The Last of Us: Single Player Campaign’s Length Revealed

During a video interview with Naughty Dog’s Arne Meyer (Community Strategist for The Last Of Us) it was finally revealed how long the campaign will be in The Last of Us.

[Nimblest-Assassin]

12-15 is a pretty good length for a single player game

[Ezz2013]

and keep in mind it might take much more when you explore or go stealth or plan what you will do when you face humens or clickers because the enemy incredible dynamic AI or finding stuff and looking at the gfx etc

either way i always play very slow so i can enjoy the games as much as i can

[raytraceme]

I usually tend to play games faster but with games like uncharted I just can't help but play slow and just enjoy the environment when I can. Naughty Dog just keeps on giving 😄

[guitarded77]

Knowing Naughty Dog, they probably have a lot of trophies which add to the replay value too. The Uncharted series has all the weapons trophies and treasure trophies so you can't burn through it in one sitting.

[jon1234]

cool, i play every game now on the highest difficulty on my first play throughs, that ll double the play through for me :)

[toxic-inferno]

@ jon1234

I've just recently started doing the same thing. I think I've enjoyed Tomb Raider more as a direct result of playing on the more challenging difficulty.

[nveenio]

I will play this game on Easy the first time through. I love just getting the story on Naughty Dog's games, first. Then, I go through on Hard. Then, I go through on Crushing.

It's my routine.

[Razmossis]

Dev says 12-16 hours. So really it's about 8

Which = Rent

[minimur12]

and remember itll also be awesome, so youll have to play it more than once

[Zhipp]

@Razmossis
That may be true for many devs, but I trust Naughty Dog.

I'm actually pretty excited for this. I didn't much care for Uncharted, but I'm pretty excited for this. Hopefully it lives up to expectations.

[miyamoto]

Something tells me Tomb Raider's delay meant to copy some elements from TLOU and Uncharted 4.

And TLOU delay was done to address that copying.

I am calling it now.

OT

its gonna take me 20 hours in this case.

[Derekvinyard13]

Good length

[kickerz]

@derek "that's what she said" lol sorry had to say it

[Conzul]

Yeah being short was pretty much the last possible thing the game could have done wrong.

I now have absolutely no doubts about this game....That's never happened to me before

:D

[camel_toad]

Sounds great to me. 12-15hrs probably translates to 20hrs for me.

[Bathyj]

Me too. I never finish a game in the time they say they do it.

I dont know if its cos I sneak alot or cos theyre skipping cut scenes or what, but I always take at least 50% longer.

[Freak of Nature]

I play on the hardest difficulty, and it takes me about two times as long as the estimated total playing times...So 25/30 or so hours for me. I recall Uncharted 2 took me about 25 hours on the highest difficulty, perhaps this will take even longer? I really hunt and scavenge. Take in all the game has to offer.

[SAE]

I play on hardest and finish the game in less then the time they mention. I try to do everything too.

Each Uncharted game i play take me less then 15 hours to platinum. I'm not complaining. Just saying how much i played them.

[IMightBeRetarded]

@SAE
That's nearly impossible to do. You have to beat the game twice to start with and that alone will take most people more than 20 hours then going through to get all of the collectibles it's really not possible.

[SAE]

Thanks for disagreeing with me like if i was happy to complete them that fast -.- . You may not be able to but i can. People completed demon souls in 50 minutes and that game takes more then 50 hours to beat it and you say it's impossible to complete an easy game like uncharted in less then 15 hours. What ever makes you happy guys -.-. I'm wrong for saying this to you. I knew i would get disagrees >.<..

[BlmThug]

I take my time with videogames, never rush them and I always play on the highest difficulty for first time playthroughs so 20-24 hours for me :D perfect length

[Old McGroin]

"12-15 is a pretty good length for a single player game"

Yeah, but that still means you'll be finished with it 2 days after you purchase it. Kinda disappointing. I finished Uncharted 2 a couple of days after I got it and I was crushed it was so short. Of course this is because the game was so good and I didn't want it to end. It's my fault really!

[monkey nuts]

2 days? lol. Well if your the type of person who has other commitments in life like work and parental responsibilities then you'll probably be playing the game for a couple of weeks like me.
Damn, getting old happens way too fast.

[MikeMyers]

Now you know why they want to add some form of online mode to most games now. Over 12 hours is a good length and even better if it's the type of game you want to play over. That's the reason too why we see Trophies and achievements in games as well to try and make it more appealing for repeat plays.

This game looks excellent.

[Old McGroin]

@ monkey nuts

Oh I have the commitments all right but my partner was away for the weekend so I just got lost in the marvel that is Uncharted 2 on the Saturday and Sunday! Remember, they're not grey hairs, just a mature blond :)

@ MikeMyers

"That's the reason too why we see Trophies and achievements in games as well to try and make it more appealing for repeat plays."

I never really felt like trophies and achievements added anything until I bought a Wii U. I finished every level in Mario U and even though I hadn't collected all the stars I just didn't feel like there was any reason to go back to it, still haven't. Maybe I'm a subconscious trophy whore and didn't know it!

[MikeMyers]

Old McGroin,
"I never really felt like trophies and achievements added anything until I bought a Wii U. I finished every level in Mario U and even though I hadn't collected all the stars I just didn't feel like there was any reason to go back to it, still haven't. Maybe I'm a subconscious trophy whore and didn't know it!"

Lol, maybe I am as well. Some games have interesting ones while others you know they didn't take much time in. I tried on a few games to get them all but found out rather quickly how bad I am. At the arcades they had high scores and it was bragging rights, now you can show the whole world. I'm more interested in personal challenges that you can send to friends like I got a certain lap time on Gran Turismo now try and beat it. I can't be bothered trying to get something like a 24 hour marathon race in one sitting.

The whole collecting Trophies is mundane to me or trying to get the highest Achievement score. I like to think I have somewhat of a life to not be bothered.

[Andreex]

"hurry! everybody pretend that this is great news!"

[r40k213]

That's a very good length for a single player game. Usually the only games with longer play times than that are RPGs.

[JsonHenry]

Good to know. That is a decent amount of time for any single player game that isn't a GTA or Skyrim type of game.

I'll play stealthy like I did in Deus Ex and it will be a lot more fun and longer game I bet.

[StrawberryDiesel420]

Ya, only problem is stealth trolls will claim the game can be beaten in less than 8 hours before it comes out. Some ass clown will perform a speed run and claim the game is super short.

[kreate]

I wonder if they're going to compare this game to tomb raider ... both is for survival unlike before where uncharted is for treasure hunting.

[mav805]

I never buy a game at full price that isn't at least 40 or 50 hours long. Even Uncharted, as fantastic as it is, I won't buy right away. I've made an exception for The Last of Us and pre-ordered it though, and playing on Hard the first time through I expect it to take 20+ hours.

[solid_warlord]

i bet i can finish the game under 5 hrs

[StrongMan]

Great length and remember the Naughty Godz always add great multi player too.

Day One!!!!

[itBourne]

Whaa? ND does not always add great mp, in fact their only good mp was Uncharted 2 on release. 1.05 added quicker deaths and uc3 mp went full force CoD bullshit.

None the less tho, mp doesnt matter because the sp is gonna be amazing. So pumped!

[ArchangelMike]

Here's to hoping the TLoU demo (included in the GOD:Ascension) will be a multiplayer beta.

Please God, pleeeease...

[ps3vita4life]

Sweet, perfect length imo! Plus, since I love to explore and scavenge the environment that can only add to the length. I know that this game encourages stealth and that usually results in playing slower as well. I said it once and I'll say it again, I can't wait till June 14th!!!!!

[BitbyDeath]

Not dissing the length cause it sounds great but wasn't this meant to be ND's longest campaign ever? Or was that just a rumour?

[Conzul]

According to the article, the 12-16 hour estimate is not considering exploration, sight-seeing, or scrounging. I'm sure a true fan will get 20 hours out of the first playthrough.

[Fez]

haha

I can just imagine you and Ezz2013 just staring at a door for hours... "Look at that oak...so real!"

[Ezz2013]

yeah, you are right they said that

12-16 hours would mean 20-25 hours if you play slow like me keep in mind it's wide linear so you will explore alot in the game
i will enjoy every minute of it
it's really good length

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Well what games have they made longer than 12-16 hours?

[Bathyj]

Probably all the Jak games.

This sounds like the perfect length for a S.A.S.H.A
(Stealth Action Survival Horror Adventure).

[BitbyDeath]

Jak 2 is meant to be around 20+ hours.

[fsfsxii]

@Bathyj
Wow, new genre xD

[plaZeHD]

I was expecting 20 hours, but since I am a completionist, we will see. Uncharted 2 on crushing took me about 20 hours to finish.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

20 really? The harder difficulties usually take me a handful of hours less than the first run.

[Irishguy95]

20 for Uncharted 2? What did you just stand around oogoling for 8 hours?

Took me 12 and a half I believe on hard

[badz149]

was 15H and shorter for CRUSHING but that's was because I skipped all the cutscenes and I knew the puzzles and where the enemies will show up already!

[haggishurler]

Message me if you ever play Dark Souls.

[TheOneEyedHound]

Do you skip cut scenes?

[jakmckratos]

I always end up taking about twice as long than they say. Campaign legnth is never a problem for me...I just kinda wanna get it done most the time

[Arai]

I just looked at the video on YT and noticed Dawn of the Wolf poster in the game.

Upon research I noticed the domain is registered to a Eric Hayashi (Sony America LLC).
I wonder if it's a new game from Naughty Dog....someone should research it.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub...
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
http://www.namecheap.com/do...

[Ezz2013]

it could be, remember the last of us easter egg was found in uncharted 3 ...so you might be into something here
when i saw it i thought they were making fun of twilight movie

a werewolf game by ND ?! ...yeah i would like that

[TrevorPhillips]

I will play this game over and over because it looks so awesome and it's by my favorite company ND. Shout out to Amy Hennig :)

[nigelp520]

good im sick of this buy a game for $60 for 5-8 hour story crap

[Conzul]

Remember The Force Unleashed 2? $60 for 2 hours lol

[nigelp520]

seriously lol

[TuxedoMoon]

That's fairly good, especially if you start including all the extra stuff to do. it should double that playtime.

[ninjahunter]

Praise the naughty dog overlords!

[YourGreatUncle]

Good length for a game like this. GoW: Ascensions length really disappointed me.

[Relientk77]

Can't wait for this game

[r21]

12-16 hours is good :D Not too long, not too short.

[porkChop]

12 to 15 hours. That's surprising. They said this was their longest campaign ever, but that's the same length as Uncharted. Jak II was about 20 hours just for the main story, and that's not including any side content/exploration.

Still, it's a good length and I'm happy with it. Just a bit disappointing because it's nowhere near their longest campaign like they claimed.

[HorrorGod]

You could beat Jak II in 12+ hours if you knew what you were going (speed run)

So, who knows, maybe they are saying 12-16 hours because they know what to do/where to go. Might end up being 20+ if you're taking your time and exploring. We'll see. Either way, I'm happy with that estimated length.

[ferelinstincts]

The same thing was said about Tomb Raider's campaign and look how that turned out.

Granted, there is the possibility that this game is in fact 12-15 hours long and I would really like it if it was that long but story lengths are rarely as long as developers or reviewers claim them to be (player skill is a factor to that) so I'm gonna take this with a grain of salt...

[ufo8mycat]

As they usually exaggerate game length, would take about 4 hours off that. So 8 hours, which is about right for most games today.

Of course you could ARTIFICIALLY make it longer by playing on the hardest difficulty first.

Quality > Quantity

[ahm]

Sound`s good

[cyclindk]

Ha! Length is meaningless almost if you've got AI in the game even half as good as it looks! You could play it over and over and take all those enmies out or sneak past in so many different ways!!

Maybe some see you, maybe you take out a few, maybe what's her face chips in here or there or she gets in trouble and you save her or "clickers" pop in between you and the other human enemies.

Lets hope that AI lives up to the demos.

[ErazorDJ]

12-15h developer = 8-9h gamer

[Monstar]

Exactly.

[a_squirrel]

What're you guys smoking?

[Monstar]

Tomb raider has already made the gameplay obsolete.

[cleverusername]

You had 2 opportunities to say something and that's the best you could come up with? (If you'd just edited your 1st comment you'd be able to reply to this)

[PirateThom]

Uncharchick? Ha.

[isa_scout]

I have no problem with the length of the game, but I will say that when Naughty Dog said this would be their longest campaign yet I was expecting a lot more than 12-16 hours. Somewhere around 20-25 is what I was expecting... How is this longer than any of the Uncharted games?

[DivineAssault]

fair enough.. Hopefully theres great replay value to find hidden secrets

[SephirothX21]

A little disappointed. Expected over 20 hours since they said it is the longest campaign they've done. It will have great replay value though.

[johnsonbat]

Mmmmmm nice length.

[Moac]

I got my pre-ordered:D
Traded in two games and got last of us for just 10Euro,
Traded in; new Super Mario for DS and Skyrim for ps3.

This will be amongst the last games I am buying for Ps3, since the Ps4 will come out at years end :D
a great final HURRAH .

[dafegamer]

thats a great length

[Tommymk2]

Good length, wish more developers would focus on great single player campaigns like this, instead of multiplayer.

[inFAMOUS_KRATOS]

this game will be the last nail to my ps3® coffin.

sad to say but i think this game proves there is more to the ps3 then what we know......

THE CELL WAS AMAZING-

[ame22]

Didn't they say this will be their lengthiest game yet? As far as I know U2 easily surpassed the 12 hour mark.

[KillrateOmega]

Fair length :)

It'll most likely also be the last game that I'll ever get for the current generation. I feel both sad (the ending of one generation) and excited (the beginning of another)...

[Coach_McGuirk]

let me get this straight, fanboys have been hyping up this game for a year and it's only 12-15 hours long?

[Sizzon]

Or maybe just fans of the game? why must the word fanboy be thrown around every time... sigh.

And 12-16 hours isn't just so 'only', I'm sure the game will have many epic moments.

Looks to be an amazing survival horror/adventure game!

[rezzah]

So time defines a game?

[jagstatboy]

disappointed that the DLC will be mulit-player focused only.

[rezzah]

I prefer it be MP only. I don't want to have to worry about them holding back on SP for the sake of cheap profit.

[kB0]

You can make it last even more if you make a rule of staring at the scenery every 30 seconds....wait you'll be doing that anyways cuz the game looks great...my bad!

Anyways, I really don't care if a game last even 3 hours....the only condition is the smaller the length the more the enjoyment needs to stay consistently through those 3 hours.

For example in a 9 hour campaign game...sometimes you'll only have 3 hours of enjoyable or extremely fun moments...I expect those 3 hours alone in a 3 hour game...which is impossible a lot of the times

The only game that I've seen do this was Journey:) At least lately...

Anyways, price also matters, if a game is let's say Metal Gear Rising short, then a 40$ price tag is enough to justify.

So yea:) looking forward to this game. I'm only paying 50$ for it, god bless best buy promos!:D

[nintendoland]

well that's pretty short. Even 10 euros worth game is longer :( talking about terraria of course

[kB0]

How can you compare the 2 games? That's like saying NHL 13 sucks because it's no where near as Gory as Mortal Kombat....

Your name says it all...your stuck in your own land:)

The games have nothing in common other than they are both games....no tie in at all.

What a troll comment, nothing to see here ppl!

[HOO-HAA]

You been eating mushrooms Nintendoboy?

[alegolo]

To value a game by its lenght is stupid. Just like other forms of entertainment, you wouldn't say ''Persona'' is a bad film because is only 83 minutes long while ''Battlefield Earth'' is great because is almost 2 hours. And not all books must be Atlas Shrugged to be good.

Its all about quality, anyone can make a long game with shitty tasks and repetitive gameplay but to make something different that will be remember after you play...that's difficult.

[DeletedAcc]

I waited since 2011 and now just 90 days!!!! Oh!my!god!!!

Best game ever!!

[HOO-HAA]

BRING IT ON!!!

[Orionsangel]

All games should be 80+ hours! I wanna get my money's worth!

[rezzah]

The worth of money is no greater than what you make of it.

Despite that, how you use it will affect the industry you are apart of.

[Miacosa]

That is a reasonable length given the type of game. Any shorter and it could have easily fallen into the category of a rental especially if your only into the single-player story and not multi-player. Like many 4-5 hr. shooters these days that automatically fall into the rental category.

[Plagasx]

That's a perfect balance between being long and short.

[DeletedAcc]

SACKBOY305 in 2011:BEST GAME EVER
SACKBOY305 in 2013: BEST GAME EVER

[aDDicteD]

it's ok, it really depends on how you play it and naughty dog always has some good pacing so i guess it is quite a good length and i'm sure it the single player experience will be awesome.