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The Last of Us is an upcoming post-apocalyptic third-person survival action-adventure video game developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation 3. It was officially revealed on December 10, 2011 during the Spike TV Video Game Awards.

Synopsis

Cast

The main characters in the game, Ellie and Joel, are played by Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker, respectively. Joel is a "ruthless" survivor and Ellie is a 14-year-old girl who is wise beyond her years but is too young to remember the world as it once was.

Setting

The Last of Us begins in a Boston quarantine zone twenty years after the initial plague. The 14-year-old orphan Ellie, lives in a strict boarding house, and Joel, who is a black market dealer within the quarantine zone, sells weapons and drugs. An unknown event then occurs where Joel makes a promise to a dying friend that he will protect Ellie and help her escape. As they both make their way out of the quarantine zone with their lives, the game then starts to play throughout areas across the United States, including a now post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh and other locations reclaimed by nature. Evidently, things take a turn for the worse, as the military quickly finds out about their escape and begins pursuing them. After a nearby safe haven fails to work out, Joel and Ellie continue their venture across the United States, and their dire attempts to escape from law enforcement begins to unfold. Along the way, the duo must also overcome countless hostiles, ranging from infected enemies to hunters and enemy survivors. It is also suggested that survival will involve both killing and scavenging.

Gameplay

It's been confirmed by Naughty Dog that the player will take control of Joel, while Ellie will be controlled by the AI. The game will involve both gunfighting and melee combat, and it will also have a cover system. Unlike Uncharted, the players will have to find health packs to recover health. In the first two trailers, two types of enemies can be seen: the Infected - former humans who were infected by the fungus - and the Survivors - other humans that are not infected but are still hostile towards Joel and Ellie for reasons unknown.

At Sony’s Press Conference at E3 2012 the first gameplay footage of the game was shown, receiving huge praise from spectators. The gameplay shows Joel trying to get to a bridge. The player brings Joel and Ellie into a flooded hotel where they hear other people, at which point Joel’s ammo and health finally appear, showing four bullets in his revolver, and he and Ellie quickly go into cover. A violent fight soon ensues, taking the player through several areas of the hotel while showing the different styles of fighting and weaponry in the game. The fighting gameplay shows Joel putting a man in a rear naked choke, hand-to-hand combat, and the aiming system for a pistol and shotgun. The AI in the game was shown for the human survivors, with several enemies using cover and one enemy recognizing the sound of an empty revolver. An inventory system was also demonstrated from which Joel grabs a Molotov cocktail. Joel's limited number of rounds also suggests that supplies will be limited, a typical mechanic in end-of-the-world games.

The trailer shows Ellie assisting Joel when needed, such as distracting a man by yelling at him and throwing a brick when Joel runs out of rounds. In another scene, Ellie stabs a man in the back when he jumps Joel, allowing Joel to free himself. Ellie’s health was not shown or noted in the demo.

Development

The game was first teased before the Spike Video Game Awards on November 29, 2011, with a billboard in Times Square mentioning "a PS3 exclusive you won't believe". Initial trailers showed an apocalyptic event, including riots, epidemic, quarantine, and violence, as well as a clip of the BBC's Planet Earth showing an ant infected with Cordyceps unilateralis, a dangerous parasitic fungus that usually kills insects such as ants. On December 9, players of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception spotted an in-game reference to the aforementioned trailer with the newspaper headline "scientists are still struggling to understand deadly fungus".

At the Spike Video Game Awards, Sony officially unveiled the game, a brand new intellectual property from Naughty Dog, created by a previously unpublicized 80-person Naughty Dog development team. A gameplay trailer, made up of in-engine footage, showed a man and a teenage girl fending off other survivors and what appeared to be people with unusual fungal growth, before running out into a dilapidated city covered in greenery, reminiscent of the film I Am Legend.

Shortly after the unveiling, Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells posted on the PlayStation Blog new The Last of Us details:

The Last of Us is a genre-defining experience that blends survival and action elements to tell a character driven tale about a modern plague decimating mankind. Nature encroaches upon civilization, forcing remaining survivors to kill for food, weapons and whatever they can find. Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together to survive their journey across what remains of the United States.

The announcement confirmed that the new project is being headed by studio game director Bruce Straley. Former lead designer on Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Mark Richard Davies, has been working at Naughty Dog on the game. After Uncharted 2: Among Thieves shipped in 2009, some of the development team from the game formed the team for The Last of Us, while the remainder worked on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception; The Last of Us marks the first time that Naughty Dog has become a two-team studio. It is also the first time the studio has introduced a second new IP in the same hardware generation. A gameplay by the developers was shown at the E3 2012, showing us the stealth and confrontations we will have to survive in-game.

Concept

The concept for The Last of Us arose after watching BBC nature documentary Planet Earth, which showed the cordyceps fungus-infected ants, resulting in taking over its brain and producing growths from its head; the idea that the fungus could infect humans became the initial idea for the game. Major artistic inspirations included the movies No Country for Old Men and The Road, comic The Walking Dead, historical novel City of Thieves, Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend and the films it inspired.

While the fungus epidemic is the main backdrop of the game, The Last of Us is not a "zombie game", but "a love story about a father-daughter-like relationship", influenced in part by the sequence between Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan, his mentor and adoptive father, in the Uncharted series. Joel is a survivor and anti-hero, and Ellie is a 14-year-old girl with no experience of the world pre-apocalypse. The composer for the game will be Gustavo Santaolalla. The team wanted to focus on emotion with the soundtrack rather than horror.

On release of the initial trailer for the game Dead Island, the team was concerned that the two games would be largely similar, both exploring the human or emotional side to an apocalyptic event. However, on release of the aforementioned game, the team realized that the gameplay did not match up to that showed by the trailer; by contrast, lead designer Neil Druckmann feels that the trailer for The Last of Us is "very representative of what we're going for". Druckmann also stated that he wants the story in The Last of Us to raise the bar for other video game developers, as he feels the standard of storytelling is not as good as it should be within the industry.

The developer showcased an extended length gameplay video at Sony's press conference during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012.

References

1. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-06-the-last-of-us-a-2013-game
2. Minkley, Johnny (2011-12-13). "The Last Of Us scored by Oscar-winner Gustavo Santaolalla • News •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved Q4 2012/Q1 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
3. http://playstationlifestyle.net/2012/05/20/naughty-dog-on-the-last-of-us-graphics-engine-improvements/
4. "Ellen Page not involved with The Last of Us, Enslaved design lead on board". VG247. 2011-12-12. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
5. ^ Minkley, Johnny (2011-12-13). "The Last of Us Preview • Previews •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
6. Jake Denton (2011-11-30). "PS3 News: Video Game Awards (VGA's) to premiere 'a PS3 exclusive you won't believe'". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 2011-12-04. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
7. "Rumour – The Last of Us teased in Uncharted 3". VG247. 2011-12-09. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
8. Minkley, Johnny (2011-12-13). "The Last of Us Preview • Previews •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
9. "Naughty Dog's The Last of Us announced at VGAs". VG247. 2011-12-12. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
10. Evan Wells (2011-12-10). "Naughty Dog Reveals The Last of Us at 2011 VGAs". SCEA. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
11. computerandvideogames.com Tamoor Hussain (2011-12-12). "PS3 News: The Last of Us gets Enslaved lead designer, doesn't star Ellen Page". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
12. "Second Naughty Dog team at work on The Last of Us for two years". VG247. 2011-12-13. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
13. Yin, Wesley (2011-12-11). "The Last of Us confirmed as a new Naughty Dog PlayStation 3 exclusive • News •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
14. "Naughty Dog Launches Damning Verdict, Wants Other Devs To Wake Up". GamingUnion.net. 2011-12-13. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
15. Minkley, Johnny (2011-12-13). "Naughty Dog wants to "change the f***ing industry" with The Last of Us • News •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2012-01-14.

External links

• Official website

• Horror video games
• Naughty Dog games
• PlayStation 3 games
• PlayStation 3-only games
• Post-apocalyptic video games
• Sony Computer Entertainment games
• Survival video games
• Upcoming video games scheduled for 2013
• Video games set in the United States
• Zombie video games