The Last of Us Part 2 Won't Force Players to Kill Dogs

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

The Last of Us Part II players may have to kills lots and lots of dogs, but there are ways around killing the game's furry enemies. A new GameStop promotional email re-affirms the "feature" that Sony and developer Naughty Dog have talked about in the past, and warns that this is just one example of how the game will not refrain from throwing any punches, expect apparently, in this case, it does hold back a punch or two.

"One of the most noticeable new features of the game is the inclusion of dogs," reads a promotional email about the game. "These dogs are in the game to follow your scent and will attack you as soon as they have sniffed you out. The game doesn't pull any punches or 'stray' from the idea that while you're playing as Ellie in a struggle to survive, killing dogs is necessary. You'll also have to deal with the fact though that each dog has an owner, who will call out the dog's name and cry in absolute horror when they discover their lifeless furry best friend. You've been warned."

Obviously, killing dogs in video games isn't new. Not at all. Further, we've known about this feature -- more or less -- for a while. In fact, Naughty Dog has not only talked about the feature in the past, but has confirmed players won't need to kill dogs to progress. That said, on the surface level, the feature sounds neat and immersive. However, it's easy to imagine why many have responded negatively it.

Of course, the feature itself probably won't bother most players once they play the game, especially if they truly don't have to kill any doggos unnecessarily. It's just odd that GameStop would go out of its way to highlight the "new feature" as if it were a big selling point.
 
Meanwhile on my PC

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1. While you're playing as Ellie in a struggle to survive, killing dogs is necessary.

2. Naughty Dog has confirmed players won't need to kill dogs to progress.

Contradicting statements or is there an option to not play as Ellie.
 
Wasn't there an indie strategy game that had to change their character design of a dog unit last year or something like that? I love dogs and don't get out of my way to harm them in games, and it's cool you are't forced to, but I don't think it needs to be a controversy
 
1. While you're playing as Ellie in a struggle to survive, killing dogs is necessary.

2. Naughty Dog has confirmed players won't need to kill dogs to progress.

Contradicting statements or is there an option to not play as Ellie.

Based on all the weird anti SJW/SJW woke controversies I'm guessing you can also play as Elroy and deadnaming him deletes your save
 
This is exactly why DOOM needs a mode where I can't kill the Mortally Challenged. Poor demons >:(


I guess ND has an option for us to not kill religious cultists as well? What about clickers?
 
Com'on now!
They had already confirmed that almost all encounters are optional. The game it's going full MGS with the dives, crawl, named NPCs and optional encounters.

I guess that they need to reassure as many triggered people as possible since the leaks got so many triggered.
 
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Killing humans?


Perfectly fine



But dogs?

I fine with killing humans in games, not so much certain animals; cats, wildcats, dogs, wolves, foxes, bunnies, horses and others. I think I like animals more than most humans. So if you can avoid killing dogs in TLOU2 I'm good with that.
 
When we get information like this that is reported on that has no context but a few keywords, it seems obvious that they're deliberately leaning into the "There's no such thing as bad publicity" method of marketing. It gets people talking. We're talking about it right now.

The lack of context means it could be anything, but really they're probably just an enemy type that can be avoided with distraction and/or stealth like hundreds of enemies in hundreds of games. It's just presented in a way that suggests it's something different or new.

We have a thread about an article written about an email being pointless.
 
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For all the people concerned about killing dogs in this game. What would you do if you got attacked by a dog in real life? Just stick your throat in it's mouth?

It's not like you're killing Lassie here. These are dogs trained to hunt and kill you. And they're just pixels on a screen.
 
What's the problem with this?

If you can empathise with human characters in games why can't you empathise with dogs or other animals in games.

Having the choice to not kill a dog if you can't bring yourself to do so is perfectly fine.
 
Are there really people concerned about this? What about killing humans? :goog_eek:
I'm actually more annoyed when you can't kill something.

While the story shows contempt for players of the first part and deserves the shit it gets, this seems like fake outrage..
 
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I don't enjoy animals or people dying in any form of entertainment, so the option to avoid it sounds like a plus to me. I love a good non violent way to get through a situation if it's offered, and it makes sense for the character.

Anyone who actually gets upset by it though is an idiot. It's not real.
 
It's funny how so many people (myself included) hate killing fake animals in games but are totally fine killing fake people lol.
 
For all the people concerned about killing dogs in this game. What would you do if you got attacked by a dog in real life? Just stick your throat in it's mouth?

I'd do anything necessary to kill or severely wound the animal tbh. I went for a walk the other day on a nearby trail and these two retards were walking their German Shepard without a leash. They let me walk past them because I was by myself and walking fast. I get like 50 ft past them and they start screaming bloody murder for their dog. I just kept walking and tried not to look back, but I could hear him approaching and they wouldn't stop screaming, so I turned around and we was like 5 ft from me, then he decided to turn around and go back. I told them to use a fucking leash. If that dog was attacking me you can bet I would be going for the eyes or some shit, fuck that noise.
 
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I'd do anything necessary to kill the animal tbh. I went for a walk the other day on a nearby trail and these two retards were walking their German Shepard without a leash. They let me walk past them because I was by myself and walking fast. I get like 50 ft past them and they start screaming bloody murder for their dog. I just kept walking and tried not to look back, but I could hear him approaching and they wouldn't stop screaming, so I turned around and we was like 5 ft from me, then turned around to go back. I told them to use a fucking leash. If that dog was attacking me you can bet I would be going for the eyes or some shit, fuck that noise.

I was almost attacked by a German Shepherd too. I was out on a run and there was one loose in someone's front yard across the street from me and it turned and charged me. I was freaked the hell out and yelled for help. The dog was hunched down and growling at me like it was about to attack when the owner came out and was able to call them off. The bitch kept telling me to stand still but I was prepared to fight for my life. Fuck people with vicious dogs that let them off their leash in public. I considered buying a knife I could strap to my forearm while running just in case it ever happened again.
 
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It's funny how so many people (myself included) hate killing fake animals in games but are totally fine killing fake people lol.
games like cod, gta and halo has pretty much sensitized me to killing fake humans, its pretty much commonplace as part of the action/shooter genre.

but i spent next to no time killing animals (more specifically cats and dogs) so im significantly less prepared to kill things i like.

but honestly it's irrelevant, theres plenty of reasons why i wont be buying this game but this 180 is hardly one of them.
 
Jesus Christ. It's a fucking video game.

If there are people legitmately getting upset about what happens in video games they should probably not play them at all. Or at least the mature ones.
 
Jesus Christ. It's a fucking video game.

If there are people legitmately getting upset about what happens in video games they should probably not play them at all. Or at least the mature ones.

Did people get upset about FFVII Remake, too? You could fuck up a bunch of dogs with a spiked bat if you so chose in that game.
 
Blows my mind that people have no issue with brutally killing another human, but then draw a moral line at killing dogs?
 
Meanwhile on my PC

p89FQy1.jpg

Do you have RTX on?

Blows my mind that people have no issue with brutally killing another human, but then draw a moral line at killing dogs?

Humans kind of suck. Doggos are just animals doing either what they need to do or what their crappy owners tell them to do. I don't have a dog, because my back yard is pretty small and I think that's unfair, but my neighbor has the most poorly trained dog ever created and it barks from 6am to 10pm. I don't hate the dog, it doesn't know any better and wouldn't dream of harming it. I would love to bolt a couple loudspeakers to my neighbor's head and play dogs barking at increasingly louder volumes until her head popped though.
 
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Killing humans?


Perfectly fine




But dogs?

And Naughty Dog quickly rushes in to clarify and make sure they let people know how much they would never force you to kill a vicious pit bull. all the brutal murdering for revenge is okay, but they would never require you to kill a dog for self defense.
 
Aah. How sweet and adorable. Its fine to brutally kill people because hey "iTs aLl aBouT TeH sUrviVaL" but a doggo? Nah, you just crossed the line. Imagine being hurt or offended by a video game? Suck a dick
 
It's them vs me.
Dogs, dog owners, they are ennemis I'll kill them all.

I'll kill pandas, cats, birds or whatever the fuck they throw at me.

It's a video game.
 
Aah. How sweet and adorable. Its fine to brutally kill people because hey "iTs aLl aBouT TeH sUrviVaL" but a doggo? Nah, you just crossed the line. Imagine being hurt or offended by a video game? Suck a dick

It's probably not so much about being offended, but rather not enjoying the depiction of killing animals, pixels or not. Assholes with guns and evil intentions is something else, at least for me. No "suck a dick" required for that. YMMV!
 
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