The Last Of Us Part 2 is developer Naughty Dog's masterful swan song for the PlayStation 4, earning several game-of-the-year awards and accolades. It didn't release without its controversies, as some players felt the plot didn't measure up to the first game, but it nonetheless proved itself as a technical achievement in gaming. Releasing during a worldwide pandemic, its dark and dire storyline along with visceral gameplay made for some uncomfortable playing in a very strange year.

Naughty Dog was sure to stuff the title full of disturbing and sad content, but there were several downright terrifying moments for players to experience throughout the tense adventure.

Updated on December 7th, 2022 by Jordan Iacobucci:

The Last of Us is finally getting a live-action adaptation in the form of HBO Max's 2023 series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. As fans eagerly await the show's premiere in January, now is the perfect time to revisit the original two games, the more recent of which includes several harrowing and horrific moments that will stick with players long after their first playthrough.

15 Tommy Is Shot

After the grueling death of Joel early in The Last of Us: Part II, players were understandably worried for the well-being of every beloved character who survived the first game. This made it all the more shocking and horrifying when, in the midst of a battle with Abby, Tommy was shot in the head and seemingly killed.

The moment is quick and somewhat unclear, leaving both Ellie and the player unclear regarding Tommy's ultimate fate. Thankfully, it is later revealed that Tommy managed to survive his wound, though this certainly doesn't alleviate the initial horror of seeing him nearly meet a similar fate to that of his brother.

14 Every Dog Death

Less terrifying than it is horrifically upsetting, the idea of introducing dogs as enemies (and in some cases, allies) into the game instantly made fans dread the interactions. It makes the game more thrilling to have animals following scents during encounters to keep them on their toes, but the expectation to kill them had some players refusing to harm them at all. Eventually, as the game gets harder and more intense, there will be some situations between life or death where a dog will need to be killed in order to survive.

Even a crucial story moment has Ellie murder a dog that Abby later has as an ally in a flashback mission, only increasing the player's guilt for having killed the dog during an earlier level. Despite all the game's horrific imagery, this might just be the worst death in the series.

13 Chased By A Horde

While The Last of Us: Part II takes a renewed interest in human danger during the apocalypse, it certainly doesn't forget about the zombies. One particularly intense level has the player control Abby as she encounters a horde of the undead in the middle of a whiteout snowstorm, making for a truly terrifying experience.

Players feel Abby's desperation as they try to avoid the Infected who can emerge from the wintery haze at any moment. Every second builds and escalates as escape seems increasingly impossible. This makes for truly one of the more harrowing events in the game, as well as the entire franchise.

12 Discovering The Hospital

The Last of Us ends with one of Joel's most selfish decisions, as he rampages through St. Mary's Hospital, saving Ellie from the Fireflies while also depriving the world of a possible cure for the zombie Infection. The second game shows this event from a different angle, having the player follow Abby as she discovers the carnage that Joel left in his wake.

While players were undoubtedly on Joel's side during his attack, it is difficult not to empathize with Abby during this moment, as she finds the gruesome remains of her friends, who she believed had wanted to save the world. The level culminates in the discovery that Abby's father was among Joel's victims, cementing the true horrors of his actions in the first game.

11 Hanging Bodies

When Ellie and Dina enter the Seattle TV station after an arduous journey through the downtown core, they stumble upon the terrifying sight of several hanging and mutilated bodies dangling in a large open room. The bodies belong to the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), a militia group who are the antagonists during Ellie's side of the journey.

This is around when the game starts mentioning the "Scars," another mysterious faction that hasn't been introduced in the story yet, but the players are given a full introduction to their murderous tendencies through this ghastly sight.

10 Escaping The Forest

Abby is eventually caught and hung by the Scars, whose real name is the Seraphites. They hang her from a tree, threatening to gut her with a knife, and are very close to outright killing her before the attackers are killed by a young ex-Seraphite, who has left the group and is there to rescue their sibling, who was being tortured alongside Abby.

The two siblings are on the run and tell unarmed Abby to follow them through the pitch-black forest and to avoid the "demons" along the way. It turns out the demons are hordes of infected, and if Abby strays from the light of the torch held by her rescuers, she'll be eaten to death in the darkness of the rainy trees.

9 The Haven Fight

Abby becomes quite protective of the Seraphite siblings, Lev and Yara, and travels with them as they try to survive together. Eventually, Lev leaves to find their mother on an island that the Seraphites have taken over, containing a settlement named Haven. Abby and Yara follow in pursuit and arrive just as the WLF launches an attack on the island. Yara is heroically killed saving Abby and Lev, and as the two escape, the entire village burns to the ground while an all-out warzone erupts.

The final moment of the sequence is when a tall Seraphite member attacks the duo, and Abby is fighting for her life in a brutally bloody encounter. The man wields a large sledgehammer with a sharp pick on its end, and the fight is an anguishing exercise in terrifying gratuitous violence. It ends with Abby repeatedly stabbing the man in the face, and players all collectively stopped to take a moment to breathe after the horrifying event.

8 Shimmer's Death

When Ellie and Dina set off to Seattle at the start of their journey, they bring along Shimmer, a horse from their home settlement in Jackson, WY as their mode of transportation. Players begin to form a bond with the animal as they explore all the vast buildings and large open areas of downtown Seattle.

When Abby and Dina are casually trotting along, their guards completely down, a jump-scare of an explosion occurs as Dina is knocked over the edge of the street railing. Ellie lies on the ground hopeless as the WLF approaches her and the mortally injured horse, planting a bullet in its head.

7 Ellie Kills Nora

As she embarks on her revenge mission against Abby, Ellie encounters Nora, one of Abby's closest associates. After a relentless chase, Ellie interrogates the girl, who is now dying from having breathed spores. Eventually letting her anger get the better of her, Ellie ruthlessly beats Nora to death with a pipe.

Not only does this moment prove Ellie to be quite merciless, it also makes the player complicit in her decision. The player is forced to kill Nora themselves with quick-time actions, only increasing the horror of Ellie's choices as she begins to let vengeance consume her.

6 First Seraphites Encounter

Ellie first stumbles upon the Seraphites in a fern-covered overgrown segment of Seattle, where strange whistle patterns cut through the air and the player is forced to hide in the vast shrubbery from an unseen enemy. This is the first formal introduction to the "Scars" as Ellie has known them, and as players creep through the bushes, a sudden shrill whistling is heard and an arrow fires out of the trees and into Ellie's shoulder.

At this point, the game is telling the player that they are being hunted, and they are stuck in the hunter's territory. The communicative whistling only adds to the intensity of their encounters as Ellie desperately tries to escape.