Naughty Dog’s latest offering coming to stores soon, The Last Of Us, has already gathered some steam behind it, and is one of the most anticipated titles of the summer. The folks over at MMGN had the chance to speak with the developers about the inspiration for this game. One of the designers, Ricky Cambier, states that some classic games like Ico, and Resident Evil 4 helped them shape the tone and story of the game, along with the character development.
“We knew we wanted to really push the story, push the tension of basic survival,” he said. “We really wanted to give you that feel of action. So I think there are elements of this [action and survival] that exist within the genre, but I don’t think anyone had put them together quite like we felt we could.”
For those unfamiliar with the premise of The Last Of Us, it follows the story of Joel and Ellie as they journey across the US in a post-pandemic world. They are often faced with tough choices as they battle against others for food and resources. This builds a rather formidable bond between the two.
“We always wanted to take the character building and interaction, look at something as far back as Ico, and blend it with the tension and action of Resident Evil 4. Our game doesn’t feel like either of those, but those have bits and pieces of what we wanted to do.”
The designers tried to create as realistic of a post-pandemic world as they could. They stayed away from some of the more far-fetched choices that you sometimes see in survival games.
“With The Last Of Us you get this very thoughtful approach to survival in a world, which is what we think it would really be like,” he explains. “You’re not going to be able to run at enemies armed across the street, because Joel wouldn’t do that. Joel understands how dangerous the world is.”
After hearing this, my anticipation of what this game could be only grows, and I know I’ll be heading out pick-up my copy of The Last Of Us on the 14th.
