The Last of Us Part II: New details, game footage from Naughty Dog’s ‘most ambitious’ game

Fast forward a few years from the end of The Last of Us, and things just can’t stay peaceful. Right when Joel and Ellie are settling into something resembling normal lives in a burgeoning Jackson, Wyoming, survivors’ enclave, something violent happens — and whatever it is, it sounds like it's about to set Ellie off bigtime.

While we still don’t know what’s got her so hell-bent on vengeance (and nope, we’re not peeking at those alleged spoilers floating around out there), we do know she looks like an arrow-slinging badass trying to dish it out. In a meaty slice of previously unseen gameplay, Sony and Naughty Dog unveiled a cool new glimpse at The Last of Us Part II in today’s Sony State of Play update, which was devoted entirely to the soon-arriving game.

Check out the whole thing below (or skip right to the gameplay, which begins at the 14:28 mark):

The action takes Ellie out of a deceptively placid outdoor creek and into the flooded ruins of an abandoned building, where she water-spelunks her way through a decrepit boiler room and into hostile territory. From there, it quickly becomes apparent that she’s grown an extra layer of super-thick skin even since having to grow up fast in her first outing with the 2013 original.

Creative director Neil Druckmann also zoomed in on some of Part II’s new systems, including a workbench feature that’ll let players craft items and modify weapons with upgrades that’ll improve their bang quotient while, thankfully, also reflecting the changes you make on-screen. Druckmann teased that much of the new game takes place in the overgrown ruins of Seattle, though Ellie’s far-ranging journey also will span places, seasons, and climates not seen in its acclaimed PS3 (and remastered on PS4) predecessor. Running from combat and refocusing will also be an option — which sounds like a good thing, since guard dogs can track your scent and end up nipping at your heels in no time.

Druckmann doubled down on Part II as Naughty Dog’s “largest, most ambitious game” yet, saying what we’re seeing here just “scratches the surface” of how epically scaled the next single-player chapter in America’s post-apocalypse (and Sony's growing TLOU franchise) will unfold. The story sounds legit, the action looks goosebump-worthy, and the scenery’s never looked better. So steer clear of the leaks and keep yourself in suspense just a little longer: At long last, The Last of Us Part II is set to hit the PlayStation 4 on June 19.