The Last Of Us Part II Remastered: Thoughts From A First-Time Player

The Last of Us Part II hit PlayStation 4 exclusively in 2020. Developer Naughty Dog brought us back into the world of cordyceps, Fireflies, Ellie, and Joel alongside new threats and characters like the WLF, Abby, Yara, Lev, and more. Game Informer gave the game a 10 out of 10 – read the review here – and I would have agreed with that score in 2020. I still agree with that score today, too.

If I wrote what I want to say about The Last of Us Part II's story, I'm sure you'd find it very familiar because it's largely how I felt around the game's original release. Instead, my wife, Gabriella LeBlanc, played through The Last of Us Part II Remastered's story for the first time ever, mostly unspoiled of the adventure, and it was awesome listening to her thoughts in real-time about the game. I wanted to share those thoughts, so I interviewed her. Below are 20 questions about The Last of Us Part II's story with answers from someone who beat it for the first time in 2024, unaware of the leaks that happened before the game's 2020 launch, the fates of certain characters, the ending, and more. Enjoy (and be nice to her in the comments)!

Game Informer's Wesley LeBlanc: What did you think The Last of Us Part II would be about going into it, unspoiled by the internet?

Gabriella LeBlanc: I honestly did not have much of an idea. I remember watching the trailer way back when the game was being released the first time, just passively because you were watching, and thinking, «Weird, what does this have to do with anything?» and that was with an already very basic idea of what the first game was even about. It seemed like some kind of culty witch-hunt vibe, which definitely sounds cool, but had no idea what it had to do with The Last of Us, so I didn't really know what to think.

What was the biggest surprise?

LeBlanc: The biggest surprise was not Joel's death overall, but the timing. Unfortunately, I did know that Joel was going to die because I'd seen it on Twitter or something at some