The Last of Us - News & Discussion Thread

[F34R]

Wonder if they just had watched I am Legend or something when they came up with this concept.

Nice screens though. Hope it just isn't another cliche of a game though. Excitement level - still maxed out.

[radgamer420]

I'm hyped for this game. Looks amazing.

[junky_man]

Ok, I'm gonna spoil it to you guys what I think about Joel's and Ellie's relationship.

I believe Joel's is burden by the guilt that he had murdered Ellie's parents/guardians during his scavenging trip when he was younger leaving little Ellie an orphan. Hence his decision to take her and raise her up.

But Ellie has yet to realise this since she was too young to remember or was not around when her parents/guardians were murdered.

cool story, eh?

[lee___radio]

that screen shot w/ the beer sign looks like joel was mad at ellie for making it a hard day. lol

[Nuvian]

The Last of Us: Lots of new details and high-quality scans – online confirmed, sequel talk, more

- Director Bruce Straley on online: “We’re going to have some sort of online component. We’re working on a bunch of ideas, but we haven’t nailed anything down. We definitely know it’s going to be awesome.”
- Once Uncharted 2 was done, there were major changes at Naughty Dog
- Naughty Dog was receiving a lot of requests to license the Uncharted engine from internal/external studios
- Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells: “[The engine] just isn’t set up to be able to be worked on outside of our office. So really the only way to leverage that would be to get a second team going.”
- One reason for Naughty Dog’s expansion was that they had a ton of talent and Evan Wells didn’t want to lose anyone
- Wells: “So many people here at Naughty Dog who are environment modelers or designers or animators could be leads or directors at any other company. They’re just really masters of their craft and doing a great job here, so we wanted to give them an opportunity to grow.”
- Two different teams made so the creators could focus completely on one project rather than bouncing back and forth
- New team decided to make a new IP that allowed them to make what they wanted
- The team looked at their favorite films like Road to Perdition and True Grit
- Combat is inspired by Anton Chigurh’s intense gun battle with Llewelyn Moss (No Country for Old Men)
- Movie had little music and sometimes no dialogue for long stretches of time
- Movie uses ambient noise, like exhausted breathing and booming guns
- The team is going for as much tension as possible in place of a non-stop action thrill ride
- Since there are limited resources, Joel won’t be running around blasting a machine gun
- One bullet can kill in this world
- This lethality affects enemy decisions
- When Joel pulls out a gun and kills an enemy, the others will hide or try to flank his position
- Enemies will come right at Joel is they notice he only has a melee weapon
- Naughty Dog calls the AI system “Balance of Power”
- This system always adapts and dynamically changes as enemies and Joel trade off the upper hand
- The team is adding emotion and personality to the enemies alongside the advanced AI
- Enemies get angry when a friend dies, they warn each other of danger, and they’re scared when they’ve lost the upper hand
- Can’t just hide and wait for your health to recharge
- Since there is persistent health, you’ll have to use a health pack to repair damage and budget enough time to apply it
- Control Joel
- Ellie is an AI-driven non-playable character
- Naughty Dog has decided against co-op play
- Ellie will be very capable and won’t get in your way
- “We know if the entire thing is an escort mission you’re gonna hate it. The easy thing for us to do is every time there is combat she just hides somewhere and then she comes out at the end. We gave ourselves the insane challenge of, ‘How do we make her a part of the combat space?’”
- Game Informer says Ellie does a great job of tagging along in the demo, staying out of sight, warning Joel of danger, and getting him out of jams
- Players won’t have to worry on blaming a game over on Ellie as long as they don’t purposely lure enemies to her position or completely ignore when she’s obviously in trouble
- Platforming and puzzle solving were minimally present in the demo
- It will be important to figure out how to navigate spatial problems with unique Ellie and Joel abilities
- Each can do things the other can’t, and they must work together to move forward
- Game Informer also didn’t see the spore-infected humans like those in the debut trailer
- Focusing on the human antagonists currently since they’re the focus of the game
- There will be more encounters with humans than the infected
- Different human factions all have different goals
- Some factions will help you along the way if it benefits them somehow
- Joel/Ellie are part of a larger cast of characters full of allies and enemies that will come in and out of their adventure as they pass through cities, suburbs, and rural areas
- Game begins as Joel and Ellie meet in Boston 20 years after the fungal outbreak
- Ellie is an orphan, so she hasn’t seen the old world or anything outside the walls of the oppressive military quarantine zone she grew up in
- Ellie is obsessed with relics from our culture such as music and books
- She always gets in trouble at her boarding house
- Joel is in his late forties, has been through a lot of heavy stuff to survive
- Joel runs drugs and weapons through the quarantine zone’s black market
- The bleak locale is littered with checkpoints and constant body scans for traces of the infection
- You’re executed immediately if you come up positive
- Spores can be transmitted through the air, though it needs to be a concentrated and confined space to truly spread
- Joel is recruited to sneak Ellie out of the quarantine zone
- The reason for this is unknown
- Joel agrees, but things go horribly wrong and they are pursued by the military
- Joel thinks about leaving Ellie, but he promised a dying friend that he’d escort her to safety
- Both of them go west on a journey across the U.S. when a nearby safe haven doesn’t work out

“The Killing”

- Joel and Ellie make it to Pittsburgh, though they might not make it any further if they don’t fight back against the scavengers
- Joel elbows his attacker and turns the tables
- Joel slams the man down on the glass shard and he comes up sputtering blood pouring out of his throat
- Ellie is busy biting her captor’s arm and gets slapped to the ground
- Ellie struggles with him and is looking to escape while Joel runs over to kick the scavenger in the face
- The man staggers to his feet and Joel beats him down
- More scavengers enter the store, so Joel and Ellie split up to find cover
- Joel takes out a handgun
- The place is completely dark aside from light sources from the sunbeams pouring in from the outside
- Enemies are dark silhouettes coming closer
- Joel pops up and takes one down, then moves to a new spot
- He tries to fire at another scavenger, but he’s out of bullets and the clicks of the empty chamber echo through the room
- The man closes in on Joel and taunts him since he seems to understand that Joel is out of bullets
- Ellie then hurls a brick into the man’s head
- Joel punches the man out
- Another scavenger manages to bash a 2×4 into Joel’s back
- Joel dodges the second swipe and takes 2×4
- He knocks the man to the ground and although he pleads for mercy, Joel beats his skull without hesitation
- More men are climbing over the rubble to get to them, so Joel and Ellie sneak out the side of the store
- Joel takes a look back and sees a scavenger surveying the bloody scene
- The men head out and Joel targets one in an alcove
- Joel sneaks up behind him, chokes him
- “Hey, you found anything? shouts an enemy off in the distance
- Joel and Ellie sneak away; the man approaches the area and sees the dead body
- The man knows Joel and Ellie are still there and shouts this out to the rest of the gang
- Joel picks up a brick and throws it at him
- Joel charges at him while the man is stunned and kills him with the 2×4
- He searches the body, finds a few bullets
- Joel loads the bullets into his gun, looks up, and spots a scavenger carrying a pipe
- The man runs off, and Joel chases him, carefully creeping around the aisles with his gun raised
- There’s no trace of the enemy, and the only sound is Joel breathing/his footsteps
- The man screams and charges him from behind, but Joel turns and shoots him down in time
- Straley on a sequel: “We only think about one game at a time.”
- Creative director Neil Druckmann on a sequel: “The story is self-contained. The story stands on its own. We don’t end on a cliffhanger. The characters and the journey they go through ends with the story.”

“Escape”

- Joel eyes up the buss that blocks the way they came into the city
- Joel and Ellie go through the streets looking for a way out
- They see a closed garage and head on over to the area
- Ellie scampers under the door as Joel holds it up
- She warns Joel that there is some “gnarly stuff” in the garage
- Joel eventually dashes through the garage door, and turns around to grab it and lower it quietly
- There are a few bodies and large piles of clothes, shoes, and random supplies in the garage
- This faction funnels all the highway traffic into a single ambush point, kills anyone who drives in, and takes all of their things
- They go up some nearby stairs; Ellie asks Joel how he knew about the ambush; he replies, “I’ve been on both sides.”
- Both Joel and Ellie search through the place
- Ellie finds dirty clothes and a few more bullets
- They move outdoors, see a bridge, and make their way toward it
- As they head to the bridge, they see bullet holes in the cars with long-dead bodies inside
- Joel speculates that the military killed these people since they can’t let everyone in and dead people don’t get infected; sacrifice a few to save the many
- The two walk on the roofs and hoods as the cars get closer together
- Crows take to the sky near the gate ahead; there is a brief whistle sound from up ahead
- Two shadowy figures climb up on some cars and the demo fades to black

Click me for the scans.

[lee___radio]

fungus in pittsburgh, that's hilarious! it's going to be pretty amazing if it actually looks like pittsburgh, i'll know, cause i work there.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

The Last of Us: Lots of new details and high-quality scans – online confirmed, sequel talk, more

Click me for the scans.

Holy crap, that's some interesting details. The combat sounds really cool, as does the enemy AI and emotion elements etc. ND are the kings, set to raise the bar, yet again.

[emmerich]

Game looks sick, can't wait to see more of it.

[Blacksite]

I like what I'm hearing about the enemy A.I. That's truly next-gen.

[unicron7]

One bullet, one kill. Nice.

[lee___radio]

oh man, i can not wait to pre-order that super package! time to work hard and take your good old time ND!

[YoungMullah88]

looks like there will be more than one "the last of us" but from different perspectives (i hope)

[Nuvian]

Naughty Dog comments on when Last of Us gameplay video footage will be released

[daLa]

Thanks for all the news from game informer.

[mooninites]

I'm digging how the AI will work. This game is shaping up well. Hopefully the execution will be good

Holy crap I'm Tapatalking

[gumionday]

I suggest that you guys take the time and read the article that is in the game informer. Yes the details that were posted above are all there, but the narrative that they give on one scene(that they describe) in the game is really cool. This is gonna be one hell of a game. I remember when i first saw Uncharted it looked cool but until i played it and got the idea of it, i thought it was just ok but after playing through the game and recently finishing the third game I don't want to wait to see what new half-tucked ideas they have in store for us.

[lee___radio]

i hope joel gets into a fight w/ an ugly mean giant fungus boss at heinz field!

[Equinoqs]

I am unusually pleased by the lack of co-op in this game. As long as Ellie is as smart as they say she will be, this game could be my next Resident Evil game.

[Ivan3]

Its a good game with nice graphics...

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Stick that shit in yo pipe and smoke it bitches!







I said SMOKE IT!!! ><

[Blacksite]

Not bad. The screenshots could be more sharp and clear though.

[Soldier 95B]

Some sweet cut scenes there.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Some sweet cut scenes there.

I'm pretty sure at least 3 of them aren't cut scenes.

[Blacksite]

I wonder how the game will look and play during the night.

[Soldier 95B]

I'm pretty sure at least 3 of them aren't cut scenes.

We will find out once it is in our machines!