The trailer for Naughty Dog’s upcoming title “The Last of Us” has been released. Clocking in under two minutes it’s just a teaser but demo’s have been played by some lucky individuals in the press and media revealing more insight into the game than we've had thus far.
Naughty Dog has created some quality games from forever in our hearts console classics like “Jak & Daxter” to adventure platformer “Uncharted”. Now it seems they’re sinking their teeth into survival horror with “The Last of Us”. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic, zombie ridden world that’s reminiscent of “Fallout” and “The Walking Dead”.
From demo reviews and the short trailer it seems like the game is full of high tension that allows players to make play style choices like sneaking by enemies to conserve ammo or throw caution to the wind and run through zombie laden buildings with guns blazing. Although the whole zombie genre may be getting a bit played out this game looks amazing and just may revitalize the survival horror genre in a way high profile games haven’t really done since “Silent Hill”.
The game also boasts a large cast of characters and an intriguing storyline. The only characters that have been revealed so far are a young girl named Ellie and a woman named Tess. There’s also a grizzly older man in the trailer that’s yet to be named along with the player controlled Joel, who seems like a more jaded and subdued version of Nathan Drake.
The NPC follower’s seem like they may be the most intelligent gamer’s have ever seen. Ellie tag’s along with you wherever you go but she’ll stay under cover unless she can safely assist and is programmed to always help you instead of stealing your ammo and giving away your position; as is the case with so many games using the follower mechanic.
Tag-along Ellie however has been the subject of some controversial criticism for the game. Between E3 and the new trailers release some unfortunate violent crimes involving children such as Sandy Hook occurred. An outcry for the violence in the game to be toned down, especially in the case of young gun-wielding Ellie, came in the wake of recent gun violence tragedies.
Naughty Dog however didn't cave when it came to the public scrutiny. Their counter-argument being that in the post-apocalyptic reality of the game the violence was a way of life even for 14 year-old children like Ellie. Stopping a community led petition the likes of BioWare’s “Mass Effect 3” fiasco the company explained every design decision in the game as necessary to tell the story successfully and have not toned down any of the game’s violence.
Creative director for the game Neil Druckman had this to say about the decision to include so much violence in the game,
"For us, everything in the game is necessary for the story. The reason Ellie is that age and the violence is that brutal is because of what we're saying with the story. You have to buy into the conflict and desperation these characters live under. If you remove any of those elements, the story suffers, and that's why we would never do it."
Underage violence and all the game is set to be released on May 7, 2013. Watch the trailer and see for yourself.
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