The Last Of Us Was An Exploratory Gameplay Experience At Some Point In Development, Says Dev

Did you know that TLOU could have been a very different type of game, as it was more "exploratory" for some point during development?

[kaiserfranz]

Hmm. Not sure I would change anything to be honest, that game turned out just fantastic

[Dark11]

Shame , because i would love to explore the world in TLOU
instead we were limited to small rooms and corridors only.

[levian]

Yea exploration games are always my favourites. Any Elder Scrolls game is awesome based on that fact alone. I'd have loved TLOU to be exploration based.

[Silly gameAr]

Actually, a good part of The last of Us was fairly open for exploration. You probably would know that if you played the game.

[BitbyDeath]

The game wouldn't work as open world, they are tasked with going to a certain destination. Open world would break that.

[elninels]

@Silly gameAr

No there was not much room for exploration. It really was mostly corridors and semi open areas. I enjoyed the single player portion. However it was not open at all. Walls all over.

I beat the game on the ps3, and now play the multiplayer on the ps4 all the time. Psn elninels .

[Silly gameAr]

Semi open is more then just small rooms and corridors right? I didn't say it was open, but it was fairly open, and even just semi open areas leaves room for exploration.

[LavaLampGoo]

I think that less sound, or silence can be more powerful then any score, and TLOU delivered the quiet unexaggerated sound perfectly.

[Alexious]

Yeah, sound contributes a lot to gameplay in TLOU!

[Imp0ssibl3]

Nice read. I wish games were less focused on combat than they are on average (not saying this about TLOU, which is a bit less than the average), my most anticipated game right now is The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

[DCfan]

Why is it called a game if the gameplay sucks?!

[dirkdady]

How is TLOU a little less focused on gameplay than the avg game? In addition to its third person shooter and cover mechanic it has a deep real time weapons crafting system and inventory management. I would say that is much more gameplay than the avg third person shooter.

[levian]

I think you're confusing combat for gameplay. They aren't one and the same. You can have an awesome game with great gameplay, and have absolutely ZERO combat.

[extermin8or]

Most games without any combat etc whatsoever are bloody boring I can probably count them on one hand. They either have combat of some kind OR have something that might aswell be combat (racing games and sport games are excluded from this statement, same for RTS etc)

[TWB]

Would have caught my interest if this was the case.

[LazyGoron]

A "game" is a mixture of gameplay, sound, art style, graphics, story, characters, character development, plot twists, plot thickening/thinning, variety, multiplayer v singleplayer... TLOU, to me, had the best mixture/combination of all these things last generation. There are categories that I think are the best/better and obviously there are ones that are less.

TLOU is not "the best game all around in every category", it is a masterpiece though.

There weren't waves of enemies but the "groups" of enemies you encounter become... patterned after awhile or dying once/twice. Even on grounded difficulty. That's my only complaint, if I had to give one. Make the enemies react a little better to my movements.

I remember playing UC1 and I'd be on crushing difficulty, I'd shoot and run out of bullets and then the enemies would yell "get him, he's out of ammo" or something, then bum-rush me. That was fun and a nice little response to my side of the gameplay (the non-AI side)

[extermin8or]

They most definitely do that kind of thing on a whole new level in the last of us... Don't know if you got the remastered version but AI was definitely improved in that. Less sitting around or getting stuck on stuff etc and all enemies seemed to have learnt how to climb and such whereas before it was rare they'd climb over stuff. Even clickers started doing it.

[LazyGoron]

I've only ever played TLOU remastered. Just felt like once you figured out the pattern of the room it was just a matter of waiting or moving or killing and circling. It was a terrific game.

I had to kill humans mostly and could stealth clickers, I appreciated the irony.

[DeusEx-Machina]

More exploration? Well that is what I missed dearly in this game :/

[Aurenar]

I'm happy with the result that has been achieved. I can not imagine a different The Last of Us.

[RebelWAC]

For this day and age, the game experience turned out perfect in my book so I really can't ask for more but I demand that the sequel or the next game from ND is more open.

[calvincrack]

This may have saved the game for me. It was the linearity and lack of choice that set the game back

[HanzoHattori]

I don't know about making it open world, but various areas of the game could have benefited from having more to discover. Take the the collapsing office building and museum in the first part of game for example. Each could have benefited from having more rooms to explore and search in a semi-free roam area. I don't know how many times i've climbed a fight of stairs in the game only to see it block by debris or furniture and wished that the stairway would lead to another floor.