So tonight, on the eve of The Last of Us: Remastered's release, Naughty Dog and Sony hosted a special show: The Last of Us One Night Live. It was basically a re-enactmenet of key scenes from the game featuring the voice actors who brought the characters to life, and directed by Neil Druckmann. It was pretty amazing to watch, even if you had to tune in online.
But you know what? The mood was spoiled when it was revealed that those in attendance of the event were treated to "something special" that those who had to watch from home wouldn't be allowed to see.
The first mistake was Geoff Keighely teasing the special something on Twitter even before the stream ended.
Neil has prepared the an amazing surprise for the in theater audience. You won't see it on the stream but you will definitely hear about it.
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) July 29, 2014
Seriously? I can't think of a better way to take the focus off the event that was happening live.
Keighley was kind enough to wait until the stream ended before finally giving us a clue as to what that special something was. Turns out it was a special scene that Neil had written, set after the game. And that's all he said about it, leaving the rest up to those in attendance to share.
The theater audience saw a special scene Neil wrote, set after the game. I'll let others describe the experience.
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) July 29, 2014
As you can expect, fans unable to attend the event — you know, because not everyone lives in L.A. — weren't too pleased.
@geoffkeighley @GameOverGreggy this is such a slap I the face to fans that we're not able to attend the event.
— simonrestrepo_ (@sim_rest) July 29, 2014
@geoffkeighley screw off, why wasn't this streamed? We're not all lucky to live within proximity of the damn theatre. Ridiculous.
— Nader El-Chaar (@nelchaar) July 29, 2014
Talk about taking a wonderful evening and ending it on a sour note. I get that you want to do something special for those actually in attendance, but to alienate the entire audience watching from home just doesn't sit well with me. Here's to hoping Sony posts the footage on their YouTube channel or something or that someone you trust very much was in attendance because I can easily see rumors start to spread.
***Update***
Apparently some folks from NeoGAF were in attendance. Apparently, prior to the scene, Neil said this is a "goodbye" to Joel and Ellie. He also apparently said that this will never be released and asked that no one film it, so it looks like those who had to tune in via stream are out of luck.
Here's the overview of the special scene, according to some attendees.
The scene takes place at Tommy dam one night 4 years later. Joel talks about how Tommy trying to get Joel hitched to a girl named Esther. Ellies acting fairly distant, probably conflicted about joels lie. Joel then said he has a special gift for her and busts out a guitar. Then he plays a special song for her. Then he gives her guitar and promises to teach her. The scene ends with her striking a note on the guitar
So the big surprise wasn't TLOU movie teaser, UC4 gameplay, or a freebie to take home. It was a deleted scene acted out. It was from AFTER the final scene in the game. In the scene, Ellie is in her room at Tommy's place, listening to her iPod/CD player etc. Joel enters the room and wants to talk to Ellie. He brings out a guitar and sings a song(Troy Baker played the guitar AND sang in the voice. Fucking amazing). Joel shares a joke that he tells Ester, a woman he's now dating from the camp, with Ellie. "What's the bad thing about eating a clock? It's time consuming." They laugh, Joel leaves the room, and Ellie strums a string. End scene, end journey…perhaps.
At least that concept art makes sense now.
