Gamers that have been preparing their bodies for the highly-anticipated sequel to 2013’s The Last of Us were recently treated to some glorious gameplay. While the previous looks at The Last of Us Part II have shown us a violent title that lies ahead, none have been more graphic than what was shown during Sony’s E3 2018 presentation.

However, according to Neil Druckmann himself, this violence serves a purpose. “We’re making a game about the cycle of violence and we’re making a statement about violent actions and the impact they have on the character that’s committing them and on the people close to them,” the game director said in a recent interview. He continued:

And our whole approach is to say, ‘We want to treat this as realistically as possible.’ When you stab someone—if you watch reference videos, which we have, it’s gross and it’s messy and it’s not sanitized like you see in most movies and games. And we wanted to get the player to feel that.”

The reasoning behind this is that they want “the player to feel repulsed by some of the violence” that they are committing. “It felt like that is the most honest way to tell this story,” he added. If the most recent trailer/gameplay footage is any indication of things to come, The Last of Us Part II is going to have one hell of a story to tell. After all, did you see all of bodies Ellie left in her wake? Interesting times are to come.

Speaking of which, The Last of Us Part II remains without a launch date, but it will be coming to PlayStation 4 when it does arrive. Keep it tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers as this story develops, and for other gaming goodness going on right now, check out the following:

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What say you, gamers? Do you believe the violence shown so far to be part of The Last of Us Part II is a bit overkill, or will it have its place like Druckmann says. Sound off in the comments section below, and be sure to follow DFTG on Twitter for live gaming and entertainment news 24/7!