Polygon.com / 14.04.25

The Last of Us' Stalkers may be even smarter than in the video game

The Last of Us seems to introduce a new type of infected new, at least, to people who have yet to play developer Naughty Dogs video game. Its early on in The Last of Us season 2 when Ellie and Dina, on patrol, enter an abandoned grocery store to pick off a couple infected. When Ellie falls through the second-story floor and onto the main level, she quickly realizes that shes being hunted. These, as fans of The Last of Us Part 2 know, are Stalkers. The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann hinted at the inclusion of the evolved infected type in an interview with Empire Online from March: Its kept certain parts of their brain alive, so they are smarter, he said. They coordinate and hide and do things that weve never seen any other infected do on this show. And the shows version differs somewhat from its game counterpart for starters, the audience sees it hunting Ellie before she does, so we see a lot more about what goes into its stalking skills. Ellie can hear the Stalker before she sees it...
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