Showing posts tagged Naughty Dog
A Missed Opportunity with the Last of Us?
By the time I had finished watching the first trailer for Naughty Dog’s the Last of Us back in December, I was really interested in the game. Not because it was a new Naughty Dog game, but rather because from the way the trailer was put together it seemed you were going to be playing as Ellie, not as Joel. Thinking about what that would mean, not only for how the game’s narrative would be presented, but also how it would affect the game’s gameplay is what got me interested.
Narratively speaking Ellie seemed to be a perfect foil for the player since she is doesn’t seem to know much about the world, let alone the way it was before the apocalypse. While Joel seemed like he would be a great fit as a mentor, not only to Ellie but also to the player. To help you not only get an understanding of the world you are in, but also to teach you the skills you will need to survive.
Gameplay wise Ellie, as a 14 year old girl, obviously isn’t able to physically go toe-to-toe with a zombie (something even Joel seemed to have some trouble with.) Never mind her being able to use firearms, which she might be able to, but probably not super effectively. Which would mean that the game play would be less focused on you, as Ellie, engaging in combat, and more focused on things Ellie would actually be able to do (ie: platforming and puzzle solving.)
This isn’t to say that you still couldn’t have gameplay related to combat, but rather that it would be more of a support role then one of direct confrontation. So whilst Joel is fighting with some zombies or humans in one place, the player as Ellie could sneak or platform around to a place where she would be able to cause some rubble to fall onto an enemy, or do something to destroy an enemy’s cover. Basically things that maybe wouldn’t take out an enemy directly, but would make it easier for Joel to.
Not that you couldn’t give Ellie a rifle and have her snipe at enemies, which could potentially lead to some interesting moment to moment choices as the player. Where the player has to choose to shoot at an enemy, thus using some of the little ammo they have, or spend time maneuvering to a place to cause something that will help Joel fight the enemies.
Now unfortunately recent information about the game has indicated that in fact you will be playing as Joel, with Ellie being controlled by the game’s artificial intelligence. And after reading a bit about how the game is going to play I can understand why they’ve chosen to go with Joel.
From the sounds of it they want to have very physical close quarters combat between the player and the zombies, which is obviously only something Joel can do given the choice between him and Ellie. There also seems to be some sort of mystery to Ellie, since she has hired Joel to smuggler her out of the safe zone which has apparently caused the military to pursue them. And having that sort of major plot thread is pretty difficult to do if you are playing as Ellie since her history plays an important role, and not knowing that as the player can cause some immersion and congruency problems. Since if you are supposed to be her, but then you don’t know something about yourself that you should know.
Now obviously the game is a long way from getting released and we still don’t really know all that much about it, I still can’t help but feel disappointed in what I think is a missed opportunity. In that is was a missed opportunity to really try something new in terms of gameplay, and in terms of the player’s experience in the game. Simply by moving the player from being in the role of the most powerful character, to the role of a supporting where they are essentially playing what is normally the role of the game’s AI. Now I don’t know if what I was thinking would have been a better game, but it at least would have had some new gameplay experiences for the player which I think would have made it a lot more interesting.
