I think they will keep releasing quality games.
But, again, this is hard to judge. To me DoubleFine Brutal Legend was a masterpiece, one of the best, most unique games I ever played. Everybody hated it.

Well you are asking two different questions:

1- Can their next game be considered bad?
If by bad you mean under their recent track, but still fun (like Meta 80-85), yea i think it is rather easily to be honest.

TLoU (and Uncharted too) are heavily reliant on story, IMO. It is hard to create a good script and even harder to picture how the player will feel about it by the time you have to pick one (very early in development). To be honest, even TLoU has a lot of cliches. If i remember correctly, i predicted most of the plot twists during the gameplay.

So i think this is the biggest risk, since gameplay and graphics are hardly going to be a surprise anyway.



2- How will critics rate it?
I believe they will rate it high. It is going to come out with other 2 big IP (Zelda and Halo) and no one will want to annoy a fan base to the point of saying that their game is a lot worst than the other 2.

Destiny got what it deserved despite the hype, but that's a third party game and a new IP, so the press is free to do what they want with it. A gaming site that give a low score to the next ND game, will only lose credibility, no matter if the game deserves it or not

That's a really shitty view of it. You did so good, now you won't ever do as good, ever again.

Was it? I thought people hated it. It did not sell that well, that is for sure.

My biggest worry is that Uncharted is going to have a darker storyline like TLoU, since Amy Hennig left.
I have no doubt that Naughty Dog will deliver on the graphics front, but will the game change course on the gameplay aspect? Naughty Dog makes great linear, story based games, will they attempt to be ambitious, and go the open world route this time since it is supposed to be the last game in the series? should be interesting.

I feel some reviewers will praise the graphics but knock it dependent on gameplay and story. They might not like the story as much, since the person behind the first three will not be there for the final installment. Also like I mentioned earlier dependent on gameplay (open or linear) they might say "open" route needed to be tightened up, or "closed" route is just more of the same, while good wanted Naughty Dog to be more ambitious on the final chapter of a marquee franchise, that is also going to have a major motion picture come out also.

I can see the catch 22 scenario playing out. Doesn't matter to me though. It will be a day one purchase for me. I purchased a Vita just for Golden Abyss, I really enjoy the series, I'm also a big Indiana Jones fan too.

Not in my book. Not every game needs to be as good as The Last of Us for me to buy it.

True, and unlike virtually all other devs, ND does have an ace up it's sleeve.  The ICE Team, for Sony, is located in ND's offices.   Granted, that team goes out and assists other teams, but the wealth of knowledge those folks are privy to, before everyone else has to be an advantage.

The Last of Us was a disappointment for me though. Story was good overall, sure but the gameplay, not so much. As for putting themselves on a lose-lose, no. U2 is their best work but I don't expect them to surpass their best work: it's an unrealistic expectation in any artform to expect one to surpass themselves time after time after time. Maybe one day they'll surpass U2 but then that will become the new finish line.

ND needs to seriously make another Jak & Daxter type game. NOT Jak 2 and 3 like, mind you. Make one that was fairly fresh and innovative (and NOT trying to cheaply rip off GTA to appeal to the cool kids), like the first one.

I'd just like to see them do something bizarre and colorful and creative again, instead of just doing "realistic shoot stuff" games. My two cents.

Not really. ND makes great games, but I still have realistic expectations for them. Some games could use a lot of work in some areas. Uncharted's multiplayer is terrible for example.