The Last Of Us 2 Won't Force You To Be A Dog Murderer

Recently, new marketing material for Naughty Dog's The Last of Us: Part II emerged, and it shocked some people over its explanation of how the game would seemingly require players to kill dogs to survive in the apocalypse. But that is not necessarily true.

Naughty Dog's Arne Meyer clarified on Twitter that the studio had no part in writing or assisting in the creation of the marketing copy that was used by GameStop before being deleted. Meyer said the retailer wrote this text as a form of editorialization to help people get excited about The Last of Us: Part II. In reality, you do not need to kill any dogs to complete the game.

Attack dogs are in fact a new feature in The Last of Us: Part II, but you don't have to kill them to get through the game. Enemies in The Last of Us: Part II will dispatch dogs to sniff you out, and you can choose to kill them, but it isn't necessary to progress.

Co-game director Anthony Newman told Polygon that Naughty Dog added dogs to The Last of Us: Part II to help make players experience even more "regrettable violence."

"Narratively, they're interesting because I think what's kind of at the core of The Last of Us experience is this kind of regrettable violence," Newman explained. "Being forced into these regrettable situations with these attack dogs only heightens that feeling."

Newman confirmed in that interview that you can beat The Last of Us: Part II without killing or hurting any dogs, but the game will be much more difficult this way.

The Last of Us: Part II launches on June 19, following a delay related to COVID-19. The game recently suffered a leak that exposed some of the game's story elements, so be careful out there. Sony, which owns Naughty Dog, has identified where the leak came from.

For more on The Last of Us: Part II, check out a brand-new story trailer above.