Video game design employment outlook

THE LAST OF US Preview

Genre : Action, Horror, Adventure

Developer : Naughty Dog

Publisher : SCEA

Release Date : 7th May 2013

Platform : PlayStation 3

Web : thelastofus.com



The first 20 minutes after I had finished "Heavy Rain", I stood still where I was. Heavy Rain was a terrific game for me, even more than a game. Thats why Im looking forward to play Beyond: Two Souls. I really respect David Cage, thats another reason for this. In my opinion, Beyond: Two Souls is a game that is impossible to be a disappointment. But I cant say the same things for The Last of Us. Most of the peope are suspicious about it. For this reason, Ill give you some information about it.

As you know, The Last of Us is the new game of Naughty Dog which is the developer of Uncharted series. Like Uncharted, games main character is a mature-looking man, Joel. But this time there is a side character, Ellie, who will be with us during the entire game. But before talking about the relationship between these characters, you should know where the story takes place. The Last of Us takes place in United States, but this is not the United States that you know.

People are infected by Cordyceps fungi and become creatures. They are actually a kind of zombies. Government uses military forces and quarantine the cities to block the outbreak. Game begins 20 years after this outbreak and we witness the breathtaking story of Joel and Ellie. As you know, Heavy Rain was not an ordinary adventure game, and The Last of Us is also not an ordinary zombie game.

Ellie is just 14 years old, so she has no idea about the world before the outbreak, like the 14 years old kids today who have never seen the world without internet. Joel is a black marketer in one of the quarantine zones that were created after the outbreak. But after a sequence of events, Joel needs to keep his word to a friend; Saving Ellie from the quarantined zones. Game begins at this point and our characters try to survive in this post apocalyptic America.

First of all I should say that, this is not a zombie game, its a survival game. Infected people are not our only enemies. Im telling you this because most of the people think that its a zombie game. Even we will fight against the survivors like us more than zombies. But the most important reason for why this is not an ordinary zombie game is the deep storyline.

"Father and daughter" relationship between Joel and Ellie will be the most important part of the story.

According to the Neil Druckmann from Naughty Dog, storytelling will be the most important part of the game. If this is true, I think well play a high quality game. Because its 2013 now and still storytellings of games are not as good as we expected. Gamers dont want to play games anymore that have good graphics but nothing else. Naughty Dog want to change this with "The Last of Us" and set a higher standard for game developers about storytelling.

The main point of the story is the "father and daughter" relationship between Joel and Ellie. They will need to hold themselves together to survive during the game. When we take the control of Joel, Ellie will be controlled by AI. Games cinematics will like Uncharteds. They will be designed with inside-game engine. Also another important part of The Last of Us will be the dubbing.

Games point of origin is BBCs amazing documentary, Planet Earth. Yes, Naughty Dog team had the first idea about the game while they were watching that documentary. In a part of this documentary, an ant is infected by a Cordyceps fungi and this fungi grows in this ants brain. The Last of Us does the same thing to the people instead of ants. Actually enemies that I called "zombies" are people who are infected by Cordyceps. Games world design is very similar to I Am Alives. As the human population is getting low, nature comes back to the cities and everywhere looks green. Also there are some inspirations from the books such as City of Thieves, No Country For Old Men, The Road and movies like 28 Days Later, Children of Men.

The Last of Us is not aiming to be a horror game. Although its a "horror/survival" game, I dont think that it will be an ordinary horror game. Like I said before, the game will show us the relationship between Joel and Ellie and their striving for survival. Of course the atmosphere will be suitable for this and musics will support that. Games musics are being prepared by Gustavo Santaolalla, who has won the Oscar with the musics of Brokeback Mountain and Babel. That means musics are aiming to the emotions, not horror.

Im seriously excited about The Last of Us. It has won a lot of awards in E3 2012. Characters, dubbing team, storytelling, game concept, musics... We have many reasons to get excited about it. But we have to wait a little more, because itll be released in 7th May 2013. Probably, it will be the strongest opponent of Beyond: Two Souls for the "game of the year" title. When itll be released, you may not hear anything from me for a couple of days.

Here is a The Last of Us gameplay trailer, enjoy;