How The Last of Us Was Designed As Resident Evil's 'Opposite'

Neil Druckmann says the inspiration behind The Last of Us wasn't to make a zombie survival game, but to create the "opposite of Resident Evil."

[thecodingart]

Was my favorite series until Neil took over and put an arrow in my knee.

[TheEnigma313]

Still salty about Joel?

[thecodingart]

Oh, no problem with that. Druckman went out of his way to use the game as a tool for his political views sacrificing a good chunk of the core fan base for it. The guy is an utter drama queen and the game was sacrificed for that purpose.

Note: I do not disagree with his views, I utterly have a problem with his presentation.

[TricksterArrow]

What political views? I don’t remember anything inherently political in TLOU like say in Resident Evil (against big corporations) or FFVII (extremely preachy about the environment).

[CrimsonWing69]

What were the political views Druckmsn shoehorned into the game?

[thecodingart]

The first 15-30 minutes of the game literally hit on 5 LGBT points and more. All controversial spanning from MJ, LGBT, all the way to Jewish things. I’m a Jew and was confused on the cluster of onslaught off of the bat. I think it’s fair to say your question is rhetorical as this game is KNOWN for this controversy… which is exactly the problem.

[CrimsonWing69]

@thecodingart

I remember in the first 15-30 minutes there was an allusion to a kiss between a same sex couple that made some people uncomfortable as it does in the real-world. You then see the full picture later on in a flashback. I hardly feel that’s agenda pushing as Ellie was already established as being gay in the original’s DLC.

I didn’t feel like I was being preached to at all. You see situations in games that mirror sh*t in reality. It was a great moment to show Joel trying to step in and protect Ellie and it also plays on a past scene where Joel is talking about a guy and was hinting at Ellie that there might be a thing without knowing her preference and she even tells him he’s pretty far off. It’s very human and well done.

I think if you feel that moment in the game ruins the entire game as “agenda pushing” or overtly political then you might want to reevaluate things. It’s barely any different than any other conflict in narratives and it wasn’t pushed down your throat.

What were the Jewish things that were pushed on an audience? Are you referring to how there’s a Jewish character?

Like, I’m so baffled by all this political/agenda pushing you’re speaking of. I’m not being rhetorical at all in my question, I’m literally asking what were all the political views pushed onto people? Because I, for one, roll my eyes when sh*t like that gets fisted into an audience’s face and I didn’t find there to be anything like that in the game. I hardly consider a gay character that is portrayed like any other normal character that has a relationship to be off-putting and I’m curious about what all the Jewish stuff was in the game. I’m assuming you’re meaning that a character happened to be a jew, but so what?

Also, MJ was an issue for you? Like, you don’t think someone who smoked pot would have tried growing marijuana when there was some semblance of getting back to a way of living in a reality like that? They stumbled on it and smoked a joint. How is that different than things in movies or what people actually do? Does it just make you uncomfortable?

[TricksterArrow]

Ah, you answered my question here, thecodingart. Basically characters stating that they have some belief without even being preachy about it or just existing is a political statement nowadays. Jesus. To each their own, I guess.

[AnotherGamer]

You realize he did the first Last of Us right?

[OmegaSoldati]

These people here already picked sides. They are going to defend Sony dont matter what. Fanboys, they dont think, they just defend big corps. Last of us 2 is a woke game. But Neil was the director from both games. He didnt took over. They fired the writers and a lot of people and hired Anitta Sarkesian, a radical feminist.

[thecodingart]

I fail to understand how people
A. Defend Drunkman by noting he drove the first game failing to realize he worked with different people and had a balanced level of influence.
B. Fail to realize TLoU is not considered a “woke” game while TLoU p2 is…

It’s not much of an argument as much as it is a cultist set of blinders.

[TricksterArrow]

“Hired Anitta Sarkeesian” (she has no credit in TLOU)
“These people picked sides” (trying to put oneself as neutral and level headed)
“Woke game” (I guess having anything other than male and white or a girl with titties out is a woke game?)
“Drunkman was kept in check in the first game” (clearly an insider with privileged information, not at all someone who picked sides and is spilling arbitrary arguments and cursing like a child)
“Blind cultists” (*proceeds to re-read all of the above again* checks out).

lol

[zsquaresoff]

You can see the similarities, I hope in the newer Resident Evil games, you have the option to stealth kill zombies. Like you could in Evil Within 2.

[TheEnigma313]

Zombies in RE don't die that easy. And that's what makes RE tense is the ammo conservation.

[Inverno]

I like the series, and maybe it's time I revisited it again cause honestly I don't remember there being much of a father daughter relationship in the first game. I remember it was mostly just killing a lot of doods, not a lot of slow moments where Joel and Ellie actually bonded. I find the over the top stuff in RE overwhelming sometimes but there's a lot more world building and focus on the mutations which is something The Last of Us lacks and I think it really needs.

[Melankolis]

--He also recounted a moment when a reviewer was brought in to test a beta version of The Last of Us and complained about the lack of boss fights and laser weapons.--

Demand for laser weapons...that sounds so "american" to me...