In the original game, players had the choice to go all out against every enemy or just use stealth to conserve bullets. Many used the latter since on the highest difficulty, resources were scarce and they had to make do. When things go awry, players only needed to make a suicide run and just restart the mission from the checkpoint.
In The Last of Us Part II, it is encouraged to focus more on stealth and to run away from enemies when outnumbered. Game Director Kurt Margenau explained the reason why the game shines when using this type of method.
According to Margenau, the game will shine when players will use stealth during gameplay. They will need to check the environment, watch the patrols with dogs, and so much more tactics to think of. Aside from that, Naughty Dog wants them to reset the state of the situation as much as possible instead of just dying and restarting the scene. They want the players to immerse in the world so much and never make it feel “gamey” or pull them out of that experience.
The game director assured that this is not making the upcoming video game easier, but they are just trying to extend the combat interactions and making them more interesting. AI has also evolved in this iteration because Ellie has more abilities that Naughty Dog added to the game. Since Ellie can hide in the grass, the AI will have to search in the grass. Human enemies will look underneath vehicles because Ellie has the prone feature and will call out friends if they find one of them got killed.
Since AI is more intelligent this time around, players will have to be wiser in terms of tactics. Lure away enemies and wipe them out one by one, escape when needed, focus more on silent killing methods, and just hide until enemies stop looking for you. These are the best methods to do if you are going to play the game soon.
The Last of Us Part II will launch on June 19 exclusively on PlayStation 4. Check out the reason why Naughty Dog had to cut a lot of content from the game here.
Interview source: Game Reactor
