"The Last of Us Part II," Sony and Naughty Dog's latest PlayStation exclusive, took home seven trophies out of nine nominations from this year's Game Awards, including the prestigious Game of the Year crown.
"In the words of Ellie, "That didn't suck," Naughty Dog's VP Neil Druckman congratulates the team and all the other nominees on his Twitter.
TLOU2 snatches the Game of the Year trophy from heavy contenders like "Animal Crossing" from Nintendo, "Doom Eternal," and Sucker Punch's "Ghost of Tsushima." The sequel also took home the Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Best Innovation in Accessibility, and Best Action/Adventure Game. Playing as Abby Williams in TLOU2, Laura Bailey grabbed the Best Performance trophy while her co-star, Ashley Johnson (Ellie), came the second.
"Congrats to all the great games nominated and revealed tonight. Dogs, big congrats! I love y'all."
In fact, this is not the only award TLOU2 took home this year. During the 2020 Golden Joystick Awards last November, Naughty Dog managed to win six trophies, including the Ultimate Game of the Year, the PlayStation Game of the Year, and the Best Storytelling.
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Controversial Reception
However, upon its release last summer, TLOU2 has met with a plethora of criticism over its forced narrative.
After a series of unfortunate delays, Neil Druckmann came under fire following the massive TLOU2 leak, revealing the storyline before its release. A small segment of gamers also found some issues with the story and left many negative reviews on Metacritic's aggregator site.
Up to this writing, TLOU2 scores 93 on critic reviews and 5.2 from the fans. The phenomenon known as review bombing gave a low score of 3.5 within the first two days before Naughty Dog and Sony reportedly removed them from the website.
Even worse, Naughty Dog has reportedly made its employees work overtime to polish the game leading up to its release, making fans question whether such an unethical business way deserves a GOTY.
Full Winner List
The Game Awards event was held remotely on Thursday (12/10), aired live from three audience-less studios in London, Tokyo, and Los Angeles.
On another news, "Ghost of Tsushima" only won the Best Art Direction, despite racking up seven nominations, including the Game of the Year. "Elden Ring" crowned as the Most Anticipated Game, dethroning "Halo Infinite," "Resident Evil Village," and the untitled "God of War" sequel.
Indie game "Hades," which was favored to win the Best Narrative," won the Best Indie Game of the Year.
Popular social game "Among Us" made a headline by winning the Best Multiplayer Game and the Best Mobile Game, beating the likes of "Fall Guys," "Call of Duty: Warzone," "Valorant," and "Animal Crossings: New Horizon."
"The Last of Us Part 2" is exclusively available on PS4.
