The Last of Us
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The Last of Us is an upcoming post-apocalyptic third-person survival action-adventure video game developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation 3. It was officially revealed on December 10, 2011 during the Spike TV Video Game Awards.
| The Last of Us | |
|---|---|
| File:Last of Us cover.jpg | |
| Developer(s) | Naughty Dog |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment |
| Director(s) | Neil Druckmann (creative director) Bruce Straley (game director) |
| Composer(s) | Gustavo Santaolalla[2] |
| Engine | In-house engine[3] Havok (game physics) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 3 |
| Release | Late 2012/Early 2013[1] |
| Genre(s) | Action adventure, survival |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Synopsis
Cast
The main characters in the game, Ellie and Joel, are played by Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker, respectively. Joel is a "ruthless" survivor and Ellie is a 14-year-old girl who is wise beyond her years, but is too young to remember the world as it once was.[4]
Setting
The game will start in post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[5] and slowly move its way out of the city to other unannounced areas. It is suggested that survival will involve both killing and scavenging.[6]
Gameplay
It's been confirmed by Naughty Dog that the players will take control of Joel, while Ellie will be controled by the AI, the game will be involved with both gunfighting and melee combat, the game will also have a cover system, but unlike Uncharted the players will have to find health packs to recover health, the enemies confirmed so far are: The Infected, former humans who were infected by the virus, and The Survivors humans that are not infected by the virus but they are hostile towards Joel and Ellie, believing they are infected.
Development
The game was first teased before the Spike Video Game Awards on November 29, 2011, with a billboard in Times Square mentioning "a PS3 exclusive you won't believe".[7] Initial trailers showed an apocalyptic event, including riots, epidemic, quarantine, and violence, as well as a clip of the BBC's Planet Earth showing an ant infected with Cordyceps unilateralis, a dangerous parasitic fungus that usually kills insects such as ants. On December 9, players of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception spotted an in-game reference to the aforementioned trailer with the newspaper headline "scientists are still struggling to understand deadly fungus".[8]
At the Spike Video Game Awards, Sony officially unveiled the game, a brand new intellectual property from Naughty Dog, created by an 80-strong Naughty Dog team no one knew existed. A gameplay trailer, made up of in-engine footage,[9] showed a man and a teenage girl fending off other survivors, and what appeared to be people with unusual fungal growth, before running out into a dilapidated city covered in greenery, reminiscent of the film I Am Legend.[10]
Shortly after the unveiling, Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells posted on the PlayStation Blog new The Last of Us details:
The Last of Us is a genre-defining experience that blends survival and action elements to tell a character driven tale about a modern plague decimating mankind. Nature encroaches upon civilization, forcing remaining survivors to kill for food, weapons and whatever they can find. Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together to survive their journey across what remains of the United States.[11]
The announcement confirmed that the new project is being headed by studio game director Bruce Straley. Former lead designer on Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Mark Richard Davies, has been working at Naughty Dog on the game.[12] After Uncharted 2: Among Thieves shipped in 2009, some of the development team from the game formed the team for The Last of Us, while the remainder worked on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception;[13] The Last of Us marks the first time that Naughty Dog has become a two-team studio.[6] It is also the first time the studio has introduced a second new IP in the same hardware generation.[14]
Concept
The concept for The Last of Us arose after watching BBC nature documentary Planet Earth, which showed the cordyceps fungus infected ants, resulting in taking over its brain and producing growths from its head; the idea that the fungus could infect humans became the initial idea for the game. Major artistic inspirations included the movies No Country for Old Men and The Road, comic The Walking Dead, historical novel City of Thieves, Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend and the films it inspired.[6]
While the fungus epidemic is the main backdrop of the game, The Last of Us is not a "zombie game", but "a love story about a father-daughter-like relationship", influenced in part by the sequence between Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan, his mentor and adoptive father, in the Uncharted series. Joel is a survivor and anti-hero, and Ellie is a 14 year-old girl with no experience of the world pre-apocalypse.[6] The composer for the game will be Gustavo Santaolalla. The team wanted to focus on emotion with the soundtrack rather than horror.[6]
On release of the initial trailer for the game Dead Island, the team was concerned that the two games would be largely similar, both exploring the human or emotional side to an apocalyptic event. However, on release of the aforementioned game, the team realised that the gameplay did not match up to that showed by the trailer; by contrast, lead designer Neil Druckmann feels that the trailer for The Last of Us is "very representative of what we're going for".[6] Druckmann also stated that he wants the story in The Last of Us to raise the bar for other video game developers, as he feels the standard of story-telling is not as good as it should be within the industry.[15][16]
References
- ^ computerandvideogames.com Andy Robinson (2011-12-13). "News: Naughty Dog wants Last of Us to 'redefine video games'". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ Minkley, Johnny (2011-12-13). "The Last Of Us scored by Oscar-winner Gustavo Santaolalla • News •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved Q4 2012/Q1 2013.
- ^ http://playstationlifestyle.net/2012/05/20/naughty-dog-on-the-last-of-us-graphics-engine-improvements/
- ^ "Ellen Page not involved with The Last of Us, Enslaved design lead on board". VG247. 2011-12-12. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ "Last of Us to be set in Pittsburgh".
- ^ a b c d e f Minkley, Johnny (2011-12-13). "The Last of Us Preview • Previews •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ Jake Denton (2011-11-30). "PS3 News: Video Game Awards (VGA's) to premiere 'a PS3 exclusive you won't believe'". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
- ^ "Rumour – The Last of Us teased in Uncharted 3". VG247. 2011-12-09. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ Minkley, Johnny (2011-12-13). "The Last of Us Preview • Previews •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ "Naughty Dog's The Last of Us announced at VGAs". VG247. 2011-12-12. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ Evan Wells (2011-12-10). "Naughty Dog Reveals The Last of Us at 2011 VGAs". SCEA. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
- ^ computerandvideogames.com Tamoor Hussain (2011-12-12). "PS3 News: The Last of Us gets Enslaved lead designer, doesn't star Ellen Page". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ "Second Naughty Dog team at work on The Last of Us for two years". VG247. 2011-12-13. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ Yin, Wesley (2011-12-11). "The Last of Us confirmed as a new Naughty Dog PlayStation 3 exclusive • News •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ "Naughty Dog Launches Damning Verdict, Wants Other Devs To Wake Up". GamingUnion.net. 2011-12-13. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
- ^ Minkley, Johnny (2011-12-13). "Naughty Dog wants to "change the f***ing industry" with The Last of Us • News •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2012-01-14.