Well, they are good, but not wizards. The gameplay was very scripted and stage.

There are things in this demo that are basically impossible to implement as a generic pick up or reaction movement.
p.e:  The way Elie removes the arrow from the corpse and how it reacts is very impressive.  

Here is a more broad discussion of the telltales of a scripted vertical slice.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/8qhoeb/the_last_of_us_2_demo_was_not_scripted/

Off course, it is not impossible. They did it in the demo.

The "impossible" part is making that animation, the inverse kinematics and the skeleton mesh react to any possible angle.

Unless the game is even more linear than part I. When those interactions are few and far between. 

***
what we´ve been through,  it was because of the "Hey Ass hole", isn´t it?

Take a look at the E3 demo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsKtRgfDImE

Now, what the retail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF19DFyIJEo

Can you see the difference? 

I will help you.

1- In the demo Elie moves her legs in a natural movement away from the cover.
    In the retail, she slides backwards.

2- The enemy reacts to Elie call and turns to her.  
     The enemy doesn´t react to her.

3-  The brick hits perfectly in the head and carries moment to the enemy, that turns in a natural movement.
     The glass bottle triggers the standard enemy animation.

4- There is no skip animation from Joe getting out of cover and pressing the enemy on the wall.
    Em Joe trigs the bashing animation there is a skip to place both models in the correct position. 

This video shows more of how the animations are blended. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxttwBkIEDQ

I´m not undervaluing ND work. It is a pain in the ass blend those animations and trick the player not to notice.

I'm pretty excited for Death Stranding. It looks like something fresh and new and I like that. TLoU 2 on the other hand looks graphically impressive and I'm sure it's just as good as the first one or even better when it comes to storytelling and all that. But in the end it's just more of the same. Which doesn't have to be a bad thing, if you're looking for more of The Last of Us, it's perfect for you. But it's not what I'm looking for right now. I'll play it someday, but not day 1.

Is it just me or was the TLOU2 gameplay extra violent? I enjoyed the gameplay and the melee in particular impressed me. But i was a bit shocked at the graphic nature of killings. Yes TLOU was violent too but the violence seemed more appropriate to the situation in it.

Death Stranding i thought was objectively interesting but nothing that i wanted to play. Since i tend to steer clear of horror. But i guess i will wait until we know what the game is really like.

Out of simple curiosity, what does "objectively interesting" mean? 

TLOZ LOOKS ASTOUNDING IM READY NAUGHTY GODS

It means that i found the trailer curious and interesting, and i do want to see what the gameplay looks like. However it did not make me want to play the game. Its exactly the same for me with sports and racing games - i do appreciate the genres and follow progress, sales but dont actually play them. 

I understand what you are trying to say, and its true, but true for a game that was developed 8 years ago, Contextual animation is still pain in the ass but nothing compared to what it was back then, I think even in Uncharted 3 and The last of Us were like their test beds for contextual animation, IMO uncharted 3 had better animation on that cruise level. But look at  games from this generation, Uncharted 4, infamous, sunset overdrive, Horizon, god of war, they all have much more better animation blend pass than previous generation, IMO Spiderman had far better contextual animation than TLoU2 and that game is almost done, so i think ND with 3 games worth of experience can pull it off. 

Also Id like to contradict myself, I would say ND has this habit of showing a vertical slice which will be a quiet different to the retail version, The Last of Us and uncharted 4, but in their defense every studio does this they dial up their engine up to 11 for showcase, but at the time of retail they have dial it back so that poorly maintained console don't get fried. 

Did anyone else notice that at the end of the TLOU 2 demo Ellie killed a strong bald guy who was armed with an axe?

Is that Naughty Dog saying they are better than Santa Monica? :D

If anyone is into breakdown videos I've just created my first one for Last of Us 2's gameplay trailers. Some info I've observed that others haven't, as well as pointing out more obvious things that everyone's seen as well all the new tech, gameplay and characters :) Goes for over an hour and 20 mins, so maybe have it playing in the background. lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95RcvDTuiAk

If you have any feedback about it. Let me know. Always trying to improve/get better at things. I'm aware the sound isn't crisp, but it is audible, so hope to sort that out in future.