FacelessGod

Contributor
CRank: 6Score: 4780

The Last of Us & Surviving Horror

Almost everyone seems to be saying, The Last of Us is "just another zombie game". And with no real emotional substance in modern titles to make the horror hold any meaning, I can see why people are getting tired of zombies. But I can't help feeling that people are being shortsighted, & stubborn in there views on The Last of Us. So, may I ask that you keep an open mind? Not just about this game, but in all areas of life & entertainment. If you continue to dismiss things at a glance, you'll always be cheating yourself out of a learning experience.

I have yet to see the full potential of what a pandemic like a zombie apocalypse can provide for gaming. But from what I've seen of Naughty Dog's new game, it's already exploring some of the elements I've longed to see explored in a game.
Survival horror (as I once knew it) has been dead for a long time now. The "survival horror" of today, tends to cater to the attention span of adolescent violence whores in desperate need of medication. While still fun, they have an unnecessary focus on gore & over the top action. The games I loved, had me wanting to avoid confrontation. Games where ammo is so scarce, three bullets are sanctuary (a joy to find, like in the trailer). With a focus on stealth, what fighting there is should done by hand. And if you get outnumbered, you had better have those bullets or you're dead.
With the technology (and money) behind games today, vast improvements can be made to the formula of the original survival horror. Such as exploring deeper narrative elements, not only in cinematics, but in gameplay as well. What would you do if it was the end of the world, & somebody tried to steal the first bit of food you've seen in days? In the trailer, one man beats another man to death & has a young girl loot his corpse. Which one of them started the fight?
So far we've seen that the game is focusing on a strong narrative, that monsters are not your only enemy, that you're surviving in a harsh world with extremely limited resources, & that you yourself might just be a monster (if only in character). So what's left after that? ...It's Naughty Dog, so quite a bit I'm sure.

The first trailer for The Last of Us shows that it could very well be a return to form, as well as an evolution for the genre. And I, for one am excited.

Side note: They aren't exactly zombies. No name for them has been announced, but my guess? All of this is purely speculative, but since these creatures are the result of a deadly fungus, we can expect a name based off that of the fungi. It will probably be an evolved form of a parasitic fungi of the genus Cordyceps, which manipulate the behavior of their host.
Continued speculation can say that humans won't be the only ones infected, fungi do tend to "grow" on many things after all. We could find ourselves face to face with any number of giant fungal mutants. And if the bullet ants in the early teaser are anything to go by, some of them could be very interesting. The clicking noises from the teaser could be another hint at mutant bullet ants, being that clicking is one of many ways ants communicate.

Even if everything I've said on the game here turns out to be false, it could have been true based off what was shown in the trailer. My point with this post is only to help people keep an open mind about what could be, rather than dismissing what they see without any real thought.

sjaakiejj4534d ago

It's embarrassing how many people try to attack the game already, with what you mentioned "just another zombie game", as well as ill-informed statements such as "the trailer is pre-rendered, game will just look ok".

Makes you wonder how many people actually put any thought into what a game is.

TheDareDevil4534d ago

From your blog, I think you'd enjoy I Am Alive

FacelessGod4534d ago

I'm interested to see how that one turns out.

artsaber4533d ago

How DARE Naughty Dog try and make a "zombie" / survival horror game for adults?! What were they thinking? /s

FacelessGod4533d ago

Good, you get it. And with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

lionelglitchy4533d ago

just so you know this is neither a zombie game nor is it a horror

FacelessGod4533d ago (Edited 4533d ago )

I'm guessing you didn't actually read the blog. If you had, you'd see I wasn't saying they were zombies, & I was only suggesting that this "could be" a natural evolution of the survival horror genre. The whole point of my blog here was to have people keep an open mind, & that's exactly what you're not doing.

smashcrashbash4533d ago

Typical people judging ND's game before we even know anything about it. The worst people are the idiots who feel it will just be a linear cinematic romp because that is what they thought UC was. As if ND never made anything else that wasn't like that.You look at a trailer and a couple of comments and suddenly you think you know everything.

We don't even know what the creatures are and already we start the 'mot another zombie game ' talk. I swear this gen of gamers is just hellbent on mob mentality. No one listens or considers the alternative. ND has always made great games, so why should this one be any different?

Show all comments (10)
50°

Former Deviation Games Devs Have Formed A New Studio At PlayStation To Work On A New IP

Former Deviation Games developers have formed a new studio at Sony Interactive Entertainment in order to work on a brand new PlayStation IP.

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twistedvoxel.com
Tacoboto8h ago

Well that's an awesome and very surprising turnaround. Cheers to the new studio and what they'll build!

RaidenBlack5h ago

Likely to continue their FPS project

isarai3h ago

That's..... confusing, so shut down but just reformed and same employer 🤔 sounds like pretty much what happened to Japan Studio basically just being rebranded as Asobi

ocelot073h ago

It is odd one I don't know how business deals work or the law of that kind of stuff. But is it possible Sony reached out and said hey we want you apart of Sony but don't want to purchase you for what ever reason. How about use disband and we will open a studio and hire you guys type of thing. Is that even possible?

isarai2h ago

Maybe it's to void/bypass some contract? I have no clue

160°

Nintendo of America never planned on bringing Xenoblade to North America despite announcing it at E3

These days Xenoblade is one of Nintendo’s bigger franchises – at least when it comes to RPGs – but that wasn’t always the case. The first entry came out in English more than a year after its Japanese launch, and that was for European fans only.

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nintendoeverything.com
shinoff218311h ago

Would've been yet another whack move on Nintendo. I'm glad they did. It's one of the few games I got the switch for.

XiNatsuDragnel10h ago

Well nintendo if you didn't do that big l

Knightofelemia4h ago

I guess Nintendo forgets how boosting sales numbers work. Why lock a game to a certain region or certain regions? You want sales number then flood the market and release the game in every region.

Lionsguard1h ago

I just don't understand why companies enjoy locking software behind such specific things. Imagine if Minecraft was only available for Xbox 360 and only North America and never again on anything else..

60°
7.5

Review - Heading Out (PC) | WayTooManyGames

WTMG's Kyle Nicol: "Heading Out combines genres and styles which might sound incompatible at first glance, but did so in a very interesting manner, resulting in a truly unique roguelike experience. I, for one, really liked the presentation as well, with its slick visuals and soundtrack. It’s not entirely perfect, as the driving could have been more polished, and the pop-in glitches really took me out of the experience at times. That being said, it’s a game unlike any other out there, which wlll definitely keep you engaged through a good few runs."

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waytoomany.games