The scans and details are here:
http://gamingeverything.com/14830/the-last-of-us-lots-of-new-details-and-high-quality-scans-online-confirmed-sequel-talk-more/
- Director Bruce Straley on online: “We’re going to have some sort of online component. We’re working on a bunch of ideas, but we haven’t nailed anything down. We definitely know it’s going to be awesome.”
- Once Uncharted 2 was done, there were major changes at Naughty Dog
- Naughty Dog was receiving a lot of requests to license the Uncharted engine from internal/external studios
- Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells: “[The engine] just isn’t set up to be able to be worked on outside of our office. So really the only way to leverage that would be to get a second team going.”
- One reason for Naughty Dog’s expansion was that they had a ton of talent and Evan Wells didn’t want to lose anyone
- Wells: “So many people here at Naughty Dog who are environment modelers or designers or animators could be leads or directors at any other company. They’re just really masters of their craft and doing a great job here, so we wanted to give them an opportunity to grow.”
- Two different teams made so the creators could focus completely on one project rather than bouncing back and forth
- New team decided to make a new IP that allowed them to make what they wanted
- The team looked at their favorite films like Road to Perdition and True Grit
- Combat is inspired by Anton Chigurh’s intense gun battle with Llewelyn Moss (No Country for Old Men)
- Movie had little music and sometimes no dialogue for long stretches of time
- Movie uses ambient noise, like exhausted breathing and booming guns
- The team is going for as much tension as possible in place of a non-stop action thrill ride
- Since there are limited resources, Joel won’t be running around blasting a machine gun
- One bullet can kill in this world
- This lethality affects enemy decisions
- When Joel pulls out a gun and kills an enemy, the others will hide or try to flank his position
- Enemies will come right at Joel is they notice he only has a melee weapon
- Naughty Dog calls the AI system “Balance of Power”
- This system always adapts and dynamically changes as enemies and Joel trade off the upper hand
- The team is adding emotion and personality to the enemies alongside the advanced AI
- Enemies get angry when a friend dies, they warn each other of danger, and they’re scared when they’ve lost the upper hand
- Can’t just hide and wait for your health to recharge
- Since there is persistent health, you’ll have to use a health pack to repair damage and budget enough time to apply it
- Control Joel
- Ellie is an AI-driven non-playable character
- Naughty Dog has decided against co-op play
- Ellie will be very capable and won’t get in your way
- “We know if the entire thing is an escort mission you’re gonna hate it. The easy thing for us to do is every time there is combat she just hides somewhere and then she comes out at the end. We gave ourselves the insane challenge of, ‘How do we make her a part of the combat space?’”
- Game Informer says Ellie does a great job of tagging along in the demo, staying out of sight, warning Joel of danger, and getting him out of jams
- Players won’t have to worry on blaming a game over on Ellie as long as they dno’t purposely lure enemies to her position or completely ignore when she’s obviously in trouble
- Game begins as Joel and Ellie meet in Boston 20 years after the fungal outbreak
- Ellie is an orphan, so she hasn’t seen the old world or anything outside the walls of the oppressive military quarantine zone she grew up in
- Ellie is obsessed with relics from our culture such as music and books
- She always gets in trouble at her boarding house
- Joel is in his late forties, has been through a lot of heavy stuff to survive
- Joel runs drugs and weapons through the quarantine zone’s black market
- The bleak locale is littered with checkpoints and constant body scans for traces of the infection
- You’re executed immediately if you come up positive
- Spores can be transmitted through the air, though it needs to be a concentrated and confined space to truly spread
- Joel is recruited to sneak Ellie out of the quarentine zone
- The reason for this is unknown
- Joel agrees, but things go horribly wrong and they are pursued by the military
- Joel thinks about leaving Ellie, but he promised a dying friend that he’d escort her to safety
- Both of them go west on a journey across the U.S. when a nearby safe haven doesn’t work out
- Joel and Ellie make it to Pittsburgh, though they might not make it any further if they don’t fight back against the scavengers
- Joel elbows his attacker and turns the tables
- Joel slams the man down on the glass shard and he comes up sputtering blood pouring out of his throat
- Ellie is busy biting her captor’s arm and gets slapped to the ground
- Ellie struggles with him and is looking to escape while Joel runs over to kick the scavenger in the face
- The man staggers to his feet and Joel beats him down
- More scavengers enter the sotre, so Joel and Ellie split up to find cover
- Joel takes out a handgun
- The place is completely dark aside from light sources from the sunbeams pouring in from the outside
- Enemies are dark silhouttetes coming closer
- Joel pops up and takes one down, then moves to a new spot
- He tries to fire at another scavenger, but he’s out of bullets and the clicks of the empty chamber echo through the room
- The man closes in on Joel and taunts him since he seems to understand that Joel is out of bullets
- Ellie then hurls a brick into the man’s head
- Joel punches the man out
- Another scavenger manages to bash a 2×4 into Joel’s back
- Joel dodges the second swipe and takes 2×4
- He knocks the man to the ground and althrough he pleads for mercy, Joel beats his skull without hesitation
- More men are climbing over the rubble to get to them, so Joel and Ellie sneak out the side of the store
- Joel takes a look back and sees a scavenger surveying the bloody scene
- The men head out and Joel targets one in an alcove
- Joel sneaks up behind him, chokes him
- “Hey, you found anything? shouts an enemy off in the distance
- Joel and Ellie sneak away; the man approaches the area and sees the dead body
- The man knows Joel and Ellie are still there and shouts this out to the rest of the gang
- Joel picks up a brick and throws it at him
- Joel charges at him while the man is stunned and kills him with the 2×4
- He searches the body, finds a few bullets
- Joel loads the bullets into his gun, looks up, and spots a scavenger carrying a pipe
- The man runs off, and Joel chases him, carefully creeping around the asiles with his gun raised
- There’s no trace of the enemy, and the only sound is Joel breathing/his footsteps
- The man screams and charges him from behind, but Joel turns and shoots him down in time
- Straley on a sequel: “We only think about one game at a time.”
- Creative director Neil Druckmann on a sequel: “The story is self-contained. The story stands on its own. We don’t end on a cliffhanger. The characters and the journey they go through ends with the story.”
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