The Last of Us Part II has ostensibly been in some stage of production since its acclaimed predecessor debuted in 2013, with the kernels of a sequel story likely germinating well before that. That's a long time to try to stay ahead of the technological curve, keep the narrative relevant, and try to predict the future. No one, not Naughty Dog, not Nostradamus, could have predicted that the game's ultimate launch would come in the middle of an ongoing once-in-a-century global pandemic, and both economic and civil crises in the United States. So while the …