Naughty Dog knows what it’s doing. You can’t created the Uncharted franchise, one of the most beautiful and most cinematic games ever made and not know what you’re doing. So when it was announced that they were developing a post apocalyptic zombie survival game it was kind of freaking awesome. We’ve all been holding our breaths for news on when we can expect the game, and we’ve finally been given word that the game will come out in 2013. Here we’ll give you all the goods on what we know about the Last of Us and what we can expect from it!
Mother Nature Doesn’t Play Nice
The Last of Us takes place in a future where civilization has been wiped out thanks to a strange fungal infestation that took over whole cities at a time. The infestation didn’t just take down buildings, it reduced humans to essentially zombies with fungus being integrated into their physique. Nasty stuff for all involved.
An Unlikely Partnership
The Last of Us pairs a black market dealer with a 14 year old orphan girl as they move across the country, looking for a safe haven in the midst of the post apocalyptic wasteland. It would be easy, almost cynical, to compare The Last of Us with Resident Evil 5. The game is more than just an extended escort mission: the player will feel a sense of responsibility for the AI controlled Ellie. But that does not mean that Ellie is helpless. She will be a very valuable part of the gameplay, though the full extent has yet to be seen.
Hit the Road, Jack
A very interesting aspect of The Last of Us is that the game is somewhat of a road trip game. While there aren’t any confirmed locations besides Boston, it is known that the game will take the players across the United States. Gamers will scavenge through ruined buildings and things of that nature for supplies, which can lead to some pretty nasty situations.
Zombies Are the Least of Your Problems
At E3 Naughty Dog unveiled a demo for the game that showed main characters Joel and Ellie scavenging through an abandoned building. It doesn’t take long for them to come across a group of less than friendly survivors who are all packing heat. What ensues is a brutal gunfight that ends with Joel blasting the leader’s face with a shotgun. The game makes it clear that zombies are the least of your problems. You will encounter hostile survivors in the game who want the supplies you have, or have a prior history with the characters.
Survival Above All
Something that has been seriously absent from survival horror games lately is an actual emphasis on survival. You will have to ration out your supplies (especially ammo) but more importantly you have to keep track of how Ellie is doing during the action scenes. There are other aspects of the game play that have yet to be revealed, but with a strong emphasis on survival, the Last of Us looks like it could present more of a challenge then simply the cover and shoot variety.
