The Game Awards 2020 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2020 and video game fans all over the world, who’ve played multiple 2020 newly-released video games this year, eagerly awaited the results.
Produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley on December 10, 2020, the Game Awards 2020, unlike previous Game Awards, was broadcast virtually from several locations due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The theme of the show this year, according to its Keighley, was about strength and comfort, given the impact of the global pandemic. He also wanted to implore the theme of unity, similar to The Game Awards 2018.
With this, here is a look at this year’s Game of the Year, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II.
Developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the Playstation 4, The Last of Us Part II is a 2020 action-adventure game, set five years after The Last of Us (2013).
The player controls two characters in the post-apocalyptic United States whose lives intertwine: Ellie, who sets out for revenge after suffering a tragedy, and Abby, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict with a cult.
The game is played from the third-person perspective. The player can use firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth to fight human enemies and cannibalistic creatures.
The game’s revenge and retribution themes were inspired by the game’s creative director Neil Druckmann’s experiences growing up in Israel.
The developers pushed the technical capabilities of the PlayStation 4 during development.
Following some delays, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Last of Us Part II was released on June 19, 2020.
It was praised for its performances, characters, visual fidelity, and gameplay, though the narrative and the representation of a transgender character polarized critics and players.
The Last of Us Part II is one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games and the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive, with over four million units sold in its release weekend.
Aside from winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2020, The Last of Us Part II also won the Golden Joystick Awards.
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Directors: Neil Druckmann, Anthony Newman, Kurt Margenau
Designers: Emilia Schatz, Richard Cambier
Programmers: Travis McIntosh, Christian Gyrling
Artists: Erick Pangilinan, John Sweeney, Christian Nakata
Writers: Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross
Composer: Gustavo Santaolalla
Platforms: PlayStation 4
Release: June 19, 2020
Genre: Action-adventure
Mode: Single-player
Gameplay
The Last of Us Part II is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective, featuring the survival horror genre elements.
The player traverses post-apocalyptic environments such as buildings and forests to advance the story.
The player can use firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus.
Control intermittently switches between Ellie and Abby. The player also briefly controls Joel in the opening sequence.
The player character’s nimble nature introduces platforming elements to the game, allowing the player to jump and climb to traverse environments and gain advantages during combat. The player can break glass objects such as windows to access certain areas or obtain supplies. Some areas in the game are navigated by horse or boat.
In combat, the player can use long-range weapons such as rifles and bows and short-range weapons such as pistols and revolvers. The player is able to scavenge limited-use melee weapons such as machetes and hammers and throw bricks and bottles to distract or attack enemies.
Collected items can be used to upgrade weapons at workbenches or craft equipment such as health kits, Molotov cocktails, and makeshift silencers.
The player can collect supplements to upgrade skills in a skill tree. Training manuals found throughout the environment unlock additional skill tree branches, allowing upgrades to attributes such as the health meter, crafting speed, and ammunition types.
Though the player can attack enemies directly, they can also use stealth to attack undetected or sneak past them.
“Listen Mode” allows the player to locate enemies through a heightened sense of hearing and spatial awareness, indicated as outlines visible through walls and objects.
In the cover system, the player can crouch behind obstacles to gain advantages in combat and can also crawl in a prone position to evade enemies.
Hostile enemies use artificial intelligence. They may take cover or call for assistance and can take advantage when the player is distracted, out of ammunition, or in a fight.
The player may be impaled by an arrow, which will progressively decrease their health meter and disables Listen Mode until removed when in cover.
Player companions, such as Dina, assist in combat by killing enemies or announcing their location.
The game also introduces guard dogs that track the player’s scent, which can be visualized in Listen Mode.
Here are a few reactions of video game geeks towards The Last of Us Part II: