Naughty Dog didn’t intend to make its biggest game ever with The Last of Us Part II , but according to Creative Director (and co-writer) Neil Druckmann, the ambitions of the story necessitated it.

The Last of Us Part 2 Preview Screenshots 11 IMAGES

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“We didn’t set out to make the biggest game we’ve ever done, we set out to tell this really ambitious story that became the biggest game we’ve ever done. And that’s why we took as long as we have,” Druckmann told me after my recent hands-on time with The Last of Us Part II.“The story we laid out four years ago is really complex, has a large cast of characters. The core of it is simple, but where it goes and the twist and turns are complex,” he said. “We needed more time for cinematics, we needed more locations, we needed more types of enemies. So the scope of it kept growing.”But for those who might worry that bigger means possible padding, Druckmann assured me that the team intends to match the pace and flow of the original game.“It’s not padded, it has that pacing of the first game. You’re going on this crazy, emotional, harrowing roller coaster ride that has these highs of tension and these slower, more provocative, thoughtful moments...those kind of events are sprinkled throughout the entire game,” Druckmann said, pointing to the quiet, funny conversations between Dina and Ellie I saw during my demo.That demo equated to a little over two hours of gameplay. While it felt like a sizeable chunk of the game, Druckmann emphasized the breadth of this upcoming adventure.“[The demos and E3 2018 gameplay are] a tiny fraction of how big this game is. I’m not exaggerating, this is by far Naughty Dog’s biggest game we’ve ever done,” he said.“Biggest” applies not just to the amount of content, but is a philosophy that plays into world design and gameplay.When it comes to building the world, Druckmann said the Naughty Dog team wanted to continue with the trend of the studio’s recent games like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. So, they’re not looking to make The Last of Us Part II a sequel, but it will have areas that allow players to explore the periphery.“Depending where you are with the story, we might open things up significantly and say, ‘Here are some optional things you can go explore, some side stories, or you can go directly next to where you’re meant to go,’” he said. “But the tension is not high, and as the tension ratchets up, we might tighten things up, you might play a very scripted, authored Naughty Dog setpiece. And we know we can go in both directions according to the need of the story.”Druckmann explained that this balance between larger areas and more scripted segments is predicated on the tension Naughty Dog strives to deliver.“Unlike an open world game that is usually open all the time, that [type of] game doesn’t work for us for The Last of Us because that loses tension. If I need to go rescue someone, and [the game] says ‘OK go rescue them right now...or do these 10 other things on the side,’ you lose tension,” he said.A significant gameplay change also allowed for some design changes and expansions — Ellie’s ability to jump. She now has a dedicated jump button in the sequel, which allows her to not only be more nimble in combat, but introduces the simple idea that reaching higher areas, like the second floor of a building, are much easier to reach.“Now we can create verticality, Ellie can get to heights, get to second floors...a lot of it is about evading enemies by moving around them, on top of them, sometimes going into basements below them,” Druckmann explained of both the combat and exploration uses this change provides.For more on the sequel, be sure to read our in-depth, hands-on preview of The Last of Us Part 2 , and be sure to read about what Druckmann had to say about Joel's role, as well as Ellie and Dina's relationship in The Last of Us Part 2

Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond, and he thinks about the finale to the original The Last of Us at least once a week. Talk to him about his demo on Twitter @jmdornbush