Update: Kurt Margenau, co-game director of The Last of Us 2, took to Twitter to explain that Naughty Dog has “a shader feature to mark a material as not shootable.” Mostly used to prevent people from desecrating religious items and imagery, it appears other objects in the game can be elevated to holy status too, such as this unshootable PS3.
Original: In a slight fourth wall break, developer Naughty Dog left a PS3 in The Last Of Us Part 2 as some level decoration. The dusty, worn-out, run-down machine - no, not the one in your cupboard - rests atop a table in Eugene’s Hideout, with two DualShock controllers connected, next to what appears to be a copy of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Naturally, the first thing you do when you discover an easter egg like this in a game is shoot it, but Naughty Dog knew we’d try to desecrate their legacy, so they’ve made it impossible to shoot the old Sony hardware. If you’re wondering why it’s a PS3 and not a PS4, it’s because the infection began in September 2013 and the PS4 didn’t release until November of that year.
This discovery was posted to Reddit by user Affe_Boy__. They can shoot the wall behind the PS3, the table it sits on, and just below the controller, but they can’t shoot the system or the controllers themselves - the gun simply won’t fire. Maybe Ellie won’t shoot it because she loves the PS3 in her room back in Jackson. Her one has a copy of the Jak And Daxter Remastered collection with it - funny how so many Naughty Dog games survived the apocalypse.
Given the amount of twisted violence you can dish out to both human survivors and infected in this game, it seems odd that Naughty Dog draws the line at property damage, but this isn’t the only instance of an unkillable console in The Last Of Us 2.
Many of you may have noticed that one person in the game is playing on a PS Vita before you stab her in the throat. She drops the handheld console and you can see she was playing Hotline Miami on it. If you try and shoot the Vita, Ellie’s gun will fire but the sturdy console will take no damage.
There are many other easter eggs hidden throughout The Last Of Us, and Naughty Dog’s other titles. There’s a Jak X Combat Racing arcade machine in this game, a call back to both the Left Behind DLC and the game itself.
