The Last of Us won’t have “whac-a-mole cover shooting or epic set pieces”

Posted February 16, 2012 by Joannes Truyens in News.

Naughty Dog have compared their intentions with The Last of Us to how they approached the Uncharted games, stating that they’re going for ‘less is more’.

The Uncharted games are renowned for their grand set pieces, each trying to outdo the last. Planes breaking in half mid-flight, a capsizing ocean liner, it’s all in a day’s work for Nathan Drake. Not so for The Last of Us, which will be a different beast altogether. Game Informer brings more information directly from Naughty Dog, focusing on the game’s tone, combat mechanics and AI.

No Country for Old Men, The Road, Children of Men, The Walking Dead… all of these are inspirations for the post-apocalyptic world of The Last of Us and the people that inhabit it. According to Audio Lead Phil Kovatz, this creates expectations for the game’s scale. “The Uncharted games are like Saturday afternoon pulp, but [The Last of Us] is more akin to a AAA indie movie,” he says.

Game Director Bruce Straley and Creative Director Neil Druckmann continue with a breakdown of the game’s combat mechanics, which won’t be like the stop-and-pop cover shooting that the Uncharted games utilise. It will still be available, but dependent on far more variables. “Instead of this gamey whac-a-mole thing, here’s this unpredictability based on the number of opponents and the type of weapons they’re carrying,” says Straley.

This tension also led Naughty Dog to the notion of persistent health. “There’s more consequences to getting shot. Even how you heal yourself has consequences,” says Druckmann. This is an interesting departure from the Uncharted games, where Drake could soak up lots of bullets during gameplay but was still subdued by a single gunshot in a cutscene.

Ellie will be an asset as well. Simply having her hide during firefights felt like a cop-out to Naughty Dog, so they decided to layer her into the gameplay as much as she features in the story. The challenge then becomes one of communication, namely how to convey the necessary information to and from Ellie with as few screen prompts as possible.

It sounds as if The Last of Us will have a very minimalistic HUD or forgo it entirely in favour of a more organic system. “As game developers, you’re constantly thinking about how you can do more, but this was about how can you do less,” Straley notes. Stripping the game down to its bare essentials and making it resonate more became the mantra for Naughty Dog.

That means stepping away from Uncharted’s grandiosity. ”The concept of being in control during epic cinematics still translates, but it will be different. The Last of Us is not gonna have a plane that’s crashing, it just means more intimate set pieces,” adds Druckmann.

For more on The Last of Us, keep an eye on BeefJack!

Tagged as Naughty Dog, the last of us, Uncharted