#THE LAST OF US 2 RAT KING TRIAL#

Margenau shared that the Rat KingвЂ™s name was never intentionally meant to be the Rat King, at least not publicly. RELATED: Naughty Dog Confirms That It Is Currently Working On The Last of Us Factions Kurt Margenau, a co-game director on The Last of Us 2, recently shared an interesting fact about one of the gameвЂ™s most grisly foes. However, one infected enemy only appears once during a single boss battle in The Last of Us 2, and itвЂ™s aptly named as distinguishable from the rest. Please note that this article will contain some SPOILERS for The Last of Us 2.Д¬lickers, bloaters, and shamblers, for example, all have distinct names and classifications because they appear frequently throughout The Last of Us 2 as infected enemy types. The Last of Us 2вЂs infected opponents are given names that only make logical sense for their classification apart from one another, though one particular monstrosity was given a more unique name. As you can see, they ended up getting very physical, but the end result is incredibly eerie.Дid the Rat King scare you? Let us know down in the comments, or hit us up on TwitterВ or Facebook.The Last of Us 2 features its fair share of creatively dreadful enemy designs, thanks to the tragic Cordyceps brain infection that behaves as the franchiseвЂ™s atmospheric backdrop. That left the task of rigging the monster to Yates and his team. He pitched the idea of a slow, sound-based build-up instead and creative directorВ Neil Druckmann approved it.

AbbyвЂ™s descent into Ground Zero needed to feel organic and reflective of the seriesвЂ™ firm grounding reality. The original plan was for the Rat King to be introduced through a jump scare, but Jimenez wasnвЂ™t sold. Seth Austin #TheLastofUsPartII /MCQcL8GhZG вЂњIt wasnвЂ™t until quite late in production where I went all-out on fleshing it out and finalizing its sound.вЂќ вЂњI knew that if I finished all the other infected sound design first, I could use those assets as layers in my final vocal designs of the Rat King,вЂќВ said Jimenez.

Sound designer Beau Anthony Jimenez andВ animation director Jeremy Yates were two of the many people who poured hours of work into bringing this anomaly to life. A monster like this should be as monstrous as the designers can make it, after all. You know whatвЂ™s even more fitting? All the details that went into making the Rat King as horrifying as possible. When you put it like that, it really does seem fitting. Co-directorВ Kurt Margenau put it like this: вЂњSheвЂ™s gone through all of these trials: Overcoming her fear of heights climbing to the sky bridge, fighting through hordes of infected on the way down, and coming out the other side thinking the worst was over вЂ“ only to be thrown right into this nightmare boss fight.вЂќ

#THE LAST OF US 2 RAT KING TRIAL#

Several years later, the studio needed a fearsome enemy for Abby to overcome in a trial by fire moment, and the Rat King resurfacedвЂ“this time, to stay. Naughty Dog did make attempts to fit the Rat King into Joel and EllieвЂ™s original journey, but couldnвЂ™t find a good place for it. This image was the root of the horrifying enemy faced by Abby in-game. вЂ¦ Visually, it was just a really exciting idea.вЂќ This is where Naughty Dog comes in.ДЄnthony Newman, co-director of The Last of Us Part 2, said that вЂњEven during development of the first game, we were thinking about what two infected stuck together would look like. Since then, there have been multiple documented sightings of these conjoinedВ rats, and with no concrete explanation for whatвЂ™s going on and how it happens, Rat Kings are the perfect fodder for horror stories. Rat Kings date back to a sighting in the 1500вЂ™s, when вЂњservants in Antwerp, Belgium discovered seven rats with knotted tails tied togetherвЂќ. So really, itвЂ™s not that much of a surprise to learn that one of the most horrifying variations of infected TLoU2 has to offer is also inspired by a very real thing. The cordyceps fungus? Actually exists, and does create real life zombies out of insects.

Fun fact: controversial hit The Last of Us Part 2В based its zombie virus on a real thing.

The last of us 2 rat king