, it feels as though the game was trying to replace Joel’s playable role with Abby’s, a feat that may have been more smoothly achieved had Abby’s role been more implicit in the trailer (and fans had time to adjust their expectations accordingly).
However, had Naughty Dog not had done this, it would have come as much less of a surprise, and perhaps their drastic story choices would have been received better by the community. Now that the game is out, however, it appears clear the trailer for The Last of Us: Part 2 misled fans as to what to expect with the game’s plot, leading to many disappointed players.
