Gamer Woes – The Last Of Us: The First PS3 Game I Want

by Patrick O'Rourke on December 15, 2011

I’m an Xbox guy through and through, but upcoming Playstation 3 exclusive, The Last Of Us, looks exactly like the game I’ve been imagining in my head for years. I realize that all we’ve seen is a relatively short trailer, but I’ve taken Naughty Dog’s bait; I want this game.

I’m well aware that the fact that I haven’t wanted a PS3 before this point is extremely hard for many gamers to fathom. I should also point out that I am by no means ‘anti’ PS3. The best I can explain it, really, is that I’ve grown up playing games on Nintendo and Microsoft consoles and am therefore naturally inclined to want to play titles on those systems. I’m a big fan of Mario, the Master Chief is my homeboy and I’m down with Mario Kart. Investing in a new console just isn’t something I can afford financially right now (and probably won’t be for awhile). It’s not that PlayStation 3 titles have never caught my attention before - Heavy Rain and the Uncharted series look awesome – but The Last Of Us has piqued a whole new level of interest.

I’ve always wanted a story-based Zombie title. I know we’ve had Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising and Dead Island, but none of those titles actually focused on creating an engrossing narrative. The zombie gaming genre, in general, is heavily saturated lately, in part, due to the success of Call Of Duty’s zombie modes and the resurgence of zombie films and literature. But what I imagine is a slightly different game than we have seen thus far. I want a narrative driven zombie apocolypse story centered in a large city locales. With a pedigree that includes the critically acclaimed Uncharted series, I really don’t see how Naughty Dog could possibly mess this up.

I also like the fact that The Last Of Us may not actually be just another game featuring the traditional idea of a zombie (we’ve had more than enough of those lately). There’s a lot of rumours swirling around the internet, but the most prominent is the idea that the creature from the Video Game Award’s trailer of The Last Of Us, is a human infected with some aggressive biological disease.

What I saw in the trailer sort of reminds me of Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s The Strain trilogy, a series of novels that shows that vampires can still be bad ass. Every blood sucker doesn’t need to sparkle in sunlight. Without ruining the entire series for those that haven’t read the novels (I presume that’s probably most of you), Del Toro and Hogan’s vampires are infected humans that have long stinger appendages for extracting blood from their victims.

These vampire zombie hybrids are aggresive, insane and linked to one giant hive mind, the master. This ‘disease’ as it’s commonly reffered to in the series, is spread through blood worms transplanted during the feeding process. I think this series would make a great narrative driven video game . I know that I’ve gone a little off track but I just wanted to show another example of how the traditional zombie genre can be altered and changed to feel fresh. You can do more than just make zombies run fast.

Now, I understand this isn’t that different than the traditional idea of what a zombie actually is, but from what I saw in that short trailer, The Last Of Us seems intent on reworking the formula in a number of ways. This could make for some exciting gameplay and story posibilities. For example, is this disease airborne? If it is, how do people contract it and, more importantly, how do they avoid becoming infected? Also, what’s with the over-growth of foliage that seems to have infected the city in the VGA trailer? Does this mean that this disease is linked to some sort of biological problem on earth?

If so, will we be fighting plants or, as some have speculated, is the story taking place long enough after the apocalypse that nature is reclaiming cities via natural processes? All of these questions I’ve raised could make for some seriously original gameplay mechanics tied together by an engrossing, action packed Naughty Dog-style story line.

I’m worried that the game may turn out to be an open world title and I’ve had enough of those. The survival apocalypse story line is better suited to streamlined gameplay and a linear story. I think the interaction between the man and girl in the game could create some interesting dynamics (presumably this is a father to daughter type of relationship).

Also, there seems to be an Ellen Page look alike featured in the VGA trailer. I was surprised to find out that she isn’t actually playing the character though, because the resemblance is uncanny. Naughty Dog’s creative director Neil Druckmann confirmed that the character is voiced by Ashley Johnson, who previously worked on the cartoons Ben 10 and Teen Titans. On a side note, the actor Ellen Page has the same problem as me; it doesn’t matter how old she actually is, until she hits 30 or so, she’ll perpetually look like an 18 year old.

Maybe I’m grasping at nothing here and I’m just caught up in the hype, but I think The Last Of Us has the potential to be a genuinely original title.