Justifying the Violence in The Last of Us

the last of us combat

One of the biggest problems that critics had with the Uncharted series is that wisecracking every-man protagonist, Nathan Drake, becomes a mass murderer on a war-crimes scale over the course of a game. Naturally, it’s a video game, so you can expect to be shooting dudes, but this aspect of the Uncharted games always rubbed people the wrong way.

For Naughty Dog’s next title, The Last of Us, they’re seeking to address this concern by making the combat tense and building up a good contextual reason for killing other people. In a post-apocalyptic world, the survivors you’ll run across aren’t afraid to use violence to achieve their goals, so you’ll well justified in defending yourself. Combat is also changed to be a grueling affair; instead of jumping from one firefight with dozens of guys to the next, The Last of Us aims to make encounters with just a few other survivors as tough an challenging as fighting through a whole level was in Uncharted.

Even Naughty Dog acknowledged the disconnect between the character-building cutscenes in Uncharted and the action sequences so it will be interesting to see if they can pull this off when The Last of Us finally hits. What do you guys think? Were you bothered by this particular problem in Uncharted? Do you think Naughty Dog will actually address it?

Source – The Penny-Arcade Report

Written by

mitch@gamersushi.com Twitter: @mi7ch Gamertag: Lubeius PSN ID: Lubeius SteamID: Mister_L Origin/EA:Lube182 Currently Playing: PUBG, Rainbow 6: Siege, Assassin's Creed: Origins, Total War: Warhammer 2

6 thoughts on “Justifying the Violence in The Last of Us”

  1. Actually, what always bothered me is that people say Drake is a mass-murderer. He is fighting in self defense. These people are all out to kill him! Indiana Jones isn’t a mass murderer!

    Gamers are pansies these days.

    Still it is nice that Naughty Dog is trying to connect the story more to the gameplay.

  2. [quote comment=”19364″]Actually, what always bothered me is that people say Drake is a mass-murderer. He is fighting in self defense. These people are all out to kill him! Indiana Jones isn’t a mass murderer!

    Gamers are pansies these days.

    Still it is nice that Naughty Dog is trying to connect the story more to the gameplay.[/quote]

    I was about to mention that. I’m curious as to who is bothered by it. It’s pretty much common sense that he kills in self defense.

    I agree that gamers are pansies, and while I appreciate them connecting story to gameplay it’s pretty much a non-issue.

  3. You can’t please everyone, and unfortunately from a business stand point that means try to please as many people as possible. If people want fun, and killing a bunch of (insert: anything) is fun, it’s going to happen.

    Portal 1 and 2 were some of the best games in the past few years, and some of the best ever, and I guess technically they’re FPS, but you don’t kill a single person. That does mean something.

  4. Like Anthony, I never thought Drake was a mass murderer, it was just that at times it got a little too over the top with how many enemies there were. It doesn’t help that I don’t like Uncharted’s gunplay, so I would think about it more often during particularly lengthy shooting sequences.

  5. I NEVER thought about that until just now, and its actually kind of funny that he does do just that. He kills everyone haha. What anthony says is more true, I do agree. Its like killing actual terrorists and feeling horrible. Maybe Im just desensitized.

    Im so excited hearing this news. Combat sucked in Uncharted. Hearing that it will be more ‘intimate’ combat sounds great! I cant wait

  6. Even though I don’t have a PS3, I’m looking forward to The Last Of Us. I’m glad to see somebody’s finally making a post-apocalyptic game that’s not about mowing down waves of zombies, but rather desperately surviving in the wake of a societal collapse while trying to keep someone safe, i.e. your daughter. Making each combat scene challenging and tense even against just a few enemies is the best way to justify the combat in such a game. I’m rooting for The Last Of Us.

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