The Last Of Us is a game that, for many people, defines the last generation – the pinnacle of what the hardware was (well, is) capable of and the kind of games the tech could allow even so late in its cycle. And according to Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, the developer was under no illusion that deviating from the all-action Hollywood blockbuster approach of Uncharted would likely see Ellie and Joel left in Drake’s shadow from a commercial standpoint.
“We thought people would appreciate what we were trying to do,” says Druckmann in an exclusive making-of feature in the forthcoming issue of Play (issue 242, out next week). “But we didn’t think it would be as popular or sell as much as something like Uncharted.”
Druckmann elaborates, claiming that the team was more eager to push the boundaries of the genre and experiement than keep banging the action drum. “If you have nothing but action, you limit yourself to only being able to tell certain kinds of stories,” he tells us. “We certainly believe you don’t have to be an action game anymore to succeed in the triple-A space, and I hope other studios feel the same.”
He goes on to discuss the evolution from Uncharted to The Last Of Us and again onto recent DLC Left Behind, each in turn reducing the emphasis on action. What will this mean for Drake when Uncharted finally makes it onto PS4, though? Will it still be the same wise-cracking summer blockbuster fun, or will this new, more mature Naughty Dog take him in a different direction? Hopefully, we’ll find out in June.
(Former) Lead Moderator
