Update: Trailer added. Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic game looks mighty fine on stage at Sony's conference.

Joel and Ellie begin the on-stage playable demo as they head out into a ruined city coated with overgrowth and grass. Low water coats the ground of a hotel as they crawl into its interior. The early minutes inside the ruined building are quiet but creepy. 

Crawling out onto a rooftop, Joel hears voices inside the nearby building. Immediately, the two main characters begin to sneak, sure that the strange men are hostile. Joel sneaks back inside and strangles one of them from behind, and then grabs his gun. A running fight ensues through the hotel as Joel takes out one combatant after another. 

Stopping in a room, a pause menu is pulled up. Joel crafts a Molotov cocktail and lights one of his attackers on fire. In a final brutal exchange, Joel wrestles with the last enemy. Ellie stabs the man from behind, and she is flung away, but Joel is given time to slam the butt of a shotgun into the man's face. He falls, and cries for mercy, but the demo ends with Joel pulling the trigger to kill the him. 

The Last of Us looks visually remarkable, and the intense and visceral violence is a far cry from the pulpy action of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series.