Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann responds to angry The Last of Us 2 reviews
Naughty Dog / Sony[jwplayer 91I9RIGm]Following a wave of a backlash and negative user reviews, The Last of Us Part 2 director Neil Druckmann responded to players angry about the PlayStation 4 title’s story on social media.
The Last of Us 2 made its debut on June 19, and was rewarded with overwhelming praise from critics. However, the Sony title was met with a different reaction from some players, who outright hated the sequel’s narrative direction.
Over on review aggregate site Metacritic, the game was heavily review bombed, and at the time of writing has a user score of 3.4. Reacting to the backlash, Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann mocked the outrage on Twitter.
Naughty Dog / SonyNeil Druckmann responds to TLOU2 backlash
The Last of Us 2’s director Neil Druckmann addressed the backlash in a tweet on June 19, where he pointed out the new title had received more user reviews in a single day than the first game had gotten since its release in 2013.
“Oh man….in just a few hours we have almost DOUBLE the number of user reviews for #TheLastofUsPartII than the first game retrieved in seven years,” he said. “Love that passion!”
Oh man… in just a few hours we have almost DOUBLE the number of user reviews for #TheLastofUsPartII than the first game received in seven years. Love that passion! 😘 pic.twitter.com/cXRfuUijNG
— Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) June 20, 2020
A day later, the number of user reviews on Metacritic skyrocketed to over 26,000, a stark contrast to The Last of Us’s 9k. Over on social media sites like Twitter, users flooding the game’s hashtag with negative comments and spoilers has been overwhelming.
MetacriticLaura Bailey, the voice actor for Abby, also reacted to the wave of negativity it has been receiving. “Play the game. THEN give your opinions. And if you still don’t like it, that’s fine. Love you,” she tweeted out.
I can’t believe this even needs to be clarified. But at no point in the game did I film any scene with Neil. Everything I did was alongside phenomenally talented and professional actors. Play the game. THEN give your opinions. And if you still dont like it, that’s fine. Love you.
— Laura Bailey (@LauraBaileyVO) June 19, 2020
Despite critics overwhelmingly praising the title as being groundbreaking, The Last of Us Part 2 has quickly become one of the most divisive games of the generation among some players.
The Naughty Dog title originally began development in 2014, and was officially shown at Sony’s PlayStation Experience in 2016. The AAA game faced several delays, initially set to release in 2019.