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Over the weekend, a little more of The Last of Us Part I seeped onto the internet. In recent weeks, the game has had a habit of breaking containment, and Naughty Dog has been scrambling to try and screw the lid back on. The latest: some mischief-maker has uploaded a cutscene from the game’s middle section. For those who have played The Last of Us, it features Henry and Sam, two brothers who befriend Joel and Ellie on their way through Pittsburgh. Without going into too much detail, things don’t end well.
But what is too much detail? Many of those who are chewing their fingernails in fevered anticipation will already be well versed in the murk of Naughty Dog’s tale. I count myself helplessly among their ranks. Thus, every time I glimpse one of these leaks—Joel fending off a band of brigands, or engaging in verbal combat with Tess—I smile nostalgically, give a slight nod, and go on my way.
Far from spoiling the action, the drama, or my appetite, my eagerness is only ratcheted up. I had a similar reaction to the official reveal last month, in which Naughty Dog guided us through the game’s features and improvements. (Special credit must go to the demonstration of the controller’s haptics, as Ellie pets a giraffe; I for one am holding my breath for the most generationally impressive haptic recreation of animal fur yet.)
The question is, can one truly spoil a remake of one of the biggest games in recent years? It seems to me that, beyond showing off its technical accomplishments—the tuned-up A.I., the graphically boosted performance, and the haptic giraffe pelt—there isn’t much left to spoil. Those were the only real unknowns, and Naughty Dog has already shown them off in detail—with nifty diagrams.
The efforts, on the part of the developer, to quash the leaks are understandable, especially when those that leak these snippets and scraps claim that there aren’t any improvements to its play. (It was little wonder that Sony showcased the game’s features the day after one such claim.) But I can’t help but think, for an awful lot of people, these snippets and scraps do the job of a sneaky guerilla advertising campaign.
There will, of course, be a swathe of people who have never played the game, many of them likely on PC. For them, the prescription is simple: if you wish to keep the story uninfected with spoilers, stay away from news articles, don’t click on any links to imgur, where the most recent leak appeared, in scumbled form. And, most important, keep off of Wikipedia, where the plot has been available, in its entirety, since 2013.
All of which brings us to the biggest spoiler of them all, which is available for £15.99 right this moment on the PlayStation Store. It is called The Last of Us Remastered, and, I have to say, it will completely ruin the upcoming game for you. How foolish of Naughty Dog to have torpedoed their own remake by releasing a remaster of their original release. Unbelievable.
