The Last of Us 2: Naughty Dog Discusses New Tech Developed for Realism

Naughty Dog has developed tech to allow for micro-details on The Last of Us Part II's characters - from veins popping in anger, to how red their eyes get. Detailed in the latest of Sony's 'Inside' mini-documentaries about the game (which you can watch in full below), Neil Druckmann highlighted the studio's "insane attention to detail". That comes into particular focus when discussing the technology developed to make its characters feel more human at the smallest levels. Druckmann explains: "Now we can make veins pop on their forehead if they're really angry. Or likewise we can redden their skin - could be based on emotion, or could be based on what's happening to them physically. How red their eyes get is controllable, how tears flow off their eyes and their face is all-new tech that we've developed for this game." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/the-last-of-us-part-2-inside-the-details-video"] We've previously learned that enemies are intended to feel as realistic as the game's heroes, and the video shows off how they talk to one another, scream when they see a friend die, and say each other's names. Even the non-human elements have had this kind of micro-level work put in. Naughty Dog researched the kinds of foliage and architecture that would realistically appear in the various parts of the US Ellie will visit on her journey. The team even walked the route Ellie takes through Seattle to make sure it was replicated as faithfully as possible in the final game. We saw a lot more of the game yesterday in Sony's State of Play broadcast about Naughty Dog's latest - and we documented everything new we learned. The Last of Us Part 2 will be released for the PlayStation 4 on June 19. IGN's Last of Us 2 review will go live on Friday, June 12, 12:01 AM PT. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-naughty-dog-game-review&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter.