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[Bojji]

Shit job.

They should get rid of him and save the company.

 

[tkscz]

Never could get into The Last of Us games. So I'm indifferent to the guy. Think he's over hyped as a developer and don't care for his political views so don't care for him.

 

[PeteBull]

Now imagine what Druckmann would do without Naughty Dog..

No production values, no visuals, no art, no gameplay.. just his ideas, writing, fetishes and viewpoints.

He would be making games found by goverment, similar to this shit

It even has Druckman's like/dislike ratio, just even more pronounced ( ) 1k likes/31k dislikes, even tho looks like marketing ppl tried their best to hide the insanity in this game- viewers knew right away =D

 

[Three]

I’m neutral.

I love his games despite my criticism. My issue is that his portfolio as head is 50% remasters.

Mainly because games take so long to make now.

Still he has Uncharted 4, Lost Legacy and TLOU 2 and only 2 remasters.
His portfolio is pretty strong. Especially if you were to count his TV adaptation as part of it.

 

[DrFigs]

He worked on the last of us, which is highly acclaimed. And then went on to direct the last of us part 2, which was also highly acclaimed. He hasn’t had a miss yet as far as I can tell.

 

[knguyen]

I think this game will be good, Druckmann is no where near as dense as the trans dude who directed DA Veilguard, who ran in head first with his woke fantasy.

 

[Trilobit]

Incredibly gorgeous games with interesting stories. Poor gameplay though which drags down my interest in their games very much. I think Druckmann takes himself too seriously, but I don't really have any strong opinion on that guy.

 

[ValiantInstance]

I expect 100% negative votes up until Interflagatic releases.

Really? I've got the popcorn bucket ready. Expecting the cringe to outdo Veilguard. The success of Last of Us 2 will make them double down.

 

[Shtof]

Neil is one of the best ever.

 

[Shtof]

Incredibly gorgeous games with interesting stories. Poor gameplay though which drags down my interest in their games very much.

Apart from 30 fps this is just a ridiculous comment to make.
It might not be your cup of tea, but ND games execute masterfully the gameplay they set out to make.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I would not buy a game made by him again. Although it gave me the best scene in The last of us part 2.

 

[poppabk]

The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, Lost Legacy were all around Ws. So that's the positive.

The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 had glaring plot/world issues though which is where he is apparently most influential.

 

[yanhash]

Neil Druckman is Gafs J.K Rowling

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Haven’t played much of U4 so can’t comment there, but LoU 1 and 2 were amazing, so he has my vote.

 

[wipeout364]

The last of us is the last game I liked by naughty dog. Uncharted 4 was for me not a fun game to the point I did not finish it. The last of us two I stopped playing after they killed off the character I played the game for.

I totally can see why some people love Druckman’s games but I am not one of them.

Aspects of intergalactic might be interesting but I will not be pre ordering and I will need an overwhelming positive response in NeoGAF before I risk getting burned again.

Edit: For context I have also played all three Jak and Daxter games, crash bandicoot, and the complete uncharted trilogy.

 

[Clear]

Positive. I don't share his politics but he is very talented.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Personally I think the games he makes have become less about fun, and more about serious drama.

 

[Trilobit]

Apart from 30 fps this is just a ridiculous comment to make.
It might not be your cup of tea, but ND games execute masterfully the gameplay they set out to make.

I mean setting out to make the gameplay of Uncharted 4 is like setting out to make smelly farts. Sure, it can be executed masterfully, but it doesn't make it pleasant. It had the most mind-numbingly boring and shallow gameplay I've ever seen from a studio of that caliber.

 

[HogIsland]

All of his games are legendary status.

 

[Moriarty1889]

ND was at its best with Uncharted and he wasn’t at the helm. Not to crazy about his vision and choices.

 

[Moriarty1889]

ND was already good without him. When i think of Druckmann's influence:

- made Drake's son a daughter
- kills beloved main character
- forces you to play as the murderer
- murderer is a bulked up she hulk
- remaster spam
- main character of the new game is a bald goblin

So you can guess my vote.

All of this 1000%

 

[ADiTAR]

People here are obsessed with him.

I get it, he's very handsome and has done stuff in his life we all want and will never be able to achieve.

Really the horseshoe theory going on here.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

I have no strong feelings either way.

People who have these weird para social relationships with people who make video games need to touch grass a bit more.

 

[Three]

I don't really know him to form an opinion of him as a person. If you want me to form an opinion of the games that he's had some part in

• Jak 3
• Jak X
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• The Last of Us
• The Last of Us: Left Behind
• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
• The Last of Us Part II

then I think they've all been pretty great.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Neutral. On one hand, I’m not digging how his political BS brings negativity to anything ND touches these days but on the other hand I’ve liked pretty much every ND game released so far. I wish he’d tone down the political BS but otherwise I couldn’t give two shits about him or his politics.

 

[Horseganador]

The hate that Druckmann raises is completely normal, so much +90 quality Goty play and so many prizes is quite annoying.

 

[ValiantInstance]

I personally don't like TLOU as a franchise for various reasons, but you have to be delusional to deny the amount of money and recognition it brought both Sony and Naughty Dog.

Intergalactic will likely be another hit too.


But it's true that Amy had an entirely different direction for UC4 (even had Todd Stashwick in a role and helping out with writing). And it's highly likely that it really wasn't going well. UC3 had a completely botched final third too (basically everything from the point you enter Iram is complete nonsense), so it kinda supports it.

I think the fact that Amy's biggest credit since leaving Naughty Dog is Forspoken kinda says a lot.

Like I love her past work (and I hope that Marvel 1943 turns out great), but she was NOT in her creative peak at that point in time.

What exactly did he do to 'save' the storyline? The inclusion of the brother felt completely forced and just an excuse to have Troy Baker in the game.

The best part of U4 is the relationship between Nate and Elena finally reaching a conclusion. And I have serious doubts he is capable of writing something that wholesome.

 

[AtomicStarving]

When this guy started getting attention from Sony, all the other presidents left, Evan Wells, Christophe Balestra, Bruce Straley... even their main programmer Christian Gyrling left the studio recently... I wonder why...

 

[Sleepwalker]

His studio releases a game every 5-7 years, the last game (not counting remasters) I enjoyed from them is turning 10 soon (UC4).

So I just don't care for him or his studio's work anymore.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Neutral atm. We'll see how woke he gets.

I wanna say negative just cause he reminds me of the show Duckman that we need back ASAP!!!

 

[HogIsland]

Shit job.

They should get rid of him and save the company.

the company has never been more successful.

 

[Bojji]

the company has never been more successful.

Maybe, whatever. But after big ass flop they won't be anymore.

 

[DrFigs]

The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 had glaring plot/world issues though which is where he is apparently most influential.

Uncharted 3 had many more issues with the plot but people love glazing that game because Druckmann didn’t work on it.

 

[HogIsland]

Maybe, whatever. But after big ass flop they won't be anymore.

1. it won't be a flop. the game looks awesome to everyone except antisocial weirdos on this forum who think girls have cooties

2. last of us season 2 on hbo is going to elevate Druckmann into a higher tier than he's already at

 

[Slothbeing1209]

I like every games he made. Positive.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Fairly neutral on him. I don't think he has bad intentions, and I also think he's a good game designer. I just wish he'd just dump any agenda and make cool games. I'm rooting for him, still.

 

[McCarth]

It's important the real history of Druckmann at ND is considered to give proper context:

- Jak 3 and X - hired at ND in early 2000's as Programming Intern for Jak 3, then became a full-time programmer for Jak X.
- Jak and Daxter: Lost Frontier - Evan Wells promoted him to Design team, but was quickly transferred to Uncharted 1 when it was flagged red
- Uncharted 1 - Designer (apparently assisted Hennig to adjust story components to assist development, little info about this)
- Uncharted 2 - promoted to co-Lead Designer, and also co-wrote this game with Hennig and Scherr
- Uncharted 3 - no part in this game, shifted over to ND Team 2 to make Jak 4 originally, then TLOU
- TLOU - co-Lead with Straley (Creative Director)
- TLOU2 - began dev right after TLOU in Summer 2013, again as CD
- Uncharted 4 - moved to CD in Spring 2014 after ND/Sony/who knows fired Hennig
- Lost Legacy - Head of Narrative Dev
- TLOU2 - rest is history

Take that as you will.

 

[Heisenberg007]

His studio releases a game every 5-7 years, the last game (not counting remasters) I enjoyed from them is turning 10 soon (UC4).

So I just don't care for him or his studio's work anymore.

ND doesn't release a game every 5-7 years. Here is what Naughty Dog has released in the last ~11 years.

• The Last of Us
• The Last of Us Expansion - The Left Behind
• Uncharted 4
• Uncharted Lost Legacy
• The Last of Us 2

In addition, they also released 3 remasters (TLOU, TLOU 2, UC4) and 1 remake (TLOU P1). And they had one game canceled (TLOU Online), which would have been released in 2023/2024 otherwise.

5 AAA games in 11 years is extremely good.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Maybe, whatever. But after big ass flop they won't be anymore.

People said the same thing about The Last of Us 2 after the leaks and before the launch, that it would be a huge critical and commercial flop.

It became the fastest selling PlayStation game at that time and the most-awarded game in the history of video games.

 

[Bojji]

People said the same thing about The Last of Us 2 after the leaks and before the launch, that it would be a huge critical and commercial flop.

It became the fastest selling PlayStation game at that time and the most-awarded game in the history of video games.

Rewards from media shills are irrelevant.

Fastest selling - ok, but how sells are compared to 2013 tlou and uc4?

Tlous was big ass ip, many people weren't even aware about the drama. For this, first reaction is mostly negative and outside of Sony/ND fanboys not much people like what they presented.

 

[Humdinger]

Net negative. TLOU 1 was great, but I disliked what he did with both Uncharted 4 and TLOU2. The girlbossing in Intergalactic is putting me off, too, although I'm reserving judgment for now. "We don't use the word 'fun' " is not exactly a slogan to live by. I also perceive Druckmann as full of himself, as someone who buys his own PR. It's off-putting. He's one reason I've become less a fan of Sony over the years.

 

[YOU PC BRO?!]

Druckman abandoned the core ND audience and instead tailors its offerings towards modern leftists.

Seriously, what’s to like?

 

[Fbh]

While I really liked TLOU1, I overall dislike his way of making games and I think he has negatively influenced the way "cinematic games" are made.
His approach puts story above everything and I think his games suffer because of it. They look great and even have good combat but are usually marred by awful pacing and long boring sequences that focus on storytelling instead of engaging gameplay.

Both TLOU2 and Uncharted 4 have great combat (TLOU2 in particular is fantastic in this regard) but they are pretty boring when you are not fighting...which is what you'll be doing for half or more of your time with the game. f

IMO he has been influential in pushing these sort of "gameplay cutscenes", where something that would have been a 10 minutes cutscene before has now become a 40-80 minutes in game sequence where you do little more than walk around or go through very scripted sequences. Games like Uncharted 4 are full of this, the first few hours are one barley interactive story sequence after another, and even once you finally get into a traditional Uncharted experience (in like fucking chapter 8!) it's still constantly slowing things down with endless walking and talking and boring crate "puzzles".

Sadly this influence has also started bleeding into other Sony studios and games too. I want to beat up monster with Kratos but now suddenly I'm taken away from that ever so often to spend an hour walking and talking as Atreus in Asgard, or spending another hour walking around with Angrboda.

 

[SegaSnatcher]

Bring back Amy.

 

[LaughingStock]

I hate him.

 

[Physiognomonics]

His best work was when he worked with Straley in TLOU1. In that game the story was written by both of them and the relationship between Joel And Ellie was the best thing about that game.

Once Druckmann was left alone in the creative process, the story of his next game (TLOU2) became the worst aspect of the game. He removed what made TLOU so special and he builded the game around his political agenda, not around a story of love between 2 human beings.

TLOU2 revenge story is a evolution of some story of revenge against Joel created during TLOU1 development. Back then Straley convinced Druckmann to remove it from TLOU1. It was obviously Druckmann's story and once he was alone in the creative process he decided he would make it happen in the second game. It's really tragic.

More of the fact that Druckmann is way too much overrated for his work on TLOU1.

 

[yurinka]

Looking at the numbers, Uncharted 4 performed very well, Uncharted ladies didn't perform as good but I assume was expected due to being a shorter spinoff, TLOU2 broke sales and awards records and the Uncharted and TLOU live action adaptations were a huge success too.

TLOU Online ended cancelled so pretty likely lost a lot of money there but it's normal to cancel a game from time to time, and pretty likely their huge success elsewhere and not having cancellled other game in a lot of time compensated it.

They also grew the team to work in up to 3 big new games at the same time, plus smaller outsourced projects mostly developed in other studios or by a few juniors (remasters or PC ports).

So I assume looking at the numbers he did a great job so far. But other than that, there can be a huge negative that still isn't seen in these numbers: the wokeness that made him retire Nathan Drake and replace him with non-white masculine females and stop the Uncharted franchise, one of their two biggest assets.

And also to kill Joel and trying to replace the TLOU1 with a more tokenized and poorly written cheap copy (Abby and Lev), heavily pissing off fans didn't saw it coming until they had bought the game and who may no longer support them. So even if TLOU2 sold a lot due to how happy people were with TLOU1, many fans won't return unless they stop the wokeness and bring Joel and Nate back.

This new IP may be great in many areas, but the wokeness may make many former fans run away, particularly those who feel betrayed with Nate and Joel and generally by seeing Sony removing all their white, male, heterosexual protagonists from all Sony games and particularly the ND ones.

I think that instead of removing comments with criticism from the PS blog and closing comments from youtube videos to hide criticism, they should take note instead of what the fans who buy their games want and be respectful with their customers if they don't want Intergallactic to be the next Destruction AllStar 2 or Concord 2. I think it won't tank that hard because of the woke activism on press and social media will support the game and because of previous ND prestige, but if they don't take action I think it will perform way worse proportionallly to how Uncharted 1 and TLOU1 performed back in the day.

To fix the mess I think they should make more femenine that Intergallactic character by at least puttting her a wig and do some job with her huge hairy eyebrows and/or replace her by someone charismatic and good looking just after a few minutes after starting the game (if possible a white man) and having no LGTB stuff in the game.

And then make Uncharted 5 with Nate as main protagonist being the playable character >80% of the time, with the daughter having only a small role, plus featuring big ass set pieces and good humor with Sully. And TLOU3 as mostly a Joel focused prequel with him being the protagonist playable >80% of the time (plus having Ellie killing Abby at the end or at the start of the game).

Obviously keeping activists outside their writing and design meetings and leadership, particularly the (woke) ones who hate their most beloved games and heroes, and the fans who made them successful. Instead of in political propaganda they should focus again on making great games and making their fans happy instead of angry.

Many talented people would kill to work on the next Uncharted starring Nate, or the next TLOU3 with Joel as star and going back to focus on Joel+Ellie chemistry. They should be the ones working on them, and not haters who want to destroy these IPs and iconic characters.

 

[Eliciel]

Druckmann is doing a good Job, that's my opinion. You can have yours, I can have mine. Let's all stay respectful and judge results. If you didn't like Last of Us 2 that's fine, I likedi it. Although it is Not the best game ever or anything.

 

[hinch7]

No. Without Amy Hennig and Bruce Straley reining him in, its all gone a bit awry with the direction of the Studio.

 

[HogIsland]

Last of Us 2 has incredible gameplay. It is easily the best playing 3rd person action game ever made.