The Last Of Us – Videogames Growing Up

After turning the gaming world upside down with the Uncharted games, Naughty Dog is about to revolutionize gaming again in a whole new way. Game Director of The Last of Us, Bruce Straley (God), recently took time out of his busy schedule to talk to Siliconera about the most anticipated game of 2013.

“Well, smoke bombs are pretty interesting. We have something in the AI called “dynamic stealth”. Even though the enemies have seen you and started combat, once I run away and hide and I’ve broken the line of sight, they’re gonna go searching for me. Then it turns back into, if you want to try sneaking around them, you can. This all happens dynamically. It doesn’t mean you have to keep fighting the whole time.”

I can’t wait to try this dynamic stealth. It sounds like when you hide from enemies, they’ll still know what direction you went in, a lot like real life! You know how when you see someone duck behind cover, you go behind the cover and they’re there? Imagine that in a videogame! It’s getting scary how smart these enemies are. How does Naughty Dog do this??? More like Naughty God, they are playing with fire here. If enemies still know where you are out of their line of sight, nowhere will be safe! Imagine if it’s like Uncharted where enemies come from all directions, they’ll all be able to not see you!

“If you go in willy nilly and just expect to come out unscathed, then you’re wrong. We want to make sure that there are a lot of opportunities for action and a lot of opportunities to get your rocks off inside of this world, but at the same time, that has to do with how much you’ve invested in exploring the world. How much ammo did you come into this scenario with? Have you been able to craft something like a molotov? Do you have two molotovs? Do you have a health kit? What do you have? And you’re using the same inventory items for both crafting the molotov as well as the health kit, so you’re making a choice: Am I going to be offensive or defensive?”

Yes, you read that right. Dynamic situations means that every situation is different depending on what you do. If you have 20 bullets, you’re going to have to reload 20 bullets into the fight. You could reload after firing 15, but that brings a whole new level of strategy into play and can be risky. Some situations might require multitasking, and you can use cover to your advantage to reload any time.

It gets deeper. If you have a health kit you can choose to restore health, but be careful. You don’t want to use it when you’re on full health! Save it for a strategic position and it could turn the dynamic tides in battle. I’m still wrapping my head around all these options; Naughty God is really flowing with creative energy.

“You’re going to see her working with Joel to learn more and more capabilities. Like, she starts not knowing how to use a gun, maybe. But maybe she can pick up the gun and Joel can show her how to use the gun, and she’s going to acquire more and more of these abilities as she goes [through the game].”

This is an interesting idea for progression. It’s going to feel rewarding getting new abilities through the game, like you’re actually learning like a real person. Giving a gun to a little girl just highlights the emotive depth Naughty Dog brings to their games. The cinematic possibilities are endless!

“She has a backpack, so she can store items.”

JUST LIKE A REAL BACKPACK!

Oh god. I’m going to lie down before I pass out. Naughty Dog hinted there would be a new trailer soon, I’d like to be fully rested so I can appreciate it properly. Do you think The Last of Us will have sleeping? I can’t tell the difference between videogames and real life anymore.