• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Last of Us (Naughty Dog): Hold One Second

Status
Not open for further replies.

Amir0x

Banned
He did use the word 'high profile'. Not all of them are high profile.

That said, it's undeniable that there are a metric fuckton of zombie games. I don't have a problem with it, but if someone tries to make an argument that there aren't a lot of zombie games it sounds really disingenuous.
 

Arnie

Member
This thread is already 44pages so I guess people will take whatever is dished out to them.

This is such an ignorant view of the situation.

That's like saying Spaghetti Bolognese is the same meal regardless of who makes it. If I was to get excited for a portion of Spaghetti Bolognese made by a michelin star Italian restaurant a week after consuming a ready meal microwave version bought from the supermarket, in your eyes I'd be "taking what's dished out" to me.

You're honestly distilling this game down to the point where you're saying people shouldn't be excited because it's not a wholly unique theme. Even that is a contrived point because we don't really know that much about the game.

You can't criticise a thread full of posters for getting excited about a new franchise from one of the best developers in the industry because on the surface it's not got a wholly unique theme.
 
The fact that everything's so derivative makes it less good. Setting is a critical part of the experience and can make or break a game by itself (look at Bioshock for an example of the former).

I would be absolutely shocked if the game mechanics aren't derivative too. Let's be realistic here. Naughty Dog isn't going to do survival gameplay in a super-fresh way like Dead State or anything. The game is going to be mostly mindless action, maybe with a bit of stealth and platforming, and maybe with a thin veneer of RPG-ish survival gameplay mechanics. They'll throw in a minor original mechanic or two on top of that, because that's in vogue this generation.

And no, I'm not giving Naughty Dog the benefit of the doubt. If anything, their previous success and reputation has given them the credibility and safety to make something truly original, but they've already squandered that.

You always struck me as an intelligent poster, it's strange seeing you being so easily dismissive. How can you even talk about the setting at this point? Not all post-apocalypses are created equal.
 

De-mon

Member
NSYp6.gif
 

Corto

Member
The fact that everything's so derivative makes it less good. Setting is a critical part of the experience and can make or break a game by itself (look at Bioshock for an example of the former).

I would be absolutely shocked if the game mechanics aren't derivative too. Let's be realistic here. Naughty Dog isn't going to do survival gameplay in a super-fresh way like Dead State or anything. The game is going to be mostly mindless action, maybe with a bit of stealth and platforming, and maybe with a thin veneer of RPG-ish survival gameplay mechanics. They'll throw in a minor original mechanic or two on top of that, because that's in vogue this generation.

And no, I'm not giving Naughty Dog the benefit of the doubt. If anything, their previous success and reputation has given them the credibility and safety to make something truly original, but they've already squandered that.

Fair enough. I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I'm confident I will be pleased by the end result of this game. And I'm also confident that ND has very intelligent people working on this game so that it is not a re-skinned Uncharted in terms of gameplay. I'm generally an optimist. ;)
 

DrPirate

Banned
Do I get an explanation?

Absolutely!

After a series of zombie-like movies, I thought I was burned out on zombies as well, until Zombieland came out and that kind of rejuvenated the entire thing with a fresh take that focused on survivors (until the ending became a bullet dance and...whatever). But the entire journey of the movie developed the characters and their connections very well.

I felt the same about the Walking Dead early in Season 1 (and now I've pretty much lost interest).

The fact that something is derivative (And don't get me wrong, this is derivative as hell), doesn't make it "less good" as you say. Comon, that's not even using logic, you're letting your emotions get the best of your judgment. The only thing is, if you're gonna do something that's been done like this, you've gotta make it the best. If I wanna make a modern warfare shooter, it'd be met with the same criticisms. So if I set out to make one, I'm gonna make it "the defacto modern warfare game". It has to be the best or it'll disappear into time.

Is this game the best "zombie" game? I don't know. I haven't played it yet, and neither has anyone here, so stop jumping to conclusions. Just wait until we see more. Optimistically speaking: There are twists, and plenty of character development, and the gameplay revolves around being resourceful and cautious guarding from zombies and humans alike.

If they set out to make something great, even if it IS generic, it can still be noteworthy by being at the top of the stack. And lets face it, nothing with zombies that came out in the last couple of years was any really good..... Except for Dead Island, and even that game had it's mess of hang-ups due to some poor design decisions. Naughty Dog is capable of this too, don't get me wrong, but we don't know yet because no one has seen the game yet. Simple as that.

If the game comes out as Uncharted: Zombie clone, I'll be disappointed to, so I'll wait until I judge.
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
You always struck me as an intelligent poster, it's strange seeing you being so easily dismissive. How can you even talk about the setting at this point? Not all post-apocalypses are created equal.

I'm judging based on the information and visuals available to me, along with the highly derivative nature of the Uncharted games. If Naughty Dog has something genuinely fresh and original to show me about the setting in this game, then I'm always open to changing my opinion.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Is it just me or did the guy that gets beaten with the plank not look infected? I think that would be an interesting element to the story. Survivors having to fight each other to get what they need to survive (like the bullets Ellie pulls off of him). They've already said that the guy is really ruthless so this would fit in.
 

Levyne

Banned
Not saying there haven't been a lot of cheap B-rate games over the years, but I stand by the statement that the number of relevant, compelling ones I could count on one hand. Dead Rising, Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead, Dead Island - I'll even include Dead Space at a stretch

What.

WaW and BLOPS should also be a sidebar. How much hype for those games was based on OMG ZOMBIES!
 

Don

Member
Hilarious how one gaffer reccomended Enslaved to the people praising the look of this game, and he was openly mocked for it. Now, we find out it's the same art director. Naughty Dog fanboys in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen.

Well, the art was one of the few things that Enslaved did well.

I'm not a big fan of Enslaved, but its main issues were the platforming and the melee combat and so far nothing shown for this game indicates that it will have the same kind of gameplay as Enslaved. All we really know so far is that it will have survival elements.
 

Corto

Member
Hilarious how one gaffer reccomended Enslaved to the people praising the look of this game, and he was openly mocked for it. Now, we find out it's the same art director. Naughty Dog fanboys in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen.

Did the same people that mocked retract their opinion about Enslaved after that info was disclosed? Was it all Uncharted fans that mocked?
 

Amir0x

Banned
Well, the art was one of the few things that Enslaved did well.

I'm not a big fan of Enslaved, but its main issues were the platforming and the melee combat and so far nothing shown for this game indicates that it will have the same kind of gameplay as Enslaved. All we really know so far is that it will have survival elements.

and thank fucking god for that. If this game showed gameplay elements from Enslaved GAFers should understandably be worried about the quality of this title.
 

Did you even look at that list?

2011 Titles:
Atom Zombie Smasher: Real time strategy game viewed from a top-down perspective

Dead Block:
dead-block.jpg


Dead Island

Space Pirates and Zombies

Rise of Nightmares

Red Nation

Minecraft

Yakuza: Dead Souls

Zombie Pandemic: An MMORPG

Zombie Lane: Facebook, Google+


Does it look like The Last of Us is something that's overdone?...
 

RamzaIsCool

The Amiga Brotherhood
I wonder if it takes place in the same universe as Uncharted. Maybe Drake couldn't save the world for once and this is the outcome.
 

Slair

Member
Yet I'd argue no game has really conquered the survival mentality of a zombie apocalypse, at least the games that all seemed to be getting close have disappeared (early RE and SH games). They are all just about mowing down enemies now, and I think there is room for a game like this.

Right now, for me, this news is the equivelant of a new Mikami RE game. There is a lot of potential here. If it turns out like we are hoping.

Could turn out to be yet another game about mowing down enemies, but the early pieces of info indicate its not.

Edit: and come to think of it, has a pre-established world during a zombie apocalypse / plague actually been explored? Usually its in the initial disaster stages, but a world where the traps set by other survivors could be just as dangerous as the "zombies" could be interesting. Like HL2's Ravenholm on a larger scale

This is the kind of thing i'm hoping for. It's pretty easy to call generic at this point, but i cant think of a single game thats gotten zombie survival right.

I'm hoping ND go the way of ordinary people trying to survive for the sake of surviving and not trying to stop the big bad corporation or save the world etc. I think it'd be great if they could somehow have points in the game where there is some downtime, not really doing much, searching houses or stores for supplies, sometimes it's safe and you never encounter a zombie, other times you're half way through getting stuff and a whole group of them barge in and catch you unaware. I hope ND also use their story telling skills to tell stories through visual cues in the environment, maybe more so than in cutscenes and dialog.

Naughty Dog probably have the most realistic chance of achieve what i'd like to see in a zombie survival game, but it can just as easily turn out to be shooting shit loads of zombies.
 
Hilarious how one gaffer reccomended Enslaved to the people praising the look of this game, and he was openly mocked for it. Now, we find out it's the same art director. Naughty Dog fanboys in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen.

Where exactly has it been said that the art director now works at ND? Mark (the guy that was at NT) is a designer at ND and he was a designer at Ninja Theory.

He did use the word 'high profile'. Not all of them are high profile.

That said, it's undeniable that there are a metric fuckton of zombie games. I don't have a problem with it, but if someone tries to make an argument that there aren't a lot of zombie games it sounds really disingenuous.

There have been a lot, but how many have taken the approach that this game seems to be taking? Unless this trailer is misleading then we aren't going to be finding endless waves of zombies like Dead Nation, L4D, and Dead Rising.
 

Amir0x

Banned
I wonder if it takes place in the same universe as Uncharted. Maybe Drake couldn't save the world for once and this is the outcome.

This is an alternate universe where he couldn't stop the statue of El Dorado from being lifted and used worldwide, thus creating an entire world filled with those awful creatures that everybody hated during those Uncharted 1 zombie segments.

SolidSnakex said:
There have been a lot, but how many have taken the approach that this game seems to be taking? Unless this trailer is misleading then we aren't going to be finding endless waves of zombies like Dead Nation, L4D, and Dead Rising.

Hard to say. They said every day is a fight for survival, so I'm going to guess we're going to frequently see plenty of these shroom zombies. As for the whole general survival theme, I think Dead Island will most closely resemble the thematic feel, whereas a Silent Hill mixed with Uncharted is how I think this gameplay will feel.
 

jax (old)

Banned
the framed ant photograph



i went to check. its bullshit

and thank fucking god for that. If this game showed gameplay elements from Enslaved GAFers should understandably be worried about the quality of this title.

1 person who worked on enslaved is working on LOU

OMFG THIS GAME IS GOING TO HAVE QUESTIONABLE QUALITY.

fukkkkk this. Good thing you're no longer a mod. Block.
 

Levyne

Banned
Yeah, final thoughts I'll say is that Naughty Dog has a track record that shouldn't be overlooked. Uncharted games were crafted well enough to make gunning down merc grunts and some basic platforming into true gems, hopoefully they can make a fresh take on a zombie survival game
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
Absolutely!

After a series of zombie-like movies, I thought I was burned out on zombies as well, until Zombieland came out and that kind of rejuvenated the entire thing with a fresh take that focused on survivors (until the ending became a bullet dance and...whatever). But the entire journey of the movie developed the characters and their connections very well.

I felt the same about the Walking Dead early in Season 1 (and now I've pretty much lost interest).

The fact that something is derivative (And don't get me wrong, this is derivative as hell), doesn't make it "less good" as you say. Comon, that's not even using logic, you're letting your emotions get the best of your judgment. The only thing is, if you're gonna do something that's been done like this, you've gotta make it the best. If I wanna make a modern warfare shooter, it'd be met with the same criticisms. So if I set out to make one, I'm gonna make it "the defacto modern warfare game". It has to be the best or it'll disappear into time.

Is this game the best "zombie" game? I don't know. I haven't played it yet, and neither has anyone here, so stop jumping to conclusions. Just wait until we see more. Optimistically speaking: There are twists, and plenty of character development, and the gameplay revolves around being resourceful and cautious guarding from zombies and humans alike.

If they set out to make something great, even if it IS generic, it can still be noteworthy by being at the top of the stack. And lets face it, nothing with zombies that came out in the last couple of years was any really good..... Except for Dead Island, and even that game had it's mess of hang-ups due to some poor design decisions. Naughty Dog is capable of this too, don't get me wrong, but we don't know yet because no one has seen the game yet. Simple as that.

If the game comes out as Uncharted: Zombie clone, I'll be disappointed to, so I'll wait until I judge.

I don't think you're arguing against anything I've said. The crux of your argument is that a game can overcome a derivative setting and concept. I don't disagree with that; I've just seen no evidence that The Last of Us is going to do that.
 

Gacha-pin

Member
What type of game you want Last of us to be? An open style gameplay or a narrative experience? I thought this game would be like Uncahrted, using the same formula, at first. But noticed survival horror style wouldn't be fit for it.
 
What type of game you want Last of us to be? An open style gameplay or a narrative experience? I thought this game would be like Uncahrted, using the same formula, at first. But noticed survival horror style wouldn't be fit for it.

I want it to be both. I refuse to believe open gameplay and cinematic narratives can't be blended effectively
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
Did you even look at that list?
Does it look like The Last of Us is something that's overdone?...
Yes?

The existence of zombie games that are original and weird doesn't negate the existence of zombie games that are very much in the same vein as Last of Us.
 

Jarmel

Banned
What type of game you want Last of us to be? An open style gameplay or a narrative experience? I thought this game would be like Uncahrted, using the same formula, at first. But noticed survival horror style wouldn't be fit for it.

I honestly don't know what to make of it. This looks like this will be Dead Space's main competition going forward but I'm not sure how they're going to approach it. It's almost certainly going to be linear.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Jealousy that some can't play it or to somewhat downplay ND. I don't know. I really have a hard time grasping it. The trailer got me really interested and it's ND.

come on, what a silly way to disregard the opinions of others. Maybe some people have real concerns? I have a PS3 (you know that dude), have played each Uncharted game to completion, and they alone have me concerned about some of Naughty Dog's current gen development philosophies and how they could potentially ruin a survival horror game. It's not some jealousy, it's simply my opinion on what makes good games influencing my outlook on what to anticipate. The Enslaved lead designer thing doesn't help, considering that's an atrocious game.

I'm sure many people feel the same way, but for different reasons. Few are legitimately jealous, if any.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Yes?

The existence of zombie games that are original and weird doesn't negate the existence of zombie games that are very much in the same vein as Last of Us.

So is that the excuse to downplay it? Not that you've seen a lick of game mechanics.

come on, what a silly way to disregard the opinions of others. Maybe some people have real concerns? I have a PS3, have played each Uncharted game to completion, and they alone have me concerned about some of Naughty Dog's current gen development philosophies and how they could potentially ruin a survival horror game. It's not some jealousy, it's simply my opinion on what makes good games influencing my outlook on what to anticipate. The Enslaved lead designer thing doesn't help, considering that's an atrocious game.

I'm sure many people feel the same way, but for different reasons. Few are legitimately jealous, if any.

I don't know, some of it is irrational. The last part of my statement is my answer. There are some who pop in who have no interest or just get caught in the hype too. It sounded like a cheap cop out answer but hey, that's maybe me over thinking it from a psychological standpoint.

Not that some don't have well rounded arguments as you do often but others simply do not and it brings their motive for even posting into question.

But that's why I find it hard to gauge. I get too annoyed rummaging through sarcastic joke answers to really be able to tell sometimes :p

Let's chat it out on Steam!
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
So is that the excuse to downplay it? Not that you've seen a lick of game mechanics.

If Naughty Dog has original game mechanics to show or talk about, then they're welcome to. Until then, I'll judge based on the information I have available to me.
 

BeeDog

Member
come on, what a silly way to disregard the opinions of others. Maybe some people have real concerns? I have a PS3 (you know that dude), have played each Uncharted game to completion, and they alone have me concerned about some of Naughty Dog's current gen development philosophies and how they could potentially ruin a survival horror game. It's not some jealousy, it's simply my opinion on what makes good games influencing my outlook on what to anticipate. The Enslaved lead designer thing doesn't help, considering that's an atrocious game.

I'm sure many people feel the same way, but for different reasons. Few are legitimately jealous, if any.

This worried me for a bit, but then I figured that this new ND team probably doesn't exist in a vacuum. I doubt one sole designer can ruin a game, considering all the talent that the studio houses either way. I'm not too worried about ND not knowing what to do with this game.
 
Enslaved lead design?

YEEEEEEEES!!! YAAAAAAAAY!!!

I swear I felt Enslaved from the city in the trailer..... hype + 10000000000

This is my dream game come true :D

OMG SO HAPPY!!!!
 
Enslaved? Please tell me this is a joke.

Hype -100000000
It's not Ninja Theory developing it, it's one guy who was involved in Enslaved who is now involved with Naughty Dog. I don't see how its even a point of discussion, he wouldn't have individually made Enslaved bad, nor will he for this. And for the record, Naughty Dog are said to have some of the toughest hiring practices in the industry, they don't hire shit people.
 

Amir0x

Banned
So is that the excuse to downplay it? Not that you've seen a lick of game mechanics.



I don't know, some of it is irrational. The last part of my statement is my answer. There are some who pop in who have no interest or just get caught in the hype too. It sounded like a cheap cop out answer but hey, that's maybe me over thinking it from a psychological standpoint.

Not that some don't have well rounded arguments as you do often but others simply do not and it brings their motive for even posting into question.

But that's why I find it hard to gauge. I get too annoyed rummaging through sarcastic joke answers to really be able to tell sometimes :p

I understand. You're excited. It has potential, no doubt about it. I love zombie games. I'm just going to hold out on anticipating it until I personally see where they're going with the gameplay.

BeeDog said:
This worried me for a bit, but then I figured that this new ND team probably doesn't exist in a vacuum. I doubt one sole designer can ruin a game, considering all the talent that the studio houses either way. I'm not too worried about ND not knowing what to do with this game

Oh, I agree. I highly doubt he has enough influence to ruin the product. It was just 'salt to the fire', so-to-speak.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom