VGA Reveal: The Last of Us

By delta_ass December 13, 2011 1 Comments

The Last of Us looks great, but man... I really hope they paid for the likeness rights to Ellen Page. If not, she's probably pretty pissed off right now. If it was actually her in the game, they'd have announced her involvement. A big A-list celebrity like her? Why wouldn't you? Hell, she probably would've been up there onstage to introduce the damn trailer. That they haven't said one word about her involvement leads me to believe they just ripped her off hardcore.
 
They haven't shown any actual gameplay footage yet, but I imagine The Last of Us is going to be rather unique for a zombie game. The zombie games we've been getting up to this point can be readily grouped into about 3 different categories:

Resident Evil games: Tank controls, or bad third person shooter controls. Controls where you can't move and shoot at the same time. In other words, terrible controls. Unbelievably awful controls. This sort of game is destined to die. Also, idiotic stories.

Left 4 Dead games: Fast paced multiplayer first person shooter, with class-based gameplay. Emphasis is on co-op teamwork with voice chat and navigating through the AI Director. The Call of Duty Nazi zombies mode can also fall into this category.

Dead Rising/ Dead Island: Open world games with a lot of inventory management and make-shift weapon customization. Eschews gunplay for gory melee-based combat.

Just from the trailer... I don't feel like The Last of Us falls into any one of those categories. It's certainly going to be some sort of cinematic experience, just like the Uncharted games, but I don't see it being as fast and furious as the Left 4 Dead games, nor having multiplayer as the key selling point. The style of the game as a whole tends to evoke all sorts of recent apocalyptic entertainment that's been in the zeitgeist, from The Road (shaggy father), I Am Legend (city overgrown with wild foliage), 28 Days Later (fast zombies), and The Walking Dead. Dead Island tried to evoke that sort of pathos in its trailer, but the actual game was completely different and failed to deliver any sort of emotional experience. With Naughty Dog's pedigree, I think it's quite likely that we'll get something along those lines, and it's about time. 

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