9 Ways The Last Of Us 2 Was Almost Completely Different

1. Ellie Kills Abby

One major gripe The Last of Us 2's harshest critics have right now concerns Ellie and Abby's final fight. In the sequel, Ellie finally realises that revenge would be hollow, and that killing this person and threatening Lev would make her no better than some of the monsters she's scared of.

Some have called this a cop-out though, saying that the woman who killed Joel deserved to die and that by not taking her revenge, Ellie achieves nothing.

Though this isn't a criticism shared by the developers or myself, Ellie sparing Abby wasn't always how the game ended.

Druckmann has described a much bleaker finale, where the character actually does take her revenge and drown Abby on the beach. He explained:

"For more than 50 percent of the production, Ellie used to kill Abby at the end. Which gave a whole different kind of feel to the ending, and then another character would have to stop the cycle of violence. But at some point, through our conversations about Yara and Lev, we came to the realization that it wasn’t as honest to Ellie’s character that way. Deep down inside there’s goodness there. Hopefully she can go forward and build her life."