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The Last of Us and Neil Druckmann: Fleshing Out the Horror Game
The hunters converse, they chat; they talk about what they've had to endure to get this far. And once they're engaged, they call out to one another and work in a team. Ambush one, and he'll scream "he's in here", grab another as a human shield, and the rest will yell at you to drop him, with genuine panic creeping into their voices. The guys you kill in The Last of Us are groups of friends. As Druckmann points out, you're no better than they are:
"We're going to make the violence as real as possible, so you buy into the scrounging, the scrambling - the desperation these people have. It was important to show that Joel is not necessarily a good guy. We don't glorify these kills. It's like he's just doing what they would do.
"In the games we worked on in the past, we'd do whatever we could to suggest that the bad guys were bad. You'd see them kill someone, or we'd design them will a skull on them, like in Jak and Daxter. Either through story or design we'd say that these guys are good and these guys are bad. Here, we took the opposite approach and thought about how we could humanise these guys, how we could show that these guys really cared for each other. So, when you do engage them, you feel like you're just like them but with a different objective. It's not just about spraying blood up the walls - you see it in the context of what it is."You might encounter people who have theories about what happened, but we're never going to say 'this is the thing that happened'" explains Druckmann. "It's like with things that happen in the real world. No one really knows where bird flu or Spanish flu started. People have theories but they don't know.
"We're not going to reveal how this thing started. That's not what the story is about."Neil Druckmann has been working on The Last of Us for more than three years. And now, with the crunch about to start, when the whole team will be working 14 hour days, 7 days a week, he's relieved to say that everything is coming together.
"I recently played the game for the first time beginning to end, and I got to an area actually in gameplay where I teared up, because for that moment - not in a cutscene - it all came together. It's my hope that we can reach fans that way."
"I love games like this," concludes Druckmann "but they just feel like they're missing a character element. Joel and Ellie meet for the first time in the Boston quarantine zone, and their journey will take them cross-country over the course of a year. With each section, we're asking 'what is the state of their relationship, and what can we do with the art and gameplay to reflect that?' I think we can bring that character element."
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Eurogamer Preview
IGN PreviewIt feels like a big departure for Naughty Dog, far removed from the linear shootouts of Uncharted. "We're very ambitious sometimes, to the point where we drive ourselves mad," says Druckmann. "And we thought at an early point that we're going to go very systemic here, and probably beyond our experience. We do that with every game, we want to leave our comfort zone. But again, it felt like this game required it - if I'm going up against infected and humans, they have to all have this very robust behavior."
And it feels, after the tightly controlled action of Drake's Deception, that Naughty Dog's finally learning to let go, and to allow its players a little more freedom. Allowing that, and allowing the same level of polish and spectacle that has made the studio one of the most revered and respected this generation, could well ensure that The Last of Us is its most ambitious game yet.
Part of this is "Listen Mode," an amplified ability of Joel's. Holding down a shoulder button puts the world in this black and white state and outlines enemies that are making noise through walls.See, staying off the beaten path will lead you to drawers with scissors in them, duct tape at a dead end, and so on. When you pick these items up, you’ll see that item’s icon with a pie chart. That shows you how much the item is worth in that item category. Fill in one of the pies, and you have a whole item. Then, you need to look at the recipes you’ve collected thus far – stuff like a med kit, moltov, or board with scissors in it. If you have the needed pieces, a button tap makes it for you.
It’s a breeze – a lot like Dead Rising 2’s crafting with a bit of ZombiU tossed in. (When you craft, you’re digging through your backpack and vulnerable to attack.)Destructoid PreviewNotes found in the game are three-dimension objects that feature handwriting. They’re not text that pops on your screen.
Collectables listed in this demo include: Notes, Comics, Firefly Logs, and Training Manuals. Your menu shows you how many are in a level and how many you’ve collected thus far.
I expected a lot of things from The Last of Us, but what I didn't expect, and what I was pleasantly surprised by, was that it scared me more than any recent survival horror game. I don't know that Naughty Dog would classify it as a straight up survival horror, but between the time I spent scrounging to survive, and the rest of the time I spent scared ****less, it definitely fits under the classification.
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Adam Sessler just got his first hands-on with Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic PS3 exclusive: THE LAST OF US. Find out what he thought, and check out some brand new gameplay in this Rev3Games preview.
After his first hands-on, Adam got a chance to talk to The Last of Us' Creative Director Neil Druckmnann.
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A bad fate awaits a lot of unsuspecting controllers when that game comes out.
One hit kills, getting attacked while crafting, echolocation fucking you out of the perfect hiding/sniping/camping spot?
Perfect.
Now I wonder if there's a Hardcore Mode with no HUD and if you die, you get sent back to the beginning... or was that the other game?
For real though, I'm more hyped for what this will eventually be and now that I trust that this will be a scary funhouse experience, I want to see what's up with the MP.Comment
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Man, the clicker sound is creepy as hell lol.Comment
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Swarley, I went all out with The Last of Us
Art Book is $25 on Amazon so I pre-ordered that as well.
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No interview, just the gameplay of that demo sequence:
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Game's delayed until June:
According to a statement from the firm, the new release date will be worldwide on June 14.
“As a team we pride ourselves on setting a very high quality bar for every aspect of our games – gameplay, story, art, design, technology and more,” a Naughty Dog statement VG247 received via email read. “We want to make sure The Last of Us raises that bar even further – for ourselves, and most importantly, our fans.
“As we entered the final phase of development for The Last of Us, we came to realize just how massive Joel and Ellie’s journey is. But instead of cutting corners or compromising our vision, we came to the tough decision that the game deserved a few extra weeks to ensure every detail of The Last of Us was up to Naughty Dog’s internal high standards.”
The same statement is also available on the PS Blog.
The game was announced for a May 7 release during the VGAs in December last year.Comment
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Jesus. Every game got fucking delayed.Comment
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Oh well, five more weeks won't kill you losers.
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